Some Rest For The Weary

Earlier in the week, Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis noted that during this week’s fall break, the team was exempted from the NCAA’s usual 20-hour time limit. That allowed for some extra meeting time and film study – but more importantly, a week without classes meant that the players could finally catch up on rest.

“The first thing is, they got a lot more sleep,” Weis said. “These guys usually get going by 6:00 in the morning, and usually their day goes until 10:30 at night.

“Usually, right about now, they’re walking out from practice, they’re taking a shower, getting a little treatment. Some of them have some media, and then study hall starts, usually about 45 minutes after they take a shower. So by the time they take a shower, they’re going to the dining hall, they grab something to eat, and boom, they’re in study hall.”

Another bonus was a less crowded campus – with most of the students away for the week, the players felt a bit more at ease.

“The fact that the students weren’t around, especially psychologically, coming off of that loss, it was very tranquil,” Weis stated. “There was a lot of peace and quiet around here this week, and I think it was good for all of them.”

We’ll Still Have Parris
Perhaps the biggest surprise this week was the speedy recovery by senior receiver Robby Parris. Even Weis admitted to being a bit shocked when announcing Thursday evening that Parris would play against Boston College.

“I’m really surprised too,” the coach admitted. “Unless he has a setback tonight, he’ll be out there right from the start.”

Freshman running back Cierre Wood won’t dress Saturday, as he’s battling the flu. According to Weis, Wood is just the latest in a line of players that have missed time this fall with similar illnesses. Sophomore offensive linemen Braxston Cave and Lane Clelland, for example, had recently been held out of action.

Guarding Against Leaks?
Weis was asked about the news that leaked out before the USC game about sophomore receiver John Goodman getting the start and running a read option play from the shotgun (easily confused with the Wildcat, but not the same thing, the coach noted).

If he was in Goodman’s shoes, he admitted, he’d be telling his family too.

“[But] part of their responsibility,” Weis continued, “is to not let the free world know what our game plan is going into a game, that the second play of the game against USC we’re going to run a read option.

“I trust these guys and I trust their families. Obviously, sometimes some information gets out, but it’s usually very minimal in comparison to what could get out.”

The ‘No Comment’ Comment
When asked about a recent report that Pac-10 officials called Notre Dame’s fake field goal against USC an illegal play after the fact, Weis refused to comment – but he wound up editorializing in a roundabout way after a follow-up question about alerting officials on trick plays ahead of time.

“I told them we’ve got the kitchen sink,” Weis stated. “Now I’m not going to tell the Pac-10 officials, ever, that we have a special play. I’ll never tell them. I won’t tell them the next time, either, okay, so they’re just going to have to call it as it happens. And that might not be the only conference-affiliated officiating crew I won’t say something special we’re going to end up doing, if you get my drift.

“But what I usually do is I usually say that we’ve got a bunch of wrinkles in here, so be on guard, whereas if, not that we ever have a vanilla game plan, but if we’re not doing anything out of the ordinary, I’ll just say we don’t have anything out of the ordinary.”

Safety Valves?
With the secondary coming under heavy scrutiny in recent weeks, Weis hinted that some different faces could see increased playing time on Saturday.

“You could see Sergio [Brown] in the game, you could see Jamoris Slaughter in the game,” he said. “You could see those guys show up in the game.”

Deja Vu For Haywood
Weis was asked if he’d spoken lately with former offensive coordinator Mike Haywood, who is currently struggling through a winless season as the new head coach at Miami (Ohio).

“He’s plugging along there,” said Weis, who noted that he usually communicates with Haywood by text, but that the two spoke on Monday. “He’s playing a bunch of young guys, and not to give an analogy of 2007, but he’s playing 14 freshmen, and his quarterback’s a redshirt freshman, so he’s going through some growing pains.”