MelK
05-26-2003, 06:49 PM
Tuesday, May 20
Updated: May 19, 3:11 PM ET
Irish may be better, but have tough road ahead
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By Brad Edwards
Special to ESPN.com
Notre Dame surprised the country last year with 10 wins in Tyrone Willingham's first season at the helm, but some of the excitement was tempered by lopsided losses in the final two games. The Irish flirted with a BCS appearance for much of the season before finishing with a No. 17 ranking in the final polls.
Many people now expect Willingham to do it again, but it won't be easy. Last year's team was very opportunistic and won its first two games without scoring an offensive TD. Nine starters have also departed, and seven of them were good enough to be drafted by the NFL.
This, combined with the challenging 2003 schedule, offers the undesirable possibility that ND could actually get better on the field without it showing up in the win column. Then again, Willingham could still surprise us one more time.
http://espn.go.com/ncf/s/2003/0517/1555358.html
Updated: May 19, 3:11 PM ET
Irish may be better, but have tough road ahead
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Brad Edwards
Special to ESPN.com
Notre Dame surprised the country last year with 10 wins in Tyrone Willingham's first season at the helm, but some of the excitement was tempered by lopsided losses in the final two games. The Irish flirted with a BCS appearance for much of the season before finishing with a No. 17 ranking in the final polls.
Many people now expect Willingham to do it again, but it won't be easy. Last year's team was very opportunistic and won its first two games without scoring an offensive TD. Nine starters have also departed, and seven of them were good enough to be drafted by the NFL.
This, combined with the challenging 2003 schedule, offers the undesirable possibility that ND could actually get better on the field without it showing up in the win column. Then again, Willingham could still surprise us one more time.
http://espn.go.com/ncf/s/2003/0517/1555358.html