Last weekend against Air Force, Notre Dame freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen had his best day in the navy and gold, completing 22-of-40 passes for 246 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
The performance by last year's consensus top recruit in the country was unusual for the Fighting Irish this season. In his seventh start of the year, Clausen set team season-highs in completions, attempts and yardage. The result, however, was usual for Notre Dame this season-a ninth loss in 10 games.
Over the course of those tumultuous 10 contests, the Fighting Irish have changed quarterback three times, shifting from Demetrius Jones to Clausen, to junior Evan Sharpley and finally back to Clausen before last week. The uncertainty under center has represented the team's woes as a whole, as Notre Dame has struggled to develop an identity on the offensive side of the ball because of a lack of leadership and consistency.
Even with two consecutive strong recruiting classes, the team's young players have failed to live up to expectations.
"A recruiting class is all on paper," head coach Charlie Weis said. "You still have to get them in there. Those guys still have to go through growing pains."
In the offseason, the Fighting Irish lost eight starters from an offense that averaged 31 points per game in a 10-win season. The most notable loss was at the quarterback position, with Brady Quinn's graduation to the NFL. Notre Dame also lost both starting wide receivers, Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight, and running back Darius Walker.
In the beginning of the year, however, Weis refused to call this season a rebuilding one.
"May God strike me dead if I use that word," Weis said in his preseason press conference Aug. 6. "It's easy for me to throw in the towel, start playing a bunch of young guys, take the pressure off of me and buy me more time. But that's garbage."
At this point in the season, though, Weis may wish to revisit his words. His offense did not score a touchdown in its first three games and did not gain positive rushing yardage until the fourth game of the year against Michigan State. For the season, the Fighting Irish have averaged just 14.8 points per game.
Even in their only win, the Fighting Irish struggled when they had the ball. Against UCLA Oct. 6, Notre Dame won 20-6 despite gaining only 140 yards of total offense and scoring just one touchdown, which came on a two-yard drive.
Normally an innovative offensive coach full of misdirection and trick plays, Weis has had to scale things back to a simpler, more fundamental level due to the team's youth.
"We have to start gearing things to make sure that everyone from the bottom up, whoever might end up playing in a game, is getting it," Weis said. "It hasn't been the volume of things we've tried to do. They just haven't had enough of the right answers at the right time."
The Fighting Irish have at least shown signs of life the last two weeks, scoring 68 points in their previous two games-albeit losses to Navy and Air Force. In the 46-44 triple-overtime loss to the Midshipmen, Notre Dame ran for 235 yards and four touchdowns. Clausen's performance last week against the Falcons was a marked improvement after the true freshman had thrown only one touchdown compared to five interceptions in his first six starts.
With a young team still learning, however, anything can happen out on the field-even if the Fighting Irish happen to look good before game-time.
"Usually the execution on the practice field has been at a much higher level than the related games," Weis said. "You feel deficient because you see it coming, you say we've got this nailed and we don't have it nailed. That's a bit confusing."
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