How would rainy weather @ ND affect Denard/offense?

Hes fast enough to avoid raindrops.  No one else is.

Denard would just have to slide through the mud really fast until he gets into the end zone

Like RR said in his presser, "It always rains when we play Notre Dame in South Bend." The last time we were there it effected us greatly, as we turned the ball over in almost every way possible.  One thing the rain does is put an emphasis on a clean handoff on the zone read.  Obviously the skill players need to take care of the ball and focus on racking up the first downs, which will lead to great T.O.P. and allow our defense to rest.  If it does rain hard I would say it favors us because Kelly likes to whip the ball around.  Either way Denard will be a factor and will make big plays.

There can still be lightning when it rains..

The answer which you seek, can be found here:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/extended-south-bend-weather-forecast

It could go in any direction.  The 2006 OSU game was played on a horribly slippery field and both offenses had huge days.  Sometimes you see offenses turn into mistake-prone messes, but other times you see defenses really struggle to cover the field.  It's hard to say.

See Morgantown, West Virginia weather between August 30 and December 10th.  

For a more local consideration, it sure didn't slow down GVSU's spread option offense in Allendale, MI very much.

Plus, Denard is probably well-used to playing football in the rain (Deerfield Beach, FL / Ft. Lauderdale area).

See Morgantown, West Virginia weather between August 30 and December 10th.  

For a more local consideration, it sure didn't slow down GVSU's spread option offense in Allendale, MI very much.

Plus, Denard is probably used to playing football in the rain (Deerfield Beach, FL / Ft. Lauderdale area).

With Kelly's spread in place and the WR/TE combo of Floyd and Rudolph I would almost welcome rain.  We are going to be able to run but if they have trouble throwing and we can key on Allen I think the advantage swings even further!

all runners rely on cutting, so if it rains, i think it hurts both teams equally.  ND relies more on vertical routes and when it gets wet and the ball is slippery, it can be harder to make long and accurate throws.  our empahsis on shorter routes and blocking could be an advantage.  however, in my anecdotal opinion, these weather/scheme predictions rarely hold true and most of the time the team that plays better wins, regardless of whether they're a run first or pass first team in better weather.

Lots of rain + very tall grass = at least one frustrating slip on a run. Hopefully it happens more to ND. Also, considering their fumble problems last week, this could hurt them more than us

Denard walks on water, obviously

Rain could actually help Denard a bit. He knows where he wants to go, but the defense doesn't. Its already hard enough to try to read and react to where he is going when the ground is dry, but if its wet the defender will have a harder time trying to make a break towards him.

Net effect would be to help him.  He may slip a little but the guys trying to chase him will be slipping more.  He knows where he is going - they don't.

...soak their balls to simulate likely game conditions.

If anything Denard is used to running/throwing in the rain. I'm unsure about football season, but the weather in FLOrida is almost always rainy. Also Denard is used to Grass/dirt so the conditions definitely shouldn't be our biggest concern.

I don't worry so much about Denard in particular, but I worry that it could slow him down/make him slip up.  In the big scheme of things, the defense might slip to, so that's not much of an issue.

However, my bigger concern would be the running backs and return game, where... HOLD ONTO THE DAMN BALL. 

we worry about the weather as it gets closer to Saturday?  We all know the weather forecast changes on almost a daily basis.

I think our offense showed against Uconn that we can run up the middle as well.  I just watched the first half of the Uconn game again, and boy, Shaw was running really hard.  His YPC wasn't great due to a lot of 1 / 2 yarders in the 4th quarter, but I was really impressed by his performance all day.  He was definitely over-shadowed by DRob

Go Blue!!! You haven't seen nothing yet.

...you need to get used to the fact that this Michigan team is not the same type of team we knew in the past.  Almost any SEC team would walk into a matchup out of conference and know that they are the faster team.  The news flash here is that this Michigan team is as fast, if not faster than every team in the esss-eee.seee.  We're not playing Wisconsin on Saturday - we're playing another team that is transitiioning to a speed game.  The difference is that they are less of a complete team than Michigan. 

So you can run and tell that, ho- ho- ho- ho- home boy

sorry double post

There will be a big ass rooster tail in the air behind #16 if its raining

It would certainly help us. If ND can't throw the ball effectively, they will not win.

I want the WIND.