We don't often get to write stories that involve our two main rivals but I thought this was interesting.

Sophomore TE Joseph Fauria has left Notre Dame and will enroll at ucla. Fauria is from Encino so this is a bit of a homecoming for him. Fauria was suspended by ND for the boiler plate reason of "violation of team rules" (rumors I have read are sexual misconduct...but nothing is confirmed). Instead of sticking it out like he originally said he would he decided to move on.

Our friends at Blue Gray Sky give us some insight...

Fauria also claims he was forbidden to appeal the decision. Unlike the rest of you diligent and pious alums, I cannot quote chapter and verse from DuLac, so I paged through it this morning looking for the "appeals" guidelines. I was surprised to find that ND's disciplinary process only allows for "case reviews", not appeals, and even then only in situations where procedural defect is alleged or new information has come to light. Appealing simply on the grounds of "severity of punishment" is never considered. While this may be a crummy policy, what this tells us is that Fauria's lack of access to appeal probably wasn't out of the ordinary in the draconian world of ResLife.

I have no idea what Fauria did, and you probably don't, either. Fauria claims it was something minor (you'd laugh if you knew, he said in another interview). I will say that there seems to be a lot of rumors flying around, ranging from the merely prankish to more serious allegations. Unless Fauria himself divulges the details -- the school certainly won't -- we'll likely never know the facts in the case. Given that we don't know the details, and given the fact that ResLife has no reservoir of credibility to draw from, it's hard to know if justice was served in Fauria's suspension.

Who knows...who cares. But if it is significant enough for ND to suspend him (even if it is minor in nature as some are alluding to) then it is a little surprising to see ucla take a player with a bit of a discipline problem. I mean ucla is pristine right? They would never take a player with a discipline issue would they?

More irony...

It is interesting that Fauria chose ucla.

Slick Rick adds a decent player to an average stable of TE's if they can 1) stay healthy or 2) contribute immediately. What they don't have a lot of is offensive lineman. Fauria is listed at 6'7" - 245lbs but he is not a speed guy and he is too light to play OL (even though he did play OL occasionally). Just briefly looking at ucla's roster they have 5 TE's listed and that is before before Morrell Presley comes to school. I am not seeing how this is a good move for ucla. Sure you can throw Fauria in at OL in a pinch but that is limited. He isn't going to bulk up and if he is used in a pinch it once again shows how dire the situation is on the ucla OL.

To his credit it wasn't like Fauria was utilized effectively by Charlie "we'll have a decided schematic advantage" Weis as Her Loyal Sons points out...

And BGS did an analysis on what drove a lot of that vanilla-ness, and frankly I can never top that (and why would I try - it answers the question beautifully).  The answer?  Well, no TE’s.  Okay, not none.  One awesomely talented Frosh, and a fill-in Olineman, and for a few minutes Joe Fauria.  That’s what we had at Tight End last year.  Despite becoming TE U in terms of recruiting, we had 1.5 (Fauria was the half) last year, and both were true Freshmen.    Ragone was out hurt, Yeatman was out drinking, and so that left Rudolph and Fauria.  Rudolph, despite being a TRUE frosh, was somewhat ready.  Fauria really wasn’t.  So what does that leave as options?  1 TE and 2 TE sets, with the 2nd either being an unready Fauria or a fill-in like Trevor Robinson.  And that GREATLY limited Weis’ offense.   His pro style offense depends on, and thrives from, inclusion of 2 and even 3 TE sets, giving the coach calling the plays and the QB lots of options to pick apart a defense.  Take away the TEs and those options get more and more limited.  Easier to predict and to defend against.

We all know Norm Chow likes using TE's but you still need an O line to protect the QB so he can get the TE the ball.

Should be interesting to watch...