By SCOTT NOVAK
Niles Daily Star

After sharing Notre Dame’s Most Valuable Player honors Friday night at the annual football banquet, Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate shared another platform on Monday afternoon.

The two announced their plans to skip their final season for the Fighting Irish and enter the National Football League draft.

Clausen has completed 289 of his 425 passes this season for Notre Dame with 28 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He has thrown for 3,722 yards.

His career numbers at Notre Dame are 695-of-1,110 for 8,148 yards and 60 touchdowns. He was intercepted 27 times. He started 34 of 35 games in his career.

His average of 310.2 yards per game ranks him third in the country. His seven 300-plus yard passing games this season is a new Fighting Irish record.

Clausen ranks nationally in 12 different offensive categories.
At Notre Dame, the junior quarterback is first or second in 32 passing categories.

He will graduate this spring from the College of Arts and Letters with a sociology degree.

Tate has had an equally impressive career at Notre Dame.
This past season he grabbed 93 passes for 1,496 yards and 15 touchdowns.

For his career, Tate has 157 receptions for 2,707 yards and 26 touchdowns.

The American Football Coaches Association named him All-American recently. He is also a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award.

Tate tied or set six Fighting Irish records for receiving, including most receiving yards and most 100-yard games.

He is in the top eight in nine offensive categories.

Tate is enrolled in the College of Arts and Letters and is a sociology major.

Both players were emotional as they addressed the media about their decision. At their request, former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis was present as well.

“Growing up as a kid, one of my lifelong dreams has been to play in the NFL and with that being said, with the support of my family and coaches I will be forgoing my senior year and entering the 2010 NFL draft,” Clausen said, after thanking family, friends, coaches and teachers.

“I will always be a Golden Domer for life,” Clausen said. “The Notre Dame experience is something I will never forget.”

He added that he hopes that Notre Dame will continue to have success and will find a new coach to lead the program in the right direction.

“This was a very tough decision for me,” Tate said. “I have made so many great friends at Notre Dame and the coaching I received in football and baseball has been the best. But after talking with my family and coach Weis, I am going to pursue my dream and enter next year’s NFL draft.”

Tate is giving up both a football and baseball career at Notre Dame.

Like Clausen, he thanked family, friends, teammates and said that he enjoyed his time at Notre Dame.

He also said that he would get his degree at a later time.

When asked what led to his decision, he said that Clausen leaving played a part in it.

Tate and Clausen agreed that the upcoming salary cap in the NFL did not play a part in their decision to leave.

They both felt that the time was right and they did all they could do and it was time to apply their talents elsewhere.

Neither has selected an agent and they plan to sit down with their respective families to decide on who will represent them.

They also said that they did not know if they would be enrolled next semester at Notre Dame.

Weis issued a statement and did speak at the press conference.

“First of all, I’d like to offer my personal congratulations and best wishes to both Golden and Jimmy, considering the decisions they announced today,” Weis said. “Based on all the information that’s available, they’ve both put themselves in position to advance their football careers to the next level and have a great chance to be successful and that’s a credit to how hard they’ve worked and what they’ve accomplished.”