I am entering the world of blogging and I am not sure how I feel about it, but here goes nothing.  I have a couple of observations from the two open practices this week.  First of all the size and speed of this team is pretty impressive.  Granted I have been watching Notre Dame the last couple of years, and this team makes ND look like a high school team.  I know a lot of you guys are worried about the youth and inexperience on this team, but I would rather have a bunch of inexperienced guys with talent who have the tools to make plays than experienced guys who can't make plays.  This team may not look perfect in September, but come October their talent will shine through and they should have enough experience when the meat of their schedule comes.

Defensively, this team should thrive under Will Muschamp.  They are going to play multiple schemes up front, shifting from a 4-3 alignment (4 DL and 3 LB's) to a 3-4 alignment (3 DL and 4 LB's), and they will play both schemes in nickel and in base situations.  If they can grasp the different techniques to play these schemes, they will be able to disguise where they are blitzing from and keep the opposing offenses off balance.  It also helps to have multiple sets when you have Sergio Kindle and Brian Orakpo as your rush outside linebackers in the 3-4 scheme.  These two players look the part and they just need to stay healthy in order to have big years.  Injuries are going to be the key to this defense, as they are pretty thin at DT, but they have a couple hybrid linebackers and defensive ends who could slide around in nickel situations to ease the burden on Roy Miller and Lamarr Houston.

Offensively, this team will go as far as Colt McCoy takes them.  John Chiles is a nice hybrid weapon, but he is not ready to lead this team from under center.  I like how the staff is using him in a bunch of situations (ie. wide out, running back in the spread, and slot receiver on occasion).  He will have a good year as a change of pace to the regular offense.  It is obvious that Colt McCoy, Quan Cosby, and Jordan Shipley have a great deal of confidence in one another. They were able to hook up on a number of completions in practice and it just looks natural between these three.  During 7 on 7 drills, Colt was getting the ball out of his hand in plenty of time before the 4 second buzzer went off, and he was hitting all of his receivers in stride to let them run after the catch.  On the offensive line, I thought the staff was full of it when they said 13-14 guys could play for them, but after watching practice I think they are pretty close.  This team has a solid two deep and there are a couple of young guys who impressed me.  This group should be really good for the next couple of years.    Michael Huey and Kyle Hix really impressed me with their size and athleticism.  Huey has all the tools and he needs to play this year.  Hix blocks out the sun and looks like a classic mauling RT.  At LT, Adam Ulatoski had a nice couple of practices and he held his own against Orakpo.

Like I said earlier, this team has enough talent to compete in the Big 12 this year.  It all depends on how motivated this team comes to play on Saturdays.  If it resembles the team we saw in the Holiday Bowl then they will be fine.  If it looks like the team we saw the rest of the year, they may take their lumps against this difficult schedule.  I think this team has a shot and with Muschamp coaching the defense, they will play hard and rally to the ball.  So after two days I think this team has a lot of potential, sure there are issues on both sides of the ball, but we might as well be optimistic after the first week of camp. 

First time blogging seems pretty harmless, take care, enjoy the weekend and keep tuning in each day.  Talk to you soon.

Mike Rosenthal