Stanford Recap & First Half Analysis
by Randy W. Hall

With Saturday’s tidy 31-10 win over a pesky Stanford team, Notre Dame officially finished up the first half of their regular season. Man, the season sure flies by! But I digress. Saturday’s win wasn’t nearly the blowout I had forecasted, but hey it was a pretty convincing win and our offense really did look good all day as well as the defense from the second quarter on (the trick play touchdown by Stanford notwithstanding). The first two drives of the game consumed the entire first quarter and Charlie Weis wanted to eat up the clock (which he did) and possess the ball as opposed to score oodles of points. Also Stanford’s defense played inspired in the first half before Notre Dame played around with it through the end of the game. All things considered it was a decent performance and a nip-and-tuck game.

Game-balls:
Brady Quinn – Another stellar performance. His accuracy is back and his numbers are settling into the 300 yards passing with 2 or 3 TD’s per game range. More importantly he’s not turning the ball over and being forced to make quick decisions (i.e. Michigan and MSU games). He’s not being asked to whip the ball down the field too much either, but he’s excelling in the short-to-medium passing game. And if you watch the NBC broadcasts I’m sure by now you know he’s passing much better to his left (they have really beaten this point to death the last two games). I realize he’s not going against the greatest of secondaries but he’s taking what the defense gives him and excelling when given opportunities.

Darius Walker – He’s averaging 200+ yards in total offense the last two games. Part of it is attributable to the offensive lines better play. Still Darius has returned to his reliable shifty self and Notre Dame has had the opportunity to play from ahead as opposed to from behind, which means they can utilize the running game a bit more. He’s also returned to being effective on screen plays which teams were taking away early in the year. A lot of people were excited to see James Aldridge (myself included) come into the game on Saturday late and make an impact, but until he graduates I see D-Walk being the guy who gets 80% or more of the carries.

Victor Abiamiri – Geez, is there any way we can send Victor to a hypnotist and convince him that every opponent we play is Stanford? This guy absolutely terrorized Trent Edwards and T.C. Ostrander the last two years. The Cardinal were blocking him with two guys and they still couldn’t contain him. It was a sight to behold as big Victor sometimes blends into the game as opposed to taking it over like he did on Saturday. He was that player the offensive coordinator had to account for on every single play. Now if we can only get that kind of performance from someone week-in-and-week-out this team would be dominant.

Also some kudos need to go out to Joe Brockington and Ray Herring. Both filled in admirably for Travis Thomas and Tom Zbikowski respectively. Herring is going to end up being the surprise of last year’s class, I’m telling you. Next year he will be starting in the Notre Dame defensive backfield. I know he bit on that fake, but I’ve seen Ndukwe and Zibby bite on that same type of play at least a dozen times. He’ll learn the lesson he needs to learn from it. He led the team in tackles with nine and had his nose in on a number of other plays. Also when he tackles people they snap back which is a little thing but significant. He’ll get a reputation as a hitter and receivers will be hearing footsteps when they go over the middle on him. He’s also much more of a natural safety than who is back there right now. Anybody who followed Ray’s recruitment and how much love he has for Notre Dame has to feel a sense of pride that this young man has a bright future ahead.

Brockington was considered to have an inside track on one of the starting linebacking spots heading into this season. Injuries slowed his development and sidetracked him, so it’s ironic that injuries got him back into the lineup. Travis Thomas, who’s done a remarkable job given the circumstances, was banged up on the last play of the MSU game and JB has stepped in and missed nary a beat. Not that he’s stood out necessarily but its good when defensive players don’t stand out too much (unless it’s creating a big play).

As for the first half, Notre Dame got out of it as a 5-1 football team. There’s a couple of ways of looking at it. It’s positive because Georgia Tech has turned out to be a much tougher football team than forecasted. It’s also somewhat misleading because the Michigan game was a whitewash that exposed many of the Irish’s sensitive underbellies. Also that Michigan State game, while thrilling, was scary and could’ve easily been another loss. Still any win on the road is a welcome thing.

I expected to see the Irish go undefeated but I was wrong in my judgment as I overvalued much of the talent and undervalued many of the opponents. Michigan could have a special kind of team and with the shot in the arm of the new coordinators Ron English and Mike DeBord may run the table. The Georgia Tech win looks more impressive as the weeks pass. I even think Purdue was a better team than advertised. They do have significant issues on both sides of the line and have a penchant to surrender big plays. I suppose Notre Dame should feel fortunate to be 5-1 with the chance to go into the finale at USC 10-1 very plausible. And I think that MSU win will go down as a huge highlight in this era of the program. I would say the first half was not disappointing overall and points to a greater future starting in 2008. While I wouldn’t say “mission accomplished” I also am heartened that the direction of things is going the right way. Alas, the second half beckons.