Well he's got another year on his original 5 yr contract that he signed in Jan 2007 ( oh and it was 10M not 7M). So if he hasn't been stupid with the money he should be just fine for life financially. I really don't understand all the rules with regards to "options" and being able to send a player back to the minors without going through waivers. But I wonder if Jeff is out of options?
spring game <t>from what I'm reading we are going to get to see a lot of Golson and Hendrix sat during the Blue and Gold game which will be nice.</t>
Northwestern and ND have announced a 2 game series in 2014/2018 to be played in November. I like this for the reason that it might give us some leverage with either MSU or Purdue to move our games with them till later in the season. We used to play MSU in Nov, not sure why we agreed to move it to early in the year. But we need to find a way to get our schedule from being so front loaded. This may give us some leverage with those two schools, if Northwestern is willing to play us in Nov, and MSU or Purdue is not we could replace one with Northwestern...assuming of course that Northwestern would be interested in an annual series with ND.
Well Spring is done. Blue and Gold game was played in cold wet weather. Couldn't make to many statements on the game, except. Aaron Lynch!!!! That kid looks great!!! John Goodman!!! Great Catch for the TD, hope that is the first of many!! None of the QB's had sizzling days. Hendrix looked better than Golson who as Maycock said wanted to pull the ball down and run at the least little thing. Best thing was I don't think anybody got injured, Hafis limped off at one point but I think I saw him back in later in the game.
re:QBs -Hendrix is ready. He knew what he was doing and he adds a running threat to the offense without sacrificing anything in the passing game. Rees will probably be the backup, but that might not be a good thing for his chances to grab the top job. Kelly will have a special package for Hendrix to play in games this year, which gives him two chances to be first string; (1) If Crist gets hurt and (2) if the offense is more productive when he's running his package than Crist is running the starter package. -Golson is not ready. He's VERY small; way under 6'. He knows nothing about reading defenses. He was just reacting to the pressure in front of him. He needs what Hendrix had last year: a season of running the practice team. He will be a good one, but he's a year away and shouldn't be rushed IMHO.
I would not be shocked to see Hendrix pass Rees up in the August camp. Agree with you on Golson, needs seasoning. Good news that will light up Tim Gentry. Ron Darby who is #26 ranked player in the country by Lemming, and the top long snapper in the country Scott Daly, gave their verbals to the Irish today.
QB: I'm not as down on Crist as others have been. He's the best QB on campus, but he's out of his element. I think he would have been better suited in Weis' NFL scheme. I still think he'll be fine though. Hendrix is the 2nd best... Rees may know the offense better than anyone and that can't be overlooked.. at the same time, we can't ignore that we play this goofy POS offense that has the QB throwing off the back foot, rolling the wrong way AND is the #1 run threat in the read-zone redline offense. That Golson kid will be special and let's not overlook that early on he made some great reads on to hit a walkon WR in both hands, the numbers and the facemask only to have the pass dropped. That stuff plays with the confidence of young QBs, and I think he's a year away but.... I liked what I saw of him. Aaron Lynch: Holy Sh*t... In a defense that appears to be fairly well loaded up with athletes, he stood out to me. It's a spring game, but as our color man (who is the best in the biz IMHO) said, 'he just swim moved Trevor Robinson like a kid, are you kidding me?!' There were times in which he made our best OLs look absolutely lost out there. While we may be use to seeing that, we're not use to seeing our defense do it. I'm glad to have that kid. "Poor tackling in the defensive secondary"... I heard that line too many times. I watched Alabama's spring game and the tackling difference in their secondary is remarkable. (don't feel too bad, I'd take 3 of our 4 QBs over theirs and they had bad fumble issues). Speaking of bad hands... I'd bet that Golic's kid wouldn't drop a beer if you threw it to him. Jesus, catch the ball son. I'll be interested to see how this all comes out in the wash come fall. The bottom line of the reality of our situation is that our QB is going to have to run the ball. We're just too thin at TB. I love the athletic look of our D, but I'd like to see some of the tackling tighten up. Our front 7s looked good.
Corey, I didn't see the Notre Dame game but I have to agree with you. Neither of Alabama's qb's looked very special, but I think our defense is going to be very good.
Michigan AD casts doubt on the ND series. He says that when the B10-12 goes to a 9 game conference schedule, that he will still have to have 7 home games and in the years that he only gets 4 conference home games he will not be able to play a road game at Notre Dame.
I'm tired of them anyhow. Let's get Nebraska on the schedule. Give them something to talk about down on the farm. 8)
KP, You have a profane amount of talent on defense. I like McCarron and the lesser known Sims as your QBs... I hope this doesn't turn into a Zow/Watts situation for you. ND guys, The thing that bothers me about Michigan is this.. When USC holds the upper hand in the series, the only people who ever talk about 'dropping ND' are homeboy gangsters who hopped on the SC band wagon and 'sports bar bros' who wear their 'team of the week' jersey..but the real alumni and staff members seem to cherish the relationship. As ugly as ND-USC is, that rivalry is celebrated. Not so with Michigan... I almost get the impression that they think they are doing us a favor scheduling it. There's been this situation hanging over our heads for the past 10 years at least in which it seems that the series may go away... I don't see why we chase them, let them go away.
re: ND Spring Game I watched it again on replay and I have the following observations: 1. Aaron Lynch has a real chance to start the opener. If he doesn't, he will play a lot and he will always be in there on passing downs. 2. Bennet Jackson and Austin Collinsworth are real Dbacks and should have been back there in the first place. Jackson will become a starter sooner rather than later. 3. Loius Nix is an NFL size beast who's down to 350lbs. If he can drop another 20lbs he could become the starter. 4. Ishaq will also play. When Darius Fleming finally graduates after three years as a starter, the team will actually upgrade with Ishaq as his replacement. Bigger;faster;better... 5. The biggest surprise was Danny Spond. The former Columbine QB has turned into a 6'2" 245lb outside linebacker who can cover like a safety and hit like an inside backer. He will be a great asset in covering TE's and TB's out of the backfield. This added coverage will create major problems for offenses that are trying to pass with guys like Lynch, Ishaq and Tuitt bearing down on them. 6. I have a feeling that Kelly has something up his sleeve on punt/kickoff returns. Everyone had to fair-catch yesterday. He's hiding something. 7. Luke Massa needs to move to strong safety. He's no WR... 8. Kelly is a coach after my own heart. I loved his sideline comments to Robby Toma, "You're slow; you're short and you have a bad haircut..." 9. This team has depth and it's bigger, faster and more athletic than teams in the recent past. Recruiting is going so well, that the team continues to improve through attrition as better younger players replace mediocre older ones. This is working...
I was watching it on Versus, one of the Comcast family of channels. It was on Directv, 600 something.
I love watching College Football on Versus. George, http://www.versus.com/college-football/ It's the network for the Mountain West conference... and Pac12/Big12 action is put on there as well. They have random, goofy things like a 3 game deal with the Ivy League.
George, You have Comcast? If yes, it might be channel 206 in HD. Wednesday 4 pm they are showing the replay either way on versus.
I fell asleep at the switch and did not realize it was being telecast live on Versus. We decided not to go when we saw the weather foerecast. I found the replay, Wednesday 4 to 6 pm. I'm going to record it and watch it at my leisure.