Odds and ends. You can't go out much classier than Zaire with that letter. When the raw emotion of getting your ass kicked for three months wears off, it is easier to analyze what went wrong. in order: 1. Offensive line. Universally hyped by all as maybe the best unit in college football in August, they got beat the entire season. 2. LOFT. Good call gipper, The loss of Fuller, Chris Brown and Alize Jones proved too much. St. Brown is good but he was not at that level and they had no viable rreplacement at TE. 3. Kizer.Regressed from quarter to quarter each and every game. Showed a lack of patience and some frustration on the field. Looks heavy too. IMHO he is years away from NFL starter. 4. Poor coaching. Kelly looked detached and confused. Uncle Rico was the 9th highest paid assistant coach in the game and provided nothing at all. The rest of the staff was so-so. 5. Defensive line. Big and soft like a roll of Charmin.
ND <t>Zaire is a great young man and I wish him success wherever and whatever he does in the future. <br/> <br/> This season has been rough for me as Im sure it has most Irish fans. Honestly I haven't watched much college football at all. Since it's fairly obvious that Kelly will returning now he and the staff need to find a proven DC from a major program who can come in and get the Defense on track quickly. That's about the only thing concerning the team that would get me enthused again. I really thought were done having seasons like this.</t>
I see that the Irish did get some good news today. Aaron Banks a 4 star, highly ranked OG chose the Irish today and will be enrolling in Jan. We do have some talent on the OL, now if next year they will finally develop into a dominant group.
I'm with you Tim, unless the defense gets a Coord who can mould the talent in to a good unit it won't make much difference what the offense does next year. Look at teams like Texas Tech, amazing offenses but nothing on defense...result some interesting wins where they out score people but really not much else. Also the banquet was last night and Kelly named captains for next year and surprisingly Kizer was one of them. But nobody is predicting him to return next year. But there are 7 of them. It does look like the OL will all be back, hopefully they'll be better. No word on Taurean Folston though. I'll be surprised if he doesn't transfer or go to the NFL.
ND <t>Good news for the OL. We gotta hit a home run on the DC. Needs to be someone with some experience with a bigger program. <br/> <br/> I like Folsten but he doesn't have the quickness or flat out speed to get it done.<br/> <br/> I think Kelly naming Kizer as captain is wishful thinking and hoping he will come back.</t>
Tim and Terry, I appreciate your enthusiasm for the return of the O-line, but I'm having trouble getting excited for the return of an O-line that - in George's words, with which I agree - was overrated. I don't know what the answer is. Maybe they all will miraculously get better and gel together. I sure hope so.
I'm pretty sure that our pre-season All American captain on the OL McGlinchey let the team in false starts. Says a lot for the leadership on that team. Oh, and wasn't it refreshing seeing an Army team with half the talent but twice the heart of ND beat Navy yesterday.
Well I get it that our OL was not what we hoped for, and I guess I could make excuses that other than Nelson all were playing a new position. But still they underachieved given the pre-season expectations. However there is talent there, McFlinchey will be a 1st round pick and so will Q.Nelson both consistently grade out as NFL 1st rounders. We have some very highly rated freshmen who will be competing next year for spots and Tristen Hoge who was highly thought of will be competing for either the center or R-Guard slot. There is a lot of potential there and I'm glad it's coming back. I don't see how anybody could not be glad they are all coming back. So the issue is the problem Harry Heistand or is it the offense design (Kelly) or what. Also this years class coming in Feb will also be a very good class. And don't forget that HH has Zach Martin and Nick Martin in the Pro's along with Ronnie Stanley and one other guy who for the moment I can't think of his name. Zach and Ronnie were 1st round draft choices, Nick Martin was called by Bill O'Brien the best prepared rookie OL he'd ever coached.
no shock, Kizer has declared for the NFL. Good luck to him, but he really needed another year in college IMHO. I keep reading conflicting things about him, both Kiper and McShay say he should stay in school, but then some NFL Scout said he's the best QB in the draft and another guy said he thought the class was so weak at QB that there will likely be no QB taken in the 1st round. Somebody else said the Browns will take him with the 1st pick, which is another reason he should stay in school!! The Wimbush era starts now.
McGlinchey and Nelson were AP All-American's, 3rd team...but still. http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/12/alabama-and-ohio-state-each-land-six-players-on-ap-all-american-teams/
Nice, so we're in the Wimbush era at ND now? I like it! We gotta 300lb road grater committing. We don't have a rose garden, but we're plucking out some weeds to see things a bit more clearly. Bye Kizer... Nothing against the kid. I wish him luck. Jeff George was very talented as well.
I won't miss Kizer but he is in no way ready for the NFL. 15 months ago he was warming the bench wondering if he would ever play. Now he's a pro? I guess Mike Sanford, the O-Coordinator and QB coach is leaving as well. Michael Floyd got another DUI today. Probably time for re-hab
Well Mike Sanford is reportedly the next WKU coach and Wake Forrest DC Mike Elko ( who is a hot DC) is interviewing for the ND job tomorrow according to Mike Frank. I did read about Mike Floyd's DUI, so sorry to read that. He clearly has a problem. Very Sad, I hope he can accept that he has a problem and make the commitment to fix it. Accpetance is the hardest part I've heard.
ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Kizer gone, good luck to him. Sanford also. <br/> <br/> I'm with you on this one Corey. If anyone has been paying attention over the past two years, many have been saying that that Wimbush would be a better QB than either Zaire or Kizer. I guess he gets a chance to show us now. <br/> <br/> i'm still waiting for a new proven DC.</r>
Konrad Reuland, former ND student-athlete, transferred to Stanford, has died at 29. http://www.indystar.com/story/news/...ts-tight-end-konrad-reuland-29-dies/95367146/
That's too bad about the young man. As for ND, we've done better when we're dealing with certainty and headed in one direction. We know what type of QB Wimbush is and we can plan accordingly. One thing I think we saw this season, aside from a lack of leadership, was a lack of direction. Can we pound it? Can we pass block? Can we zone block? It seemed that we tried to be good at several different things, rather than great at one. Zaire and Kizer were totally different style QBs and it seemed that we tried to squeeze 2 QBs into a compromised system trying to accomodate both of them, even after Kizer was named the guy. With a younger/inexperienced QB, we're going to need to emphasize the run first. We didn't have to establish that with the other 2, and I think that hurt us. Wimbush is athletic and has a cannon for an arm. Provided that everyone stays out of trouble between now and next kickoff, he'll have open targets. We must be able to run the ball next year.
Yeah Wimbush will be in his 3rd year with this offense, so inspite of lack of playing time there is no reason why he shouldn't hit the ground running next fall. He will have a veteran OL and most of the WR's will be returning. Only Corey Holmes who was hardly used at all and Tori Hunter Jr will not be back and the rest of the bunch will all have had a year under their belts. The RB's he'll have to work with include a hopefully healthy Adams that we saw at the end of the year and rising stars in Tony Jones and Dexter Williams. There is a lot to work with in this offense, he should be able to do very well. The defense will be the issue again, unless Mike Elko the new (I assume) DCoord can light a fire under these guys and give them a scheme that they can execute. I do hope if it's Elko that he is given control over who will stay and who will go on the Defense coaching side. He's a 3-4 guy at Wake Forrest so I assume we will be going back to that, we ran that with Diaco for the most part. Scott Booker the TE/ST coach has been fired and there is no word on Paul Longo the S&C coach.