Published: August 25, 2008 10:46 am            

Highly rated Irish freshmen downplay expectations

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame freshman cornerback Robert Blanton likes what he sees from his classmates.

“We have a lot of great freshmen, a lot of them making a great impact, competing, doing some great things,” Blanton said Friday as Irish freshmen were allowed to talk to the media for the first time.

Coach Charlie Weis also likes what he sees from the group rated the best Notre Dame recruiting class in years. But Weis is hoping he won’t have to depend on freshmen as heavily as he did last year when the Fighting Irish struggled to a 3-9 finish.

The Irish had eight freshmen start at least one game. Weis doesn’t expect eight freshmen to start this season, but he does think at least eight could play.

The most intriguing player might be wide receiver Mike Floyd, a top recruit from St. Paul, Minn. While Weis was effusive in some of his praise of freshmen players, he was coy this week when talking about the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Floyd.

“He’s pretty good,” Weis said.

When pressed for more information, Weis said: “He can run all the routes. He’s pretty polished for a freshman.”

Asked if he can block, Weis added: “He’s got plenty of toughness.”

But two weeks before the first practice, Weis revealed that he had heard from quarterback Jimmy Clausen that Floyd had been impressive in summer workouts.

“You know, look at him physically, when you see him out there in practice, he doesn’t look like a freshman. He looks like an upperclassman that’s been around a long time,” Weis said.

Floyd said Friday that practices so far have been harder than he expected, saying he has to be much more precise about his routes.

“In high school not everybody is as good so just running not good routes you could get open. But here you’ve got to make everything nice and you critique everything,” he said.

But all the freshmen were downplaying their own expectations for the season and praising the upperclassmen for their help. Blanton, who already has a reputation as being a talker on the field, just smiled broadly when a reporter asked if coaches told him to tone down his bluster when talking to the media.

Other players considered likely to press for playing time are linebacker Steve Filer, tight end Kyle Rudolph, guard Trevor Robinson, nose tackle Brandon Newman, defensive ends Ethan Johnson and Kapron Lewis-Moore and receivers Deion Walker and John Goodman.

        

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