Remember Us??

Let the count down begin. Let the trash talking begin. Let the BCS arguments being. Let the Heisman talk begin. LET COLLEGE FOOTBALL BEGIN.

It seems that baseball season gets longer every year. I have been waiting for Notre Dame football forever it seems like. Spring football is just a tease. The Blue and Gold game is a huge tease. There is a lot to talk about and think about concerning this up coming season and I want to start now, I can not wait any longer. Where to begin though, I think I will start at the bottom today and work my way up through the week.

So I am going to start with Quarterback.

We have one, and everyone knows his name. Jimmy Clausen could have a life changing season this year. And by that I mean he could catch the eye of some pro teams this year, and increase his draft day stock. Lets be honest, right now the kid is not a draftee, but he could be. He has all the tools and a solid line in front of him. He just needs to lead the charge. He needs to take control of them team. Remember the BSC championship game last year. Florida was down and Tebow brought them back. That man walked up and down his whole sideline screaming and pushing. Remember when Florida lost to Ole Miss. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96vAbtpakLg Who took charge then, once again it was Tebow. I want that from Clausen, I want that kid to become a man on the field. His numbers were not all that bad last year. He played well, but we need better. We need "Hawaii" every week.

Jimmy Clausen

• 268 Completion out of 440 Attempts
• 3172 Passing Yards
• 25 Touchdown, 17 Interceptions
• 60.9% Completion Percentage

Those are not bad numbers. We just need more of him. I want him to not lose his composure when we are up, and I want him to never back down when we are losing. He needs to be our champion. Most great quaterbacks are know for winning, legends are known for how they came back.

A good season for Clausen is getting us to a BCS game. Putting us back on the map as a possible contender. His numbers will have to better this year than last year for that to happen. I think these are reasonable numbers:

• 300 Completions out of 450 Attempts
• 3,400 Yards Throwing
• 30 Touchdowns to 10 Interceptions
• 66% Competion Percentage
• Play well enough to get Dayne Crist in the ball game, Mop Up Duty.
• Leadership

I do not think this is to much to ask for. Lets get after it. We are going to have an improved running game this year, and that could open up the doors for some huge passing games. You can not man up on our receivers, but you are going to have to put more men in the box to stop our running game. This is where match up problems occur, and this is what we need to accomplish. If we can achieve this level of play, Jimmy should have some huge games, and be able to work his magic.

The last two bullets are important for the program. We need to get Crist so that he has experience. Mr. Clausen needs to put together some scoring drives, get us a head in games, and let Crist come in later part of the fourth quater. This will do nothing but better our team.

The last bullet is what I want from Jimmy. I want him to want to lead, to want to lead the charge. No one else on that team should want it as bad as Clausen. He came to Notre Dame promising 4 national titles. I just want to be in the hunt again. We can talk titles in November. Clausen has to "will" this team to get over the hump and strive for perfection. It is time for Clausen to shine.