Spurrier Has Notre Dame Questions, I Have Answers

Instead of focusing on a daunting 2013 schedule that features the likes of North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi State, and Costal Carolina, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier used the SEC media days to talk about what is really on his mind... The Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The "old ball coach" must of took a break for a moment while breaking down that Coastal Carolina game film to contemplate why Notre Dame isn't in a conference.

(Photo by espn)

"Someone said, 'why was he there?'" Spurrier explained, referring to Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick. "Well he's equal to all the commissioners. So we just tried to figure out why the Athletic Director at Notre Dame is equal to all the conference commissioners. Nobody had a good answer. Nobody had a good answer, except that's the way it's always been done."

" All 14 of our head coaches thought that Notre Dame should join the ACC and play football like all the rest of us," Spurrier continued without taking much of a breath.

"I know the Notre Damers will get mad at me and us coaches for saying that and if you were a Notre Damer, you would say we are supposed to be independent always in football but It's hard to figure out why they sorta have their own conference."

Spurrier then rhetorically asked members of the media if they could explain to him why Notre Dame is not in a conference.

"We talked about that and we voted 14-to-0 that they ought to be in a conference," (WNDU http://tinyurl.com/ludfff3)

Let's break down these quotes shall we? Steve, you were wondering why Notre Dame's athletic director was given an equal status as the conference commissioners during the playoff discussion? Actually he wasn't given equal status, he was voted the spokesman for the group so you could really say he was given a higher rank than the conference commissioners. Nice huh?

The next two quotes the ball coach was contemplating just why exactly Notre Dame is not in a conference. Well Steven, first off Notre Dame plays a National schedule and aside from Navy and occasionally Air Force and BYU, the Irish play teams from BCS conferences. Notre Dame has never played an FCS school which is a common practice for all major conferences. So the Irish might not have to play in a conference championship game, but guess what? They don't play Colombia State Beauty College or Coastal Carolina either. Secondly, Notre Dame has a national fan base and a ton of dough from this little television channel called NBC, so joining a conference really isn't high on the to do list. South Carolina should really look into copying this model... oh wait, never mind.

Lastly, the old ball coach shared with us that the SEC coaches voted 14-0 that Notre Dame should join a conference? Really? What's next, the SEC will vote on whether to move the Eiffel Tower to Starkville? " Uh, let me help you out oh passionate SEC fans, it ain't happenin'.

I consider myself a fan of Steve Spurrier mostly of his trash talking actually, now obviously I'm a little biased, but I feel this time he comes off less funny and more jealous. Go Irish.

Will Malik Zaire See Action for the Irish in 2013?

Will Brian Kelly ever enter a season at Notre Dame without question marks heading into a season at the quarterback position? 2013 was seemingly going to be the year for that until Everett Golson's dismissal from school this spring. Golson was set to be the guy coming off a solid performance in the BCS National Championship game, who more than likely was going to make a huge jump as a second year starter.

With Gunner Kiel bolting to Cincinnati, Kelly wasted little time letting fans and media know who was going to start under center when the Irish run out of the tunnel against Temple next month.

"I've always moved forward," Kelly said. "I don't live in the past. I don't spend too much time in the future. I live in the present, and the present is that I've got Tommy Rees who is the starter for us, an established player, and he will be our starter. We think Andrew Hendrix and Malik Zaire can contribute, but Tommy will be our starter."

The quote is interesting because it doesn't rule out Zaire hitting the field this fall, but is Kelly just throwing the freshman a bone or does he really plan on using him this season? I believe that Kelly doesn't even know at this point if Zaire will see the field.

I believe whether Zaire plays this season will depend on three things- injuries, how he performs in Fall camp, and how the offense operates with Rees at the helm. Obviously if Rees goes down early in the year the likelihood of Zaire seeing the field will increase drastically. The last two points are really interesting. We have heard high praise about Zaire's passing ability and mobility, but his praise he gets from the coaching staff about his football IQ is the most exciting. Chuck Martin was quoted as saying Zaire picked up the offense faster than any freshman QB Kelly has had in 20 years of coaching. Lastly, what are we going to get with Rees? If Rees keep his turnovers down and moves the offense Kelly would have little reason to burn a year of eligibility with Zaire; I think we would see Andrew Hendrix in mop up time and special packages that calls for a mobile quarterback.

Notre Dame's offense under Kelly is most dangerous when the quarterback is a threat to run the ball, and I'm pretty sure we won't see Rees burning defenses with the read option anytime soon. So the question is, will Rees be able to make enough plays with his arm? I see Rees as a table setter not a playmaker, the problem is without a proven skill player like Michael Floyd or Tyler Eifert to rely on I think Notre Dame will need their QB to make plays. My worry is what happened in 2011 will repeat itself.  Rees turned the ball over what seemed like 100 times and they were always in the red zone during the 2011 campaign. Take a just a few of those away and Notre Dame could have easily had a 10 win season.

I really want Rees to succeed; he has had a roller coaster ride of a college career and it would be nice to see him cap it off with a solid senior year. If the offense falters or if he starts turning the ball over however, I think we will see Zaire this season. It will be interesting to see how long of a leash Kelly will give Rees who is notorious for being quick to yank a struggling QB out of the lineup.

My Notre Dame Fuse is Finally Lit for '13

One thing about being a Notre Dame football fan there is never a dull moment. I didn't even have time to fully comprehend the exhilarating, magical, improbable 2012 season before all hell broke loose. Bama Embarrasses the Irish in the BCSNCG... Te'o Get's Catfished... Kelly Flirts with NFL... Anzalone Bolts for Gainesville... Golson Gets Booted Out of School... Eddie Vanderdoes Leaves for Tinsletown... So it goes.

That viscous cocktail of equal parts absurdness and equal part being kicked in the nuts, combined with an emotional season with a huge let down at the end has left me feeling a little bit empty heading into the 2013. Don't get me wrong, I'm still fired up for the season, but there hasn't been quite as much anticipation as in years past.

Until today.

I heard a Michigan fan call into a sports radio show, and he was talking about how the Wolves were going to win all their games at home this year including the ones against Notre Dame and Ohio State. The statement made my ears perk up a little, but his reasoning is what kind of lit the fire for college football season to be here. He claimed the reason Michigan was going to beat ND and OSU was because of QB/WR/Back to QB Devin Gardner. Uh, okay, if you say so. I shrugged the comment off but it got me to start visualizing the game. The Michigan Stadium lights reflecting off of the Gold Helmets, the energy in the stadium, Musburger trying to score some girls young enough to be his great grand daughter... 

Maybe Garner will flourish since he is no longer bouncing between positions and can focus solely on playing quarterback, but he just doesn't strike fear into me like Denard did. Notre Dame has played against some pretty solid QB's the last few years Barkley, Cousins, Landry Jones, etc and Devin Gardner's name doesn't belong in that list. As for Denard, he had two games in his career where he just played out of his mind; both of those games just happened to be against the Irish. I will choose to remember his 2012 game in South Bend when he turned the ball over about 15 times and left the field in disgrace.

So that is it, Fourth of July is nearly here and that means media day is right around the corner. Fall practice is next up and before you know it it will be August 31 and I will pick right up where I left off last season, getting jacked up to watch my beloved Irish. 

This is a new blog but I used to run thegoldhelmets.com and after about a year hiatus I got the urge to write again. Stop by frequently for college football talk with some pop culture, tech, food, and music thrown in to keep things lively. I look forward to your interaction.