Despite Irish's offensive woes, Clausen poised
Freshman QB fails to deliver TD in first start, but Weis still impressed
 Gene J. Puskar / AP Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen scrambles from the pocket during the Fighting Irish's 31-10 loss to Penn State on Saturday night. |
College football |
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Jimmy Clausen unbuckled his chin strap and walked slowly to the bench. Another drive had fizzled for Notre Dame.
It’s not quite the debut Irish coach Charlie Weis had in mind for his freshman quarterback. Clausen finished 17-of-32 for 144 yards and an interception in Notre Dame’s 31-10 loss Saturday night to No. 14 Penn State.
The Irish, 0-2 for the first time since 2001, were held without an offensive touchdown for the second straight game.
Weis went conservative with the offense before opening it up in the fourth quarter down by double digits against a tough Penn State defense.
Clausen came up with his best drive late in the fourth quarter, leading Notre Dame to the Penn State 10. However, that ended on fourth down when he was forced to scramble and threw a high pass that was intercepted in the end zone by Justin King.
“At least he can leave the field at the end of the game with those last couple of drives, even though they didn’t end up with points, feeling that he got a little bit of something going,” Weis said.
Next up for Clausen: Michigan at the Big House next Saturday. What typically would be considered a banner matchup will be a contest between two teams trying to get their first win.
First for Notre Dame, though, there’s an offense to fix.
The line allowed six sacks and was whistled for four offsides, two delay-of-game penalties, in part due to a near-deafening Penn State crowd of 110,078, most dressed in white. There were also three holding penalties called.
Penn State’s athletic defense held Notre Dame to zero net yards rushing, a week after the Irish had minus-8 yards in their season-opener against Georgia Tech.
Despite the results, tight end John Carlson liked Clausen’s poise in the huddle.
“It’s frustrating ... but I felt there were some good things that came out of it,” said Carlson, who had one catch for five yards. “It didn’t seem like it was his first collegiate (start).”
Now Clausen is 0-1 as a college starter after going 42-0 as in high school at Oaks Christian in Westlake Village, Calif.
He is just the eighth freshman quarterback to start for Notre Dame, the last one being Brady Quinn against Purdue in the fourth game of the 2003 season.
The Irish had been 6-0 since 1951 in first-ever starts for a freshman quarterback until Quinn’s debut, when he completed 29-of-59 passes for 297 yards with a touchdown and four interceptions in a 23-10 loss to the Boilermakers.
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“I could have yanked him there in the fourth quarter, but what I really felt was that he needed, for his own confidence, to be able to get a little action where something positive would happen,” Weis said.
Among debuts for all Irish quarterbacks, sophomore Joe Theismann arguably had the best opener, taking over in the eighth game of the 1968 season after Terry Hanratty injured his knee in practice.
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Notre Dame ended with a 56-7 win, and because it was such a rout the two teams agreed to a running clock in the second half.
Clausen can take heart though given Joe Montana’s debut on Oct. 4, 1975. Montana, then a sophomore, was 2-of-5 passing for 19 yards with one interception before he was replaced by Rusty Sleger in the second half.
The Irish lost 10-3 that day to Michigan State — the first time in five years they had failed to score a touchdown.
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