Sure, it’s Washington State. But defensive stops are defensive stops, especially when they hadn’t been coming regularly.
Against the Cougars, the Irish came up with plenty of them – including eight three-and-outs – while allowing just 206 total yards in a 40-14 rout. Even a good chunk of that yardage came late in the contest, when head coach Charlie Weis was going with his reserves.
“I was happy with the defense pretty much the whole game,” Weis said. “When the first guys were in there, I think it was like 109 yards that they gave up, and it was pretty impressive. Sacks, pressures, playing the game behind the line of scrimmage, no explosives in the passing game...It was a pretty complete performance.”
“Those guys all had pretty active nights,” Weis stated.
Actually, he added, both lines had solid outings in terms of controlling the action, though the volume of penalties called against the offensive line certainly raised Weis’ ire, especially in the second half.
“We cost ourselves on offense,” he said. “Six penalties that we had in the game cost us 134 yards of field position, so with that, I wasn’t very happy.”
Injury Updates
Most of the concern following the WSU rout revolved around the injuries incurred during the game, especially those to backup quarterback Dayne Crist and starting right guard Trevor Robinson.
In both cases, Weis seemed relatively optimistic. Crist is set to undergo an MRI on his knee Monday, but the early test results were encouraging.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that it’s not as bad as we originally thought it was,” the coach said of Crist. “When he got tested [Sunday], the knee was a lot more stable than we thought it would be. I don’t want to get his mom too excited, because [Saturday night] I told her what the best or worst could be, but there’s a chance it could be better than I thought it was going to be.”
Needless to say, Weis is pretty happy now about having fifth-year senior Evan Sharpley available as a third option at quarterback.
“It looks pretty good right now,” he said, “that conversation that I had with [Sharpley] last January.”
Robinson, meanwhile, was diagnosed with a low ankle sprain. The early call from Weis is that the sophomore would be “doubtful” for the Navy game, but the coach did not rule out the possibility of a return to action this week.
The test results for sophomore receiver Michael Floyd’s broken collarbone are scheduled to come back Monday night, and Weis said he’d almost certainly have a status report at his regular Tuesday press conference.
BCS Banter
Notre Dame moved up just one spot to 22nd in this week’s BCS standings, but Weis remains optimistic that if the Irish win out, things will fall into place. Any team in the top 14 of the final standings is eligible to be selected for a BCS bowl game.
“We’ve just got to take care of our business,” he stated. “We can’t worry about what everyone else is doing, because they’re going to knock each other off. That’s the way it happens every year. So you just have to make sure, if you just do what you’re supposed to do, I think that at the end of the day things will work out the right way.”
Shaq Attack
Not surprisingly, Weis was asked again about the recent invisibility of freshman receiver Shaquelle Evans, who had worked his way into the rotation during the first half of the season.
The coach stated clearly that the rumors circulating about Evans are false.
“He is not in the doghouse,” Weis said. “I’ve heard this several times in the last few weeks about him being in the doghouse. As a matter of fact, the last week and a half, he’s actually practiced better and better and put himself in a position to get significant time. The issue is, he’s in a position to go ahead and play in multiple-wide receiver sets, and the guys that are playing ahead of him were playing too good to really take out. I’m not looking to take out guys just to take them out.”
The re-emergence of junior Duval Kamara, in particular, has made it difficult to make room for Evans on the field.
“I promise you, may God strike me dead, there’s no doghouse for No. 11,” Weis continued. “I’ve never lied to you guys. I try to be evasive as I possibly can, but I don’t lie to you. There’s not a doghouse.”
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