The only thing fair to ND with Kelly's contract extension is if he pans out. I have always thought he was a good hire. I still think so..... it's just that ND wasn't ready for a team like Bama last year..... and this year hasn't been all the Irish fans wanted. He deserves another year to prove his worth before the seat get's hot like Muschamp's is.
One of Lou Holtz's many funny stories about coaching at ND goes something like this (apologies to Coach Holtz for not being exact): We won most of our games, and they told me I had to do better. We went undefeated, and they told me I had to win by bigger scores. The moral: Fans are never satisfied.
Not to break up the Tommy Rees fan club meeting but...... You spent a paragraph waxing poetic about Rees' tremendous performance over a Tulsa team that Oklahoma State dropped 65 points on earlier in the year. Most all of their games were shootouts (losing 51-49 to East Carolina and winning 56-50 in a win over So Miss) They routinely gave up about 4 TDs a game. ND's 27 points equals the point total that Rice scored on them the next week. My contention is that he has always treated Rees differently. The offense has always looked different with Rees in. EVen Christ was expected to pull the ball down and run. Rees simply refuses to do this, or it's not in the package. Either way, we're not using one major facet of our offense when Rees is in the game by default. There's no doubt his freshman year was one allegedly used out of desperation, but his sophomore year? And while people love to talk about 'Tommy the Closer' last year, they don't seem to realize that he was a guy who was in his 3rd year. He was a guy who was given a blank check. He could make mistakes. He could do whatever he wanted. He wasn't coming out of the game. That is a luxory that neither Christ OR he successor, Golson, were afforded. People constantly talk about Tommy 'pulling the team out of the fire' but what about all the times he threw the team in the BBQ pit and tossed lighter fluid on the damned thing? He looks like the guy you want to be the hero. He looks like the guy you want to root for. The truth of the matter is that he's just not that good. You can say he should be a team leader, but he was arrested right there with Carlo. At least Carlo was defending him, Tommy was just being a dipshit (who got run down from behind by a couple of middle aged cops)... lest we all forget how Golson really wound up the starter. For whatever reason, people keep making excuses for Rees and he just keeps giving you exactly what you deserve.
If Christ got hurt we at least had Rees. If Rees gets hurt.....!!! I'm sure they don't want him taking one more hit than is necessary.
Kp...just couldn't resist tossing that one in! Corey...Rees is slower than Molasses and you want him running the ball? Crist was a totally different story, Dayne while not Johnny Football is a kid who had the wheels (before injuries took him down) who could have pulled the ball down and made some yards...Do you remember him vs Purdue when Clausen was injured in 2009? And Golson didn't get handed the job because Tommy was serving a suspension for getting nailed by the SB Cops...Golson was going to be the starter no matter what and he needed to be the starter, we needed him to be the starter...he's the type of QB that Kelly wants.
KP, Terry, I would be inclined to believe that if there is any real evidence over the previous 3 years to support that other than speculative spring/summer football talk. When Rees got popped he was the starter. They can say Golson was going to beat him out, and that may well be the case, but we've seen absolutely zero evidence to show that Kelly would actually do that. I agree that this system is best with a Golson type QB, or at least a QB with some mobility. After Christ's injury, he was not fast at all. I'm sure you've not forgotten that I've stated repeatedly that Tommy is slow. However, there are times in which he could pick up an extra 3 yards that would really help. I'm almost positive you, or someone, posted an interview with Kelly before the year saying Rees was going to do just that. We've still to see any evidence of it though. If we throw on 1st and 10, and the D drops coverage, if the QB can pick up even 3 yards, that puts us in a workable down and distance situation on 2nd down. If that kid from Oklahoma last year could do it regularly, Rees can do it. He just won't. He's stubborn. Our coach is stubborn and I just can't wait for it to be over. The real question is the lack of QB depth built by our staff. I understand Kiel left, but given what he inherited (the situation with no QB depth), you'd think he'd be aggressively signing QBs. Instead, it's still a bare closet.
I don't get your point. What is the alternative to Rees? Crist imploded and/or was injured. So they turned to Rees. Golson spent over a year learning the playbook, so they turned to Rees. Golson finally can be put on the field, has panic attacks in the first half of the season, so they put in Rees. Golson cheats on a test, gets caught and kicked out before the season, so they put in Rees. Rees gets racked up, they put in Hendrix and we see the worst half of football out of QB that most of us have ever witnessed. So they rush Rees back from a neck injury. I don't think Tommy Rees is anyone's preference but we have NO alternative. Unless you are ready to strap on a helmet, my friend, I'm not sure who else can play these next two games. Rees has absolutely saved ND football for four years from complete meltdown. They ought to put a statue of him outside the stadium because unlike many others, he has maxed out his talent under extreme duress.
we're in year 4 of the Kelly regime and we have no alternative to Rees. That's the problem. I really get what you're saying, I do. However, the bus chucking of Christ in Rees' sophomore year after one half of football really tipped Kelly's hand here. We are not running a complex offense, contrary to popular belief. Rees makes mental mistakes and bad reads constantly. That's not even counting his bad throws. Somehow, we see other top 25 programs recruiting guys who can step in as freshman yet we are somehow cursed with a never ending string of guys who are either not talented enough or smart enough to grasp an offense that is far from difficult. That's my point.