Allen Pinkett

Notre Dame has come up short in more than a few areas in opening its season with lopsided losses to Georgia Tech at home and Penn State on the road. Some of what's been missing for the Irish is obvious, but some of it is not.

No doubt about these deficiencies
Recurring themes throughout the media over the last two weeks deal with a quarterback carousel that's now stopped with highly touted freshman Jimmy Clausen getting off the merry-go-round having won the starting job. Clausen made his first start last week against Penn State at Happy Valley. If you are an Irish fan you have to love the fact that he loved that fact.

Another hot topic concerning the team Charlie Weis has put together in his third season as Notre Dame's head coach is a running game in which the highlight appears to be taking the handoff, and not anything that happens after that. Against Georgia Tech, the Irish were held to minus-8 yards rushing. Against Penn State, no need for the calculator as Notre Dame netted no -- that's correct zero--yards rushing. To be fair the ground-game stats gave up much ground because 119 yards were lost on 15 quarterback sacks.

Then there's the offensive line, which has been playing like it feels that with every snap comes disaster from defenses that are teeing off on the Irish in the trenches. The problems the offensive line has encountered are very apparent and when watching film of this unit's play mistakes appear that are definitely correctable. But it might be a good idea to double time it on the effort and amount of practice needed shake out the miscues.

If for someone reason watching the Irish offense doesn't convey a great deal of concern to their fans, maybe a look at the numbers will. They're out-and-out ugly. Notre Dame is dead last (119th) in Division I-A in four offensive categories: rushing offense, total offense, sacks allowed and tackles for loss allowed. That's a most beneficial heads up for opposing defenses, which will likely be throwing every blitz known to man at the Irish.

Don't throw in the towel yet
Irish fans should slow down in declaring the season already a lost cause. Change for the better could be on the way. Let's start with Clausen. He's a special talent, with me there's never been any question about that.

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Throwing him to the Nittany Lions last week at Beaver Stadium could have intimidated him, but it didn't. He seemed to relish the opportunity to play in such a hostile environment. He knew he'd take his lumps and he did, but he also erased any questions over his toughness by getting up every time after getting smacked. A blue-chip recruit like Clausen chooses Notre Dame to play against elite opponents like Penn State, and to him the sooner that chance came about the better.

He'll improve and to that end will be helped by Weis giving him much more of a playbook to work with against Michigan on Saturday than he did against Penn State. After a minimal amount of plays from which to select in Happy Valley, Weis has to be happy he'll have a bunch more to go to in Ann Arbor. Clausen likely smiles at that as well. And on Saturday we get a chance to see what he can do with his amped up arsenal.

Handing off the ball should start being productive as well. The Irish have numerous options at halfback, but freshman Armando Allen is the one to most closely watch. He carried only three times in the opener, and was used in the short passing game against Penn State, but look for his workload carrying the football to increase. He has tremendous speed, is an elusive runner, and a breakaway back that Notre Dame has lacked in the recent past.

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Given the performance in the early going of the personnel on the offensive line, some Irish fans are starting to feel like it might take most of the season before there will be seen a decided upturn in the play of this unit. Well, improvement should occur quicker than that, and part of why it could is that there could be some player moves made upfront.

In the week of practice following last Saturday's loss to Penn State, Weis did give some meaningful reps to backup offensive linemen Matt Carufel (right guard), Eric Olsen (left guard), and Matt Romine (left tackle). All are making strong pushes to unseat the incumbents in front of them.

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