Weis & Dayne Crist
Moral of this story, if someone dares you to make a bad college choice, don't take the dare.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:44 AM ^
Clauson is going 8-for-17, 70 yards in a spring game, how the hell is he still that bad? Most overrated player out of high school of all-time? As of right now he has a great shot of taking that title. Lack of talent is not quite an option anymore either.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^
He was constrained by the game plan and lack of healthy receivers, obviously.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:27 AM ^
I get the healthy receivers part (if true). But what is the game plan that causes a low completion rate? I guess a lot of deep balls, but then you would expect higher passing yards. Weis E. Coyoye has done it again with his decided schematic advantages.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^
He's not Montana but he has a great WR tandem, an improved line and a weak schedule. He will have a monster year, be hurt or benched. Look for 25 td's from the douchebag.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:51 AM ^
I'm as competitive as anyone, but Qb is the 1 spot you have to account for depth chart. Other positions if you are good they'll get you on the field but QB is so hard to unseat in practice you don't even get a fair chance once you are behind. The other part not in the story was Clausen will be going pro after his Junior year and 2nd Heisman so you will have 3 years if it doesn't work out. He still has 2 years in theory so it's not all bad.
Curious how this works for RR. I'm guessing we'll bring in a lot of guys that could switch positions because with Tate, Denard and Devin it is going to be hard to convince a top flight qb to come in 2011 class
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 AM ^
crist went 4/10? come on
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:45 AM ^
ND let Sheridan come in and impersonate a QB at their spring game!
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 AM ^
That's why Matt Barclay went to USC. He's afraid to compete with The Golden Child
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 AM ^
would've been better off going to USC. i think jimmy's actually gotten worse in his time at ND. little known fact, but if jimmy had gone to USC, mitch mustain would've gone to ND and we never would've had mallett as he would've gone to arkansas.
Interesting. Who would we have targeted instead?
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 AM ^
He can recruit Crist himself, but he can't coach him up to a 8/17, 70 yard production level.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:05 PM ^
We've all become aware of kids coming out of The Muck in Fla and the fact that coaches think they generally have big upsides because they're coming from such poor backgrounds...I think we might be seeing the reverse of that w/ Clausen. The private school/football academy he went to has former NFL guys around to coach the kids and they train w/ high-end equipment. He may be a guy who more-or-less peaked when he was 18...That said, with the talent he has around him and ND's schedule this year, I expect him to throw 25-30 tds, smoking the likes of Nevada and Army.
I've followed high school football in Southern California for years and Clausen never impressed me. In addition to the facts you mention, I would also add that his school (Oaks Christian) plays lower division football. Throw in the fact that there were 4-5 D1 recruits on the field with him and it is no surprise that they put up enormous numbers against inferior competition. Clausen also benefited a ton from getting early notoreity. He put up huge numbers as a sophomore and so he was on everybody's recruiting radar for years. Of course nobody pointed out that he was 17 at the time and shouldn't be evaluated as a normal sophomore.
Best example I have is the state championship game his senior year. His team were big favorites in the third division game (still not going up against the top talent in the state), but Clausen threw (I think) 3 picks and looked average/bad the whole game. He lacks arm strength, size, and mobility. Do have to admit he has good touch on long balls but that is about it (and that only leads to completions if your wideouts are consistently beating Navy cornerbacks for the ball).
doesn't bode well for M and Tate Forcier, amirite?
Well, Tate wasn't two years older than all his competition like Clausen was.
I mean, he wasn't, right? Shit, where is some place that I can look up Tate's birthday?
I don't remember the precise date, but I think he turns 19 over the summer.
I was thinking the same thing, because Tate's relentless tutoring and preparation definitely have him peaking earlier than any normal human being, in the same way.
But in watching his film, Tate's team did not look much better than the competition. His receivers weren't making amazing plays for him. His line let people run straight through regularly. (He did have a great RB to dump to)
Clausen, to me, seems like a good-not-great talent, but one well-suited to the scheme and personnel at Notre Dame. He throws pretty good fades and corner routes, and his receivers are much bigger and better than the guys guarding them.
I think Tate may be his equal in passing ability (with very different strengths), and he certainly offers more with his legs.
Clausen's HS is very small b/c, if I'm not mistaken, it was basically created to be a place where former NFLers' kids could play football. I don't think very many non-football players, if any, go there. Thus, as the previous poster who follows CA football said, they play against other small schools (which were not created to be football academies) and beat the holy hell out of them.
Yeah, Oaks has only about 700-800 students in the high school so they play very low end competition and throw up a lot of 50-3 scores. They never really played any of the SoCal big boys when Clausen was there either. This is in contrast to guys like Palmer (Santa Margarita), Sanchez (Mission Viejo), Leinart (Mater Dei), etc. who played at big time schools against legit competition.
You can throw Matt Barkley in that list as well, another Mater Dei kid.
I remember watching bits and pieces of Clausen's tapes online when he was being recruited, but until I rewatched one today I never realized just how much his success seemed tied to the players around him. The kid never seemed rushed, his receivers had separation on most plays, and his RB made some dump-offs into 50-yard TDs. I'm not calling Clausen a bust, but he doesn't look appreciably better as a passer than he did as a freshman. Sure, his stats were decent last year, but anyone who saw him against decent+ opponents saw a guy running around, launching ducks, and basically looking like a neophyte despite the fact he is 20-years-old (now 21) and has been training to do this for his entire life.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 PM ^
So, was Weis being an arrogant punk when he told Crist he was "afraid to compete," or was he doing a classic sales technique, the "takeaway?"
I am leaning toward the former, with Weis taking credit for the latter.
That's what looser's do.
he was living up to his monicker of being a *Genius.* After all...isn't that what the battle cry was when he was hired?
I'm sure you would be hard press to find a NL fan who would label him that today.
will play Captain Hook if the emu stumbles out of the gate?
Well no matter how any of us feel about ND's QBs they will look pretty magnificent if we don't have secondary to challenge tate and floyd.