Some of the bowl projections have the Aggies facing the Irish. Not a good match for us with our badly depleted defense. Did I mention we don't force many turnovers? Golson will look like he should have been in New York when the dust settles. I need to face a mediocre Big 10 or ACC team to have a shot at a win! :?
I'm sitting here waiting on these damned bowl announcements. If ND is playing in the Music City Bowl, we're going (it's only 2 hours away). At the same time, I'd much rather drop $35 a ticket for 3 than drop $335 for a ticket. I can't believe it takes 3 hours to sort this nonsense out.
Aggies get West Virginia in the Liberty. Oy... just what I wanted to face: A prolific offense. Well... Holgerson and Sumlin will have a nice reunion.
The tickets for the Music City Bowl seemed to be going pretty fast. I hate using Ticketmaster. We lost our first batch of tickets because I missed the time entry process by one second. When we got back in the queue, the next available group of tickets were 10 sections down. I don't know about the quality of football in this bowl game, but the Irish fan base mixed with the Cajuns in a fantastic town like Nashville should be fun.
LSU is a bad match up for ND. Our Defense, unless they undergo a recovery and transformation can not stop the run. LSU loves to run the ball and has power backs to do just that.
ND <t>Terry,<br/> <br/> I know a lot of Irish fans don't like this game between ND and LSU but to me it's better than playing in the Pinstripe Bowl or an equivalent again because that does absolutely nothing for this team. Actually I don't think winning or losing a bowl game does much either way unless you're in the championship game. winning against Rutgers last year did absolutely zero for this team. might as well play someone respectable and maybe feel like you accomplished something if you do win.</t>
Hey, I got a lot of kids down here who simply do not get exposed to anything ND other than absurd lies and rumors. I'm trying to talk all these kids into going to the bowl game. I hope our fans don't bitch out. Nashville is a great city, this is a great opponent who doesn't like us all that much and this is usually an exciting bowl game. I hope our fans represent. People don't often remember the wins and losses, but they do remember the impressions that people made on them. Poor Brittney. She's never been to a college football game, even when she went to Georgia. It's just not her thing. So her first game will be between 2 rather obnoxious fanbases.. Oh well, gotta start somewhere. Of course, Carson is going. He's putting his attendance win streak on the line.
Tim, I like the fact that we're going to Nashville it should be a good trip for the team. We're not a good team right now, between injuries and youth on defense there are a lot of teams that are bad matchups for us. The only thing that might save us is if Michigan does as Bobda predicts and hires Les Miles. That could throw LSU for a loop, and give us a shot. We'll see.
I agree with Tim. We're going to have to learn how to stop the run by next year so we may as well get the classes going now. Maybe some of the youngins playing defense my learn the system well enough to be able to call things when Schmidt or another captain go down.
At least it's a day game. Those sorry L$U fans won't have all day to get lathered up... heck a lot of them might not be over their hangovers yet, and Brittney never see them (which would be a good thing!). Pray you don't get SEC refs...
gip I agree, some extra practice is helpful. A lot of people over on NDN wanted the Irish to decline, cited times in the past when the team voted not to go to a bowl game. But there isn't a coach in the NCAA who would turn down the extra practice time you get for going to a bowl. In fact there were some coaches who felt like the extra practice was such an advantage that all teams even non-bowl teams should get that extra practice. Although TCU didn't go to a bowl last year and seemed to do fine this year.
Assuming that nothing significant changes in available personnel on defense in the next 22 days, I see no way in hell we can beat this team. Their strength running the ball exploits are greatest weakness which is run defense. And are strength passing the ball will be tested by their pass defense ( #4 in the nation ). If we started turning the ball over this one could be over with quickly.
Agreed, Tim. Like others have said, I'm thankful for the extra practice and the exposure for the young guys. Hopefully, it will whet their appetites for next season and make them hungry for success.