Note that the coaching grade applies not just to the Stanford game but to the season as a whole.
| Notre Dame vs. Stanford - 11.24.07 | ||
| Quarterback | C | For those of you who said that I graded JC too harshly last week, can you honestly say that his play this week was any better than average for a college QB? Certainly he looks better than he did earlier in the year, but he's got a long way to progress before he could ever be considered excellent. His arm strength again looked better this week against Stanford, but he tried to make too much happen and held on to the ball way longer than he should have on several plays. But he is just a freshman. I think he showed promise at times this season, and that with strength training in the offseason along with mentoring by Weis, he will develop into an above average QB. |
| Runningbacks | D | Well due to the incredibly bad performance of the O-line, it's hard to say how well the runningbacks performed. First: I thought Hughes again ran hard and with good effort. However, I don't envision him as an every down back. People clamored for Weis to give Hughes more playing time, but instead of putting him in for the power running situations for which he is best-suited, Charlie put him in on almost every down, including long yardage situations. Second: Schwapp is terrible...at running and at blocking. Third: fumbles. Fourth: no help on blitz pick-ups. |
| Receivers | A- | The bright spot on the offense this week was the receivers. I'm really starting to like Kamara. He doesn't seem to have blazing speed, but he has amazing hands and he provides a big target for the QB. Grimes also had some really nice catches. Overall, while they still weren't getting wide open, they put themselves in good positions for Jimmy, and his accuracy in the short game took advantage of that. |
| O-Line | F | In this case F might as well stand for Fu**ing terrible. As a former highschool lineman, even though I was not physically talented, I can recognize good fundamentals versus absolutely pathetic fundamentals. This line had serious serious problems this season. That's not exactly news, but it seems like the Stanford game underscored the fact so painfully. Terrible run blocking, terrible pass blocking, and zero blitz pickup ability do not make for a good combination. This was by far the biggest weakness in the offense all season long. Latina has to go. In fact, he should have been given the boot in the middle of the season. From my observation, our linemen are powerful enough to get the job done. Strength is not the issue. There are actually 2 issues: speed and mental awareness. The line repeatedly is getting blown off the ball. As the ESPN announcers pointed out, it looked as if Stanford knew our snapcount better than our own line. This could be physical slowness in our line, but I'm inclined to think that part of the problem might lie with JC's snapcount and maybe something in the play calling tipping the D-line off. Finally, as far as mental awareness goes, if you watch the line when the defense blitzes, almost always one defender is double-teamed while another defender gets in untouched. Coaching. |
| D-Line | B | Laws was everywhere for the defense. I still think the absence of Kuntz hurt us in the middle, but Ian Williams stepped up and showed that he is going to be an effective lineman. |
| Linebackers | D | Repeat after me: why is Laws making so many tackles and the LBs so few? |
| DB's | B | The DB's seemed to play pretty well. They didn't seem to get pushed around as much as in previous games, and their coverage was solid again. I think this unit will be even better next season. I'm going to disagree with Sean on Zibby. He might be cool, but his play against Stanford was substandard--as it had been all season. He was often out of place, and his tackling was not as good as it had been in the past. |
| Special Teams | C | Punt returns and kick coverage... good. Having no field goal kicker... bad. |
| Coaching | D | Offensive -F I can't recall any gross playcalling mistakes by Weis this game. But he gets an F for the following reasons, which apply to the whole season: Personnel. We should not have had to endure the merry-go-round of personnel decisions that was on display this season. The offseason should be the time when most starters are identified. Weis' constant changes kept people from getting into healthy rhythms. Sometimes this season we saw Carlson getting involved; other times he was completely absent. We saw more runningbacks than I cared to count. Weis didn't play Hughes, even after he proved himself against MSU, and when we finally did see him against Stanford, we saw him on every down rather than on the short yardage plays. Fundamentals. They were lacking across the board all season long. Some of this must be position coaches, but the responsibility ultimately lies with Weis. What scares me is that Weis did not pick up on these poor fundamentals during the summer. He has absolutely got to be more hands on while on the practice field. And if he goes another season without teaching the fundamentals, he has to go. Defensive - C It's amazing how nice our pass coverage looks when we're not playing good teams... But looking back on the season, I see the pass coverage and the defensive line play as the strong points for the D, with the pass coverage needing work for next season to improve against more talented receivers. Brown's 3-4 seems to have two major problems. The first is the pass rush. While Laws was all over the field making tackles, and Laws/Kuntz tipped a fair number of passes, neither of them were very good at getting penetration on QBs... particularly against traditional powers like USC and Michigan. This problem doesn't concern me terribly so, because I think it's a question of getting the right man for the job on the line, plus Kuntz has plenty of eligibility left to get even better. The second, and far more worrisome, problem is the play of the linebackers. They simply were a non-factor this season, and Brown didn't seem to get the unit to improve any either. The unit seemed to lack tenacity, speed, and proper position coaching. Brown's a young coordinator, and he deserves a chance to prove himself. I see seeds of hope in his defense... But at this point, his fate is tied to Charlie Weis. |
Labels: Report Card
