Terrible Notre Dame News

This is a little late, but no less significant…. From ESPN: Notre Dame will likely be without wide receiver Michael Floyd for the rest of the regular season and quarterback Jimmy Clausen might not be 100 percent when the Fighting Irish play at Purdue on Saturday. Floyd underwent surgery Sunday for a broken left collar bone. Coach Charlie Weis said he hasn’t been told how long Floyd will be out, but he expects to be without him the rest of the way. Floyd might be available for a bowl game “if we chose to go in that direction,” Weis said. Crap. I don’t normally use that type of coarse language in my writing, but this story deserves it. The issue goes beyond the obvious effects of loosing a player like Michael Floyd for the season. That alone is reason for concern. But it also changes the entire complexion of the offense. Now teams can get away with double covering Golden Tate. As good as Tate is, I’m obviously concerned about this. Last season, Floyd missed the final three games of the season. Tate averaged 17 yards a catch in the nine games that Floyd played and only 9 yards a catch in the three that he missed. Those numbers are skewed when you consider that Tate was held catch less in Floyd’s first game out (11/15 vs Navy) and exploded for 7/146 against Syracuse. Not exactly the balance we were used to. Tate also failed to record a touchdown in two of those three games. More importantly, The Irish lost two of the three games that Floyd missed. The win came against Navy…by six. So yeah, loosing Michael Floyd is really bad. It may just be the difference between the BCS and a three or four loss trip to a made-for-tv bowl. That would be the Continue reading Terrible Notre Dame News