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Hanging up our Jerseys | by Jay If you're a regular reader, you've probably noticed the updates on BGS have been less and less frequent of late. Heck, that's an understatement: we've been MIA for over a month. As the season wound to a close and we entered into yet another coaching transition, Pat kept the lights on with the occasional update, but I and the other contributors haven't been blogging nearly as much as we used to. With the day-job priorities heating up (and my first baby on the way at the end of May) I haven't had nearly the time to devote to BGS as I had in the past. And Pat, Mike, Michael, Dylan, Jeff, Pete and Kevin are no less busy than I. It's with those bittersweet thoughts in mind that we think it's time to drop the curtain on the Blue-Gray Sky.

It's been a good run. When we started this endeavor, way back in the Winter of 2004, Tyrone Willingham had been fired, and Urban Meyer had just said "no thanks" to Notre Dame. Charlie was to be hired shortly thereafter, and we followed him diligently over these last five years. I think if BGS can claim anything, it's turned out to be a pretty comprehensive chronicle of the Charlie Weis era under the Dome. Over the last five years we've parsed the pressers, broken down the schemes, charted the recruiting, celebrated the victories, and mourned the losses. In the heyday of the blog, we were spending countless hours a week reading articles, brainstorming ideas, researching history and statistics, watching (and rewatching, and rewatching) games, corresponding with other bloggers and folks in the media, and writing and editing posts. One of our hallmarks was that we weren't afraid of the long-form post (or even the multi-post project, spread over several weeks). Maybe that was a way of getting out of having to post something every hour of the day, as many bloggers do it; but for us, the style seemed to fit. We took our time, polished things up, and when we were ready, hit that "post" button. It was a blast.


It's interesting to look back to that Winter of 2004. Eight years of mediocrity were capped by the controversial firing of Willingham, and many people -- including some of our own alums in the national media -- were proclaiming that Notre Dame was beyond salvaging; that the Irish would never again compete for a national champsionship; that, indeed, "the mystique [was] dead." Then, the rejection by Urban Meyer, a bitter pill that seemed to confirm our worst fears about the future of the program. Notre Dame was done.

Then Charlie walked in the door. He came in with bluster and bravado, saying, in effect [screw] that, we're not dead yet, Notre Dame can still compete. And I'm going to lead the charge. From today's vantage point looking back, Charlie's words might seem empty, nothing but a lot of talk and a badge. And he certainly didn't fulfill his early promises. But at the time, the attitude was critical. Charlie was a shot in the arm that was sorely needed. After being rebuffed and rejected and discounted by everyone, here was somebody -- one of our own, too -- who was willing to take that dead-end Notre Dame job, not make excuses, and try to turn this thing around. That five years later he's fallen short and been replaced doesn't mean we should turn those early statements against him. We were reeling, and his attitude and willingness to lead was exactly what we needed at the time.

If anything, Charlie proved that Notre Dame can still compete. He put the lie to the lazy, armchair conclusions about academic standards being too stringent, or that top-flight recruits wouldn't give South Bend a second look, or that Notre Dame could no longer go up against Southern Cal and Michigan and Florida and steal players out from under them. All of those built-in excuses that were proffered by Bob Davie, calcified via Willingham and lazily adopted by the blinkered national media (and much of their mouth-breathing readership) have been systematically disproven over the last five years. Can Notre Dame recruit? Notre Dame can recruit. Can it win? Notre Dame can win. No excuses, indeed. We can compete. We can win. Charlie might not have accomplished it, but he proved it possible. The failures of Charlie Weis are not endemic to Notre Dame. Today, when looking back on the Weis era, we hold him to his own standard, and can say that he did not get the job done; but proudly so, for without him, there might be no more standard.

For the Fighting Irish of 2010, it's a bit different. The foundation is set. We don't need someone to pull us out of the fire; we need someone who can take us over the top. Hopefully Brian Kelly will be that someone. As we close the book on BGS, Notre Dame is once again gearing up for a new beginning, another "return to glory" with the start of another spring practice. There is a lot to look forward to.

At the same time, the dreaded rumors of conference affiliation are making national headlines, and with every quote that drops from Jack Swarbrick's mouth, Irish fans get restless. Five years ago the media wondered if ND would ever be able to compete for a national championship again. Today, they wonder if Notre Dame would sacrifice its cherished and sacred independence for a slot in a conference somewhere. There could be big changes on the horizon. And it's tough not being able to continue this blog precisely because of all the exciting (and terrifying) possibilities that await Notre Dame Football over the next five years.

If you'll indulge us, we have a number of people to thank. Thanks to Sean P., Teds P., and Mark M., our co-founders and BGS bloggers emeritus; Fightinamish and Irishoutsider of The House Rock Built, and Kelly Green, two of the early Irish blogs who linked us and helped get us going; Spencer Hall of EDSBS, for helping spread the word beyond the Irish blogosphere in the early days of the blog; Warren St. John, author extraordinaire and an early fan of our work (buy his books!); Scott Eden, the author of Touchdown Jesus and the chronicler of the last days of Willingham, who graciously sat for an interview; Gina Vozinelek of Sport Literate, for allowing us to reprint her hilarious (and all too familiar) essay, A Special Reverence; Andy Staples and Stewart Mandel, who featured our work on SI.com; Bruins Nation, our brothers in arms against the Trojans; John Walters, Tiffany Simons and Matt Casey of NBC.com, who hosted us as a regular guest on their weekly ND show during the 2007 season (the season of our discontent); Brian D., for giving us the Blind Oracle of Bristol during the sturm und drang of 2007; Trace Hendrick, for putting together the annual Ticket Collage; T.J. Miles, Irish video archivist non pareil; Nevin O'Donnell, the finest highlight artist on the web; Marc Spitz, Matt Castellan, and Keith from Buckeye Commentary for their essential assistance in pulling together the Four Plays series; John Manier, for contributing a pair of fine posts on Southern Cal and UCLA; Jim Walsh and the rest of the crew at Maple Street Press; Jimmy Egan for lending his photoshop skills for the 2006 recruiting banner; Paul Manoguerra, for his excellent blog Classic Ground and his annual collaboration with BGS on the "Top 10 Plays" rundown; Mike Frank and the rest of the staff at Irish Sports Daily; Will Schmidt, for two of our most beloved posts, Uniformly Excellent and Veteran's Day; long-time reader Nate for his excellent Japan Bowl report; Photographer extraordinaire Andy Altenburger for the use of many of his photos throughout the years; Gerd, of the O-Zone, who contributed to our season previews; George Macor, for his invaluable ND games database; NDMSPaint, for the image of Golden Tate jumping into the MSU band; Golden Tate, for jumping into the MSU band; the Bad Notre Dame Daddy; Pete Thamel, who touted us on the New York Times; Terry Regan and John Schmidt, for their invaluable expertise with the Xs and Os; John L. Smith, for being himself; cfbstats.com, for providing a wellspring of college football stats you can't find anywhere else; Dan McConnell, for his account of the unbelievable bye week leading up to the '93 Florida State game; Alan W. of UND.com; John, Mike, Mike, and Scott, the proprietors of NDNation, without whom the blog would not exist and would not have been widely read by Irish fans everywhere; all of those countless amateur and professional photographers whose photos we used, mostly without attribution; Father Jenkins, for firing Ty Willingham, and inadvertently kicking off the idea to start a blog in the first place; and of course, thanks to all of the extremely friendly and knowledgeable BGS commenters, for being so warm, witty, and wise over the years. And if you're reading this, you probably know that there are plenty of other great Irish bloggers out there that ought to be part of your daily read: Her Loyal Sons, the Rakes of Mallow, Clashmore Mike, Keith Arnold at NBC.com, and many more. When we started, there were only a couple, but today the internet is chock full of great Irish blogs.

For our part, we intend to keep the archives here as long as the internet is around, so feel free to take a walk down memory lane whenever you like. There's some good stuff in there. And if you have any questions, comments, or if you just want to say hello and catch up, you can always drop us a line at the BGS mailbox.

Most of all, thanks to all readers of this site. It's been a real privilege to enjoy your readership, and it's frankly amazing the way the site grew. Back in December of '04, I was excited to have a few dozen people check out our scribblings. Five years later, we were topping fifteen thousand visitors a day, mostly due to word of mouth recommendations from all of you.

I was able to track down the very first email that started this blog. Around the beginning of December, 2004, I reached out to Pat and Dylan and Michael and a few other people, proposing a Notre Dame football "scrapbook" of sorts...


Got an idea. With all the craziness surrounding the football search (and the prospect of a very exciting football season-to-come), I thought it might be a good idea to try and preserve whatever pieces of interesting commentary we might come across as we watch the ongoing circus. I thought now would be a great opportunity to start something like this, as I really can't remember a more exciting and uncertain time in ND football...Oftentimes I find myself wanting to go back to something I read somewhere, or preserve a great post from a message board for future reference, or save a newspaper story that made a lot of sense at the time...maybe going forward we can save some of the gems in sort of a ND football 'scrapbook'...what do you think?

I think we accomplished our goal. Thanks for everything, folks. And go Irish.

(P.S. If you're interested, keep an eye on this space for details on how to order your own copy of the "Best of BGS". Details to follow.)

Posted by Jay at 10:22 PM Untitled Huffhines | by Dylan

This is the second-to-last post on BGS. I think it was Shakespeare, or maybe The Situation, who said, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” As the curtain is drawn on The Blue Gray Sky, the best sports blog on the internet (I can say this without being immodest since I had so little to do with it), I feel a curious mixture of joy and pain. Of sunshine and rain, if you will. The joy comes from being a part of a truly excellent outfit, one that brought a unique perspective to the then yet-to-be-fully-birthed college football blogosphere. When we (and by “we” I mean “everyone but I”) put out the “Four Plays” series of posts, I think we did something fairly unheard of, either on the internet or in print. That type of analysis simply wasn’t done, and you would not have found a better breakdown of that game, be it in Sports Illustrated, Blue & Gold, or anywhere else. The pain comes from the knowledge that, once we close the movie deal, the part of “Dylan” will be played by Clint Howard.

One can’t help, upon the closing of such a momentous chapter in the history of sport, to get a little nostalgic. Since our first post was published 92 years ago, much has changed. In 1918, only one in five Americans had ever ventured more than fifty miles from where he was born. Today, with 95% of Americans owning flying cars (as astutely predicted by BGS founding editor Milburn Talmadge in 1927), we are more mobile than ever, with the exception of Michiganders, whose range is limited by the inexorable sucking emanating from Ann Arbor. At the time we logged our millionth page view (July 16, 1925), Purdue had just undertaken the first of its four drum expansion projects and was beating on a fairly pedestrian four-foot percussive. On the day Notre Dame Stadium opened in 1930, Joe Paterno was still six months shy of his 50th birthday. He remembers it like it was 1948. That’s my way of pointing out that Joe Paterno is old. Very, very old. Absurdly, implausibly old. There are vampires who yearn to live as long as Joe Paterno. Joe Paterno has opposable big toes. I’m talking Old.

The immensity of these changes makes the persistence of BGS all the more remarkable, and it is entirely attributable to the strength of our leadership over these many years. I think it’s appropriate, if a bit self-congratulatory, to point to some of the landmark posts of our predecessors, to whom we all owe so much and without whom most Western thought, culture, and literature would simply not exist.

The most obvious example (I’m even a bit embarrassed to point it out, seeing as it’s akin to belaboring Hans Makart’s influence on Klimt, and no one likes a pedant), would be Talmadge’s 1918 post during the doldrums of that year’s coaching search. Talmadge wrote, prophetically:

“And who, at long last, will Father Cavanaugh choose to lead our foot-ball team? Who can countenance the weeks of inaction and flim-flam? This is balderdash! Were Father Cavanaugh the President of the United States, we’d only have the Eleven Points (two more than allowed by Harper’s lads last fall)! What of the Turks then? No more of this namby-pamby capitulation of the type that leads inevitably to the stewardship of someone like Kanute Rockne. We must not doom ourselves to such vile gimmickry, flinging the pig-skin about the grid-iron like a band of unkempt Norsemen. Fiddlesticks!

Big shoes to fill, to be sure, but try we have. I don’t think we, the current squatters, ever reached that lofty perch, with the possible exception of our 2007 season predictions, which were of similar historical value.

Among the other myriad posts which brought tears to grown men’s eyes and put smiles on the faces of millions of children were Mitch McGonagle’s 1928 epic (if brief) post on the evolution of helmet design, Richard “Deke” Zurbriggen’s 1939 contextual analysis of the Winged T and the inevitable triumph of a global workers revolt and rising proletariat, and the enduring “Can Notre Dame Still compete?” posts of 1944, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1956, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003.

But the years have taken their toll on the old girl, and we at BGS have finally come to the conclusion that we simply lack the team speed to compete with the new new media. Now that we’re at the point where ESPN anchors, supermodels, small dogs, and Father Sorin himself can speak to us directly through the micro-antennae surreptitiously (and probably illegally) placed in our fillings, the idea of using the internet for easy access to information seems positively quaint. I, for one, can barely keep up with the constant stream of text, images, voices, other peoples’ thoughts, and the incessant singing of fishes. Those fish are crazy.

Posted by Dylan at 7:34 PM 
Team Transition | by Pat

14th - Rivals
19th - Scout
21st - ESPN

Athlete (2) - Derek Roback, Danny Spond

Double Up

In Early

Moving Target

Get on up, get on down

Biggest Get:

Kevin: Louis Nix.

Biggest Miss?

Kevin: Anthony Barr.

Class Sleeper?

Kevin: Justin Utupo.

What position helped itself the most/least?

Favorite Recruiting Moment?

What do you think so far of Kelly as recruiter?

Posted by Pat at 10:15 AM 
Final Day Decisions | by Pat 

Posted by Pat at 8:00 AM 
Happy Signing Day! | by Pat

Posted by Pat at 9:14 AM 
Quarterbacker | by Pat 

Posted by Pat at 11:00 PM Heggie Hears a "Who?" | by Pat 

Then came the phone call. Notre Dame.

Posted by Pat at 5:00 PM 
Runnin' Roback | by Pat 

Posted by Pat at 10:20 PM Bringing in the reinforcements | by Pat 

"The decision was easy for me," Massa said.

Posted by Pat at 11:00 AM 
Statistically Speaking: 2009 Season | by Pat

When you have to fire your coach, digging into the stats to see what happened is a bit unnecessary. No one needs to look into a box score to understand that while ND's (passing) offense was excellent, the defense was horrendous, and the overall production of the team was not good enough for Charlie to keep his job.

Still, now that the bowl games are over and the final 2009 season stats are settled, it's worth finishing up the stat tables if only to provide a baseline of sorts as we head into the Kelly era and identify areas that need the most immediate improvement.

Battle for First Down

I started this metric because Tenuta stated that one of the goals of his defense was to win first down and force defenses into 2nd and long and 3rd and long situations. The metric was a bit of a trial run to see if the results in some way mirrored what we saw on the field. Well, we don't even need to look at the numbers to know the plan failed. ND's defense gave up more total yards per game in 2009 (397.8) than in any other season in ND history. It really was that bad.

The silver lining for number crunchers is that the metric sort of pointed this out, and in that sense might be something useful to re-use in the future. Here are the 2009 numbers. The overall win rate of 44% was a noticable drop from the 50% win rate last year. Both rushing defense (41%) and pass defense (48%) dropped from their 2008 season values (48% and 52%, respectively).

Going forward, a way to make this metric better would be to provide greater context by seeing how other teams, both good and bad, did. Another important area that wasn't reflected was the tendency of ND's defense to be boom or bust on 1st down. I mentioned it in a few previous game reviews, but it seemed that often when ND "lost" 1st down, they gave up not just 4 or 5 yards, but large chunks of yardage. It would be good to work these big play yards into the metric somehow. ND blog Clashmore Mike did capture the 1st down big play raw numbers for 2009 in their excellent 2009 stats review.

Notre Dame allowed 6.1 yards per snap on 350 first down plays with two or fewer yards surrendered on over 44 percent of these plays. However, 43.7 percent of first down plays generated five or more yards including 43 explosive gains. These big plays accounted for almost 50 percent of the total first down production for opposing teams.


The 2009 Drive Chart table is another metric that could benefit from more context. I know Football Outsiders delve deeper into drive efficiency numbers, so if you are interested in how these values help predict and explain football game, make sure to head over there.

As one might expect, ND's offense drive numbers jumped from 48% in 2008 to 55% in 2009. Remeber that the percentage is the percent of total available yards that the offense gained. A stat like this is a bit more insightful than total yards because it accounts for games when teams don't need to drive 90 yards every drive to score a touchdown. On the other hand, it doesn't highlight red zone TD conversion numbers, which was an area where ND was decidedly average in 2009.

Over on defense, the numbers predictably dropped. From holding teams to 40% of all available yards in 2008, ND's defense allowed teams to gain 48% of them in 2009. In other words, notice how the 7% gain on offense is negated by the 8% drop on defense and it's pretty easy to see why a 7-6 team in 2008 put out a nearly identical 6-6 record in 2009. As much as we improved on one side of the ball, we regressed that much on the other. Granted that is rather simplistic analysis and ignores a few other key stats, but the shoe fits in this case.

Gimme M.O.E.

One collection of stats that did give some insight into ND's red zone issues was the M.O.E. numbers for 2009. The numbers crept up from 2008, finishing the year right on the 12% mark that was the ideal high water mark for offensive errors. While Clausen's accuracy kept the interception numbers low, offensive penalties, sacks, and dropped passes kept the overall M.O.E. score higher than any coach would like to see. Most fans would agree that there were an unending stop of driving killing mistakes this year, especially as the team got close to the endzone. (If not for Tausch's stellar debut as field goal kicker, things could have been even uglier this season).

I also crunched the Weis-era M.O.E. for all games and added it as the final sheet on the spreadsheet. Perhaps not surprisingly, ND's overall M.O.E. the past 5 seasons was 13%. Granted, the awful 2007 season does skew the total a bit, but the high mark also is statistical proof of the critiques of lack of attention to detail and fundamentals that many made about the Charlie regime. As Brian Kelly is also an offensive minded coach, but one who has much greater experience teaching fundamentals to college aged players, it will be interesting to see how his offense do with regards to M.O.E. scores.

Season Long Running Stats

It's kind of amazing how crystal clear the overall 2009 season stats are about the performance of the 2009 Fighting Irish. Every single offensive statistical category, save one (sacks allowed), improved from 2008. Meanwhile, every single defensive category, save two (red zone and red zone TD defense) declined from 2008.

Depending on the side of the ball, the stats were either shooting up (65th in total offense to 8th overall) or in a free fall (22nd in pass efficiency defense to 82nd overall). Even the turnover and special teams stats fell along offensive/defensive lines as ND improved on turnovers committed on offense, but regressed in turnovers forced on defense while the kickoff and punt return numbers improved while the coverage teams regressed.

Here's to much better looking numbers in 2010, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

Posted by Pat at 9:25 AM 
Nichols is number nineteen | by Pat Recruiting took another quick turn when the second Kentucky player offered a scholarship to Notre Dame committed instantly and became the 19th member of the 2010 class. Offensive tackle Tate Nichols visited campus this past weekend and as soon as ND offered, he accepted.

"I didn't have a scholarship offer going up there," Nichols said. "They had a version of my highlight film that wasn't high quality. I brought another one, from my senior year. They really liked it and they offered me a scholarship.

"... I'm a Catholic kid and it's closer to home. It's a perfect fit."

The closer to home bit references Stanford, where Nichols previously had been committed. He had backed away slightly the past few weeks from his Cardinal verbal and decided to make a clean break this weekend. That makes Nichols the third recruit this year to switch from Stanford to Notre Dame (Badger, Jones).

Two of the three main recruiting sites considered Nichols a tight end recruit and as such didn't slot him very high. Both Scout and Rivals tabbed Nichols as a 2-star tight end recruit with Scout considering him the 52nd overall TE. ESPN did list him as an offensive lineman, giving him 3-stars, a 75 grade rating, and a ranking as the 101st overall offensive tackle recruit.

Update: These were his rankings on Saturday when he committed. Today, Tuesday morning, Scout has changed him to a 3-star offensive line prospect and the #71 overall OT recruit.

It seems the confusion over his future college position was somewhat warranted when the recruiting sites added him to their databases a year ago. Nichols originally committed to Stanford in March of 2009 as a 6'7" 230 pounder that was told he would get a shot at TE. Now though he's pushing 275 according to self reports and Tate has acknowledged that his future lies at offensive tackle. As he started to back away from his Stanford verbal, Illinois, North Carolina State, and Michigan started increase communications. Part of the increase in weight is due to Tate just continuing to grow. Part of it though appears to be the result of working with the same personal trainer that Kyle Rudolph (who is also distantly related to Nichols) used to get ready for college. Here's Tate's senior highlight tape that mainly still shows him as a tight end, but includes some examples of him blocking.

Despite the recent added weight, Nichols will still be a bit of a project as most of his time in high school was spent at tight end or defensive end. ND needed more linemen in this class though so assuming the overall OL numbers stay high (and ND is able to haul in at least another tackle prospect like Matt James) Nichols should have time to work in the weight room and learn how to play offensive tackle. College is filled with high school tight ends who turn into solid offensive tackles, so he certainly has a good shot at turning into a dependable player with a lot of hard work and solid coaching.

Speaking of overall numbers, here is how the offensive line depth chart breaks down for the 2010 season. With a new staff, new line coach, and plenty of guys who haven't seen much action, I'm not going to separate tackles from guards here. After spring ball we should have a better idea of where the new staff will slot them. Remember that players with an asterisk have an additional year of eligibility.

Posted by Pat at 8:45 AM 

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