Jimmy Clausen named starting QB

Coach Charlie Weis names Jimmy Clausen as starting ground beef..err..quarterback for ND.

Comments

[B. Minich]

And Penn State licked their lips at the prospect of a freshman QB entering Happy Valley . . .

(Seriously, I like this decision from a partisan standpoint. This game makes me much less nervous after ND's opening week than it did before . . . although Penn State definitely needs to fire on all calendars.)

[Mad Max, Esquire]

The kid is dead. It is obviously Weis's pride at stake here because he recruited him. The only points scored during the GT game were not scored by JC. Instead of relying on a more seasoned guy who knows Weis's system after two years, he is going to throw some kid in who has a month or two familiarity with the system.

Memo to Weis: The problem is your offensive line, not your QB. Oh, and you rmiserable defense. And, your stupid gameplan.

[kcatnd]

Mad Max, you just hate Charlie Weis.

Clausen probably is the best shot ND has at winning. He was the number one QB coming out of spring practice, but his injury complicated things.

This is not "obviously Weis's pride at stake" here. Weis shielded Clausen from the media because he didn't want a prima donna causing distractions. Even if this arguably backfired, Weis has done nothing but take responsibility - he knows how to swallow his pride. Don't get me wrong, I think the guy makes plenty of mistakes, I just think you're irrational whenever you talk about ND or Weis. Try to be somewhat objective. Otherwise, it's much easier to summarize your posts as "I hate Charlie Weis."

Also, Clausen enrolled early and has more than a month or two of familiarity.

[David K.]

Hey I'm as likely to slam Weis as the next guy when i think he's wrong, but starting Clausen might not be a bad thing. Get a young talented guy in there making a few plays and it can really turn a team around. On top of that if he's going to be there for a few more years, might as well get him started now, practice makes perfect and all (someone should really remind Lloydd Carr of that...)

[gahrie]

David K.

Lloydd Carr has forgotten more about football than you'll ever....

Oh...

Well at least now we know what the problem is.....

[zz]

Word to kcatnd. Although, I'm surprised Mad Max hasn't posted 10 more times within one post as he is wont to do.

Clausen has been there since January.

[David K.]

Poor poor gahrie, so much anger. Oh well i'll forgive you this once, i know how much losing sucks.

[gahrie]

What???????

I'm a Trojan!

I was slamming Carr not you!

Fight on!

[Brendan Loy]

LOL... I love how horrified you sound at being mistaken for a Domer... heh.

Can't we all just get along, united in the proposition that Michigan sucks?

[Becky]

If I were a hardcore ND fan, I'm not sure that I would second guess Charlie yet, but I would be wondering to myself why he didn't start Clausen against GT, notwithstanding his numerous justifications for not doing so. It seems like common sense to put your most talented players on the field.

But I do agree with Mad Max about the O line. You could have Matt Leinart or Vince Young on that field playing like crap if they're constantly forced to scramble because of an ineffective offensive line. Poor Sharpley was sacked like seven times or something. That's astonishingly awful.

[Angrier and Angrier]

I just hope ND's bad O-line doesn't leave Clausen in a Pickle.

[HUSKERS 94 95 & 97]

I will have to tivo 'ole Jimmy boys 1st start as this will be a classic

Starting the kid on the road against a veteran defense?

wow, not smart IMHO the GT game is where he should have done this but then 'ole Jimmy boy would have been walking around all week like, "hey, how hard is the college football thing when I'm starting my 1st game"

If the kid wasnt such a douche Charlie probably would have given him 1st crack at GT

[Angrier and Angrier]

Does anyone know Clausen's numbers for the game against GT? He didn't play very long, but I would be interested in seeing how many passes he completed and for how many yards.

[treybien]

I believe he went 4 for 6 for 36 yards. And while the OL was unbelievably bad, part of the reason Sharpley was sacked so many times is he held on to the damn ball forever.

I also disagree with people here saying it would be better to start against GT than Penn State. Penn State's defense is nowhere near as good as GT's. They have all new starters on the DL and lost Posluszny, not to mention they don't blitz nearly as much as GT. I don't see any possible way ND wins the game, but I also think Clausen will have more success starting against PSU than he would have against GT.

[Angrier and Angrier]

Well, the entire ND season basically comes down to the Penn State game. If Jimmy "The Dill" Clausen gets hammered and ND ends up losing by a similar margin as they did to GT, Weis is going to be in a world of hurt. Hell, NAVY might even give ND a run for its money this season.

[Sandy Underpants]

Ty Willingham 1-0

Charlie Weis 0-1

Weis' storied ND coaching career now holds the record for the biggest home blow-out loss in ND history (against Michigan), and The biggest opening day blow-out loss (against GT). I wonder how many Domers are going to continue to blame Ty, as if CW hasn't had the time to build his own team. Forget that Pete Carrol was winning a national championship in his 3rd year?

"If the kid wasnt such a douche Charlie probably would have given him 1st crack at GT."

Finally, now we know why! Offseason surgery, a weak OL, only being in the system for less than a year...no, he was not started against GT because ND haters on the internet think he is a d-bag. Fortunately, he stopped being one just in time to win the start for PSU.

Let's review Washington's schedule after they play some decent teams (i.e. the rest of their schedule, minus Stanford). Oh, you were not looking to engage in actual, honest discussion, but wanted to try to make a cheap point. Well, Washington's margin of victory over Syracuse, a BCS-conference team, was greater than USC's victory of Idaho. I guess Ty is better than Carroll (that's two l's for those keeping score).

[Mad Max, Esquire]

kcatnd-

Yes. I hate Charlie Weis. I believe I have stated that quite clearly many times in many ways.

zz-

Yes. I post many times at once. It is a "stream of consciousness" thing. Think of me as the "Jack Kerouac of Brendanloy.com."

[treybien]

Sandy,

Off the top of my head I can remember Ty losing 37-0 at home to a very mediocre FSU team and 45-14 at home to USC in the same year. Those are two losses in the same year, at home, that are worse than anything Weis has ever done.

If you want to do some actual research go check out Ty's last 2 recruiting classes at ND. This year's seniors and this year's juniors. The two classes that any decent college football team will be built on. Tell me how they were ranked, how many players were brought in, and the other schools that offered those players. Then tell me how many OL's were in the current senior class. If Ty's recruiting disasters were a penalty imposed by the NCAA, it would be the greatest penalty ever levied outside of the SMU death penalty. Schools caught red-handed giving their players money have not been docked the number of players that Ty's worthless recruiting has left ND with.

The performance last week was terrible and there is no excuse. However, as bad as Hackett or whoever the last d-bag to roam the USC sidelines was, he still recruited very well as USC always has. Pete Carroll's 3rd year, tell me how many starters were seniors and juniors that he didn't even recruit. That is the thing that drives me crazy about you Ty apologists, you don't even understand what his greatest weakness was, not his game performance (which was so unbelievably bad it couldn't be put into words), it was his non-existent recruiting. I believe there was a story where in Ty's 2nd or 3rd year, a top recruit came to ND b/c he had interest in the school. When he arrived, not one football coach was on campus!!! Can you fathom that?? A top recruit comes to the school and none of the coaches are there.

Next time you want to talk college football Sandy, try getting one fact correct.

[Admiral Halsey]

But Jack Kerouac was insightful.