Eric Hansen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Mike Turkovich sashayed into Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis’ office Sunday, handed in his crutches and leg brace and pronounced himself ready to reassume his starting left offensive tackle duties

It was a welcome surprise from arguably Weis’ biggest surprise player of the season. Turkovich had to be carried from the field late in Saturday’s 28-21 Irish victory over Stanford.

"It was much better than we thought it would be," Weis said with a chuckle. "Originally, he really played it up, like something was broken. He really laid it on thick. But (Sunday) he walked in without wearing a brace. He'll be practicing (Monday)."

The only thing better would have been if the 6-foot-6, 305-pound Turkovich had confessed a secret talent and desire to place-kick.

For a team on the outside looking in at the top 25 polls, the place-kicking situation/crisis is the most glaring facet of the Irish team that reeks of untop25-ishness. Not that it keeps voters from considering Notre Dame over, say, this week’s opponent, 22nd-ranked North Carolina (4-1) and other cusp teams, but that at some point it figures to come back to bite the Irish (4-1) in a close game.

For now, Brandon Walker’s 1-for-7 inaccuracy on field goals this season --including two misses Saturday against Stanford -- is at times sucking the confidence out of Weis’ team and confidence -- that much-needed quality for a winning program -- is still otherwise in a fragile/building phase for the Irish.

Early this week Weis will once again try out on place kicks kickoff man Ryan Burkhart, a junior who has lost every kicking competition in practice to sophomore Walker the past season and a half, most of them by wide margins. He’ll also try the stronger-legged Walker kicking off. The Irish are one of just 15 teams in the 119-school FBS that has not recorded a single touchback this season.

Improving on kickoffs and field goals won’t alone lift the Irish to top-25 status. Here are five fixes -- perhaps easier fixes than getting the overall kicking game to click -- that could vault the Irish in the direction of getting ranked. Interestingly, they face a team Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C., that sort of mirrors the same strengths and flaws.

Rushing Offense
The Irish stand at No. 105 out of the 119 FBS schools. North Carolina is No. 89. For comparison’s sake of what a top 25 team should look like, let’s go right to the top, to No. 1-ranked Oklahoma. The Sooners are a modest 40th in rushing offense and that’s really all the Irish need to be. That’s enough to complement a passing attack that’s fourth in the nation. The Sooners’ are fifth in total offense and fourth in scoring offense.

So how do the Irish get there? They need to continue to set the run up with the pass. In the past two weeks, sophomore quarterback Jimmy Clausen has climbed from 71stt to 40th nationally in passing efficiency and produced his two biggest passing-yardage days. His proficiency, more spread formations and large doses of sophomore running back Armando Allen seem to be the best way to get back in the running.

Sacks/Tackles For Loss
The Irish finally started making gains in these areas Saturday against Stanford, but still check in at 93rd in sacks and 100th in tackles for loss. North Carolina, by comparison, is 93/37. Oklahoma is 3/3.

Notre Dame has the right scheme. Defensive assistant Jon Tenuta’s tweaks to coordinator Corwin Brown’s system worked at Georgia Tech last season to the tune of the Yellow Jackets being the top sacking team in the nation in 2007.

The Irish players are finally starting to make significant strides when it comes to the timing and nuances of the blitz-heavy scheme. They’re also starting to get their best athletes on the field. The closer freshmen defensive linemen Darius Fleming and Ethan Johnson and freshman linebacker Steve Filer move toward becoming every-down players, the better the Irish defense will be in expressing Tenuta’s blitzing concepts.

Total Defense
The Irish rank 84th in that category, North Carolina is 57th and Oklahoma 11th.

No team in the BCS Era has won a national championship with a total defense ranking lower than 25th. The Irish aren’t contenders for a national title this season but they’d certainly like to move closer to that template.

They are pretty respectable in scoring defense (40th) and that’s largely due to 14 takeaways. Moving the total defense number up is tied to the sacks and tackles for loss. Opposing offenses haven’t had to face to many second-and-12s and third-and-15s. Those negative-yardage plays get teams off the field faster.

Red-Zone Offense
The Irish are dead last nationally in this category at 47 percent (9-for-19) and it’s not even close. The kicking woes figure into the formula significantly but not completely. Turnovers have also been a bugaboo. North Carolina is 88th in red-zone offense. Oklahoma is tied for first, at a perfect 25-of-25.

Red-zone offense doesn’t ensure overall success -- woeful Syracuse, like Oklahoma, has a flawless percentage. It’s just that the Orange don’t get to the red zone very often.

ND’s other flaws feed into this -- the inconsistent running game being the most glaring behind the field goal problem. Saturday when the Irish were just trying to run the clock out, they couldn’t convert a third-and-1 or a fourth-and-inches and gave the ball back to Stanford for one final desperation fling. Fixing the running game and the kicking game will help ND move out of the basement.

Third-down conversions
Notre Dame ranks 92nd in this category at 33.9 percent. North Carolina is 52nd, Oklahoma 15th at nearly 50 percent (49.3).

The Irish have improved significantly here in the past couple of weeks but still have plenty of room for improvement. The good news is they aren’t facing a lot of third-and-longs. The bad news is third-and-short is still too much of a challenge.

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The emergence of freshmen tight end Kyle Rudolph has been a big boost here. Perhaps relying on the short passing game rather than forcing the issue with the run until that facet shows more reliability is part of the answer. To finish off games in a flourish, something ND did not do Saturday, the Irish are going to have to be able to possess the ball and run some clock.

Put it all together Saturday, and Notre Dame can likely say hello to the top 25 heading into an off week for the Irish.

Normally coaches play down the importance of rankings and Weis is usually one of them. But not this year, not after the 3-9 thud in 2007 and all the statistical carnage that came with it.

“One of the big things for the players this entire year is about earning respect,” Weis said. “Last year we felt that we didn't earn any, justifiably so. We didn't as an organization, coaches, players, everyone. I think that this year that's one of the big things with the team, is that we wanted to put Notre Dame back on the map in a positive vein, not a negative vein. And I think that that would be one message, to say that you've earned your way back into the picture.”

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