It is a mere 15 days until Media Day and the start of fall camp in preparation for the upcoming football season (not that anyone's counting). It is also marks the beginning of Year 4 of the Charlie Weis Era. For many an esteemed Notre Dame football coach, Year 3 has been magical; coaches that won national championships in their third year reads like a who's who list of all the Irish greats: Rockne. Leahy. Parseghian. Devine. Holtz.Weis? Well... yeah.
But was last year an aberration? His first two years were among the most prolific in recent memory. It wasn't just about the 19-6 record (which was shades better than his two predecessors), two lucrative appearances in BCS bowls (yes, I realize that they were blown out in both), or highly acclaimed recruiting classes - all tremendous achievements. No, to me it was about the product on the field. Weis arrived with a reputation for producing offensive juggernauts and he did not disappoint. For the first time in over ten years - since the height of the Lou Holtz powerhouse teams - Notre Dame was scoring in droves and piling on the yardage and flat-out embarrassing teams...
To put it another way, for over ten years Saturday afternoons were spent hoping that a few lucky breaks would go our way and allow us to sneak past (insert mediocre rival here: Purdue, Michigan State, Stanford, etc). Then Weis came along and all of a sudden you were wondering how many touchdowns you would be up by before half-time.
If Year 4 hopes to resemble Years 1 & 2 in terms of offensive production, common sense (at least in the Notre Dame blogosphere) dictates that all improvement starts and ends with the offensive line. I would suggest that in addition a few stars need to emerge. And so, as a means of previewing the upcoming season, I'm going to count down my list of the Top Five Players (plus one) who I predict are most-likely to be the offensive stars this year for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Let's begin with the plus one:
Honorable Mention ~ Michael Floyd, WR (Freshman)
Vital Statistics: 6'3, 200 ilbs.
Player unfairly-and-unrealistically compared to: Terrell Owens
Yes, that Terrell Owens. The hype surrounding Floyd's arrival is staggering... and that was even before he reported with the other freshman in June for summer workouts, prompting one blogger to gush that he looked like "T.O. 2." I reserve judgement until he personally scores four TDs against USC but based on potential, he deserves an honorable mention. Notre Dame does not seem to have that game-changing home-run hitter in their lineup. The impact could be Randy-Moss-on-the-Patriots-esque. If...
Oh, it is also worth noting that at the last U.S. Army Bowl high school all-star game, Floyd stood out with two touchdowns and 118 yards receiving on four receptions .
Here's one of them. Pass delivered from now current teammate, QB Dayne Crist. Highly-rated DB beat is now attending Michigan.
How sweet it is.
Devil's Advocate: He's only a freshman. Even if he's anywhere near as good as the hype would indicate, it'll still be another year or two before he takes that quantum leap into superstardom.
2008 Projection: I think Floyd plays early and often, the primary reason being that I just don't think we have high quality WRs. It'll be interesting to see how quickly he climbs that depth chart in the fall. How good will he be? Maybe not "TO2" or even Samardzija/Stovall but he should at least put up numbers as good as Duval Kamara's freshman campaign last year (32 receptions, 357 yards, 4 TDs) and hopefully closer to what one-time ND prospect Arrelious Benn put up as a freshman last year at Illinios (54 receptions, 676 yards, 2 TDs).
A Second Opinion: Blue and Gold Illustrated/Post-Spring Projection for Michael Floyd.
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