At the begining of the season after watching Utah vs Pitt I felt that we would beat Utah and that they would most likely be a ranked team when they arrived in South Bend. Now it's flipped, they are in fact a ranked team and a very good team inspite of being spanked by TCU last weekend. Irish will have a very hard time with these guys. Injuries you say? Well add Tai-ler Jones to the mix and next man in is Robby Toma! I can't remember a year where we have had so many injuries and to a team that could not afford them. I'll of course hope for the upset, but am preparing for a beating. Tommy Rees looked fine last week against Tulsa, 3 picks or not, but that was a Tulsa team that was not good on pass defense. Utah on the other hand is a excellent defensive team and Rees will likely be facing a much better pass rush and pass defense, not something you want to face when you are raw Freshman. I hope he isn't hurt.
Good luck fellas....after what the Irish have been through a little good fortune is overdue. Why not this weekend? 8)
Roby Toma looked just fine last game. Not much difference between he and Jones at this point. Carlo's back this week. I hope I'm wrong but ..... ND-17 Utah-38
I am the worst once a nickle is placed on who I pick but can someone really convince me that ND won't lose by 7+??? Frosh QB, swiss cheese d-backs, and after Utah lost last week I think it might be ugly. Is it X-mas money or what?
Utah has been exposed. However, they may come out strong to overcome the "shame" of last week's loss. This one will be hard to call.
What is the line? Utah could come out angry, or perhaps they were just over rated. I think Notre Dame is just having one of those seasons that you want over, go lick your wounds, bring in the new recruits and move on to next year. Good luck.
Irish lead 14-3 at half. Suprising, defense has played well and offense has not played well but also hasn't turned it over or put the defense in a bad position. Penalties on the Utes and a couple of good plays is all the offense has done. Irish will need to continue to play good d for sure, but the offense just has to find something or the D will wear out.
ND is gonna be the death of me. If I pick them to win, they loose. If I pick them to loose, they win. Can't you guys make up your mind?
ND <t>Two tings:<br/> <br/> !. Best defensive game ND has played in a long, long,. long time..<br/> <br/> 2. I told you this Tommy Rees kid was a good one...the kid is a winner!!!</t>
I thought about you all game Tim, you were the only guy who really believed in Tommy Rees back when he was being recruited. Outstanding game by Irish Defense. Unbelieveable game by a former Milk Carton kid Duval Kamara. Tommy had a great game, didn't make any mistakes, just did what he had to do.
I thought that Duval Kamara was in the witness protection program. Nice to see Collinsworth make a key play in the game. Gary Gray and Harrison Smith had big games. Biggest surprise to me was that the O line looked competent in the second half.
:idea: Kelly finally got his act together. I was beginning to wonder about him... 1. He didn't ask his frosh QB to do more than he could do. The kid had a nice offensive package that he could run without unnecessary risk. 2. He didn't scream at the kid over every mistake, but took the time to teach and explain. (I'll bet Dayne Crist wishes that he had been given this deal.) 3. He finally figured out that 6'5" senior Duval Kamara might have a slight advantage over 5'9" underclassmen Dbacks in the red zone. 4. He finally admitted that poor blocking Jonas Gray may have a role to play in this Irish offense... Fast, 230lb tailbacks are hard to ignore when they have the ball; even if it took the coach eleven weeks to see it... 5. He didn't do anything stupid at the end of either half... 6. He was patient and in control through the entire game. For the first time, he actually looked and acted like the head coach at Notre Dame. He adjusted to the available talent (which is considerable) instead of trying to hammer every square peg into his predetermined round holes... Its been awhile since we've seen that and it worked. ...........JO'Co