LOL! I caught that. It certainly will reduce our penalties......unless of course some other bubba steps in to fill the breach.
Sid, how was your pulse during the game? I wonder if we can get the bookstore to carry ND defibrillators. It would be fitting to have those near the old alum farts during these games.
FWIW both of Jimmy's brothers stayed at Tenn till they used up their eligibilty and I'll bet both of them recieved their degrees. Unfortuneately for those guys QB developement took a big hit under Fulmer after David Cutliffe left the Vols for Ole Miss.
Can someone tell me how/why John Ryan plays? Ha he just runs into blockers. Watch him each play, pathetic.
Well John Ryan plays because Randy Hart thinks he's our best option. I personally don't think he's played all that badly. The DL seems to be playing better, that goal line stand was unbelieveable. What concerns me is our DB's coached by the highly popular Corwin Brown. They can't cover and except for Kyle McCarthy they can't tackle. And we all thought this was the best group of DB's in years at ND. Darrin Walls is awful, RJ Blanton can't make the plays and can't tackle, Sergio Brown is just abused as a nickel back. Heard McNeils name called? How about Harrison Smith, that guy misses tackles and gets run over. This group is a major disappointment. I lay that at the feet of Corwin Brown.
Terry I have the same feeling about the secondary. I think that UW stopped running the bubble screen because Amnesty International complained that it was torture (for ND fans.) You would think with the cushion we give the WRs at the line that they'd be all over them deep. No, they're not. And when they are in position to make a play they fall down or just let the receiver go right over them to take the ball. Walls has one int. It was on 4th down and if he'd dropped it like he has all his other int. chances we would have gained 14 yds. in field position. :evil:
I was watching Ryan and I thought he played a very good game. Doc, our DBs are bad. Poor cover skills. Poor tackling. Walls is beginning to remind one of Highway 15. H. Smith is a LB or roverback, not a safety. Last year at this time he was a big part of the defense; this year, nothing. Sergio Brown is a horrendous tackler. Pray for Kyle McCarthy every day. If anything happens to him we are sunk.
Update: Through five games Jimmy Clausen is No. 1 in passing, Golden Tate is No. 6 in receiving, the Offense is ranked No. 10. And the defense is ranked No. 94 which is a huge step baackwards from last year.
ND <r>Man oh Man, these kids really are trying to give me a CORONARY!!! 4 weeks in a row I'm on the edge of my sofa praying for miracles....I'm three for 4...not bad. I can't keep going thru these kind of games though!!!<br/> <br/> Just a note from another game I saw a few highlight of:<br/> <br/> The Fl St./BC game. Those of you who follow ND recruiting will be interested in this. Fl. St. frosh kicker Hopkins misses a FG(wide right) with about 7 min left that would have put them up by 3 pts. This kid was rated the #1 kicker and couldn't make up his mind if he wanted ND or Fl. St. Meanwhile ND got tired of waiting and offered the K scholie to Tausch who set a ND game record for FGs in a game yesterday(5). Tausch jumped at the ND offer without ever taking a visit. Thankfully he is Irish and Hopkins is a Seminole.<br/> <br/> Corey I think your were right about Allen playing yesterday, he wasn't 100%. Hopefully, he can get back to form in time for sc. <br/> <br/> Clausen is just money. What can you say. I know it's selfish on my part but, I hope he doesn't go to the NFL next season. The only person that I feel that would affect badly would be Dane Crist who I'm sure is going to be an outstanding QB in his own right when JC is gone but he may have to wait another year to be starting QB.<br/> <br/> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E></r>
I have to wonder if we should give Dan McCarthy a shot at either Safety or the nickel back. He was supposed to be a better athlete/football player than his brother Kyle which is saying something. He didn't play last year because of the neck injury as a HS senior. But he did practice and they were just being extra careful and give him plenty of healing/rehab time. But given Harrison Smiths Safety play and Sergio Browns nickel back play seems like Dan needs some time on the field. I hope the Bye week results in some changes to fix the tackling and coverage problems.
Two - IMO - critical aspects of our game, one negative & one positive, I haven't seen mentioned yet...... 1) our very poor tackling in the secondary. Like the game announcers said, the UW RB looked like Jim Brown. That should not have happened. We have much work to do, citing Terry's comment: 2) Looks like we finally have a reliable FG kicker. I hope he continues to kick like he did Saturday, because he has 3 more years left after this season.
<pre> Rank ..... Player ..... ..... ..... ..... Yr ..... Gm .... Patt .... Comp % ... TDs ... Int .... Pyds .... Ydspatt ..... Rating 1 ..... Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame ..... JR ..... 5 ..... 148 ..... 67.57 ..... 12 ..... 2 ..... 1544 ..... 10.43 ..... 179.25 2 ..... Kellen Moore, Boise St. ........... SO ..... 5 ..... 132 ..... 69.7 ...... 13 ..... 2 ..... 1217 ....... 9.22 ..... 176.61 3 ..... Tim Tebow, Florida ............... SR ..... 4 ....... 68 ..... 64.71 ...... 6 ..... 1 ...... 643 ....... 9.46 ..... 170.31 4 ..... Blaine Gabbert, Missouri ........ SO ..... 4 ...... 131 ..... 66.41 ..... 11 ..... 0 ..... 1161 ...... 8.86 ..... 168.57 5 ..... Bill Stull, Pittsburgh ............... SR ..... 5 ..... 116 ..... 66.38 ..... 11 ..... 1 ...... 988 ....... 8.52 ..... 167.49 6 ..... Greg McElroy, Alabama .......... JR ..... 5 ...... 119 ..... 65.55 ...... 9 ..... 1 ...... 1086 ...... 9.13 ..... 165.48 7 ..... G.J. Kinne, Tulsa ................. SO ..... 5 ...... 128 ..... 64.06 ..... 10 ..... 2 ..... 1142 ...... 8.92 ..... 161.66 8 ..... Chris Todd, Auburn .............. SR ...... 5 ..... 138 ...... 58.7 ...... 12 ..... 1 ..... 1230 ...... 8.91 ..... 160.81 </pre>
Like I said, who is more important to their team than Clausen up to this point? And he's doing it with a fairly average castof characters. And he's winning games in the clutch.
Well that might be a little strong, Tate and Rudolph are top of the line college players, but I would agree we don't have USC level of talent or UF or Alabama or Texas. But we have a good offensive group of players, better than most.
This is the big myth that has been sucking kids out early for years. I think the NFL should be ashamed of themselves and held in public scorn for allowing this to continue. I am sure that it will happen one of these days, but only one organization knows for sure... and they are the one group that will neither confirm nor deny it. Of course, felons are employed in the NFL so there's not a lot of shame to start with there. This has been going on for a good 5 to 6 years now. It's led to more kids jumping to the NFL early. It's something that, if and when they actually do confirm that 'this will be the final year' will lead to a massive vacuum of players leaving too soon. Do they even have a collective bargaining agreement in place for next season's free agents? That being said, the 2 guys on the field last night are ready to move onto the next level.
For the record.. the week before, the USC fans were booing their team while they struggled with Washington State for 4 quarters.
You bet I am. We have the best one-two punch of WR's in the game, minus one. We have one of the Top 2 receiving TEs. We have an average stable of running backs. We have an above average O-line. Our punting has been so-so. Our kicker looks like he will be a good one. Our special teams are average. And our defense is ranked #94 out of 115. How important is Clausen? They brought him off the bench with one foot to save us against Michigan State.
Here's another way of looking at it What's more impressive, being 4-0 with the no. 1 D. in the country or 4-1 with the 96th D?