Well Chuck Martin makes his return to South Bend. Chuck was a pretty darn good coach for Kelly and he was a hard worker according to everything I read about him. He's got a tough gig in restoring Miami to being a good MAC team, but seems to be making progress. It was a pretty big mess when he took the job. Interesting Stat that somebody posted. With Chuck Martin at ND (2010-2013) 37-15...71.2% winning pct. Without Chuck Martin at ND (2014-2017) 25-17...59.5% winning pct. He wore a lot of hats at ND, coached safeties and was the OCoord for the 2012 team. But the Irish are 23 point favorites and as much as I might like Martin, we need to beat his ass badly in the 1st half so we can get a lot of backups into the game for the late 3rd and 4th quarters. No slow start please! Irish seem to be pretty healthy. Our RB's are a little dinged up all of them with some degree of ankle problem. Josh was held out after the 1st half of the MSU game, which is why Dexter started the 2nd half, Tony Jones Jr didn't even dress and Williams later left with a tweaked ankle as well. Adams did come back in later for a short yardage play. So Deion McIntosh is our only 100% healthy back, although Kelly indicated that all would be ready to go by Saturday. A lot of people wonder if Kevin Stepherson will make his first appearance this weekend. He is likely our 2nd best WR, but has been on some sort of suspension that nobody really knows what it's all about. But 4 games have come and gone and it's expected that he'll be cleared to play. I won't be completely shocked though if after a big emotional win over MSU that the Irish come out a little flat since it's a MAC team. Something like Clemson after a big win over Louisville came out flat vs a bad BC team and didn't get free of them till the 4th qtr and then they smoked them. As I said earlier I prefer to smack in the 1st half and the coast the 2nd half with backups.
Notre Dame <r>REF:Stefferson<br/> <br/> Quote from Mike Frank,<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Hope this is true.</r>
The Irish are still in the playoff picture. These are the games they need to win convincingly to keep the pollsters interested. The line is opened at 23 and they need to win by that much or more at home.
It will take an 11-1 finish for the Irish to really be in the picture. That and some luck with the Conference Championship games. I doubt if we can stay ahead of any 12-1 conference champion. Which is why the B12 went to a Conference Championship game, even though a lot of people think it's stupid since we don't have divisions and play a true round robin. But the committee seems to be stuck on teams that have the Conference Championship. If we are 11-1, and the Pac12 Champion is USC even though we would have beaten them in Oct if we are 11-1, and if USC is also 11-1 going to the Pac12 Championship game and wins it to finish 12-1 I think the committee will go with USC. I also wonder if UGA goes undefeated and so does Alabama if it's a good game in the SECCG that both of them don't make the playoffs. It's unlikely of course. We rarely have multiple undefeated teams by the end of the year. The thing I am hoping for the Irish this year is that this team gets better as the year goes along. We have a lot of good parts, but we do have a lot of room for growth and improvement. Wimbush needs to become a better passer, if he grows in that way during the season and guys like Claypool become threats to go along with St.Brown and maybe Stepherson returns and plays to the potential he showed last season. Then add in the good RB's we have we can be that offense that I thought we would be before the season started. Same on defense, it's a new defense and the guys are doing well with it, so as they get more comfortable with it they can become even better. There certainly are a lot of fans out there who think we will still finish 8-4 at the best, maybe so, but I'm hopeful that we will continue to build on the good start and be a better team. Last year USC started horribly but slowly things turned around for them and by the time they beat Penn State in the Rose Bowl they were one of the best teams in the country.
BTW what's the over/under on how many games Chris Finke can last not fair catching anything in the punt game. He's certainly the direct opposite of Sids old neighbor, Fair Catch John Goodman!
8) Chris Finke will last forever. He will never die. He will never be caught, and he will never be found. He lives forever in the imagination of his opponents; side-stepping, moon-walking, and vanishing into piles of pursuers as they grasp at his shadow...
He also has better punt return protection than Goodman had. Regardless, He's an exciting player. I hope he breaks off a TD run one of these days.
Greer Martini has been named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy. Congratulations to him. There are a lot of semi finalists though....181 to be exact, but still. Manti Te'o, Chris Stewart and John Carlson were finalist but we've never had a winner. http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/092717aaa.html
I'll digress briefly without starting a new thread to mention that, 1) Men's Basketball has landed a 4-star big man, and 2) 247Sports rates ND's 2018 recruiting class no. 2 so far. Pretty cool. http://www.indystar.com/story/sport...te-laszewski-2018-recruiting-class/709474001/ It's pronounced La-shess-ki.
I do hope that the Irish don't have any dirty players or coaches in the basketball program. We haven't for the most part been players for the highly rated players, even this year our great class is not made up of 1 and done types. But as this plays out, I think we'll be shocked at the extent of the problem and who is impacted. Back to football....It appears that Kevin Stepherson will at least be suited up and is no longer practicing with the Scout team. Kelly said quite a bit positive about him, but said he has to work his way back into the rotation. The forgotten DL, Daniel Cage is not working out with the team, is concentrating on his academics. Kelly said in Jan they will review whether or not he'll return to football. He's had knee surgery and has been dealing quite a bit with the concussion problem. It might be the best thing for him in the long run to move on with his life like Corey Robinson did last year.
Irish up 45-14 at halftime. But somehow it feels like we are struggling. While Wimbush has made some good throws, he has all day for the most part and has thrown more than a few into the dirt. He still is a qB that a good team can do what Georgia did, make him beat you throwing and right now he can't do that. I hope in the 3rd qtr that they work on some short quick routes, some crossing routes, some slants...get it out quick. Josh Adams and Tony Jones Jr. ..dinged up now. Deion MacIntosh is going to have the take the load in the 2nd half and maybe a walkon RB will need to get some caries. Barring a big collapse by the Irish defense, we should see Book sometime late in the 3rd qtr or early in the 4th.
Also other than Nick Watkins being overmatched vs #81 for Miami the defense has played well, not lights out Alabama dominant but solid. Lord if we'd had a DCoord like this in 2104-15 instead of BVG, I don't think we'd have endured 4-8 season. And maybe we'd have beaten Stanford.
Good win for the Irish. I just hope we have enough RB's to finish the season. Dieon McIntosh probably figured he'd be lucky to get some garbage time carries now he's our only healthy Rb. Defense played well, not outstanding but good enough. They did seem to not be able to get much pressure on the Miami Qb and gave up a lot of 3rd down completions. Maybe we're a bend don't break defense. Wimbush, I want to really like him but I don't see any progress as a passer. Sure he made a few good throws, but his stat line was terrible. Book looks much more comfortable throwing the ball. We need for Brandon to get to that point if we are going to beat the better teams comming up. But for now I will just enjoy the win
:idea: :arrow: - I really like Ian Book and Chris Finke. I wish they would play more. - I really did NOT like our fake punt to run up the score... - Aliens have kidnapped Brian Kelly and replaced him with a jovial grandpa who smiles and kisses assistant coaches... - This may be a very good team, if we can find a QB who can throw...
Missed the second half. The fake punt in the second quarter? If that is the one I have no problem with it at all Timing was fine and I believe the score was 28-7 at the time. Wimbush is just not a good passing QB. And not a particularly good decision maker. Mechanics are terrible. He is blessed to have a dominant O-Line that gives him an incredible mount of time but even that does no seem to help. To be fair, Wimbush's receivers as a group do not seem to be getting the kind of separation we have grown accustomed to in recent years. The defense is the story of this team and the upgrade since the new DC rode in is remarkable.