DAILY DOMER: CARROLL'ING

Everyone has their own standard as to when or how, or even if, a team with a commanding lead should ease up. For example, I recall the Irish running a fake punt in the 4th quarter of a 57-7 whipping of Stanford back in 2003. That one, I didn't quite understand. From a punter's perspective. I mean, if the Irish put up 57, chances are that their punter that evening didn't have many opportunities to show off his leg. So if the upback stole his thunder, well, why'd he fly all the way out to northern California to watch that? So that one, yes, I'd say was egregious.

But I've never seen Charlie Weis rub it in. And I don't really believe that he cared so much about that as he did getting some minutes for players that have been through all the practices and winter conditioning the past few seasons. 

A few other points:

1) Notre Dame's rush defense on Saturday afternoon was nothing shy of excellent. If you exclude the Middies' final three drives--after things got wacky--Navy rushed the ball 37 times for 142 yards. That's 3.84 yards per carry. Look a little deepr, though. Navy put together one fantastic drive in the first 58 minutes that featured the Middies' four longest rushes--15 yards, 9 yards, 7 yards and 22 yards, the last Cory Finnerty's TD scamper--of the afternoon (again, pre-wackiness).

     Exclude that one drive, and the Irish allowed 84 yards on 32 carries, a 2.63 yard average. In fact, on those 32 carries, Navy averaged 2 yards or fewer 17 times. Or more than half the time.

    In short, I've never seen a Notre Dame defense stuff Navy's running attack so thoroughly, at least not since the Holtz era.

    Granted, by saying, "Take away this good thing Navy did and this good thing Navy did and this good thing Navy did and, voila!, the Irish dominated them!," I fail to paint a complete picture. So let's just make this the bottom line: The Irish defense allowed just one third-down conversion in 13 chances, and that on the game's final drive. I don't think you can ask much more from them than they accomplished on Saturday. Special kudos to sophomore defensive tackle Ian Williams, who had arguably the best game of his young career.

2) You know what Navy's runners do better than anyone else? Spin forward after the first hit. They must be coached on this. You hit a Navy runner and if you don't wrap him up, he spins and dives forward for an extra yard or two just via the length of his body. Every time.

3) Mike Rothstein made the salient point (another one I failed to note in my post-game column) in his Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette story that Temple led Navy 27-7 in the 4th quarter of the Middies' previous game, and Navy came back to win in overtime. You have to be sure that Charlie Weis knew that, too.

4) I re-read my post-game column and owe an apology to the subs that I singled out. It's not as if those players cost the Irish the game. My major point is this: It's wonderful and somehwat unheard of to put subs in with such a relatively small lead in a major college football game. Heck, we know high school varsity coaches who would not do so. My only beef is that both the team and the subs would benefit from putting in a mix of starters and subs in at the same time. I understand that the second string practices as a unit, but given that Navy had not pulled any starters and, especially for the Irish backup D, that they run an unorthodox offense, that was asking a lot of your reserves.

5) Syracuse fired coach Greg Robinson yesterday. Notre Dame hasn't had such a layup game since, well...okay, three games ago. But it makes you wonder whether Weis will devote any practice time this week to USC, an opponent who, like Navy, will be taking on the Irish following a bye week. And whether he'd be willing to admit as much to us this week.

6) Saturday's game will not be close in the 4th quarter. And since it's the last home game for the seniors, you can expect that Weis will empty his bench. A quick flashback to two years ago: The Irish lead Army 41-3 late in their home finale and Weis inserts senior Tom Zbikowski as the option QB as a favor to his fiercest warrior. The student section goes wild. 

    But Army is none too pleased. The Cadets throw a touchdown pass as time expires to make the final 41-9.

7) Part of me hopes that Charlie makes all of us writers look like dopes twelve days from now. On Saturday Lee Corso called the USC defense the greatest he's ever seen. Before the season I wrote a column expressing a similar sentiment, saying that the Trojan defense at least had that potential. And sure, I'm looking past Syracuse by writing this (I can afford to; the Irish coaches cannot), as I imagine many of you are, but here's the thing: Notre Dame's, and Weis's, only real opportunities for greatness both this season and even next (if you've seen the 2009 schedule) will come by defeating USC. Charlie, meet Pete. Ahab, meet Moby. Charlie can shut every last critic up by beating USC in the Coliseum. That's a tall order having to do so without Michael Floyd and Brian Smith, of course.

8) Notre Dame, as you may have heard, is now tied with Texas for the second-most wins in college football history. The Longhorns have caught up by winning at least ten games in each of the past eight seasons. Now here's the curious thing: The school that is No. 1 all-time, Michigan, is likely going to finish the season with a 3-9 record (should they lose in Columbus on Saturday). 

       And so my question is this: What percentage of coverage has the Wolverines' 3-9 season in 2008 received as compared to Notre Dame's 3-9 season of 2007? 50%? 25%? I'll grant that Rich Rod is in his first season, that Ryan Mallett transferred and that the offensive cupboard was bare...but it's funny how much more the Irish, a program with a lower all-time win percentage than the Wolverines, were hammered by the national media a year ago. Anyone want to explain that one to me?

9) Final thought on Saturday's game, and these are the questions Charlie will never have to answer: What happens if Navy had scored on that final possession? How would you have handled it? Would you have forever lost your players, not to mention the school's fans and the alums? Would you have been able to recover? Would the Irish have gone to a bowl with a 6-6 record? We'll never know, and for that Coach Weis is extremely fortunate (and he can thank Robert Blanton for breaking up that pass on 3rd down).     

TRENDSPOTTING

Who's with me on this? The two biggest trends of the 2008 college football season are:

1) Running backs high-hurdling defensive backs, and

2) Helmets flying off players' heads.

I believe that it was Georgia's Knowshon Moreno, versus Central Michigan, who launched the former trend (and nice job to all you backs on the trail leg, by the way). I remember an Oregon back did so a week or two later. The latest fashionista was Buckeye running back Chris Wells, against Illinois, on Saturday. As I've mentioned before, Baylor QB Robert Griffin, a world-class hurdler, has yet to do so in a game.

    As for the flying helmets, it could be a chinstrap malfunction, or it could be players failing to snap all four buckles on their straps, or it could be, as my friend Moose suggested, ill-fitting helmets. On Saturday Moose counted, unofficially, three times when Navy's Jeff Deliz had his helmet fly off (then again, Deliz did make 17 tackles). Said Moose: "I think he needs a smaller helmet."

    But I believe that it's a chin strap issue. Take a gander at Sergio Brown in this photo. He's half a hit away from losing his golden dome. Notice the unbuckled chin strap flapping out in front of his left shoulder pad. Maybe it's a generational thing, or a cultural thing, like wearing your jeans so that half your booty is exposed. I dunno.

  What I do hope for is this: A running back (C.J. Gable, perhaps?) breaks into the secondary with only the safety (David Bruton?) to beat. Safety crouches in defensive stance. Running back attempts to leap him. But the safety, instead of dipping his helmet and shoulder pads, anticipates the maneuver. Drills the running back. Collision separates helmet from rusher's cranium. And...scene.