There's so many things I could go into so I'll just try to keep them in subsections to keep the thought process in line. The city and the stadium LP Field is a great stadium and facility in a wonderful town. People fuss about not getting into a 'bigger game' but I'd much rather go to Nashville than Atlanta any day. Also, the way the stadium is set up right off the Cumberland river with the city skyline in the background offers some gorgeous sight lines. The stadium has 2 massive screens in either end zone. The seating was all really good. I could have upgraded for 20 bucks to sit on the field level but I wanted to see some things and I feared I would have missed them at another angle. For a college kid, this bowl has the potential to be a great location for fun. First of all, this is Music City and it's not just country music anymore. Second, the downtown bar area is as nice and diverse as any in the country. All of that is literally walking distance from the stadium. The walk is safe. There's cheap parking all around downtown. I learned from Gipper long ago that "it's not where you sit, it's where you park." I pre-paid the 20 bucks for the stadium pass in lot B and didn't regret it. I wasn't 200 yards from the stadium. The only downside to the whole stadium experience is GETTING to the parking. There really isn't a bad seat in the house but good lord was it cold. That wind blowing in off the Cumberland was just brutal, but it's almost always cold there for this game. We were prepared. It's an NFL stadium so booze was a plenty inside. These are two of the great drinking fan bases and they did not disappoint. I think the weather kept things focused. Had this been a hot night in September, this would have been a much different crowd. Instead, everyone for the most part was real positive. We all love our respective sides. Keep the drinks flowing, the cheers loud and try to stay warm. Scott asked about LSU fans. They were there in force. These guys sat in front of us. You may remember them from a few ESPN/CBS crowd shots during the year. Nashville is one of my favorite cities in America. In fact, that whole surrounding area is one of my favorite places. I'd have up and moved there but Carson begged me to stay in Decatur so he could finish high school with his friends. The crowd was just under capacity. This is one of those things in which a warmer night would have had standing room only. It was so cold, some people could tail gate and then walk back across the bridge to the bars to stay out of the cold. I read a few articles about how excited the city was. Their marketing campaign for the bowl game was 'This Is The Big Time.' There was repeated acknowledgement of the fact that Notre Dame vs LSU was the biggest game they've had by far. Toss out the records, you just don't get a match up like this very often and Nashville was giddy at the chance to host these two teams. Nashville is a fairly 'Irish friendly' city and local LSU fans jumped at the chance to see their Tigers. The guy who sat next to Carson was from Cullman County and an avid LSU fan. Now that I think about it. there was only one downside to the game in the NFL stadium. The rock music blaring over the 2 bands. These are 2 of the great bands in college football. In LSU's case, they are also one of the funniest. Eventually, in the 2nd half, someone wised up and they stopped blaring rock music over the bands. The game ended with everyone (LSU and ND fans alike) exchanging hand shakes, fist bumps, well wishes for the New Year and good luck next season. Next section, the game.
the game vs TV coverage You guys saw it so I can cover some of this in a quick overview. After watching the TV replay, let me clear a few things up for you because ESPN is clearly in the business of generating ******** instead of covering sports events. -The Fake field goal was not a touch down. I was sitting around maybe 500 LSU fans and almost none of them thought it was a touch down. My right knee was literally on the goal line. Forget all that 'sync camera shot' ********. The kid's knee was down when he was drilled by Max Redfield. In fact, the one bitch that the LSU fans had was the belief that Redfield could have been flagged for a late hit. I watched in disbelief the ESPN replay of it. The in stadium review on the jumbotrons didn't juxtapose those 2 stills. When you were there, in real time, sitting on the goal line, what you would have seen is that the kid laid out. When his knee hit the ground, he got a quick push off that took the ball to the goal line right as Redfield drilled him. The problem is, unless that kid has a jet pack in his ass (as the LSU fans around me described it) his knee had to be down. He left the ground and his momentum stopped, only to magically burst again. That last burst came from his knee hitting and getting a last push off. Here's a picture of my sight line. The fake took place at where the goal line is at the top of the screen in the image. We were literally looking right down on it. -Rod Gilmore's comment about the ND fans groaning and becoming frustrated with Kelly's use of the QBs. Nothing could be further from the truth. We ran into LOTS and LOTS of ND fans and not one of them was excited about seeing Golson. Everyone wanted Zaire. There was a groan when Golson came out after completing a pass, but that had to do with some onfield scuttle butt going on between the players. While the crowd was having a great time in a brotherhood of football, those two teams were chippy and taking shots at each other all night. There were a dozen situations that could have become fights, but didn't due to outstanding officiating by the Pac12 crew. Yes, I actually said those words. Both sides danced and taunted after big plays. The officials didn't flag them but gave a quick, stern word in the ear, and the situation resolved itself. Neither side was more guilty than the other. They were both doing it. Our defensive players talked a whole gang of **** and our offensive tackles took exception to every hit of an ND skill player that took place anywhere near a whistle. I do believe this mindset and physicality was a surprise to LSU. This was a much nastier ND team than we'd seen all year.
game notes: -Catch the damned ball Corey Robinson. -You too Will Fuller. It's bad enough the QB is struggling and it's wonderful that you run past everyone to make catches like Lynn Swan on the deep ball. However, when a struggling QB hits you in the damned face mask on a key conversion down, you can't come up like Loretta Lynn. She had more heart. You're an incredible talent, but if you want to be the next Amari Cooper, catch the every down ball. -Our vertical rushing game really knocked them back. Part of this, and I haven't seen this mentioned, was due to some brilliant design by Kelly. He really does a good job with this stuff. He attacked them vertically using horizontal plays like jet and toss sweeps. You really can't attack LSU horizontally. They are too fast for pretty much anyone. What we did was seal and isolate their DEs. We weren't trying to get around the end. We were trying to get TO the ends and then turn it up right at them. Our OTs kicked their DEs asses all night. -At the same time, we enjoyed quite a bit of success right between the tackles for 3 yards a clip because we forced them to loosen up the box. We were able to do that because our WRs were regularly beating their DBs all night. They play man up press and their DBs are good, but our WRs were better. That's not to say they didn't win some plays, but we won a whole lot more. This forced them to back the safeties and LBs up, which allowed us to lean on them for good yardage when we needed it... which makes the call for a read option on 4th and 1 more odd than you'd think... which brings me to -Good lord is Kelly frustrating. We take shitty timeouts because we aren't prepared for certain situations like... the start of the game... our QB getting knocked out, but not being ready to get the other guy (who is regularly rotating in the game) on the field. Just stupid stuff. He is quite brilliant at design, but absolutely clueless about the pulse of the game. -Which brings me to the coaches. Say what you want about the Mad Hatter, but he knows the pulse of the football game. You can say he's crazy, but he knows just when the moment calls for something different and he has the balls to go for it. You can question his fake FG, but he's not a dummy. He knew they needed something more to keep going. We were beating them at the LOS all night. When he was given an opportunity, he took it. Meanwhile, we squandered 2 possessions in which we clearly could have put them away. We got a big 3 and out stop and we got a turn over. We got a bad penalty on one with a stupid hold. However, the play calling was just Kelly being Kelly. He tried to be cute and attack LSU with Horizontal screens and things that just wouldn't work. He pissed those chances away and the game came down to the wire because of it. That could have been a 2 score game for us, but he got cute.. like I said, he has no sense of the pulse of the game. -"Fornie" as the LSU fans call him. We don't have anyone like that and neither do you. Holy **** that guy is a 230+lb freight train with world class speed. We have a couple guys who are burners on any roster in America, and he ran away from them despite being 40+lbs heavier than them. That kid is really special. On the 1st kickoff to him, (and this is me bitching about Kelly again), while the ball was in the air, I said loudly 'WHY?!' We made the tackle and we were lucky for it. We kicked again to him and I said in flight 'what the hell are we doing!?' On the 3rd kickoff to him, I called that **** in the air. The LSU fans got a kick out of me because they knew I was right. It was decent blocking on that TD return of 100 yards, but he really did only get 2 blocks. We had 3 guys who had the coverage angle on him and he just ran right passed them like they were standing still. That kid is very, very special and Miles is doing right by pacing the use of him and constantly disciplining him for his celebrations. The kid is great. He knows he's great. Miles is trying to make a man out of a man child. We finally wised up and started kicking deep. We allow returns going for coverage hits. After the TD, we went deep on every kick. Why was kicking to him ever in the game plan?! LSU squibbed 2 of their first 3 kickoffs because they feared our return guys and didn't want to give a momentum swing. Our return guys aren't one tenth as special as 'Fornie'... I realize that's the special teams guy but Kelly still runs the show.. That never should have been on the table. -Uncle Rico. You can bitch about this guy all you want, but after watching him scheme from the crow's nest view, everything he does makes sense and I really like his defense. His scheme was sound all night. He really is dealing with a skeleton crew out there. He finally got a few bodies back and it showed. If we can stay healthy back there, he could have a great defense. He had the safeties crashing and hitting. It was as if he told them to err on the side of physicality and it really works well. The very physical LSU RBs were looking up and peeking for those guys when they got into the 2nd level. -Niles Morgan. Uncle Rico spent the entire game trying to hide Morgan from LSU while also trying to use his incredible athletic ability. The problem is, you just can't hide a middle linebacker in the game of football. Uncle Rico damned near did it. A great example of this was the opening play of the 2nd half. Cam Cameron (LSU's OC) did a great job using one of LSU's best WRs in a wingback role lined up wide which put Morgan in coverage of him. They ran play action. Morgan took a big fat assed bite of it before losing the play all together and Max Redfield spent the next 80 yards trying to catch Morgan's man. On Fornie's long TD run, Morgan took the wrong gap and then got put on skates by an OL who managed to drive Morgan into the safety (maybe Redfield?) and we're off to the races again. That's the bad side. The good side was way more often, Uncle Rico was able to shuffle coverage responsibility to Jaylon Smith (who really is special) or James Onwualu (who can run with most anyone but not quite on Smith's level) and allow Morgan to simply head hunt between the tackles. When we were able to do that, man, you can see why that kid is special. He just has some learning to do. He'll be fine. -My favorite play of the game was the one JOCO mentioned. Zaire does the little things that Golson does not do. His block using his face was a classic example of that. He didn't need to hold or de-cleat anyone. He simply had to be in the way. Best of all, HE SAW THAT COMING when the RB bounced, Zaire immediately ran to get in the way of the corner downfield. That's the difference between a 3 yard gain and a TD.. a winner and not a winner. -Zaire has a great arm but doesn't have quite the deep ball Golson has. Golson throws a special, NFL level deep ball. The problem is everything else he does. Zaire is also a flat out load. The TV coverage says he's 230 and I think they didn't weigh him after lunch. Time after time, he delivered the blow to the LSU defender. Read that sentence again. -Folson is absolutely dangerous in space and we finally found a way to use him in that way. -Hats off to Kelly for finally recognizing that he HAD TO PROTECT THE DEFENSE. We had a game plan that was clearly centered around keeping our defense off the field, so that they could play at a high energy when they were on it. We aren't deep enough to put them in bad positions. They aren't good enough yet to carry a game. This is a change that should have been made in November. Still, hats off for finally making the change. -All in all, it was a fantastic experience. Carson and Brittney got to take a picture with the leprechaun on the way out. I'd still be saying this was a great day even if we lost. We were going to take a few of Carson's camp buddies to the game as well, but they wound up talking more friends into going so they went with a larger group. In case you're counting, that's 10 kids who are on the 'talent tour of summer camps' from Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, who play defensive line who have never been exposed to anything Notre Dame related before other than gossip who are now glowing about their experience. You're welcome.
we finished the night at McNamara's in Nashville. I'd highly recommend it to anyone in town. There are several Irish pubs in Nashville, but McNamara's is my favorite. If you're wondering, that's Carson on the grilled Salmon and veggies. Brittney at the top of the screen with Guinness stew and my fat ass front and center with the corned beef, cabbage and broccoli cheese casserole. Soda bread around the table for everyone. Good times kids. The next time people say you shouldn't go to a bowl, you may still want to check it out. [img]http://s30.postimg.org/psqqm7f8x/NDMusic_City_Bowlchamps.jpg
btw, JOCO mentioned that I called Carson over to show him Les Miles on the bus and he was clearly upset. So you know, I didn't do that to mock the man. I didn't draw attention to what I was doing. I quietly called Carson over to do this. The reason I did this was to show Carson something and teach him a very important lesson that can be lost living in these parts. These aren't Gods. These aren't monsters. These are just men and boys who are trying their best and sometimes that isn't enough, but they keep going. We wanted to catch the ND buses but they were on the other side of the stadium. When I saw the Hatter on the bus, I thought I'd seize the moment. It's the kind of thing that only men can pass onto boys in the hopes that one day they'll understand. That is a very intense man who is very good at what he does and he just failed. Everyone does, but he'll be back. Everyone sees the hero at the parade. Very few see them in the moments that led them to the parade.
Glad you guys had a great time, figured you would. I would have gone to the Liberty, but since I haven't started the new job yet I couldn't justify laying out the cash. Good to hear the jackass L$U fans who always seem to show up in College Station when we play them were not near you for this game. I thought Kelly did a great job at scheming for this game... except when he kept putting Golson in. You really dodged a bullet with that duck he tossed up under pressure. The new kid is impressive, and exactly what you needed to beat the tiggers. I was saying the same thing you noted - take on the DE's, they are light and not built to stand up to the double tight sets the Irish were using. Good win for ND!
Thanks for the report Corey. We enjoyed Nashville on our only visit. That stadium sounds like it's a real comfortable place to see a game.
Scott, Oh there were some, but I've found that if you're cool to people around you, even the most rabid fan bases will eventually turn on the town a-hole. We had 2 middle aged, rude coon assed cajuns between us and the super fans. I casually started in on them early in the 2nd. By halftime, they had agreed with me that they'd enjoy this game somewhere else. There was a gal behind us, that we never caught her name but we'll call her 'Internet' because the only time I've heard or read **** that stupid was on the internet. She stayed the whole time.. but hey, surrounded by 500 LSU fans and we had 3 (2 of which I convinced to leave), we were fortunate. It was a great day. Gip, Thanks! I think you'd have enjoyed it quite a bit. I am sad to report that we did encounter some of the elitists alums who were a bit douchy, but we didn't see any inside the stadium. I was with family so it was not the time or place to set them straight. Besides, I think a Marine subway made his point to one of them.
Corey, I agree with Bobda. You have provided us with a well-written and riveting (for me) recap of your day. I enjoyed every word and every picture. Brittney is a cutie, and our man Carson came through for us once again. Again, thanks!
thanks guys. I'm glad you like it. Honestly, my headaches and blurry vision are still so bad that I'm glad you could even read it! So either way, you're very kind. If you'll excuse me, I have to resume being mean to people I know on the internet for the next few minutes.