I'll be at the game this weekend. Sparty looks like they will be their usual physical defense. I see they put up 55 points this weekend but it was against Youngstown State so you don't really know what that means. Dantonio had been having difficulty in settling on a starting QB, I guess he has found one right now. I expect this QB will be mobile and they will use the same game plan to attack the Irish as Temple, Michigan and Purdue. Irish ground game being suspect at the moment and Mich State having a stout defense probably again puts the game on the WR's and Tommy Rees. Tommy has beaten Michigan State as a starter in 2011 so I expect he'll be OK and our WR's/TE are very good. If some lightbulb goes on with the RB's and OL then I like our chances if not it'll be another game that keeps Irish fans uncomfortably on the edges of their seats. I am hoping for good weather, lately I've been at that cold rain type of game!!
Right now, long range forecast is for a perfect football game day. Sunny, high of 71. I'll be starting the day up in Traverse City and then driving to Grand Rapids for a nephew's wedding. These Central Michigan people....
Almost hate to bring it up, but anybody notice that the Temple team that played so well against us and gave everybody the blue print on how to attack our defense has lost to Houston (OK Houston isn't awful, not great but a legit team) and Fordham...I didn't even know Fordham played football anymore, I thought they gave it up right after Lombardi left.
My son, who attended the Purdue game, asked if they said anything on TV about David Robinson's son when he was on the field. I replied that they only showed him once on a pass near the goal line. My son said that he when he was in, the DB could not cover him because of his height and he was "wide ass" open, but Rees never looked in his direction. I wonder if the coaches will address this prior to the MSU game. Stay tuned.
Corey Robinson was a sensation in the Fall (August) practice reports. Everybody said he was great, would catch everything thrown his way. When recruited he was deemed a project, and one that might grow into a TE. But he's worked hard and instead of being a red shirt candidate he's going to have a role as a freshman. I think that given how Kelly has used his stud freshmen RB's that we will also probably not see Corey that much till later in the year. Standard reasons are they have to learn to block before we can play them on a regular basis. But in Robinson's case there are some very good recievers ahead of him in the rotation. DaVaris Daniels is very impressive, TJ Jones if he stays healthy is going to have an outstanding senior year. Chris Brown is our fastest WR and he has worked hard to get on the field as well. Daniel Smith plays because he blocks like a TE.
I can remember at least 2 passes thrown to Robinson this season (1 at Temple and 1 at Purdue) and both were pretty horse **** tosses. My opinion on this subject is well established. I've seen the WRs blamed for running bad routes, but 4 years of bad routes is wearing thin. It's not them...but we know that, there's just nothing we can do about it except say "Thanks Everett" and look forward. In the meantime, I'd like a pass rush and better than half-ass tackling in the secondary.
What is that a response to regarding Robinson? Tommy is a 61% passer so far this year, he's thrown some that were drops and he's thrown some that were just bad passes and he's thrown some away.
Interesting numbers after three weeks on Tommy Rees..... Rating: 154.7 (34th in nation) in front of JW Walsh, Devin Gardner, Tajh Boyd, Derek Carr, Jeff Driskel, Jordan Lynch, Jared Goff, Bryn, Renner Completion %: 60.7% (72nd in nation) - This is the number that needs to improve, but it's still better than Tajh Boyd, Devin Gardner, David Fales, Jordan Lynch, Marcus Mariota, AJ McCarron Passing Yards: 969 (7th in nation) in front of everyone except Goff (Cal), Bridgewater (Louisville), Mannion (Oregon St.), Manziel (A&M), Mayfield (TT), and Wenning (Ball St.) TD's: 7 (T-12th) in front of Lynch, Conor Shaw, McCarron, Walsh, Taylor Kelly, Hundley, Aaron Murray
Tommy is what he is, an average to slightly above average QB anybody who thought Tommy was suddenly going to be top QB this year as a starter was delusional. I hoped that Tommy would have a great year because we needed that from him, but I didn't think Tommy could put the team on his back and carry them like Johnny Football can. He needed good protection, which he has received and he needed a running game that the defense would respect. So far he's had to carry the team more than I thought he should. Maybe our running game will eventually evolve, I don't know. Corey Robinson is going to be a player, I don't think anybody even implied that Robinson wasn't running good routes or that his lack of production was a result of anything other than he's not getting that many balls thrown his way due to the excellent WR's ahead of him on the depth chart.
Speaking of the pass rush. A lot of criticism of Tuitt is out there, a lot of speculation that he's over weight and out of shape and that being in that condition is his fault or maybe Longo's fault. But an orthopedic surgeon on another board had this to say about Tuitt.
Those are unformed, kneejerk idiotic opinions. Such postings serve only to emphasize the stupidity of some, who obviously know nothing about hernia surgery. I'm not that well informed, but even I knew from what Kelly said earlier that Tuitt still is in recovery mode from his surgery and that his weight gain is a direct result of his post-surgery exercise restrictions. Fortunately, I haven't had hernia surgery, but I know folks who have. It's a tough one to recover from. It takes a long time to get back to 100%. The doctor's comments are credible. George, interesting numbers for Rees. It's a young season, and we have some very tough games ahead, but so far, his play is contradicting the criticism of the boo birds.
Every single one of those guys bring at least one more dimension to their game than Tommy. As Terry said, 'he is what he is.' If we can get the running game going, we should be okay... that's a big if at this point.
Was anyone else aware of this? I wasn't. This excerpt is from WTHR.com in Indianapolis, published today: