BK was sort of cagey yesterday when talking about Wimbush, day to day, he's in a good place and imprvoing, game day decision. So it's probably Book, with Van Gorder as the backup. I hope the OL is in top form and that the RB's get going early and take the pressure off of Book
I know McGlinchy certainly earned his nick name McFlinchy last year, but he's been solid this year except for that wiff in the Georgia game that ended our chance of a comeback. But I've watched a number of his interviews and he is a very impressive young man. He's well spoken, and thoughtful with his answers. If he doesn't make it in the NFL, and everybody has him in the 1st round still, he'll be a success in business.
8) re: puns "The book says "Get the one point win and get the hell out of there."" I slipped that one past you guys further up this column. No one noticed, because George was on such a roll. He's like butter...
16-7 at half. Book has been OK, running game other than Josh Adams big run has been just so - so. Defense has been solid but not spectacular. It was disappointing to get that big turn over and get nothing out of it. This could easily get to be a nail biter deep into the 4th qtr.
UNC was not a good team but until Elko got here we used to make these type of opponents look like world beaters.
There's a lot to like about this team, a lot that's different from anything I've seen in the 4 seasons following the 2012 season. I've read several articles and looked at the stats through the first 6 games. This is what I've come up with: -We've caused as many turnovers through 6 games (14) as we had all last season. -Of those 14 turnovers, 11 have resulted in points. -Prior to yesterday, UNC had been averaging almost 400 yards/game in total offense. We held them to 265 yards, 86 rushing yards. -Through 6 games, no opponent has scored more than 20 points, including undefeated Georgia, who is averaging 38 ppg in its 5 games other than ND. -Through 6 games, we have rushed for 1,848 yards vs. 1,960 in all 12 games last season. -We currently rank 6th in rushing offense (308 ypg) and 2nd in yards per carry (6.9). This is not a team that's going to fold in the second half of the season. We have some tough games coming up, but I'm confident that we will go into each game knowing we have a chance to win. By the way, thanks to the emergence yesterday of the freshman RB and the performance of Deon McIntosh, who received the game ball, we now have a "stable" of 5 capable RBs. That's something we've never had in all the years I've been following the program. Things definitely are looking up.
One thing I noticed before falling asleep watching the replay last night (it was a long day of driving). Book is a good old fashioned "Pac12 late at night" gun slinger. He can move a little bit, but he'd just as soon jam a laser in between double coverage just to show he has the arm and all resistance is futile. He will now give opposing defenses something to think about in preparation for the Irish. If they key on knocking out Wimbush, we're just going to become a power running team that will put a much better passer in the game.
:idea: The rain made a mess of any attempt at analysis, but some things are obvious. - We have a tough, fast defense that should be able to make every game close. - Ian Book is a 12PAC style passer. I can see why Wazzu and Boise State wanted him so badly. For a redshirt freshman making his first start in the rain, he looked pretty good. - Lots of good running backs.
One thing yesterday showed was that we do have a capable backup to Wimbush. We all remember times when we had only one serviceable QB and the problems we had when they went down. Because Wimbush tucks it so often you just worry about him getting really dinged up. I'm still a bit disappointed in our WR corps. We could sure use another Will Fuller or even a Michael Floyd. Alize Mack is the TE of the future and always will be. Like others said above, Elko has done a great job putting together a defense with players who really struggled last season.
Watching a lot of football yesterday I noted a couple of things. Our Qb's are first time starters/players not much experience. Wimbush has been excellent running the football but not so much passing. Book look good, not great, throwing the football and is a good runner but not Wimbush. We wouldn't call Book an athletic QB, but he's not Tommy Rees either in terms of running the football. So we have a tendency to cut them some slack and assume they will improve. Now that's fair. But when I watch Texas and see Sam Ehlinger who has improved tremendously since the first game, and Kellen Mond who has also improved tremendously since his first game I wonder why our guys haven't improved as much. Wimbush will need to improve quite a bit in the off week. The back half of the schedule is much tougher and I wouldn't expect to be able to run for 300+ yds on most of these teams. They will bring a lot of guys close to the LOS and dare Wimbush to beat them throwing. If he can't make them pay, it'll be a rough finish to the season. Also we haven't exactly faced a really good QB yet and I watched the Miami OH qb target Nick Watkins over and over successfully. Sam Darnold and the Finley kid at NCState will eat our CB's alive if they don't improve. I've enjoyed the wins and am pretty optimistic about the rest of the season as we don't have Alabama on the schedule and the teams we do have are good teams that if we can win will help us climb in the polls. 5 of our next 6 games are against ranked opponents. The opportunity is there to build a playoff resume. So the question is with regards to Wimbush, how much do the WR's/TE's play impact his play. It's not like we've had any WR/TE step up and be a go to guy. St. Brown is the guy everybody talks about but he really hasn't had that type of impact yet. Alize Mack has not reached the potential everybody said he had after his freshman year, maybe missing last year hurt his development more than we thought. Kevin Stepherson has been a non-factor mainly due to his suspension but he hasn't show anything since coming back. Our RB's have been so impressive though. McIntosh and C.J. Holmes were excellent yesterday in relief of Josh Adams who had an excellent game until dehyrdration problems. OL has really played up to potential so far this year, they'll need to continue to improve and play well of course. Week off comes at a good point in the season. I'm hopeful that Elko will continue to have the defense playing solid and that our offense will continue to improve.
The remaining teams on our schedule have a combined record of 27-6. Every game is going to be a ball buster.