April 18, 2009

Give Notre Dame's defense points for creativity.

But the real work of art during the Blue-Gold Game in front of 31,104 proved to be the Irish ground game, which has been wandering in the wilderness since Charlie Weis showed up in South Bend. It returned to Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday as Armando Allen darted to 70 yards and offensive MVP honors.

The encouraging subtext in that stat?

Robert Hughes and Jonas Gray both bettered Allen's production. The sophomore bruiser finished with 93 yards and two touchdowns while Gray added 89 yards and a score as the Blue Team (offense) pounded the Gold Team (defense) 68-33.

"It all starts with the run game," Weis said. "Let's face it, if you can run the ball everything else is easier. Protection is easier, throwing the ball is easier. Everything is easier if you can run the ball."

Holding double-digit leads in the second half should be easier too, something Notre Dame let slip three times last season in losses to North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. The ground game can strengthen those grasps, at least that's the theory heading into the off-season.

Notre Dame's rush offense carried 59 times during the spring scrimmage for 247 yards. The Irish surpassed that yardage mark just once all last season. Safe to say Notre Dame's rushing offense has been a long time gaining. Three of the worst ground games in school history have come on Weis' watch.

"For it to take two years to get on a roll was surprising, yet we always felt like we would get it to work," Allen said. "Now that the direction is going up, nothing but good things are destined to happen."

A quarterback boost would help, although Jimmy Clausen was handcuffed all spring by his triage of a receiver depth chart. Robby Parris was the only wide out to show at every practice and that lack of communication showed in Clausen's stat line: 8-of-17 for 70 yards and an interception that Robert Blanton returned for a touchdown.

Blanton stepped in front of John Goodman on the play, then followed a caravan of blockers into the end zone where the defense broke into a semi-spontaneous round of duck, duck, goose.

Clausen wanted no part of that tackle.

"I had some D-linemen in front of me," Blanton laughed. "I wasn't really expecting him to come after me. I had my horses, my lead dogs, the linebackers were out there leading the pack."

While there's no quarterback controversy, Weis was pleased by his back-ups as Dayne Crist went 4-of-10 for 40 yards and Nate Montana went 2-for-2 for 51 yards. The Irish legacy connected with Deion Walker and Mike Ragone for big gains.

Kyle Rudolph led the passing game with four catches for 27 yards.

Early enrollee Zeke Motta led all tacklers with seven stops. Harrison Smith, Darrin Walls and Ethan Johnson each had six tackles.

The only stress Weis felt, other than attempting to decipher a scoring system that confused even the public address announcer, was the exhibition's length. Yet the Irish stayed healthy besides minor injuries to Chris Stewart and Ian Williams.

"I wanted that clock to run a little faster," Weis said. "We have a long way to go to be a really good football team, but at least potentially, you could see the elements are in place to be a really good football team, but we have a lot of work to do."

For the ground game much of that work appears on schedule for fall completion.

	Pete Sampson enters his sixth season covering Notre Dame football and his fourth for IrishIllustrated.com.Outside of his award-winning game coverage, Sampson attends every football practice, in the spring and fall, that is open to the media.
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