Eric Hansen

Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis’ harshest criticism to date of his vaunted 28-member freshman class is its inability to sing.

Seriously.

Weis actually made the newcomers sing the Notre Dame fight song to the veterans as part of Saturday’s practice, because they couldn’t carry the tune well enough after Friday night’s scrimmage.

They’re hitting the right notes on the practice field itself, however. Nine freshmen are listed in the two-deeps for Saturday night’s season opener at Georgia Tech, including the tallest frosh -- 6-foot-8, 305-pounder Sam Young starting at right offensive tackle -- and the shortest -- 5-foot-8, 188-pound George West --starting on kickoff returns.

Young is used to early starts. He played in his first high school varsity football game as a middle-schooler at Pine Crest Preparatory School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Then after transferring to national prep power St. Thomas Aquinas after his freshman season at Pine Crest, he cracked the starting lineup in his first game there and has been a starter ever since.

It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities for 13 or more of the Irish freshmen to see the field against the Yellow Jackets on Saturday night.

In some programs, playing a lot of true freshmen connotes holes in the depth chart and/or a rebuilding year. That was certainly the case in the past two coaching regimes at Notre Dame.

Weis doesn't see it that way, though. Actually, former Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham didn't either. Willingham's philosophy was that the best player should play, regardless of age or experience.

The problem was that Willingham and his staff often had trouble getting young players ready to play. In the three-year Willingham reign, just nine freshmen lettered. And six of those occurred in the back-to-earth crash of 2003.

Weis, in contrast, played 11 of his 15 freshmen in last year's run to the Fiesta Bowl, and five of them lettered.

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One of the coaching facets that separates Weis from many of his peers is his ability to teach complex concepts and convert them into digestible data. That's what keeps him from being afraid to play freshmen.

"Whether it’s a senior or a freshman, I go by what I see, and that’s who plays," Weis said. "When you fall in love with certain players, when you go by who is supposed to be good, that’s what gets coaches fired."