Good One Guys, Captains Lighten the Mood at Daily Meeting

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- For the past four seasons I have been attending the Notre Dame captains' press conferences inside the spacious and cozy confines of the Gug's auditorium. And for the past four years these sessions have provided me with vivid, uncomfortable flashbacks of lecture hall profs whose monotonous delivery would lead me to daydream about whether they'd be serving chicken patty sammiches for lunch in the South Dining Hall.

Dig it: Most of the Irish captains have been extremely bright and charismatic guys. Men such as Brady Quinn, Tom Zbikowski and Maurice Crum come to mind. The problem is always that they seem to be coached the way a defendant is before taking the stand. In fact, the only humorous moment that comes to mind from the past few years happened in 2006. I rose from my seat to grab the microphone from a fellow reporter to ask Zibby a question. As I began to ask the question while trying to sit down, I missed the edge of the theater chair and stumbled to the floor.

It was all very Chevy Chase, and Zibby broke character long enough to smirk. That's all -- no more than a smirk. But you could read his mind. It wasn't a proud day for the fourth estate.

Which is what made yesterday so wonderful. Three of the four Notre Dame captains -- Kyle McCarthy, Scott Smith and Eric Olsen -- uttered a bon mot, and completely unprovoked, I might add. In doing so they reaffirmed the long dormant belief that Irish players do have personalities, that they are not cliche-spewing automotons.

It all began when Tim Prister of Irish Illustrated asked McCarthy and Smith, both of whom are graduate students taking nine hours of course work, specifically what classes they had. When McCarthy mentioned that one of his courses was piano, Prister pounced, inquiring if this had been a lifelong dream.

"I have no previous expertise in the area," replied McCarthy, who carries himself like the kid who is going to ace the job interview with Lehman Bros. (If they still existed). "However, not that I need help, but I feel the female population might like that out of me."

At that point Smith, the special teams captain, interjected, "We're actually trying to set up a recital sometime this year so he can showcase his skills. Just thought I'd throw that out there."

Where has this been? Will captains' pressers now require a two-drink minimum? Is Kenny Banya going to start listening in to plagiarize their act? The feeling that arose in me when Smith dropped that ad-lib was the same one I had during Weis's debut at Pittsburgh (This Samardzija fellow ... where has he been hiding???).

Center Eric Olsen and quarterback Jimmy Kimmel -- er, Clausen -- were up next. Tough act to follow, but Olsen, the Staten Island native, was up to it. When asked his reaction to seeing Clausen on the ground, hurt, after absorbing his first sack of the season, Olsen replied, "Well, when he went down, I think the whole Notre Dame nation kind of held their breath, except for all the girls in the student section, they were all kind of cheering Dayne (Crist). I don't know what's up with that."

Clausen was asked what it was like the first time he realized he was a national TV figure and then, for fun, someone followed the same question up with Olsen ... a decidedly less visible figure. Have you been the focus of national coverage, Olsen was asked.

"Unfortunately, I have," the senior replied. "Twice. Once was when a certain defensive lineman from Boston College (B.J. Raji) kind of took me for a ride. I'm still waiting for his text message thanking me for getting him drafted in the first round. Then recently there was some other news from a couple games ago (Michigan, the Jonas Mouton punch) that was on TV. But, again, it was something that was negative. I'm still waiting for the day I get some positive attention.

Well, Eric, this is not television, but consider yourself getting positive attention here. And thanks for the quips.

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Stat du Jour: In his first two seasons (23 games), Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen completed three passes of 50 yards or more: a 69-yarder and a 60-yarder to Golden Tate, and a 51-yarder to Michael Floyd. In his first three games of 2009, Clausen has completed four passes of 50 or more yards: two to Michael Floyd, one to Golden Tate and one to Kyle Rudolph (and it would be five if the 76-yarder to Rudolph at Michigan was not nullified by a holding penalty).

Trivia Question: Who caught the longest recepton of Clausen's in his freshman year? (Hint: he's still playing)