Irish Sports Daily

The Stanford baseball season could end up having a major impact on the Notre Dame football team’s regular season finale in Palo Alto.

That’s because the MVP of the 2008 Cardinal football team could have a difficult decision to make regarding whether or not he will be with Jim Harbaugh’s crew in the fall.

Running back Toby Gerhart ran for a school-record 1,136 yards to go with 15 touchdowns in 2008. The 6-foot-1, 232-pounder had several long gainers and finished with 104 yards and a touchdown in Stanford’s loss at Notre Dame.

But like Notre Dame’s Golden Tate, Gerhart is also a standout on the Stanford baseball team and unlike Tate, he is junior, making him eligible for the 2009 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. Gerhart has said that if he was taken in one of the early rounds that it could be difficult for him to turn down a large contract that he could be offered.

But Gerhart, who was rated the 50th best prospect as a high school senior in 2006, may not have a tough decision to make considering his batting average is currently .283 with six home runs and 31 RBI. But he has come on in the last month, raising his average by 100 points and slamming all six of his dingers.

Baseball America ranked the Cardinal in the top 15 of its preseason poll, but a 27-21 record has the Cardinal out of the latest top 30 poll completely.

The fact that he has football to fall back on could also damage his draft status, but it also gives Gerhart something to look forward to. After an injury ended his sophomore season after two games, Gerhart was bitterly disappointed when the Cardinal loss the 2008 finale to Cal, eliminating them from bowl contention.

If he does not return, Harbaugh will have a difficult time replacing the tough running back.

If he does come back for his senior season, Gerhart will lead a Stanford squad that could be much better than the 2008 version. The Cardinal bring back 16 starters from last season and are expected to start highly-touted redshirt freshman Andrew Luck at quarterback.

And if does finish his career at Stanford, Gerhart could have an even more difficult decision a year from now when he may have to choose between football and baseball.

One of the things that has always amazed me about sports is how quickly the fans or ‘fanatics’ become regular ordinary people when real life rears its head into the games.

There is very few teams that Notre Dame fans like less than Boston College, but it wasn’t long after the Eagles’ best defensive player, Mark Herzlich, announced on Thursday that he was battling cancer before support from Irish fans came pouring in.

Check out these thoughts from our Members Board:

“I will hope and pray he has the mental toughness to persevere as my brother did when he found himself the recipient of a specific cancer at 17. He lived another 30 years and packed his life with richness of the spirit in so many ways. I hope for the same for this young man. I hope he is able to put the uniform on again.”
-ndfamily65

“Terrible news. Tough, hard-nosed kid that I'd love to have on my football team and from local accounts, a helluva kid. Prayers for a quick, full recovery, Herzy.”
-IrishRI

“That's terrible. He's a very nice kid. He was also selected to represent BC at the NCAA leadership meeting in Orlando this month.”
-quickslant

“I wish him a good fight and speedy victory over this disease, always had my admiration as one of the tougher LBs we have played the last few years.”
-DCIrish95

“Agreed DC. I thought he was a monster against us last year. In fact, I thought he played the best individual game against us of any member of our opponents' defenses in 2008. Good luck, Mark.”
-dunwoodyfan

“I hope he has a speedy recovery. Good, tough kid from PA. Hopefully he can beat this. Definitely in my prayers.”
-BeingBobbyBrown88

“This is a bad one folks. I don't like BC but I don't dislike them that much, especially when talking about such a young guy. God Bless him and his family.”
-Southern Irish

“My prayers are with him and his family and I hope he beats this. God Speed Mark.”
-ND4LiFe

“A very tough player that played great against us. Please let him know he's in our prayers.”
-acerj

“A great player. Let's hope and pray he can beat this and get back out on the field.”
-flanner

Herzlich was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2008 and was a finalist for the Butkus Award. He made 110 tackles, picked off six passes, forced two fumbles and recovered two more. Herzlich led BC with 11 tackles and broke up three passes in the Eagles’ 17-0 win over Notre Dame last season.

Herzlich has been diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a cancer most often found in bone or soft tissue. But Herzlich is ready for the fight.

“Obviously, I was shocked. I had been extremely focused on preparing for my senior season at Boston College and for life beyond that,” he said in a statement released by BC. “Now, I must channel all that energy into facing my toughest opponent yet, and that is exactly what I will do.”

He is not giving up on football just yet either.

“At this point, I do not know what this means for my football future, but I am determined to rid my body of this disease so that I can put that uniform back on. Thank you in advance for your prayers and concern. Together, we will fight this and win.”

It’s refreshing to know that no matter how seriously we take athletics, we are able to put things in perspective.

Count me among those excited to see Greg Paulus play college football.

Paulus announced on Thursday that he will enroll in graduate classes at Syracuse and play football this fall. Since he played four years of basketball without redshirting, Paulus has one year of eligibility remaining in a sport other than basketball.

I’m not a Duke fan or a Paulus fan and - after last year – I don’t really care all that much for Syracuse either. I just think it will be cool to see an athlete that the country has come to know very well playing a different sport at a different school. It will be interesting to see how he does.

Of course, everyone remembers Paulus from his days before Duke when he was an All-American in football and basketball at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse. Notre Dame was one of many schools to offer him a scholarship for football. Check out this Sports Illustrated article from 2004 for a refresher.

But Paulus chose basketball and Duke. Paulus made an instant impact on the Blue Devils as a freshman and averaged in double-figures as a sophomore and a junior. But his basketball career came to a disappointing end in 2008-09 as his minutes dropped by 10 per game and his scoring average dipped under 5.0, his lowest for his career.

Paulus’ younger brother Mike decided to stick with football and signed with North Carolina. The younger Paulus is a redshirt sophomore, but there were reports that he could consider transferring to Syracuse and that was before his big brother decided.

The first signs that Paulus was thinking about returning to the gridiron came with reports that he worked out for the Green Bay Packers in April. The results of that workout are unknown, but it would seem that there was some good and some bad.

There obviously was not enough interest for Paulus to try to head to the NFL this year, but somebody must have saw some potential because it was not long afterward that he showed up in Ann Arbor to check out the football program. A lot of people assumed that he would end up at Michigan, but his high school football coach questioned if Paulus would fit in Rich Rodriguez’s system.

Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said that Paulus was welcome to join the football team, but made it clear that he would not be able to compete for the quarterback job without having gone through spring practice. Paulus also visited Nebraska, but the next most logical option was hometown Syracuse where redshirt freshman Ryan Nassib had been named the starter.

I wanted to see Paulus end up in Ann Arbor for two reasons. Number one, he would have been the only person to play in two of the greatest college sports rivalries, Duke-North Carolina and Ohio State-Michigan, and number two because I know there is no way that Jon Tenuta would have lost to him on Sept. 12.

Paulus became the poster boy for Duke haters when J.J. Redick left and I have to admit that I enjoyed many of the jokes (look him up on Youtube). But I’ll be watching him this fall and since the Orange are no longer on the Irish schedule, I’ll be rooting for him.

Notre Dame, they say that you either love them or you hate them.

But is it possible for a giant organization like ESPN to have it both ways? I say yes.

I doubt I would have much trouble convincing subscribers that the Worldwide Leader has a grudge against the Irish, but at the same time, ESPN has done some positive things in regard to Notre Dame, this site included.

ESPN simply understands the impact of covering Notre Dame because so many people do love them and so many people do hate them.

Yes, this is the same organization that employs Mark May, but it is also Lou Holtz’s current employer.

For every Notre Dame fan that will complain about negativity toward the Irish during College Football Live’s Notre Dame Week, there will be one fan from each of the other 118 Division I college football teams who will complain that the Irish do not deserve their own week on the show.

While it is obvious that John Saunders’ grudge dating back to Tyrone Willingham’s dismissal has not been satisfied even with Willingham’s track record at Washington. But I think that most Irish fans would agree with the assessments made by analyst Ed Cunningham during the first two days of Notre Dame Week.

This blog is not intended to argue the objectivity or lack thereof of ESPN, though.

Notre Dame Week on College Football Live got me thinking about how the increase of media has changed the experience for fans and how it that is an issue for national outlets.

In the days of the internet and 24-hour news cycle, the fan is educated like never before and that is can be a problem for national media covering a fan’s favorite team. Websites, this one included, and other local media outlets have increased their coverage to the point that oftentimes the fan knows more about their team than the national analysts, regardless of credentials.

One of the key components of my job is to follow Notre Dame football on virtually a daily basis. My knowledge of the game would never compare to that of a former coach or player, who is assigned as a national analyst. But by going to Notre Dame practice and talking to Irish players and coaches just about everyday from August until December and then for another month in March, I’m in a better position to understand the program than most national guys.

Similarly, Notre Dame fans - like you - follow the team on a daily or semi-daily basis too. and, if I’m doing my job right, you are in the same position as I am. But it is the job of the national analysts to provide commentary on more than 100 teams.

Prior to the start of Notre Dame Week, Charlie Weis tweeted his thoughts on this issue:

“The interesting part of this will be how ESPN decides to spin the upcoming season. I find it quite amusing that analysts/experts can give their opinion without visiting. In all my years of coaching, I learned to follow one simple creed: ‘Go by what you see.’ It’s tough to do that without visibly witnessing Spring Ball.”

This is not an excuse for the national guys not to know their stuff because that is their job too and they should know more than the average fan. But when a diehard fan today sees their team discussed at the national level, many times the fan is more educated on the team than the person doing the talking.

So many times when the fan hears something positive it is something that is obvious to them. Likewise, when something negative is said, it is easy for the fan to say that the person talking does not know what they are talking about.