MP's Week Nine Picks

[MParris86]

A couple unlisted late CFB plays and NFL picks salvaged an otherwise dismal 1-2-1 week 8 CFB listed plays.

Moving on...


Week NINE

Kansas -2.5 at Texas A&M (2.5 units) WIN

I'm going to ride the Kansas train until the wheels fall off. Scoring over 45ppg and showing they can win on the road. Aggies haven't proved much to me yet, folding up like a cheap tent in a couple of their bigger games this year.

Washington -4 vs. Arizona (2.5 units) LOSS

The Huskies are due for a win after that ridiculously brutal stretch of games. Boise State, OSU, UCLA, USC, Arizona State and Oregon all in a row. They have been in each of those games and can play with the big boys. Arizona will seem like a JV team. Plus they are at home against a team struggling to score points during the Wildcats' 3-game losing streak.


Troy -4 at Arkansas State (3 units) WIN

Troy is atop the Sun Belt standings and have rolled through the conference thus far. They have won by 17, 17, 18, and 38 points in their conference games and are riding a 5-game win streak. They have the best player on the field in QB Omar Haugabrook, who has thrown for 1925 yards (275 ypg). Arkansas State upset them last year and forced Troy to tie for the conference title. I think they will remember that.


MY PLAY OF THE YEAR....

Central Michigan -2.5 at Kent State (5 units) WIN

I know, I know...CMU just got lambasted by Clemson 70-14. But they can score some points and are actually leading the MAC West race. They need this game to keep their lead and eyes on a MAC title game appearance. A win over an injury-riddled Kent State team would help out. QB Julian Edelman was lost for the season with a broken arm.

I doubled down on this one after consulting with one of my colleagues who covers KSU...He said that a true freshman will be starting at QB for the Flashes, both starting safeties are out for KSU and one of the starting cornerbacks will be moving to safety, leaving a backup at one CB.

He said, and I quote: "There is nothing that should keep Kent State closer than a field goal. I'd be surprised to see it closer than 35-7 or so."

That's enough convincing for me. Plus JoePa is all over it like a fat kid at a candy shop! GO CHIPPEWAS!

[jpix]

GL. Your due for a run....

[joepa66]

BOL to ya Tightend......I love the Chipps and Kansas too! Been on them Jayhawks alot this year and see no reason to jump off of them now! Kent has been riddled with injuries and see that game a blowout myself! I have tix but am going to Happy Valley for the PSU/OSU game!

By the way....wjer.com this Friday night, you can hear me covering the 103rd meeting of Dover vs. New Philadelphia high school football rivalry and season finale!

[The Gipper]

Love the Jayhawks and Centreal Meeeeeeechigan too! But don't foget whose coaching Washington before putting your hard earned money on them. You know he'll be on the golf course rather than the practrice field if the weather breaks in Seattle!

[MParris86]

I'll give Ty the benefit of the doubt here...

How about the Irish pulling in two more top 100 players in the country? Say what you will about Charlie's coaching ability, but damn can he recruit! If you can get two kids to commit following a 38-0 ass kicking, then you gotta be doing something right!

[CuseFan10]

Originally Posted by MParris86

I'll give Ty the benefit of the doubt here...

How about the Irish pulling in two more top 100 players in the country? Say what you will about Charlie's coaching ability, but damn can he recruit! If you can get two kids to commit following a 38-0 ass kicking, then you gotta be doing something right!

GL this week Mp!

Who has Charlie recruited that has done anything for them so far? My ND loving buddy keeps saying the same thing about Weiss, and it's just not true until the results back up all these "great players" he is recruiting, IMHO. I've read in numerous places that the kids that Weiss gets are hugely overrated because most experts think, "Well, if this kid's going to ND and Weiss wants him that bad, then he has to be good, wouldn't you think?" (is their line of thinking). Yet the players simply aren't that good compared to other top recruits.

Again, he gets no credit IMO until someone he recruits does something, anything, on the field to help lead them back to semi-relevance.

[MParris86]

Well Weis' first recruiting class are the current sophomores on the team. My brother is leading the team with 22 rec. for 289 yards so he's one of the guys in that class that are doing well. Sam Young has the makings of a very good OT, Darrin Walls is going to be a lock-down corner, James Aldridge is a solid back, etc. Remember, these guys are 19 year olds and most of whom didnt play more than mop up duty in the 4th quarter because Charlie didn't play his 2nd string much at all last year (big mistake). They are rookies for the most part playing their first meaningful minutes.

Then you throw in the current freshman class with guys like Golden Tate, Armando Allen, Duval Kamara, Jimmy Clausen, Brian Smith, and so forth and these guys are all 18 year olds thrown to the wolves and getting huge minutes as true frosh.

The problem is not with Weis' recruiting, its that Willingham left the cupboard bare in his final two classes. Sure there are some bright spots like Carlson, Zbikowski and Laws, but overall the upperclassmen at ND are few and far between and not very good as a whole.

Name me any college football team in the country that can win with only a few juniors and seniors playing meaningful minutes and making big contributions. Throw in the fact you are facing arguably the toughest schedule in college football through 8 weeks, and its even worse. The bottom line is that this is a ridiculously young team, especially on offense. Most of the starters are freshmen and sophomores. There are going to be growing pains, as we have all obviously seen.

These guys are going to be MUCH MUCH better next year. They have heard the boos, the media scrutiny, the jokes, etc. and if these youngsters can step up to the challenge and let their natural ability take over, they will be better off for it.

Recruiting rankings are completely subjective, but when you pull in what most "experts" believe to be three consecutive top 10 classes in the country, eventually you are going to have some good players. Add in a new D. Coordinator in his first year (D is much better than last even though the stats don't show it; the offense puts them in horrible spots) and this team's true colors will come out in 2008 and beyond.

[The Gipper]

MParris--Just an excellent post! Could not have said it better myself! The incoming class will be the best yet, although they could use a few more offensive lineman in it. If the Irish had played the Bucknuts schedule so far they probably would be 5-3 at ths point. That was a killer 8-game start.
Your bro looks better and better each week, you can see the confidence with each catch, I call him "Little Shark" -- he looks that good already!
GL on your plays-- need to look at Troy after the valid points you make.

[JayCol]

Originally Posted by MParris86

I'll give Ty the benefit of the doubt here...
How about the Irish pulling in two more top 100 players in the country? Say what you will about Charlie's coaching ability, but damn can he recruit! If you can get two kids to commit following a 38-0 ass kicking, then you gotta be doing something right!

These kids are right now verbally committed. I wonder how many actually will back out?

JC

[spursnfeathers]

I'm with you on 3 out of 4. Good luck... to the both of us!

[birdsfan5]

GL MParris. IMO the only two players on ND that are any good are your bro and Laws. Laws is gone after this year, so that leaves just your bro for next year. The oline is a joke and they dont have a QB or a #1 RB. He better do something next year or he may be gone.

[irishmike]

I just check the depth chart(2deep) for both ND and Ohio St.

10 seniors for ND, 2 for Ohio St.
It looks like the Buckeyes seem to compete with young kids???

I love when ND nation blames Willingham for all their problems!
The irish are light years from competing with the big 6; tOSU, USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and LSU.
The "talent" is not that "talented"!!!

I hope your brother plays well and stays healthy.

good luck!

[MParris86]

Don't read too much into the depth chart that's listed for ND. Here's who has played most of the snaps:

QB: Jimmy Clausen (true frosh)
RB: Armando Allen (true frosh)
RB: James Aldridge (sophomore)
WR: Robby Parris (sophomore)
WR: Golden Tate (true frosh)
WR: George West (sophomore)
WR: Duval Kamara (true frosh)
LT: Sam Young (sophomore)
RG: Eric Olsen/Dan Wenger (sophomores)
LB: John Ryan (sophomore)
LB: Brian Smith (true frosh)
LB: Kerry Neal (true frosh)
LB: Toryan Smith (sophomore)
CB: Darrin Walls (sophomore)
K: Brandon Walker (true frosh)

And that excludes guys like soph. Will Yeatman, frosh Mike Ragone, soph. Raeshon McNeil, frosh Robert Hughes, and frosh Ian Williams who see snaps in each game and "start" in certain packages. Thats over 20 freshmen/sophomores seeing quite a bit of time. And most of those sophomores didn't see but garbage time last year.

Compare that to OSU who has but a few freshman (Saine, Chekwa, Heyward, Sanzenbacher) playing meaningul minutes and just three sophomores on the starting offense.

There really is no comparison.

[MParris86]

Adding a small play on the Flyboys:

Air Force +6 at New Mexico (0.5 units) WIN

Air Force hasn't lost to the Lobos since 2003, winning three straight. They will have the best player on the field in the dynamic Chad Hall, the only player in the country to lead his team in both rushing and receiving. New Mexico will have a hard time stopping him.

Should be a lower-scoring game and I'll gladly take the six points.

Prediction: New Mexico 21 Air Force 17

[CuseFan10]

Originally Posted by MParris86

Don't read too much into the depth chart that's listed for ND. Here's who has played most of the snaps:

QB: Jimmy Clausen (true frosh)
RB: Armando Allen (true frosh)
RB: James Aldridge (sophomore)
WR: Robby Parris (sophomore)
WR: Golden Tate (true frosh)
WR: George West (sophomore)
WR: Duval Kamara (true frosh)
LT: Sam Young (sophomore)
RG: Eric Olsen/Dan Wenger (sophomores)
LB: John Ryan (sophomore)
LB: Brian Smith (true frosh)
LB: Kerry Neal (true frosh)
LB: Toryan Smith (sophomore)
CB: Darrin Walls (sophomore)
K: Brandon Walker (true frosh)

I kinda agree with birdsfan and irishmike. Everyone blames things on Willingham, and no ND people ever blame anything on Charlie Weiss (who has quite frankly, not done a good job since he's been there). It's like Weiss is bulletproof. Maybe he just isn't that smart without Tom Brady and without Belichick's defenses, isn't that possible?

I'm not at all trying to be rude, but most of those players you listed aren't that good. On defense of the players you listed, Darrin Walls is an awful CB from what I've seen and none of the LB's you listed are going to re-write any record books either IMO. Ryan seems like a heady, solid LB type who is always around the ball, but he's not going to a star. Offensively, the line is terrible - including Young. Maybe he'll be good eventually, but for all his ballyhooed praises, he hasn't nearly lived up to it. The WR core is a good group of kids (especially Tate, Kumara, and Parris) and should be very good as they grow older - that I will give him. Right now, you can tell they are young kids in a struggling offense but it's easy to see they have talent. Clausen does not impress me at all, and I said all season to my ND loving buddies that Sharpley should have played from the beginning. I also don't think Aldridge or Allen will ever be 1,5000 yard type rushers. I just don't think either of them is an exceptional type football player. The yare athletic, for Notre Dame, but not compared to other players nationally.

I just think the talent he brings in is hugely overrated because it's Notre Dame and it's Charlie Weiss.

GL this weekend!