My favorite among so many was the fake FG by Mich. which when the holder knew he couldn't run tried to pass the ball. Fortunately for him one of the at least 3 linemen illegally downfield was there to catch it after it was tipped.
You know Gip I remember a game in South Bend where we blocked a UM FG but the ball went up in the air and was recovered by UM for a 1st down and they then scored a TD. And they say we are lucky!!
hmmmm you were at South Fla as well. I'm starting to see a pattern here...could you stay home for a few seasons!
Comments from prized ND WR recruit Nelson Agholor, taken from a 1-3-2012 article by Al Lesar in the South Bend Tribune:
From Jan. 4, 2012 Bleacher Report: Also included with the article was a poll of readers with 923 votes at the time of this posting:
ND <t>Thanks Sid, <br/> <br/> The article makes several good points that I believe are true. I really hadn't realized how many turnovers were on Rees. I like that kid a lot and really appreciate what he has done for ND but you can't overlook his shortcomings anymore and I still can't explain why Kelly stayed with him for so long when he could have been letting Hendrix of Golson gain some valuable playing experience. My only guess would be he really thought he had a better chance of winning with Rees. <br/> <br/> Let's see what happens with spring ball. I fully expect Hendrix with be getting the bulk of the snaps with Golson second. If that doesn't happen then I might have some serious thoughts about Kelly but until then I'm still believing he will get this program into BCS form again.</t>
Class post, Tim, especially the respect you showed for Rees. He's a tough kid who may not have all the tools needed for Kelly's offense and may or may not win the starting job next year. This year he was called upon, and he did a decent job leading the offense. In each of the 4 regular season losses, he was not the reason we lost. In fact, with the Michigan game on the line, he put on a Joe Montana-like comeback performance, only to have our defense collapse at the end. The anti-Rees people have forgotten about that. He's a Notre Dame student-athlete who at the very least - even if people don't think he should be the starting QB - deserves the respect of every Notre Dame fan for his effort on the field. Statistically, he had a 135.2 efficiency rating for the regular season, not great but certainly among the better efficiency ratings of past ND QBs. He passed for 19 TDs and threw 12 interceptions in 384 attempts, certainly not Luck-type numbers, but good enough to merit the 135.2 rating. Perhaps there is a better QB currently on the roster. I'll be the first to say I hope so. That's the coach's call. For the record, IMO, if the defense shows up in the final minute of the Michigan game and the entire USC game and if we don't self-destruct via turnovers in the USF game, we end up 10-1 and in a BCS bowl. Those situations are not Rees' fault. I'm not being an apologist for him so much as I am 1) expressing my appreciation to Tim for showing him the respect he deserves, and 2) explaining with statistics and my own reasons why I believe he deserves not to be bashed.
Kelly or Baker? :lol: Terry, he is grounded in that he looks at each game very analytically and without emotion, following his initial reaction to a win or a loss. He sees things even on TV that I never see with my untrained eyes. I've always felt that with his insight he could have been a coach if he had chosen that path. At times, he actually sounds to me like a member of the coaching staff as he describes what he saw on the field. As far as the current state of the program, he does not say anything positive or negative about Kelly. He does not say anything positive or negative about Rees. He only talks about what he sees as the strengths and weaknesses of this team and the what-ifs of this season, as he did last season. Generally, he feels that we are moving in the right direction and are several turnovers and a few players away from being back to a highly successful program. He did not get upset about Kelly's conduct in the first game. He said that, except for the red face, that's how coach Holtz would react when the team was not playing at a high level. In so many words, he said it was business as usual. He has not expressed an opinion about the QB controversy. He only speaks about specific things he sees on the field. As you might guess, much of what I say or the views I express here come from my conversations with him. I trust his insights.
Tough decision for Eifert, saying he's a 3rd round pick does not guarantee he's a 3rd round pick all he has to do is look at Jimmy Clausen who was supposed to be a 1st rounder and fell all the way to the 3rd round. He will have his degree so no matter what I don't begrudge him moving on to the next level even if he ended up a 5th round pick or a free agent. I hope he comes back though as we really need him, without him we'll be very thin at TE. It might come down to does he like playing for Kelly, given the stuff that went down between Kelly and the Weis recruits midseason.
Terry, A P.S. to my earlier post about Brian. I thought of it later. He has a question he always asks himself and answers after each game, especially after losses: What did we not do well that is correctable? He talks about defensives schemes and offensive play calling. The answers provide him with his own assessment of where the program is at a given point in time. It's a simple approach. Needless to say, there are times when I need to hear his assessment to keep me grounded.
Thanks Sid! BTW: Tyler Eiffert is coming back for his last year according to Irish Illustrated. Big Win for the coaches. edit: Eiffert coming back means that Mike Ragone is done at ND. Apparently he wanted to come back for a 6th year and has filed all the necessary paperwork for a Medical hardship, but now there is no room for him. Good luck to him, he tried hard but I don't think he ever finished a season.
re: What did we not do well that is correctable? You're right. Brian could be a coach if he knows that one. That is THEE question and in many ways, it's the only question that leads to winning. Over the decades I've seen coaches waste time on the silliest crap. Everything from a new numbering system (In the middle of the season!) to the color of the helmets. The head coach my junior year in high school (fired at Christmas 1966) even wrote mandatory cheers for the cheerleaders. I'm not making this up and I can still remember one, "Blood makes the grass grow...so let's go!" Once the season starts, you study the games to find correctable mistakes. If you're doing your job right, the mistakes become rare by the end of the season. I remember when Dave Francis first joined me and this approach surprised him. It wasn't the way his father (another coach) had taught him. Practice wasn't even 2 hours old and I was sending everybody home. He didn't think that was right, so I asked him some questions: JO'Co: What's our record? Dave: 12-0. JO'Co: How many hits did the last opponent get? Dave: one. JO'Co: Should we work on more pitching? Dave: No. JO'Co: Do we need more batting practice? Dave: No. JO'Co: How many errors did we make? Dave: Four. JO'Co: Did we hit all of our cutoffs and contain their runners? Dave: No...so we just work on defense and cutoffs for the whole practice? JO'Co: No. We just work on defense and cutoffs until we can do it right, everytime, even in our sleep...then we go home. If Brian ever gets tired of being a lawyer he could step right into coaching at any almost any level. He "gets it."