Maybe the best thing about Jimmy Clausen’s freshman year at Notre Dame was it wasn’t good enough – individually or as a team – to experience a so-called “sophomore jinx.”
Clausen became the fifth Notre Dame quarterback since 1972, the year freshman eligibility was instituted by the NCAA, to become a regular starter for the Irish. Each of the previous four either a) enjoyed instantaneous success of winning as starters, b) put up record-setting freshman numbers for the program or c) both.
Alas, each of the four also endured the proverbial sophomore jinx that resulted in a tumultuous season:
• First there was Blair Kiel in 1980, who was 6-0-1 in his first seven starts while helping the Irish to a Sugar Bowl bid against No. 1 Georgia. The next year under new head coach Gerry Faust, the sophomore Kiel lost his starting job for several games to fifth-year senior Tim Koegel (Faust’s former QB at Moeller High) and saw Notre Dame fall to 5-6, its first losing record in 18 years.
• Next there was Steve Beuerlein in 1983, who was 4-0 in his first four starts. Even in a 34-30 defeat at Penn State, he was an impressive 14 of 20 for 257 yards with no interceptions. The next season as a sophomore, Beuerlein threw a still standing school-record 18 interceptions (and seven TDs), and the Irish dropped three straight home games for the first time since 1956.
• Third was Matt LoVecchio in 2000, who was 7-0 as the regular-season starter while completing 58.4 percent of his passes, putting up a remarkable 11-to-1 touchdown-interception ratio and adding 300 yards rushing. The next year as a sophomore, he lost his starting job to classmate Carlyle Holiday by the third game. Head coach Bob Davie was fired at the end of the 5-6 season.
• Then there was Brady Quinn in 2003, who shattered every freshman passing record at Notre Dame, including 2,149 yards through the air. A year later, his game improved some but not appreciably as a 6-6 campaign resulted in the ouster of third-year head coach Tyrone Willingham, an axing that left Quinn crestfallen.
Unlike his freshman predecessors at quarterback, Clausen did not have the luxury of being surrounded by a veteran supporting cast on offense, or a stellar defense and special teams. He became the first Notre Dame quarterback to lose his first four starts, and his stats were relatively pedestrian, including 5.1 yards per pass attempt and 9.1 yards per completion. Kiel had a record-breaking running game, a dominant defense that did not allow a touchdown for a school-record 23 consecutive quarters, and the late Harry Oliver’s field-goal heroics (18 of 23, including the 51-yard game-winner versus Michigan). Beuerlein had proven weapons such as Allen Pinkett, Joe “Small Wonder” Howard and Mark Bavaro to take the onus off him. LoVecchio didn’t have to start against a single ranked team during the regular season. Quinn was far more physically developed to take a beating as a freshman than Clausen.
Conversely, Clausen was unable to engage in any weight training, underwent preseason elbow surgery to remove bone spurs, had minimal experience from the offensive line, backs or receivers to relieve the burden on him, didn’t have a strong defense or special teams to aid the field-position battle, and his first two starts were at bowl winners Penn State and Michigan. In fact, not including USC and Navy (against whom he sat out), Clausen’s first eight starts were against bowl teams, maybe a first in NCAA history for a frosh quarterback (or any QB).
Physically, Clausen was able to engage in upper-body work this winter for the first time since his arrival on campus in January of 2007, and his weight jumped from 194 to 212. His passes this spring have the zip they lacked from March 2007 (bone spurs) through pretty much until the second half of November.
“The velocity (is) totally different,” said sophomore wide receiver Duval Kamara last week. “He’s gotten stronger, a little quicker in the pocket, feeling more comfortable.”
The physical part of the game was going to emerge. What will remain a work in progress is blooming as a take-charge leader, a role that usually doesn’t take hold until one’s junior year, as it did with Quinn and so many other Notre Dame quarterback predecessors. Nevertheless, Clausen has sensed a change in that area as well this spring. As Charlie Weis indicated, players now are beginning to look to him rather than just stare at him with far-away eyes.
“When guys don’t know what to do, they ask me,” Clausen said. “I’ve been trying to let them know what to do in certain situations. Last year I did not have the ability to do that because I was new to the offense and young.”
Still, he’s not yet comfortable with the role of being a fiery leader who grabs facemasks in the huddle or dresses down someone who misses an assignment. Clausen still has a healthy heap of learning on his own plate before he can call out others on offense or say, “Hop on my back and follow me!”
“You have to get to know the person to be able to be able to do something like that,” Clausen said. “For some guys, if you yell at them they’re going to go in the tank and you’re not going to get anything out of them. But if you just talk to them about it, you’ll get more out of them. You have to understand the person you’re talking to. You have to do that in certain situations because you have to know when the right time is and when the right time is not to do that.
“Last year I definitely was not going to be able to do that. Now, I’m just trying to encourage the guys – whether they do something right or do something wrong. That’s what the coaches are for, to get on them when they do things wrong. I’m just trying to encourage them, keep their spirits up and make everyone better.”
While watching older brothers Casey and Rick start at the University of Tennessee, the youngest Clausen brother had a chance to eat meals with the Volunteers team, watch the player interaction as well as some of the dynamics that come with a top 10 program. This included the slings and arrows that inevitably come with being a quarterback at a premier program.
“It was hard having people criticize my brothers,” Clausen said.
Clausen realizes he too will undergo such scrutiny but will take it personally only from his own performance or effort.
“I take it personally from the aspect of my playing,” he said. “From the crowd…I’m concentrating on the game, my team and myself. I really don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff.”
It’s all part of the education process of a college quarterback, even as a relatively seasoned sophomore-to-be.
Other Sophomore News
Two freshman skill players who did make some dents in the rookie record book are receiver Duval Kamara and running back Robert Hughes.
Kamara’s 32 receptions broke Tim Brown’s Irish freshman record of 28 set in 1984, and his four TD catches eclipsed the three caught by tight end Derek Brown in 1988, Derrick Mayes in 1992 and Maurice Stovall in 2002. Hughes’ 246 yards rushing in his final two games (110 versus Duke and 136 at Stanford) were one yard shy of the two-game freshman record set by Jerome Heavens in 1975, when he had 109 and 138 in comeback wins versus North Carolina and Air Force, respectively.
“I set goals my freshman year to play but it was a little overwhelming right away,” Kamara said. “Coming in you’re kind of nervous, you’re not expecting to be as strong as the other guys. Once you get a few plays in, you realize you can really do it, you can run with these guys and it’s not that big of a difference.”
So what are his goals as a sophomore?
“Just be the No. 1 receiver and an All-American receiver,” Kamara said nonchalantly.
Part of becoming an All-American, though, is being accountable to teammates. When he failed to live up to academic requirements at one point last fall, Kamara was suspended by Charlie Weis for the Air Force game, a 41-24 Irish loss on Nov. 10.
“At first it kind of hit me hard,” Kamara said. “I wasn’t shocked, but (Weis is) big on academics and I can’t go against that. I felt like I let my team down. I felt I owed it to the team to come out the next game and perform really well for the rest of the season.”
Part of his academic schedule this year includes an Arts & Letters career development class that runs from 4 to 5:30 in the afternoon – and was supposed to end last week. Football practice begins around 5, so after the class, Kamara hopped on his bike for a quick five-minute ride to the locker room to prepare himself for the final hour of practice. Kamara has been in a catch-up mode this spring, but Weis has been complementary about the way the 6-foot-5 wideout has been able to “sink his hips.”
What exactly does that mean?
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Kamara said. “Low center of gravity, that’s what he’s basically trying to say.”
As for Hughes, signs are continuing to develop that he has a chance to become a “bellcow” back at Notre Dame. As Lou Holtz defined it, a bellcow is a back who can carry the ball 20 to 25 times on Saturday and not come to the next practice with a doctor, lawyer or agent.
“At first I really didn’t know there was that much football…then I received the playbook and said, ‘My hands are full!’ ” recalled Hughes of his freshman indoctrination. “Now you’re asked to block, run a route, learning how to get open, understand the coverages in a passing attack.”
Classmate Armando Allen has been labeled the “speed back,” Hughes the “power back” and James Aldridge maybe a hybrid of the two, but Hughes prefers to get away from stereotypes.
“I pride myself on everything, explosiveness, power, speed, block, go out and catch…I don’t want to be labeled as the guy who is one-dimensional,” said the powerfully-built 240-pound Hughes. “You want to be someone who can do it all, whether it’s running a go route, a slant, whatever the team needs, I want to be that guy.”
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Kamara’s 32 receptions broke 
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