The Tree's have hit on hard times. Former top 5 coach David Shaw is not looking so smart these days. I'm not sure what happened, he had them rolling and they were a tough physical team that you hated to see on the schedule! But they just aren't the same old Tree's the last 3 years. Irish seem to have found a spark on offense with improved OL play allowing a running game to develop and Drew Pyne has had time to throw the ball he's shown that he's maybe the better QB than the former starter Tyler Buchner. The worry for the Irish has been that we haven't been as good as we were expected to be on Defense. We've had a propensity to give up the big pass play for a TD and our run defense seems to be spotty giving up big plays. I read an article about how our LB's who are all experienced and were supposed to be the backbone of this defense just haven't played up to expectations. Al Golden is a LB coach by trade, so was the former DCoord and current HC. So why this veteran group has not been playing better is a mystery. I expect to win this game. I hope that we continue the improvement on offense and finally get that defense going. Isiah Foskey doesn't look like the potential 1st round draft pick he was supposed to be. I don't know what the line is for this game but if it ends up a close game I will be disappointed. I'd like to see a big win! I'm not a fan of the Cardinal/Tree's!!
Irish are favored by 17. Last time we were big favorites (Marshall) we crapped in the bed. I'm with you Doc, Stanford rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it's those clowns who are in the band, maybe it's their coach, maybe it's because their in NoCal.
Pete Sampson on Drew Pyne. 2. Drew Pyne might be the quarterback no one saw coming. Not offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. Not Freeman. It’s one thing for the junior to be able to manage Notre Dame’s offense, getting the ball to Michael Mayer and the Irish running backs in the short passing game. And he’s still doing that. But Pyne is making plays outside of the offense, too. His touchdown throws to Mayer said as much about the quarterback as they did the All-America tight end. Under pressure, Pyne puts the ball where only Mayer can get it. Or he flips it to Audric Estime while being hit. Pyne throws players open, seeing spaces in the defense before receivers run into them, whether that was Lorenzo Styles over the middle or Mayer in the end zone.
Bad news, Bo Bauer is out for the rest of the season. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has announced Notre Dame captain Bo Bauer will miss the rest of the 2022 season following a knee injury earlier this week during practice. “Bo will be out for the year,” stated Freeman. “Sustained a knee injury in practice on Tuesday, which is devastating just because he’s a captain and he provides so much more than just production. Just the energy, the ability to motivate our players, it’ll be a tremendous loss for us. So, he’s out for the year.”
Notre Dame landed two graduate transfers from Harvard in the spring and both have cemented critical roles for the Fighting Irish over the last four months. Punter Jon Sot is now a Ray Guy Award nominee as he's No. 5 in the country in yards per punt at 46.6.
ESPN has an article on 2023 recruits who have moved up ... They have given ND verbal, Peyton Bowen, a Safety from Texas a 5 star rating. Unfortuneately nobody at the moment expects him to sign with the Irish, he says he's still committed but spends a lot of time in Norman and College Station. This guy though is Irish through and through...he's moved into the ESPN 300. Cooper Flanagan, TE ESPN 300 ranking: 293 Notre Dame has a rich history at tight end, including the top prospect at the position for this upcoming draft in Michael Mayer, and the more we watch Flanagan, the more similarities we see between the two. Like Mayer, Flanagan has great size (6-5, 230) and a versatile skill set in blocking and pass catching. He has grown over three inches and gained more than 50 pounds since we first evaluated him. Flanagan also impressed off the field during our week-one broadcast of the GEICO High School Showcase with a strong leadership presence. He comes from a De La Salle (California) program that produces successful prospects.
Don't have much time to comment about that miserable half of football. I've got to change the sheets.
Just a very discouraging defeat. Stanford had a patchwork OL yet they ran and passed on us all night. No pass rush no run defense no tackling. Our OL was supposed to have a big edge on their undersized Defense. Nope they beat us to the spot, Pyne was bad, topped off by the last play where we ran a 6 yd curl on 4th and 8. I don't know where we go from here.
The pressure is off. Irish fans now have no expectations for the balance of this season. The main goal of the team should now be preserving whatever you can of the recruiting classes. Hard to wrap your head around a team favored by 16.5 points at home against a 1-4 team on its ass coming out of the tunnel so lifeless. The Irish effort took the home crowd out of the game in minutes and the camera focused on a bewildered Marcus Freeman from whistle to whistle. Now would be a good time to play the new guys, to see what the future holds. FWIW, on the chat boards Tommy Rees' life is not worth a plug nickel... fans want him gone now.
Rees has never been popular with the fans, and mostly I've thought it was unfair. He earned that scorn last night. So did Marcus Freeman who has been supported by the fans, who all want him to win as he's done a lot of good things from a PR standpoint. He's just likeable. But losing at home to Marshall and now a bad Stanford team. He's starting to lose the fans. Pyne looked lost out there last night. Our defense just kept giving up plays when we had them in 3rd and long. To their credit though they only gave up 16 points. That should have been good enough for the win if the offense had had a pulse.
Not much to add. We had a TD called back on a needless penalty (reserve tight end lined up wrong) and then because we were 17 pts. favored, there was no reason to kick a FG early so we went for it on 4th and 2 and failed. I will say that this team doesn't catch many breaks in the turnover department. There were 4+ fumbles in the game 2 by each team and Stanford recovered every one of them. The + is the one ruled fumble that ND did recover that was subsequently reversed on replay. I recall Merriweather being targeted twice with a TD but were any other WRs even targeted? Stanford did a good job covering Meyer and that completely shut down our passing game. Patterson set the tone of the game by jumping early on the very first play and Estime put the icing on the cake with his second fumble of the season late in the game.
gip did we ever have a WR get open? Hell even most of Mayers catches he had Stanford db's hanging all over him. They only really had to stop him and our passing game was a dud. I was ok going for it on 4th and goal, but that play call was awful it never had a chance.