This Alabama Florida game is turning out to be a very enjoyable game to watch.One more quarter to go!
Rose Bowl has been moved to Texas. Jerry World! Scott won't have to leave home for the A&M/Alabama game!
Best game of the year was ND/Clemson double OT. It's now the 2nd best game of the year. This has been a great game.
Last night in the Clemson game you saw the clearest demonstration I have ever seen between four star and five star athletes. The Irish are loaded with very good athletes. Clemson is loaded with GREAT athletes. More importantly, they have four or five players who are better that the best player we have. And Brian Kelly always looks a day late and a dollar short in the biggest games. This is our annual fate; 10 wins as we march through the schedule only to be exposed at the end. Clark Lea's imminent departure seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the defense. All of a sudden the D Backs could not cover, the D Line could not pressure and the LBs could not tackle. Shaun Crawford was the leading tackler for ND and all we saw the entire game was the back of his jersey. Two trips to the red zone in Q1 and no points set the tone. The Irish play of the game was the block Kyren Williams ( our best player ) put on James Skalski on the blitz. That was a highlight reel gem. Skalski is the type player we need more of; completely disruptive on every play, he makes everyone else look better. As you look at KP's projected final four, as an Irish fan you just have a really hard time imagining us competing meaningfully against any of the others. To that end, I would not be upset to get leapfrogged but I don't see anyone else out there who can seriously compete with any of the Big Three either.
Defense this year had problems in the back end, the Clemson backup burned us for 400 yds. But the backup QB didn't run the ball very well, last night in addition to riddling the DB's Lawrence ran the ball for almost 100yds and that freed up Etienne and he had a good game as well. They got 2 key players back on defense and they made a huge difference. The loss of our starting center was a huge loss for the OL and the running game, combine that with them getting back their MLB and Nose Guard and it was devestating. Bottom line is that Clemson has the more talented roster on both sides of the ball and it showed. As expected most ND fans quickly have hopped off the slow moving Kelly/Staff bandwagon and are back to wishing he would be fired. We are a good team, but just not in the same level talent wise that Clemson, Alabama and Ohio State are and it starts on the offense with elite QB's and WR's. We have a good college QB and some good WR's but they don't have the speed that the receivers at those 3 schools. We are a good top 10 team. If we get that #4 slot, I hope we can give Alabama a good game. I doubt if we can do what Fla did because Fla has an elite QB in Trask and some elite WR's to keep up with the Alabama offense. We don't. Now that I think about it the Irish the last 4 years have been like those old Neb teams that ran through the season and then lost their bowl game when they were dominating the old Big 8. Good teams but just lacking when they came up against the other top teams.
I don't actually think that any of the teams who might end up at the #4 slot could give Alabama a game. None of them have an elite QB/WR combo to challenge the Alabama defense. 3 loss Fla might be the only team that could give Clemson and Alabama games...well they already did give Alabama all they could handle and if they played like that vs Clemson it would be the same type of game. They might right now be better than Ohio State. If Fla and ND end up in the Orange Bowl then I would expect the Gators to be favored.
I was disappointed in our passing game yesterday, granted Olave has always been Field's #1 target, but it threw off our passing game. We never seemed to be in sync. The fact That Hartline (receivers coach) was absent may also have been a big problem.
What a nail biter! I thought we had it in the bag at the half but the Florida offense wouldn't give up and the Alabama defense gave up big plays. Once again our wide receivers are amazing. Jones and Harris are tough as nails. Win and move on.
Well it was as expected 1. Alabama 2. Clemson 3. Ohio State 4. Notre Dame 5. A&M 6. OU... surprise to me.
per espn it’s 1 Alabama 2 Clemson 3 Ohio State 4 ND Irish are a 17.5 dog against Bama. Clemson a 6.5 favorite against the Buckeyes.
Alabama /ND in Dallas where 16k fans can attend. Clemson /Ohio State in New Orleans where 3k fans can attend. Both Clemson and Ohio State have passionate traveling fans.... The competition for those tickets is going to be fierce and I will not be surprised if they end up on the secondary market for 5 figures.
Why didn't I see this? The Clemson game was our rope-a-dope so we'd be paired with an overconfident Alabama team against whom we'll unleash our fury. I'll tell ya, that Kelly is a master strategist.