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On safety Zbikowski's return for a 5th year to ND.
A decision he had to make based on poor performance last year that hurt his draft status.
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Zbikowski picked off five passes in 2005, but he didn't have any interceptions last season. He finished 40th in the nation in punt return average after ranking 13th in that category the previous year.
That might help explain why Zbikowski decided to return to Notre Dame for a fifth season.
"I just wasn't happy with the way I played at all, really," Zbikowski said. "I have too much pride to leave on that type of note."
Zbikowski made the best decision for himself.
Although he was considered a probable early draft pick before the season, Zbikowski's disappointing 2006 campaign hurt his stock considerably.
He was better off staying out of a draft class that already featured plenty of talented safeties. Florida's Reggie Nelson, Louisiana State's LaRon Landry, Miami's Brandon Meriweather and Texas' Michael Griffin all are potential first-round picks who probably would have gone ahead of Zbikowski.
"He would have fallen like a rock," said Frank Coyle, the head scout of draftinsiders.com. "He looked like a sure top-50 pick in August, but there's no way he'd be a top-50 pick now. He'd probably go somewhere in the third or maybe in the fourth round. He missed too many tackles."
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Of course, there is much talk of how much this will bolster the Irish D - culminating in this ...
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"He made a wise move returning," Coyle said. "You never know. There's nothing to say he can't be a first-round pick."
And if Zbikowski does recapture that 2005 form, there's nothing to say Notre Dame can't confound the skeptics and earn a third consecutive BCS bid.
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Nothing except reality checks against Michigan, Penn State, Purdue and UCLA on the road in their first six games, and a murderer's row of starting games - ND's first nine opponents posted a combined record of 78-40 last year.