ND's o-line has been bad all 3 years of Weis's helm, and there has certainly been questions raised about Latina, the oline coach. The puzzling thing is, he had a terrific pedigree with his o-line at Mississippi before he came to ND, so I haven't a clue what's been going on there.
I do think Weis improved his practice strategy this fall by moving to full pads and hitting all summer, as opposed to the team playing patty cake last summer and then getting blown up physically the first few games. Anyways, with everyone on the line returning, spending another year in the weight room, and playing together another year, they have to get better even a tiny bit, don't they?
Anyways, I still think the biggest reason for improved predictions for the Irish is the schedule. Check out this comparison of last year's schedule with this year's:
2007: 2008:
USC = USC
Michigan > Michigan
Boston College > Boston College
Penn State > or = Pittsburgh
Michigan State = Michigan State
Georgia Tech > or = North Carolina
Purdue = Purdue
UCLA > or = Washington
Navy > Navy
Air Force > Syracuse
Duke = San Diego St
Stanford < Stanford
- Stanford, SDSU, Syracuse, Navy will all be extremely winnable games.
- Washington, Purdue, and North Carolina will be at least toss up games
- Pitt,
MSU, BC, and Michigan will all be tough games but not insurmountable games by any means. BC loses a ton from last year, they probably belong in the toss up games, but they have owned ND recently.
- USC is the only game I see that ND is guaranteed a beatdown.
Hence, I'm predicting 5 wins as worst case scenario, 9 as best case, and 7 as most likely.