FanHouse Evan Sharpley

Charlie Weis thinks that the time Jimmy Clausen spent on the sidelines after being benched for Evan Sharpley has had a very positive effect on his young quarterback. I'm more of the opinion that Clausen's improvement is just 20 minutes of garbage time against Air Force and a full game against Duke, but whatever, improvement is improvement right?

Still there is something Weis would like to see Clausen do this offseason, and that's hit the weight room so his frail frame can take the punishment that comes with playing behind the Irish offensive line.

"That's critical," Weis said. "Not just to take the hit, it's to be able to shrug off guys. The really good quarterbacks, you'll see they are getting touched a lot but they don't go down a lot."

Weis said he has talked to Clausen at length about the need for him to get stronger.

Clausen is listed at 207 pounds as currently constructed, but Weis admits he's really in the 195 pound range, which for a 6'3 quarterback is extremely light. Jimmy doesn't have to get to Brady Quinn status or anything, but adding about 10-15 pounds of muscle sure couldn't hurt in the long run.

Today is Thanksgiving, so now is just as good a time to start as any.

While Touchdown Jesus and the collective Notre Dame nation still weep from the loss to Navy, the Irish are focusing on their next opponent. More specifically, who is going to start at quarterback against Air Force this Saturday?

It's not exactly a new question for the Irish, as Charlie Weis has been trying to figure it out since last spring. Demetrius Jones started the season at quarterback, before he was benched in favor of Jimmy Clausen, and transferred. Clausen took his turn getting beat up for a while before turning the ball over to Evan Sharpley, a move I called for, and was in support of.

Ever since Sharpley took over the job though, nothing's changed in South Bend. So now, after nine games, Charlie Weis finds himself in the same position he started the season. Trying to figure out who the best quarterback for this team is.

"I think the No. 1 thing is: Who's going to play the best for you down the stretch?" Weis said. "I don't think what you want to be doing here is each week say, 'well, who's going to play the best for us against Air Force? Who's going to play the best for us against Duke? Who's going to play the best for us against Stanford?'

"I'm at the point right now where I want to win this game and simultaneously I want to start building some upward momentum. They go together," he said. "So the decision isn't as simple as, over the last half dozen weeks who's done what better. It's who gives you the best chance to win this week and the next two weeks and moving forward?"

All good questions to ask yourself before making the decision, but there's another more poignant question that needs to be asked.

Although Evan Sharpley had seemed to play his way into the starting job at Notre Dame a few weeks ago, it was only on Tuesday that Irish head coach Charlie Weis gave him the nod.

During his weekly news conference, Weis told reporters, ""I think Evan this week gives us the best chance of winning," implying that Sharpley had wrestled the job away from high school phenom Jimmy Clausen. However, it is what he did not say that is more telling.

According to Clausen's high school teammate and USC running back Marc Tyler, the reason Jimmy won't be playing has nothing to do with his sucktitude and the Irish's 1-6 record--Clausen is injured: ""I wish he were starting," Tyler said. "He said his hip bothered him."

So Saint Charlie foold the Domer Nation and the press! What a genius!!!

Sorry, No Photos

I called for it over the weekend, and yesterday Charlie Weis said he was considering it. Today, Weis made it official and announced that Evan Sharpley, not Jimmy Clausen, will be Notre Dame's starting quarterback this Saturday against USC.

Sharpley, the backup to Brady Quinn last season and the No. 2 quarterback when Demetrius Jones and Jimmy Clausen started the first seven games this season, will make his first career start Saturday at home.

"I think Evan this week gives us the best chance of winning," coach Charlie Weis said during his weekly news conference Tuesday.

Thank you, Touchdown Jesus. Thank you for using your incredible Touchdown Jesus powers for helping make Charlie see the light. I may have to go to church this weekend, that's how appreciative I am of your work.

Now it's important to note that I don't think this is going to make Notre Dame good all of a sudden. I don't think they're going to go out and beat USC on Saturday, and run off a win streak to finish the season and become bowl eligible.

I'm just happy this change was made because now at least I feel like the Irish can win. I haven't felt that way all season, and it's a nice change of pace.

Hey, what do you know? Maybe Charlie Weis is watching the same Notre Dame team I am. He's actually considering starting Evan Sharpley on Saturday against USC.

Coach Charlie Weis said Sunday he had not decided whether to stay with freshman Jimmy Clausen, who has started the past five games, or switch to junior Evan Sharpley, who has rallied the Irish (1-6) in the second halves to pull Notre Dame close against Purdue and Boston College.

Weis will announce his decision Tuesday.

Please, Charlie, choose Sharpley.

I think it's pretty obvious, but Charlie is still defending the new Golden Boy. Weis says two of the reasons he's stayed with Clausen so far is that he's more accurate, and has performed better in practice. Well, he's right about the accuracy. Clausen has completed a wonderful 57.4% of his passes, while Sharpley has only completed 53.8% of his passes. What a huge difference. Maybe Charlie would be better served if he looked at a couple other numbers.

Like say the numbers that show Clausen has thrown only one touchdown and five interceptions. That's one touchdown in 141 passing attempts. Sharpley meanwhile has only thrown 80 passes, yet has three times as many touchdowns with three.

The thing that Weis said that really kills me though, is this statement in regards to Sharpley's performance in practice.

"If he wants to move past Jimmy, which I know he does, it's got to be an every day thing, it can't just be a game day thing," he said.

Yes, Charlie, God forbid you start a quarterback that only plays well in the actual games! I mean, who would want that? Sure, Clausen has a 1-5 record as a starter, but in practice he's 20-5!

I'm pretty disappointed that Notre Dame's monstrous one-game win streak came to an end on Saturday evening in South Bend, but I'm not surprised. I don't think any Irish fan that's actually watched this team play in 2007 thought the Irish really had a chance to beat Boston College. That's like Stanford beating USC or something.

What bothers me is that I don't think Charlie Weis is watching the same game I am. He can't be. If he was, there is no way Jimmy Clausen would still be starting. I called for the quarterback change a few weeks ago when Evan Sharpley came in for an injured Clausen, and almost led the Irish to a comeback win against Purdue.

I could see it then, and I could see it again yesterday; The Irish offense actually seems to have a rhythm and flow to it when Sharpley lines up under center.

Sharpley came into the game on Saturday for Notre Dame trailing Boston College 20-0. Seven plays and 59 seconds later the Sharpley was finding Robby Parris for a touchdown pass to make it 20-7. Admittedly, Sharpley didn't do much after that, but he still outperformed Jimmy Clausen.

The Irish won last week with Clausen as the starter, but did you see his numbers for the game? He was 17/27 for 84 yards. 84 yards!! That's a whopping 4.9 yards per completion.

I realize how ridiculous that headline looks when you consider that Weis has a ten-year contract at Notre Dame, but not many people have a problem committing to millions of dollars for ten years. No, where Charlie fears commitment is in naming his starting quarterback.

Remember when Weis said the Irish were starting over from training camp after the Michigan loss? Well, apparently he really meant it, because once again he's not being entirely forthcoming when it comes to who is going to start for the Irish this week against UCLA.

Weis said it was ''probable'' that Clausen would make his fourth straight start but postponed any definitive decision until later this week, possibly today.

''The team now knows that we have two guys that we can put in at quarterback that can move the team and give us a chance of winning,'' Weis said. ''A couple weeks ago, we didn't even know if we had one.''

The team knows they have two quarterbacks that give the Irish a chance of winning? Really? That's strange, because I don't and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Irish fan that feels that way. Hell, I don't think Charlie believes it either or else he'd actually know which quarterback he was going to start.

As I've already written about here, I think Sharpley would be the team's best option at quarterback right now. When he replaced the injured Clausen against Purdue, the Irish offense actually seemed to come to life. Now whether or not that was due to Sharpley, or maybe Purdue's defense relaxing as they've been prone to do in the second half this season, I don't know.

All I know is that when Sharpley was under center in that game, there was a whole 15 minutes where I wasn't on the verge of tears while trying to watch this team.

The final gun just sounded on Notre Dame's 33-19 loss to the Purdue Boilermakers, and we can now officially say this is the first time in school history the Irish have started 0-5.

Congratulations, fellas.

The good news for Irish faithful is that does appear to be some hope. As Charles Rich said earlier, the Irish were getting killed in the first half. The 23-0 deficit they faced then didn't tell the entire story. In the second half though, the Irish showed up.

Jimmy Clausen threw his first career touchdown pass to get the Irish on the board, but that wasn't the best thing he did for Notre Dame on Saturday. Clausen eventually left the game due to what appeared to be a hip pointer, and in stepped Evan Sharpley.

Once Sharpley came on the field, the entire Notre Dame offense changed. They actually resembled, dare I say it, a competent college offense. The Irish gained 431 yards on the day, which I'm pretty sure is 431 more yards than they had gained all season. Sharpley went 16-for-26 in the second half for 208 yards and two touchdowns, as the Irish managed to pull within a touchdown at 26-19 with eight minutes to go.

Unfortunately, the second half surge ran out of gas as Purdue held off and added another touchdown before things were all said and done. The question now becomes who starts next week: Jimmy Clausen or Evan Sharpley?

After what I saw today, I don't think there's any question. It should be Sharpley. Clausen didn't play horribly, but the offense still never looked in sync with him out there, even when they moved the ball. Sharpley on the other hand ran the offense smoothly, and moved the ball down the field consistently. The only mistake he made-which granted, was a big one-was an interception he threw in the red zone that iced the game for Purdue.

If Charlie Weis wants the Irish to have any chance in the coming weeks against UCLA, Boston College, or USC, he has to start Sharpley next week.

It doesn't matter who Notre Dame starts at quarterback this season. It can be Jimmy Clausen, Demetrius Jones or Evan Sharpley, in the end it won't matter.

The Irish could bring back Joe Montana, Jerome Bettis, and Tim Brown, and they still won't win many games this season.

Why?

Because their offensive line sucks. Bad. Trust me, I played on a bad offensive line in high school, so I know what they look like, and Notre Dame's line is bad. They were killed by Georgia Tech in the home opener, and they got mauled by the Nittany Lions this last Saturday.

Penn State sacked Jimmy Clausen six times on Saturday, and the Irish didn't gain a single yard on 26 carries. This coming off a performance against Georgia Tech in which the Irish managed -8 yards on 41 carries. That's 65 carries for -8 yards. Or if you prefer averages, that's -.12 yards a carry.

Did I mention the numerous false starts and holding penalties? How about the fact the Irish are yet to score an offensive touchdown this season?

Basically confirming what Brian Cook wrote a few days ago. We told you so.

Notre Dame: home of the open secrets.

The nimble 6-4 sophomore was chosen over veteran (if two career pass attempts is considered veteran) Evan Sharpley and much-hyped frosh Jimmy Clausen.

That is all.