Couple of thoughts:

 

1. I never warmed up to Jimmy Clausen as a person but he is one hell of a QB. If our D played half as well as he did all season we'd have at least 11, and probably 12, wins. My only ding on him is that he's not mobile enough. There's a bit of a toughness factor too. I can't stop thinking about how he collapsed on the one-foot line in the Navy game. Tebow or McCoy, et. al., would have knocked those Navy D-backs' asses into the chaap seats.

 

2. I was against hiring Weis from the get-go and even got canned from an ND site because I said so forcefully. My chief objection was his complete lack of head coaching experience. After Faust and Davie, it seemed obvious to me that this was a sine qua non for success in the ND job. I'll admit that Weis had me fooled until we got massacred in his first BCS bowl. The thing that really turned me against the guy, however, was his virtual extortion of the five-year contract extension. Yes, KW and other admin idiots allowed him to "play" them but this was definitely a bad deal for ND no matter how one looks at it. I was, and remain, amazed at how many ND fans simply accepted this bit of sharp dealing on Weis' part. Please don't tell me what a "true ND man" this guy is or how he "gets" it. He's out for No. 1 and always has been. Nothing wrong with that, of course, unless you try to sell yourself as a "loyal son". People sure seemed to like to slurp his Kool-Aid...even after he pissed in it!

 

3. The cause of the first sack on our final possession last night cannot go unremarked. #74 is a bigger disappointment to me than any player over the last four years. How did he retrogress to the extent he did? It can't simply be coaching. I think if we had the answer to this we'd know a lot more about how things have been so very wrong over the last four years.

Edited November 29, 200915 yr by Irish Jacky

While I agree with your point about Sam Young (and you can include Paul Duncan in the same sentence) your critique of Jimmy is absurd. Number one he is plenty mobile for a pocket passer, which he is, and further more try playing on a turf toe all year (ask anyone who has had one and you will get the same answer). As for running over navy players on the goalline, sure Tim Tebow would have run over him, perhaps McCoy would have beaten them to the edge, but neither can throw the football, and we would have wasted Golden and Floyd (so you can keep your two running quarterbacks).

 

Finally, and I hear this all the time and it continually upsets me. Ohio State did not kill us they beat us by two touchdowns, with the last one being scored as we were going all out to get a stop (the previously play we had the quarterback in our grasp and couldnt bring him down). It was a close, competitive game that we lost. I hope you actually watch ND play... Glad you were against Charlie from day one. The last three years must have been great for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so damn tired of people criticizing Jimmy.. I hope he doesn't come back and am glad that he most likely won't come back.. ND fans don't deserve him right now..

I'm so damn tired of people criticizing Jimmy.. I hope he doesn't come back and am glad that he most likely won't come back.. ND fans don't deserve him right now..

 

 

Damn right!

Per any five year extension to Weis, let's all remeber the cimate then. You could NOT pick up a newspaper, choose a site and toss back a cold one with out saying Weis was jumping to the NFL. Even here at DD we worried he would go.

While I agree with your point about Sam Young (and you can include Paul Duncan in the same sentence) your critique of Jimmy is absurd. Number one he is plenty mobile for a pocket passer, which he is, and further more try playing on a turf toe all year (ask anyone who has had one and you will get the same answer). As for running over navy players on the goalline, sure Tim Tebow would have run over him, perhaps McCoy would have beaten them to the edge, but neither can throw the football, and we would have wasted Golden and Floyd (so you can keep your two running quarterbacks).

 

Finally, and I hear this all the time and it continually upsets me. Ohio State did not kill us they beat us by two touchdowns, with the last one being scored as we were going all out to get a stop (the previously play we had the quarterback in our grasp and couldnt bring him down). It was a close, competitive game that we lost. I hope you actually watch ND play... Glad you were against Charlie from day one. The last three years must have been great for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My post was not just critical of Jimmy. It acknowledged him as a "hell of a QB". He's got a couple of weaknesses as far as the college game is concerned. The mobility issue will not be the issue in the NFL it was in college. Re the turf toe: he didn't have one during the last two years and he wasn't mobile then either. I note that you completely evaded the toughness issue. I'm not in the habit of canonizing football players. They get good value for playing at ND. Scholarship players don't play for free and the highly touted ones choose where they'll play, not the other way around.

 

The BCS bowl game was not nearly as close as the score. tOSU kicked our asses in every aspect of the game, pure and simple. We'll just have to disagree on this, hopefully in an agreeable manner.

 

Better days are coming...I hope!

I'm so damn tired of people criticizing Jimmy.. I hope he doesn't come back and am glad that he most likely won't come back.. ND fans don't deserve him right now..

 

He's a heck of a qb, total prima donna...

Per any five year extension to Weis, let's all remeber the cimate then. You could NOT pick up a newspaper, choose a site and toss back a cold one with out saying Weis was jumping to the NFL. Even here at DD we worried he would go.

 

Rumors notwithstanding, the extension could only have been initiated with a threat, or an implied threat, that he'd breach his 5-year contract in its first year. The timing of his move is critical. Make no mistake, Weis initiated this deal, not ND. If NFL people began recruiting him for a head job, the situation could have been addressed then. Nobody had approached him prior to the extortion ploy. Of course, a "loyal son" would have said "I signed a 5-year contract with my alma mater and am one of college football's highest paid coaches. I intend to honor my contract."

While I agree with your point about Sam Young (and you can include Paul Duncan in the same sentence) your critique of Jimmy is absurd. Number one he is plenty mobile for a pocket passer, which he is, and further more try playing on a turf toe all year (ask anyone who has had one and you will get the same answer). As for running over navy players on the goalline, sure Tim Tebow would have run over him, perhaps McCoy would have beaten them to the edge, but neither can throw the football, and we would have wasted Golden and Floyd (so you can keep your two running quarterbacks).

 

Finally, and I hear this all the time and it continually upsets me. Ohio State did not kill us they beat us by two touchdowns, with the last one being scored as we were going all out to get a stop (the previously play we had the quarterback in our grasp and couldnt bring him down). It was a close, competitive game that we lost. I hope you actually watch ND play... Glad you were against Charlie from day one. The last three years must have been great for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I don't think you are fairly interpreting what I said about Clausen. The main point was "he's a hell of a QB and played better than most everybody else on the team."

 

As far as the first BCS bowl game is concerned, it was not nearly as close as the score. tOSU kicked our butts in every aspect of the game. Maybe we'll just have to disagree agreeably about this one.

 

Yes, the last three years have been tough, but so were the previous ten. I can't stop wondering how we'd have done with George O'Leary at the helm. ND was wrong to throw the guy under the train over some irrelevant and inconsequential resume puffery. That holier-than-thou lace curtain attitude is quite unbecoming, especially when engaged in by people who are willing to compromise their Catholic identity as the price of some ill-gotten prestige.

While I agree with your point about Sam Young (and you can include Paul Duncan in the same sentence) your critique of Jimmy is absurd. Number one he is plenty mobile for a pocket passer, which he is, and further more try playing on a turf toe all year (ask anyone who has had one and you will get the same answer). As for running over navy players on the goalline, sure Tim Tebow would have run over him, perhaps McCoy would have beaten them to the edge, but neither can throw the football, and we would have wasted Golden and Floyd (so you can keep your two running quarterbacks).

 

Finally, and I hear this all the time and it continually upsets me. Ohio State did not kill us they beat us by two touchdowns, with the last one being scored as we were going all out to get a stop (the previously play we had the quarterback in our grasp and couldnt bring him down). It was a close, competitive game that we lost. I hope you actually watch ND play... Glad you were against Charlie from day one. The last three years must have been great for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My buddy played baseball with a notre dame football player(summer independant ball), and he said that coming in, not many guys on the team liked Jimmy, and that he wanted to kick his ass personally..

I'm so damn tired of people criticizing Jimmy.. I hope he doesn't come back and am glad that he most likely won't come back.. ND fans don't deserve him right now..

 

Please, he brought a lot of the heat on himself...

Irish Jacky is right about the Ohio St game. It was not as close as the score indicated as the Bucknuts had 611 yards in offense -- still a record against us, if my memory is still intact after this season of hitting myself in the head and saying "How stupid was that?" during every game about 50 times

at least we had a solid two/three drives in the game until the OSU picked up on our schematic advantage.. Still

 

It was no 41-9 drubbing by the other OSU with matt levechio sp* at the helm.. I thought we were making progress in that bowl game LOL

I'm so damn tired of people criticizing Jimmy.. I hope he doesn't come back and am glad that he most likely won't come back.. ND fans don't deserve him right now..

oh please he got a free education valued at 160,000 and the chance to play on national tv, now he's going to go make millions, stop being so dramatic

Jimmy clausen is a great guy. After the uconn game he came out of the stadium and signed autographs for every single person there. He took pictures with everyone there and was extremely nice about it. I was pleasantly surprised by that.

Couple of thoughts:

 

1. I never warmed up to Jimmy Clausen as a person but he is one hell of a QB. If our D played half as well as he did all season we'd have at least 11, and probably 12, wins. My only ding on him is that he's not mobile enough. There's a bit of a toughness factor too. I can't stop thinking about how he collapsed on the one-foot line in the Navy game. Tebow or McCoy, et. al., would have knocked those Navy D-backs' asses into the chaap seats.

 

I'm not 100% sure, but Jimmy Clausen wasn't recruited to be a Tim Tebow or Colt McCoy type of quarterback. He played with turf toe since MSU and showed some damn toughness in doing so.