Blanton played LB against Air Force, and we had some trouble with thier pitch but this is the 2nd time this year against that style of offense and it shows. Whatever went down between Kelly and the team...1) it appears that it was handled and 2) winning cures a lot of problems...sort of like chipping in or 1 putts!
I get what you're saying Tim but those Navy teams have been 8+ win teams that went onto bowl games and great seasons. This year's Navy team is 2-6, makes mental mistakes (seriously, when is the last time you saw the Navy NG jump offside?) and lest we forget that this Navy team was beaten this year by Southern Miss 63-35. This is a bad Navy team.. the Irish did what they were suppose to do and beat a bad football team badly. That's actually progress. We were losing to those teams last year. After Gray scored his TD he turned to the camera and said 'All day'... lots of kids do it, no big deal, I have no issue with it. I just hope this team decides to bring this effort 'every day'... and then we'll be a great team again. How we're a 3 loss team is beyond me. We're really talented. Also, Rees is an ankle sniper from hell.
ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Exactly right! Anyone who thinks taking on these service academies is a piece of cake really doesn't know what the hell they are talking about. Navy may have a losing record this year but no one has put it to them the way the Irish did today. Go ask South Carolina how they enjoyed playing these guys. <br/> <br/> Terry is right, that is the way you are suppose to beat Navy if you are ND and no other coaching staff besides Kelly has done it that way since Lou Holtz was here. Navy may have gotten the best of us last year but this coaching staff has learned how to defend these option teams. Since losing to navy last year they have beaten the triple option of Army, Air Force and now Navy. <br/> <br/> Even with the 3 losses this season we are better than any team Weis, Willingham or Davie ever put on the field. Maybe it's just going to take a while to get ND back where they should be but I'm beating Kelly is the guy.</r>
Southern Miss beat them as bad... they may have given up more points than we did but they crushed them every bit as badly. I agree that this is a very talented Irish team. It's disheartening that this team has 3 losses.
-Teich Navy brought the same fullback they had last year. He ran all over us like we weren't even there. This year he ran into a wall of true freshmen... -Rees Now we understand why Crist was thrown under the bus at halftime of game #1. He was somebody else's recruit. What we still don't understand is why Hendrix was substituted in at the goal line last week against Southern Cal but sat the pine for this blowout. I don't understand anything the coach is doing in this area... - Punt returns (sigh) -Safeties as linebackers Finally somebody figured out that only speed stops speed... -Divided team We've seen the last of Manti Teo and Dayne Crist after the final game; that's for sure... -Talent level Watching Kelly, I'm getting that Barry Switzer/Bobby Bowden feeling dadgummit! He's piling up so much raw talent that eventually it won't matter if he really knows what he's doing or not...
I look forward each week to piggybacking JO'Co's post game observations: 1. Teich : He must have been saying " who are those guys" when he was staggering back to the huddle. But he is a tough player and makes me yearn for a fullback in our offense which we will never see..... 2. Rees: Jim has been right about this all long. Tommy is a very good backup QB who lacks even a hint of escapability or running threat and is good for a couple of bonehead turnovers every game. Its a a crying shame that Crist was dumped so fast. man has that kid taught everyone around him about humility and personal integrity. Kelly has totally botched this position this year. 3. Punt returns: Its laughable. One third of a yard per return? And that is going to be worse after this game. Last in college football... probably the worst of all time. Are you kidding me? 4. Safeties as LBs: Slaughter looked great on the outside. Blanton alwasy looks good against the run. I think we'll be seeing more of this. Our LBs as a group are way too slow. 5. Divided team: Kelly really stepped in it this time. There was near a total rebellion as of dinner time Friday and there are a lot of lingering hard feelings. Crist should not even consider coming back. Even Mike Mayock pointed out his big time pro set abilities. I would be stunned if Teo did. I also look for a couple of surprise transfers. 6. Talent level: It is definitely on the rise; need more speed on the edges on defense and new special teams coach.
ND <r>says it all:<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> I don't believe Kelly "stepped" in anything:<br/> Sorry GK, but I just don't believe this at all:<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> That stuff was so overblown it's not funny.<br/> <br/> As far as Crist in concerned I don't blame him if he transfers. Hendrix will be the starter next year.</r>
Tim, I'm just repeating what I have heard from inside the locker room. If you have a better vantage point, share it. I hope it is overstated as well. We should be able to weather any residual damage because we are in the midst of a real soft schedule of games.
Compare coach comments... our coach caused friction on the team and clearly put a divide between he and Weis' guys... (btw, lots of those Weis guys played big parts in this win..lets not hand this to the freshman) to Navy's coach: It could be covered that his starting QB was lost for the game, but he didn't talk about that. Let's not underestimate the presence of Floyd in this contest when he didn't play last year. USC has the athletes to bet Rees won't throw the ball to anyone else. Navy does not. Tim may be right about Hendrix but we'll see. Kelly was known at Cincinnati for his QB not really mattering. They were interchangeable. He was the offensive genius. Until of course, they played Florida.. BTW, Rees is the ankle sniper from hell but as Sid mentioned, he is consistent.. He consistently throws the balls at your sockline, on screens... 15 yards downfield..underneath.. The only ball he's shown that he can lay high is the lateral. God help us, we have a QB based offense and our HC threw the senior QB under the bus on opening night to go with 'his guy'... JOCO may be right... I'd also like to point out how long it took Bowden to eventually be given a national title before ever winning one. If anything, Florida State was a consistent top 5 top 10 team but they also pissed away more talent than anyone. How the hell are we a 3 loss team? We are that talented. We lack senior leadership..and that's really hard to have when your HC throws one of the few seniors you have on the team under the bus on opening night at halftime. **** move, **** coach, **** offense, great recruiter.. Still, it may just work,
About Crist, let's review his career at ND. Two years ago he finally gets in vs WSU in San Antonio. After a TD pass to Goodman his knee gets blown out and he's done for the season. Last year he has a good first series vs Mich. and then he has some strange vision problem. I've never heard the cause. Some anxiety problem was possible. In any event, while he's sitting on the sideline, Kelly is forced (thanks to the recruiting of the prior coach) to play inexperienced QBs Montana and Rees. They manage to cough up enough ints. to give Mich. a lead. While Crist comes back in the second half, he leaves the D in position to gag in the final minute vs. Mich. which they do every f#cking year. A couple of games later he blows out the other knee. It either happened before he was hit of when he took a needless hit on the sideline. Either way, China Doll was done for another year. He's a waste of practice reps. I posted his stats for 14 possessions earlier. Bottom line is he's -14 pts for the season. When Mayock says he'll play in the NFL he's got to be kidding. You need talent AND durability to play with the big boys. Crist ain't got it. We're moving on.
Talent shows in big games. We have Jonas Gray fumbling at the 1 in game 1. Gary Gray blowing chunks in game 2. We have Manti and Floyd MIA in the SC game. We have a coach who calls out his upper classmen and HE get's criticized. His job depends on their performance and they just choke and don't show. They can whine all they want. The fact is the three losses are not on the coaching staff, they're on players who know better and should have played better.
Yeah lets bring back Charlie's Pro Style offense that was sooo succesful, or better yet Ty's West Coast offense. I seem to remember that after his 2nd spring he said he and Dieter had about 40% of the offense installed. I think Rees has limited Kelly in this offense, not the other way around. Watching two great ones yesterday in Luck and Barkley I can only imagine what Kelly's offense would look like if he had a QB who could stretch the field, who could roll out and throw on the run and keep plays alive. Don't get me wrong I think Tommy has a lot of heart he's just not that talented the best we can hope for from Tommy is that he manages the game and makes his reads. We can score a lot of points if he'll just do that. But clearly we need for Hendrix to develope or for Golson to develope to take the offense to another level. As far as Crist, I don't know what to think about him. I had high hopes, I was relieved when he was named the starter. However I don't blame Kelly for benching him at the half in the USF game he had that deer in the headlights look. Sometimes a QB needs to sit down. But why he was permanently set down I don't know. I can understand not wanting a revolving door of QB's, but I am surprised somewhat that he never got another chance. As far as the team and the division, I have no idea about that but I do know that winning cures a lot of those problems. I manage a small group of people, I know how fast things can go south just when you least expect them. The whole Weis guys vs Kelly guys is not just a ND problem it's a problem for every new coach, don't forget the new guy was brought in because the old coach and "his" players **** the bed. Sometimes you can turn those old coaches players around sometimes you can't. That's why the old adage used to be a coach needed 5 years so he could have a full recruiting cycle to get his guys in place.
Lest we forget that Charlie inherited a team that had recruited almost no linemen in a few seasons. He still managed BCS bowl appearances in those years. Charlie's problem is that he is/was not a HC. He had no idea how to handle the entire team, especially on the defensive side of the ball. We never ran a true west coast offense under Ty. To be honest, I have no idea what the hell we were doing under Ty except funding his golfing addiction. Weis had to answer the bell immediately and be held accountable for things that were far, far worse than people talked about. We had lots of problems under Charlie, but offense wasn't one of them. So now we have Kelly who inherited a ton of offensive talent... He has a history of throwing QBs under the bus and making odd personnel decision. It's not like this is just an ND thing, he did it at Cincinnati as well. The guy became our best candidate because he won the Big East.. It's not like we hired a Nick Saban or someone who was proven at this level. That being said, Kelly has a ton more experience as an HC than Charlie ever will have. Charlie wasn't given time to grow as an HC. At ND, you don't get that kind of luxury. Why are we so patient with Kelly? The offense, by design, is a yardage producing high risk/reward offense. It is not, be design, going to control the clock. It's going to run multiple isolation plays in which the play is either a HR for us or the defense. It's a terrible redzone offense, especially without a dual threat QB. While Crist may be a china doll, Rees is no threat healthy. You can justify the pulling of Crist for having the 'deer in headlights' look but that's all lack of confidence. Confidence that was never shown in him by this coaching staff. We leave Rees on the field no matter what he does. Sure would have been nice to see the other guy get that vote of confidence. Crist actually goes through his progression. Rees is just piping the ball to Floyd unless the coverage or check down is so obviously wide open that he looks for another WR... even then, it usually requires him to sit back far too long and throw and ankle dart that the WR/TE/RB catches. We aren't winning because of Rees, we're winning in spite of him. Go back and check his turnovers... throwing into triple coverage... Hitting DBs square in the numbers... Just flat out dropping the ball while going to pass in the red zone. These are things Crist was crucified for, but he made far fewer mistakes. He didn't fumble, Gray did. To me at least, it all appears to be one emotional panic reaction after another. There is no 'process', there is no rhyme or reason. It's chaos theory football. I don't know if you've noticed this, but we are a very talented team. For all the 'great' that this offense is suppose to be, you can't tell me that with 5 seniors on the offensive line, you aren't as concerned as I am that 4th and 1 can't be converted consistently.
Yeah but it still has O linemen from the Davie years. The one thing that Ty lacked most was an O coordinator. Dietrich was worse than bad. Ty's team actually had learned the fundamentals and with a good O coordinator as HC actually did quite well. 2 yrs later Charlie was saddled with no O linemen. On top of that he had assistants that weren't doing a very good job at developing players and to compound the problem, he had a D coordinator that flat out didn't recruit.
Only 24 hours aftwe the Irish pounded the **** out of Navy by seven TDs we still haves time to fight amongst ourselves. :lol: