Notre Dame Fighting Irish Preview

Although not debuting at #1 in any major poll, only one team is almost unanimously considered to be a legitimate National Championship contender and that team is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Headlined by Heisman hopeful quarterback Brady Quinn, Notre Dame returns a load of starters on both sides of the ball and hopes to rely on this experience and leadership to lead them through a tough schedule and to their first National Championship in decades.

Second year head coach Charlie Weis has been doing his job in trying to get his team prepared for a tough 2006 season. If hype wasn’t enough to cause the head coach plenty of headaches, the schedule that Notre Dame faces in 2006 shows many roadblocks on the famed Fighting Irish’s course to the #1 spot. Michigan and Penn State are two powerhouses that Notre Dame must be able to overcome early, and Michigan State and Georgia Tech are no pushovers either. The upstart Bruins of UCLA had a great season in 2005 and will likely be a tough opponent for Notre Dame later in the year as well. However, the biggest challenge will be when Notre Dame walks into the Coliseum in Los Angeles on the 25th of November, highlighting what many consider to be one of the two best games of the upcoming 2006 season. It would not be a surprise if Notre Dame and the Trojans of USC were ranked #1 and #2 going into this game, meaning that the victor of this epic game could realistically end up with a ticket to the National Championship game.

To help Notre Dame get through this tough schedule, offensive guru Charlie Weis relies on 8 returning starters on offense and 9 on defense. Among the talented offensive group that will be returning include the aforementioned Brady Quinn, dual sport phenom Jeff Samardzija, running back Darius Walker, and four out of the five starting offensive linemen from the 2005 squad will also be returning.

On a defense that was criticized for being too slow, nine starters will be returning to the field and each of them made significant improvements thanks to the focus on speed training this past offseason. Safety Tom Zbikowski headlines the experienced defense and notes drastically improved speed thanks to the speed training programs as well as footwork improvements thanks to his offseason boxing matches. The entire defensive line and defensive secondary will all be hitting the field as returning starters, two units that will be relied upon to hold opposing teams down while the offense racks up the points.

If tradition won championships, Notre Dame would have the trophy already for this year. But a tough schedule and all the media surrounding the team will only make things more difficult for the Fighting Irish, a team that truly came out of the woodworks last year thanks to Charlie Weis. Now all that remains to be seen is if they can live up to the hype.