After going up for a jump ball in the right corner of the endzone against Michigan State, what also seemed to be his sixth touchdown of the year, Floyd hit the ground, grabbed his shoulder, and shook his head, putting a pit in every Irish fan’s stomach.

Notre Dame gets it's best wide receiver back in Floyd.

He was diagnosed with a broken collarbone and was orginally expected to miss the remainder of the season.

But doctors seemed to forget that this wasn’t any ordinary human being they were diagnosing-this was Michael Floyd, the most talented wide receiver in college football.

Before his devastating injury, he miraculously hauled in five touchdowns, 358 receiving yards to go along with a 27.5 yard per catch average, all coming on only 13 receptions.

Those stats were totaled in a time period of only nine quarters of playing time.

Patrolling the sidelines with an anxious look permanently cemented on his face as he watched Golden Tate make SportsCenter-worthy highlights every Saturday, Floyd has dressed the past three weeks in order to feel like a player again.

Now, with recent good news coming from Monday’s MRI on his previously broken collarbone, Floyd is expected to play against Navy this weekend in South Bend.

What does that mean for the Irish?

Charlie Weis’ offense goes from great to elite.

Many believe that with the sophomore receiver, Notre Dame would have beaten USC due to Floyd being Notre Dame’s top red zone threat, where he is almost unstoppable.

If for not going down during the last quarter at Michigan (he received 15 stitches in his leg after the game), the Irish would have had a great shot at also beating the Wolverines.

Without playing the “what if?” game, let’s just say that Floyd is a difference-maker. And a big one at that.

Last season, Floyd went down with a knee injury against Navy and missed the rest of the season. The Irish offense, especially Golden Tate, struggled to live up to it’s name.

“I didn’t really realize it until the ‘SC game, how much we really needed him,” Tate said. “It was almost like I could do nothing. Whatever I did, they were there. It was all out of my hands.” said Tate.

However, this year Tate added the title of “wide receiver” to his resume next to “all-around athlete”. Without Floyd, he has averaged an incredible 124.6 receiving yards per game and has hauled in six touchdowns.

Throw in his rushing stats and miracles with the ball in his hands, Tate has put his name on some Heisman ballots.

Now that the best receiver on the team returns healthy, the Irish again have the best trio of receivers in the country in Floyd, Tate, and sensational-sophomore, Kyle Rudolph, who has seen decreased production after the loss of No. 3.

With the sophomore from Minnesota patrolling the No. 1 receiver slot, opponent secondaries are in trouble. Who do you double team?

Does it matter?

If opponent’s choose to double Floyd, that will leave Tate with single coverage, something he has dominated this season, and take away attention in the middle where Rudolph is most efficient.

Double Tate, and opponent’s may have an even bigger problem if Floyd proves to be as healthy as he is thought to be.

Tate has proven he can beat the double coverage, and single coverage on Floyd is a death wish for any opposing defensive back. Not to mention, Rudolph will have made a living in the middle of the field.

Now that Notre Dame has produced a fairly decent rushing attack with a healthy Armando Allen, Robert Hughes, and even Theo Riddick, opponent’s now have their hand’s full during preparation for one of the best offenses in the country.

Pick your poison Ken Niumatalolo, Dave Wannstedt, Randy Edsall, and Jim Harbaugh.

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The Irish traveled south to San Antonio in order to beat the Cougars 40-14. Although a bit sloppy and constantly called a “workman-like” effort by Pat Haden, Notre Dame came away with yet another win. Nonetheless, the Irish ran their unbeaten streak on Halloween to 15 straight.

Likes

Golden Tate is the most electryifying player in college football.

Golden Tate

Golden Tate is bigger in Texas.

The box score on Sunday doesn’t speak for how spectacular Tate was in the Alamodome last night. Notre Dame fans were complaining about paying admission to see a poor game in a neutral site stadium, but they got their moneys worth thanks to the ‘ooh’s and ah’s’ of Tate.

The highlight of the night came when Clausen heaved a 50-yard pass to the right corner of the endzone, where Tate and three Cougar defensive backs waited for the ball. Standing at only 5′11″, Tate leaped over all three defenders and came away with the ball for six points.

Not only is he the most overlooked player in college football, but he is also the most electrifying.

Front Seven

For a second straight week, the Irish front four find themselves in the “Likes” category. That could only mean one thing.

Improvement.

Darius Fleming, Steve Filer, Ian Williams and Ethan Johnson led the attack as the Irish pass-rushers found themselves consistently putting pressure on the hapless Cougar freshman quarterback, Jeff Tuel.

Thanks to the front four’s dominace, everyone else’s job was made easier. The linebackers played extremely well. Every play Manti Te’o is on the field, he makes everyone else around him a better player.

“Backup” Running Backs

Robert Hughes has earned plenty of doubters during his three years in the program. However, there is no denying that when the time comes for him to step up, Hughes delivers.

He has earned the right to be the offensive version of Kyle McCarthy, Mr. Dependable. With Armando Allen sitting out in order to be fully healthy for next week, Hughes carried the ball 24 times for 131 yards and a score. Fighting for each and every yard, he was able to help control the time of possession for the Irish (40:54) and served as a check-down option for Clausen every time he didn’t have an open receive.

And then there is yet another freshman, No. 32.

Coming out of Manville, New Jersey, Theo Riddick looks like the successor to Armando Allen and Robert Hughes. In fact, he may even be given some more carries after giving an opportunity on Saturday. Riddick ran the ball 9 times for 51 yards using a combination of power, speed and finesse.

Dislikes

Penalties

The penalties are what turned this game from a great game for the Irish into a good win. With all of the momentum in the world and total control of the game, the offensive line still had reason to commit personal fouls.

Eric Olsen was hit with two personal foul calls and got an earfull from Weis. Being an offensive captain and one of the leaders on the team, the Irish cannot afford these penalties from their veterans against the likes of Pittsburgh and Stanford.

Hopefully this is the last we will see of these mental mishaps.

Punting

While Ben Turk had a beautiful punt of 52 yards pinning the Cougars on their own two-yard line, he also had kicks of 11 and 19 yards.

Not only did the freshman punter still raise question marks for the second straight week, but long-snapper Jordan Cowart had a bad snap which forced Turk to rush a kick, going off the side of his foot.

Consistency is the key in the kicking game and Turk hasn’t quite found that yet. However, that is not to say he won’t because he has the leg and he has the talent. The freshman just needs to put the pieces to the puzzle together.

News, Notes, and Rants

-The Irish are ranked No. 19 in the AP poll, 20th in the Harris poll and No. 21 in the USA Today poll. Look for the Irish to be somewhere between 17-20 in the BCS rankings this week.

-Dayne Crist may have a serious injury. If so, it hurts more than anyone thinks. If the rumor of being an ACL injury is true, Crist is looking at a 6-12 month recovery period.

-Weis said in his post game presser that Trevor Robinson’s injury was probably just a rolled or sprained ankle. Losing Robinson for any amount of time would be a huge loss the rest of the way.

-Before going to commercial at halftime, Clausen went up to Tate after the hail mary touchdown. In his ear, Clausen mouthed “Money, money, money.”

-Robert Hughes needs 6 or 7 touches before he gets going in what seems to be every game. New pregame routine, anyone?

-Jonas Gray may be the odd man out in the future of the running back rotation. He seems very tentative and still cannot hold onto the football.

-Nick Tausch hit his 14th straight field goal, a Notre Dame record. The freshman’s value to the kicking game is hard to put into words.

-Navy rolls into the Bend next weekend with their triple-option attack offense. The Midshipmen lost to Temple this weekend, but also took Ohio State down to the wire.

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Q. Like you said you anticipate it being a season-long thing?

COACH WEIS: You know, they said two months would be optimistic. So, I mean, at the end the year is there an outside shot, yeah, there would be an outside shot, but I would never put Michael at risk, That’s one thing I wouldn’t do.

Source: und.com

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I’ll probably hold him from practice today. When you get a turf toe, Tom, one of the things you do is they get one of these plates put in their shoe that, kind of lift your toe up so that you are not getting pressure on your foot when you are there, so we’re getting that plate in today. So what I’ll do today is I’ll give Dayne (Crist) the majority of the reps, and I’m going to give (Evan) Sharpley some reps too to knock off a little bit of the rust on him. Because he’s been running show team. Sharpley will get a few reps.

Our plan is to give Jimmy some of it on Wednesday, all of it on Thursday, and see how it goes from there.

The other person that’s in a similar category is Armando (Allen). The (practice) pattern for him is going be very similar (to Clausen). Hold him today. He’s got a little bit of an ankle. If he went out there today, he wouldn’t be full speed. (I’ll) give the other running backs the reps today and build him up to be full-go by game time.

#7 Jimmy Clausen

Source: UND.com

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