I'll take a business approach to this game and provide my S.W.O.T. analysis (Strength's, Weaknesses, Opportunties, Threats) of Notre Dame.
Notre Dame:
Strengths:
1.) Passing Game
2.) Experience on Offense
3.) Defensive Line
4.) Big Play ability
5.) Name Recognition/ Intimidation.
#1 and #2 are self explanatory. Their defensive line is big, don't know about fast, but they are big and can push people off the ball. Weiss also has the ability to score or make a big play when they need it most. They have an explozive offense. Lastly, they are Notre Dame and sometimes opponents get lulled into "Holy Shit were playing Notre Dame"!!! Instead of focusing on the game itself.
Weaknesses:
1.) Linebackers
2.) Special Teams (especially kicking game)
3.) Secondary
Weiss was concerned enough about his linebackers he took one of his best RB's behind Darius Walker and made him a Linebacker. His special teams cost him last year and almost cost him a couple of wins. Their secondary consistently got torched last year and even with a year of experience, I wouldn't trade them for ours with 3 new starters (actually 2 and one position change).
Opportunities and Threats I will evaluate from an opponents basis. As in their opportunities against us and their threats of GT being their opponent as opposed to someone else.
Opportunities:
1.) Short Passes and screens to neutralize blitz.
2.) score fast and get us out of "ball control" football.
3.) Contain Reggie Ball making him beat you with his arm.
4.) Hurrying Ball and disguising coverages to force Ball into poor decisions.
Threats:
1.) Protecting Brady Quinn from the blitz.
2.) Containing Calvin Johnson
3.) Shutting down GT's running game.
4.) OLine holding up against our Defense for 4 quarters.
This is the basics as I see it.
If you took GT and did the same analysis you'd have:
Strengths:
1.) Defensive Scheme
2.) Most dangerous WR in college football
3.) One of the best defensive lines and linebacking corp in the country.
4.) running game
Weaknesses
1.)Inconsistent QB play
2.) Secondary is unproven.
3.) Little depth in defensive backfield.
4.) Special Teams
Opportunities vs. Notre Dame.
1.) Run the Ball effectively.
2.) Get the ball to Calvin Johnson
3.) Pressure the QB.
4.) Neutralize Darius Walker
Threats vs. Notre Dame
1.) Covering their receivers.
2.) Mistakes from the QB.
3.) Play come from behind football.
4.) Special Teams play.
We match up very well with ND in all facets of this game minus one which is unproven. That is we will be breaking in two starters in the secondary and have little depth there. Sounds like the practice reports indicate we should be ok at the CB spots and Lewis has tons of experience as a SS. The FS spot concerns me a lot.
Outside of that, it will come down to Reggie Ball. He cannot make mistakes against ND, and he has to do more than "not lose" the game. This is a tall order. If he can show up and move the ball against ND's defense, and our secondary covers long enough for our Dline to penetrate, then we will beat ND and we may beat them bad.
However, if ND can use the short pass and screens successfully AND fluster Reggie, then we will lose this game badly.
That said, lets look at the intangibles. Our special teams should be in the very least IMPROVED from last year. We have more BIG Game experience than they do and if a ND fan tries to deny that, he's an idiot. We like playing as underdogs. ND has been listening to the announcement of their "second coming" since their bowl game.
I believe we win this game Only because in my opinion, had we played ND's schedule last year, we would have at LEAST gone 9-3. If they played our schedule they more than likely would have had the same if not worse record. That's just the truth in my opinion. The teams they beat last year worth mentioning are Tennessee which had their worst year in I don't know how long. They beat Michigan, who had the same. They beat Navy.
Their most impressive game was a loss to USC. they got clobbered by Ohio St. And they lost to Mich St.
In reality this team is WELL Coached because they beat the people they are supposed to beat. But in reality, their opponents last year stunk.
