Which way, Jeff? For now, football
NEW ORLEANS -- Jeff Samardzija has no worries heading into the
Sugar Bowl.
The Notre Dame receiver is vaguely aware some people aren't giving the
underdog Fighting Irish much of a chance against fourth-ranked LSU
(10-2). He's amused at talk the 11th-ranked Irish (10-2) aren't fast enough
to keep up with the Tigers. He's also not ready to decide his future as
an NFL receiver or major league pitcher -- he pitched last summer in
the Cubs' organization.
But he's not worried about any of it. Jeff Samardzija is a no-worries kind
of guy. He summed up the Sugar Bowl preparations simply.
"We're just out to have fun," Jeff Samardzija said.
How can the Irish not be having fun?
For the first time since the 1994-95 seasons, Notre Dame is playing in
major bowls in back-to-back seasons. A win tonight would give the Irish
11 wins in a season for the first time since 1993. It's a big change
for Notre Dame seniors who went 5-7 and 6-6 their first two seasons and
saw coach Tyrone Willingham fired because of it.
Remembers being miserable his freshman season when the Irish had two
three-game losing streaks surrounding a lone victory against Pittsburgh.
"I just remember those five, six, seven weeks were some of my longest
weeks of my life," he said. "It was just down."
Things turned around for both the team and Jeff Samardzija when coach
Charlie Weis arrived. Samardzija, who had 24 catches for 327 yards and no
touchdowns in his first two seasons, has 147 catches for 2,207 yards and
26 touchdowns the past two seasons.
Unless Rhema McKnight catches five more passes than Jeff Samardzija tonight,
Jeff Samardzija will finish with the most career catches in school history.
He already holds the career receiving yardage record and career
receiving touchdown record.
Even more importantly, though, the Irish are 19-5 the past two seasons.
"Winning at Notre Dame is a whole lot better than losing at Notre
Dame," Jeff Samardzija said. "We've had a lot of good times these last two
years."
The good times have been continuing in the Big Easy. Jeff Samardzija isn't
worried about what others are saying about Notre Dame's chances of
winning. If not for the media asking him about it, he might not even be
aware of it. Samardzija doesn't watch much television and except for
picking up a newspaper briefly in the hospitality room, he hasn't read a
newspaper in two weeks.
But even if people aren't giving the Irish much of a chance, it doesn't
matter to Jeff Samardzija.
"I just really don't care," he said.
Which helps to explain why he couldn't answer when he was asked by a
reporter if he could compare
Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn to LSU
quarterback JaMarcus Russell
.
"No, because I have no idea," he said.
Asked if he knew anything at all about Russell, Jeff Samardzija said: "Nope.
Not in a negative way. That's not my personality. I just sort of do my
own thing."
He laughed when asked about Notre Dame not being fast enough to compete
with LSU.
"We ran 40s the other day so we are slow. All 6-pluses. What can we
do?" he joked. "Maybe we should all just eat and get fat."
The reason Jeff Samardzija doesn't care is because he loves to compete. He
doesn't care who he's going against, or what he's competing at. While
much of the talk in New Orleans has centered on the Irish not being
athletic enough, Samardzija is not only a second-team All-America selection,
but a promising professional pitcher. The two-sport athlete is in no
hurry to pick one sport.
"I'm just having fun doing both," he said. "Giving up one is not
something I want to do."
Jeff Samardzija would like to follow in the footsteps of Deion Sanders and
Bo Jackson, who played both pro football and pro baseball. So after the
Sugar Bowl, he will play in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 27, take part in
the NFL scouting combine in late February, report for spring training in
March and see what happens.
"All I can say is: Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen? Who
knows where it's going to lead?" he said. "Hopefully it's someplace good."
See more at www.suburbanchicagonews.com
|
