Tar Heels are not the team that they were predicted to be, their defense has not been good and while they still have a really good QB in Sam Howell that hasn't been enough to make them live up to the pre-season hype. Irish after the week off and the USC game may have found some stability on the OL. They have a starting 5 that barring injury be what we see for the rest of the year. Against USC they protected Jack Coan very well and opened a few lanes for Kyren Williams to run for over a 100 yds for the first time this year. The defense was good enough to win, not great, not championship caliber but pretty good. Hopefully Kyle Hamilton will be back 100% for the game, but if not then DJ Brown who played pretty well in his place will have to step up again. I do hope that they don't rush Hamilton back, he deserves to be 100% and ready to go instead of 90% trying to compensate and maybe injuring himself again. Other than Hamilton I think we came out of USC pretty healthy. Chris Tyree didn't play due to that turf toe and I don't know how long that takes to heal. It seems like one of those things that can last awhle. Logan Diggs and C'Bo filled in nicely for him though so I think against what I expect from the UNC defense that they should be enough to give Kryen some rest when needed. If the Irish have found an offense that Jack Coan can thrive in and Kyren can run with than we should be a good team going forward. Those young recievers, esp that Styles kid really looked good. Kevin Austin continues to be a bit up and down to me. He dropped a sure TD in the 1st qtr, then later he made a finger tip grab on a low and away toss from Coan. To me he seems like somebody who needs to comeback next year and continue to work on his craft, whether he will of course is anybody's guess. If he plays well in the rest of the games I could see him as a late round draft pick. If he continues to be good/bad then FA if he goes to the NFL. I hope they can continue to grow Tyler Buchners game, he threw a couple of passes vs USC 2/2 for 24 yards. I hope that we can get into situations where we have a good lead and Kelly inserts him and lets him run a close to full offense rather than the Wildcat style of offense that he has been running. I do expect the Irish to win here, and I expect them to play well. We are not a good enough team to not play well and still win and we are not a good enough team to take any opponent lightly.
The Irish have recruited at a higher level the last 2-3 years and that depth is showing. Next year's class is a monster and 2023 is shaping up that way as well. Diggs looks like he is ready to take Tyree's job right now and the two FR wideouts look good too.
Kelly said that Hamilton is out for UNC, but that it's not a long term thing. I hope he rehabs well and is ready to finish the season. BTW: Today is Brian Kelly's birthday!
It was a big recruiting weekend for the Irish, the game atmosphere was good, and the weather was cool and crisp like it should be in late October in the midwest. Reading the online reports, they are all naturally pretty upbeat with many comments from recruits that say how great the experience was for them. Of course they pretty much say that everywhere they go, so take it with a grain of salt. One of the top recruits who was there is Drayk Bowen, a LB from Andrean, Indiana who is highly recruited and a 5 star kid. He is reportedly down to Auburn and Notre Dame. Interestingly baseball is important to him, and it's comes at a good time since Link Jarrett has ND baseball on the rise. Most think the Irish are likely to land him when he announces next week. Also that OL from Wisconsin, Billy Schrauth, is now being crystal balled to the Irish. But it's not over till it's over.
I saw online that Blake Fisher tweeted out "Soon" ..which everyone assumes that means that he's close to being ready to play. I hope he's not rushing it, he's so talented and the OL is finally looking like they might be developing some chemistry and we don't really need to make any changes. But if he is truly 100% then it would be nice to see him worked into the game a little at a time to start getting him ready for Spring drills and 2022. I have to imagine that while his knee might be close to being ready to go, that doesn't mean he's in football shape. So take it slow, work him in and get him comfortable and ready. With all of our injuries it's not like we don't need good depth.
Right now there is a lot of talk about the QB room for 2022. Everybody assumes, and rightly I think, that Jack Coan will not be back in 2022. I'm pretty sure he has said so early on in the move to Notre Dame. 1 and done! So with Brandon Clarke entering the Transfer Portal, which no doubt was the right thing for him to do as he was never going to start at ND, that leaves Buchner, Drew Pyne and Ron Powlus along with incoming freshman Steve Angeli. The speculation is that Drew Pyne is also likely to leave as Kelly by the way he's using Tyler Buchner has all but said that Buchner will head into Spring as the #1 QB. Pyne is reportedly a hypercompetitive kid and isn't likely to be satisfied with sitting on the bench as #2 for another year waiting to see if Buchner fails or gets injured. If he goes then it's Buchner, Ron Powlus a former 2 star HS QB, and Angeli who will be a true freshman and might not even be at ND in the Spring. Spring Drills with 2 QB's, Buchner and Powlus. ....talk about a thin QB room. If you are going go to the Portal, then no doubt after the season is the time to go, so that you can enroll at your next school in January and compete in their Spring Practice. I won't be surprised if Pyne is not available for the Bowl game.
Seems like the scouting reports on UNC is that the Irish are likely to end up in a shootout with the Tarheels. Not exactly our strength. Last week against USC we had a lot of time eating drives, not quick strike scores. So it would seem like we're a bit like a service academy team if that is going to be our offense going forward. We'll limit your possessions, so you'd better score. We need to be scoring TD's at the end of those clock eating drives not FG's though. No Kyle Hamilton is going to make it difficult for the Irish to contain their passing game, unless we can get a big rush on Sam Howell and also not let him get loose for big runs when his pocket breaks down. How many times have we seen our rush get a lot of pressure but over run the pocket and the QB sneaks out the front and makes 10 yards when he should've been sacked. From ISD. Offense Their offense has taken a step back from last season, but not a significant one. They’re currently ranked 12th in F+, 17th in yards per play, but only 44th in EPA per play. When they’re good, they’re very good. The Irish have to prepare for them to be at their best after a bye week. Notre Dame’s defense is likely going to be the toughest challenge they’ve faced even without Kyle Hamilton. Expected Strengths What makes this offense so difficult to defend is that they have great balance. They run it and throw it well. They do miss those two great backs they had last season, but Tennessee transfer Ty Chandler has been good for them and he’s had three plays of 50-yards or more. The big difference this season compared to the last one is that the rely on quarterback Sam Howell more as a runner. He leads Power 5 quarterbacks in rushing yards (minus sacks).
Big 10 Hockey starts this weekend with the Irish traveling to #7 Minnesota. Irish are 4-1-1 in the preseason.
I just read an article on Irish Illustrated that suggested that we may have seen the last of Kyle Hamilton. They said that if his injury lingers he may just sit out in anticipation of the NFL draft. There is something just not right about that.
I agree George, it seems like right now the whole opt out culture is expanding. Started a few years ago when McCaffrey opted out of a bowl game for Stanford rather than risk injury, and also Leonard Fournette did the same thing for LSU. Ever since then more players are opting out of bowl game. Last season we started to see players opt out of games after their team was out of the hunt for conference championships. Texas had several healthy players opt out of the final couple of games of the season. A lot of people are supporting this, most of the comments on Hamilton I have seen are supportive of him not playing any more. I don't want to see him play if he's not 100% either, but if he's ready to play and decides that he's opting out of the remaining games to work on the NFL I won't feel the same about the kid as I once did. I liked it when McGlinchy and Q.Nelson didn't opt out of the bowl game and went on and played even though they were both assured of being high 1st round draft picks and had nothing to gain by playing in that Bowl game vs LSU. We have a top rated RB in the Houston area, who is a Texas verbal for 2021 who opted out of his senior year of HS football so he could prepare himself for college football and not risk injury. I think of this as the Jaylon Smith effect. That uneccessary injury cost him a lot of money, even though he ended up recovering and getting a good contract from Dallas ...still I think players and their parents think about Jaylon if their son is a highly ranked player. Of course marginal players who need the game tape to hopefully impress NFL scouts want to play..need to play. I think it won't be long till some player who has a great freshman/Sophmore year and is being talked about as a 1st round NFL draft pick will opt out of his 3rd year to prepare for the NFL and avoid injury.
Revisiting the QB situation and whether or not Pyne will enter the portal, Pete Samson in The Athletic made a good case for why he'd choose to stay. First because Buchner runs as part of the offense, there's more likelihood he could get injured. Second, and more convincing is that he entered ND early and that he'll be close to getting his degree. He could play another season, graduate and then still have two yrs. eligibility as a grad student. As to Hamilton, it just doesn't feel right that a team captain would come out and say he cares more about his contract than his team.
I read that about Pyne and him staying. I hope he's correct. I've always like Pyne, mainly because of stuff I have read about him as a person. As far as Hamilton, I sort of agree with you gipper. I understand why a player with his NFL aspirations won't want to play unless he's 100%, I don't want injured players playing and risking further injury whether they are NFL players in the making or will be entering the workforce upon graduation. As I said the opt out culture is growing, I mentioned the Texas players who quit on their teammates before the end of the season and they were healthy. I don't remember the circumstances around the Florida TE Kyle Pitts who also didn't finish the season with the Gators. I think he was injured earlier in the season but got healthy and opted out later in the season. Maybe Bill can fill me in on that situation.
The article was hinting strongly that if Hamilton's knee is anything less than 100% that he may opt out of the balance of the regular season , not just a bowl game.
I don't begrudge players who are not 100% not playing. There certainly was a time when players were encouraged, maybe even demanded that they play hurt. I think that time should have passed by now. I would begrudge a player who is healthy and able to play declining to play for fear of an injury impacting his NFL draft status. We had a couple of those last year at Texas. As I said earlier the opt out culture is growing and I fully expect at some point a player who is projected as a top 10 NFL pick will opt out of his 3rd year so that he can prepare for the NFL draft and reduce the chance of an injury impacting it.
This conversation of opting out makes me envision Bo Schembechler giving a locker room speech stressing "The contract, the contract, the contract...."
From Kelly's Press Conference. ON THE LATEST WITH THE NOTRE DAME INJURIES "Kyle Hamilton's doing well. He's been actively involved with coaching this week. This has been a coaching week for him. He's done a really good job. He's working with the safeties. Totally engaged, being a captain, obviously doing a great job. So, pleased with that. Had PRP earlier in the week and then we'll see where he is. But moving around, obviously not practicing, been in weight training. We're training around the injury right now. In terms of Chris Tyree, we've made the progress necessary for him to be penciled in on kickoff today, so he'll get the first team reps on kickoff and he'll get reps in our Thursday second team unning back reps. So, the natural progress. Now he's gonna have to show us today at full speed that he's ready to go. But we like where we are at going into today's practice."