Great post. Perfect timing. Not much else going on right this minute in ND land, season can't get her soon enough.
San Diego Irish | Email | Homepage | 07.03.09 - 8:55 pm | #

On highlight #8, Clausen does a good job reading the safety. His throw to Floyd is essentially the opposite direction that the safety went. Good read Clausen.

Also, talk about Yin and Yang of ND's passing attack. Here's hoping Clausen/Tate and Floyd stay healthy playing football at ND in 2009.
atepesm | Email | Homepage | 07.03.09 - 9:48 pm | #

How much is Anello a playmaker?

Notice in highlight 7, that AFTER he blocks the Navy punt . . . He "accidentally" knocks the kicker over when the kicker takes off after the blocked punt.

Probably wouldn't have mattered much, but I thought it was funny to see Anello finish the kicker off.
atepesm | Email | Homepage | 07.03.09 - 9:54 pm | #

great post. but my #1 is #5. have a gr8 holiday nd fans.
notre damian | Email | Homepage | 07.03.09 - 10:06 pm | #

This is so much better than the top 10 plays of 2007, where 2 of them were actually not official plays (Grimes' TD and the lateral play, both against Stanford) and a third was that rediculous sack of Sharpley against Navy.

C'mon 2009!
Matt '09 | Email | Homepage | 07.04.09 - 12:49 am | #

My favorite is #10, Armando's Return, because if you look closely, you see Golden crush someone in the lead block, fall out of the picture, and then re-appear like a freakin rocket to meet Armando as he reaches the end zone. Wow!!
fnwchs | Email | Homepage | 07.04.09 - 10:08 am | #

On #4 - "In the Bucket"
Couldn't help but notice that Floyd was wide freaking open on a deep crossing route on this play. Clausen made a helluva throw to connect with Tate in the corner, but next year we need him to hit Floyd. That's what Quinn did so well in 2005 and 2006. (I realize that the time left on the clock might have necessitated the throw into the endzone.)

From my notes, we didn't attempt any deep crossing routes in 2008. And I don't really think we ran this play all that much because I don't recall Tate lining up just off the OT like this (kinda gives away the corner route).

And this is going to be a play that kills zones next year. We have a receiver in three zones (flat, intermediate, deep), and one of them will be open.
Michael | Email | Homepage | 07.04.09 - 12:28 pm | #

My favorite play of the year was the Tate TD against Michigan (#3). It set the tone for the whole year that Tate was a legitimate WR. Sure, it's a slant and "GO" which isn't too different from what he ran as a freshman, but the whole play was such a thing of beauty and just watching him burn those two Michigan DBs... I could watch it over and over again.

That's not to say it was the most important play, as I think the SDSU fumble (#5) saved that game for us big time, but it was certainly my favorite.

Seeing the first kickoff return for a TD since I was a junior (2002) was also great.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 07.04.09 - 12:56 pm | #

my favorite part of these videos? I get to see every one of these guys (minus bruton) again this fall. It is almost less of a recap and more of a sampler of the (potentially) good things to come.
yak | Email | Homepage | 07.04.09 - 1:24 pm | #

We were sitting in the end zone vs. NC and Anello came down to cover apunt. He was blocked well out of bounds (I was watching him), came back into the field and made the tackle a bout a third of the way in.
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 07.04.09 - 3:35 pm | #

As Jay mentioned, most of these plays are passing plays. I like to watch good passing plays. I love to watch good RBs fake the pants off defenders like Barry Sanders or Gale Sayers did. I hope to see those kinds of plays on this highlight next year.
GB | Email | Homepage | 07.04.09 - 4:05 pm | #

The 2nd here link for 2006 takes me to some google page requiring a password. Is that the right link?
Michael | Email | Homepage | 07.05.09 - 12:07 am | #

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I usually youtube that stuff about once a week myself but it's nice to have it all done for me all in one spot. Cheers Boys and Go Irish!!!!
VicPaul | Email | Homepage | 07.05.09 - 12:43 am | #

Great highlights. Thanks very much for putting this together.

While there certainly were 'low lights' during the season as well, its hard not to get excited about the possibilities for this season as the Lads gain more experience.

Dan
Dan | Email | Homepage | 07.05.09 - 8:54 am | #

Michael are the '06 links still not working?
Jay | Email | Homepage | 07.05.09 - 10:14 am | #

The '06 links appear to be working again. At one time the second one was asking for a blogger.com login and password.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 07.05.09 - 5:11 pm | #

Great post guys.
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 07.05.09 - 6:43 pm | #

Not a single run from scrimage in the batch. These are great and certainly get me both jacked and pumped, but let's hope that we see a few highlights of our tailbacks in the '09 version of this post.
IdSoonerBeIrish | Email | Homepage | 07.06.09 - 11:12 am | #