FanHouse Brandon Walker

In a good piece at SI.com about Oklahoma's offensive line, Sooners right guard Brandon Walker says this about left guard Duke Robinson:

"Big Duke is just talented. He's probably one of the quickest guys I've ever seen to be 330 pounds."

I'd have to say that's an understatement on a couple of levels. For one thing, Robinson isn't 330 pounds. He's listed at 335, and I feel comfortable saying that's low-balling him a little bit, too. He's a mountain of a man, closer to 350 than to 330.

But the even bigger understatement is to say he's "probably one of the quickest." Watch Robinson tonight against Florida, and you'll see that he's without a doubt the quickest big man on the field. It's just not fair that a guy that big is able to get to the second level or pull to the outside that quickly.

That's why Robinson is going to be the first guard drafted in April, and it's why he's going to make a very big impact tonight. When Oklahoma has the ball, take your eyes off Sam Bradford from time to time and take a look at Robinson. If you like line play, you'll like what you see.

There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic in South Bend right now. After all, at this time last year the Fighting Irish were 0-5 and well on there way to the worst season in school history. This season they've already surpassed 2007's win total, and are 4-1 while seeming to get better every week. Jimmy Clausen improves with each game, having two consecutive career games, and wide receivers Michael Floyd and Golden Tate give the Golden Domers the ability to score from anywhere on the field.

If there has been a weakness for this Irish team, though, it's been the kicker. Through five games Irish kicker Brandon Walker has made only one of his seven field goal attempts, and he's seven for twenty dating back to last season. After two more misses on Saturday in Notre Dame's 28-21 win over Stanford, Charlie Weis has seen just about enough of Mr. Walker.

"We definitely have to explore Ryan [Burkhart] kicking field goals,'' Weis said Sunday. ''Because in Brandon's case, it's not obviously a case of being able to kick it high enough or far enough. When you're 1 out of 7 kicking field goals, it just doesn't cut it.

''I've heard worse suggestions than that,'' Weis said when asked if sitting Walker for a game or two was an option. ''I don't know the answer to that at this point. We're going to get after this Monday and Tuesday, and we're going to make a decision on what we're going to do.