I was trying to think something positive from the game...I finally got it...that kid Aaron Donald who was the Pitt DL that they talked a lot about pregame and who just last week had a monster game vs Ga.Tech....was pretty much silenced by the ND OL. 8)
I've been chewing on this statement from Sid. I listen to Mike Franks Power Hour and he said that was why he took the team to the off site camp to start the season. He realize there was not good leadership coming out of Spring drills and was trying to get an environment that would foster it's development. That in itself is amazing to me. When you have a Sr. gym rat type of QB who has been hardened with fans booing him, and a 5th year Italian MLB in Carlo, and a Sr. Off Tackle who was coming back to play with his brother and a upper classman in TJ Jones who had worked his ass off to be where he is now and a upper classman in Bennett Jackson who everybody was talking about having NFL potential. Not to mention Tuitt, Nix, Sheldon Day. Hell there should have been lots of leadership on this team. But Sid is right, it has never developed. And what is worse I'm not sure where the leadership is going to come from next year. Our best players are all going to be very young. Jaylon Smith only a Soph, and seems a little quiet to me, Corey Robinson again only a Soph. Golson..how does a guy who let his team down lead? I'm worried.
Rees has never been that guy, no matter how many times the coaches and fan base have tried to put it on him. He's just not.
Maybe so, but all I've heard about Tommy was what a team player he was, how not a lot of QB's would have accepted the role he had last year, at least not happily. It was said that he had the admiration of the team. Sounds like a perfect leader to me...but clearly not.
I probably have been the most avid supporter of Tommy, but I have to agree that he has not provided leadership to this team. Like Terry, I am confused and disappointed about the absence of leadership from among the players he mentioned. Also like Terry, for the same reasons he cited, I'm concerned about next year.
there's something that I've run into continually throughout my life, and it is this. People who believe stereotypes. People look for stereotypical leaders and traits that they believe to be true for leaders. Sometimes it works, other times it does not. Hometown heroes, gym rats, selfless guys who look like the boy next door. They are dedicated. They are loyal. That makes them good teammates, but not necessarily team leaders. None of this makes Rees a bad kid, or a bad player. He's just not a leader. How many guys did it take Lincoln to get to Grant? We all can't know anything more than second hand reports, at best. My gripe has been with Kelly from the get go regarding Rees. He's handed the kid the keys to the Ferrari from the time he walked on campus. Either he sees something that I don't, which is possible, or he sees something that isn't there. I like how they would protect Golson last year and try to nurture his confidence into a leadership role. I thought by the end of the year, it was really paying off. (at least on-field). Rees never really had the benefit of that. I'm not saying he is, or would have been capable of it, but I guess we'll never know. He's just not though, and I think that's abundantly clear now. We just have to play the cards we're dealt at this point and hope for the best.
Regarding Rees and Kelly. Dayne Crist was injured and was going to be the only scholarship QB for Kelly's first Spring and he wasn't going to be able to be tackled. So Kelly begged Tommy who wasn't scheduled to graduate early to enroll early so he'd have another QB who wasn't a walk on to throw the ball in the Spring. The other kid was the Montana kid who was a walkon. Hendrix could not graduate early and wasn't available nor was Massa. So that's where it started with Kelly and Rees. So in 2010 Crist is the clear starter, but he goes down in the very first game and Kelly has to play both Rees and Montana against Michigan, Crist comes back though and gets us the lead which the defense proceeds to choke and give it back to UM. Dayne goes down again vs Tulsa and Kelly looks over and he has only Rees and Montana ....goes with Rees who was 37/54 for 300yds and had us in the position to win but Kelly decides to eschew the sure FG for the win and have Tommy the true freshman throw a fade to Floyd in the endzone...because that's how we roll. Of course we roll to a heartbreaking loss. So now Tommy has to start the rest of the season and does a credible job, beating USC and winning the bowl game in El Paso in front of Tim Gentry! Dayne wins the 2011 starting job over Tommy, performs terribly in the 1st half vs South Fla and is yanked for Tommy who almost pulls it out. Dayne never starts again and Tommy is the man. Has a problematic Soph season, ups like leading ND to a near victory at Ann Arbor before the defense chokes away another one. But plays terribly at times, turnover Tommy becomes a popular saying. Some say Crist was being screwed because he's more talented than Tommy. Maybe so, he graduates and takes all that talent to KU where Charlie QB Guru installs him as the starter for a few games, then plants him on the bench permanently so maybe Crist wasn't all that talented. Good kid though. In 2012 Golson is given the job, he's the type of QB Kelly wants/needs. He's mobile, he's got a great arm and it turns out wee bit of academic dishonesty as well. But he's the starter has a good, but not Johnny Football good, season and is bailed out by ...Tommy several times...Tommy Team Player. So that brings us to 2013 and Golson let everybody down and all we have are Tommy and Hendrix. We all saw what Hendrix is like and why he isn't much of an option. Plus Mike Frank has said with regards to why Gunner Kiel isn't with us was that Gunner couldn't beat out Hendrix much less Tommy last year. So with all of that, and your comment that he handed Rees the keys to a Ferrari, what the heck would you have done if you weren't going to play Tommy? Play Hendrix, Played Kiel last year when Golson got knocked out of the Stanford game, and play Kiel vs BYU? Would you have Tommy just handing the ball off to our stable of backs lead by GAIII and Carlisle? I know you like the freshman RB's you think those two Freshman RB's were the keys to the season and should have been starting from day1? I'm just curious, I'm frustrated but I'm frustrated because it's come down to an injury depleted defense that even at full strenght wasn't going to be as good as last year and a backfield composed of guys who shouldn't be RB's in GAIII and Carllsle and a MAC kid in McDaniel and a couple of freshmen. I hardly think the freshmen were the key to the season.
Right on the money, Doc. For all of Rees' limitations, he has been there to save the Irish for four years. This football program would have imploded without him. Be it injury, defection, academic cheating or simply panicking under fire, Kelly has turned to this kid time and again to pull them out of the fire.
Very well thought out and very well said, Terry. Same for George's follow-up comments. It's comforting to know that common sense is alive and well, at least among us 60-somethings (now including George).
During Rees second year I questioned why Crist wasn't given another chance, it's not like Tommy played lights out. As I said it was in 2011 that people started with the Turnover Tommy label. As the year went on it was clear that Dayne wasn't ever going to play again short of Tommy not being able to take the field. I wondered about that, but given Daynes short lived status as a starter with Charlie I have to assume Charlie saw the same thing that Kelly must have seen, Dayne was a great kid, a kid who you looked at and said now there is a prototypical QB, but for whatever the reason he just didn't have it. I watched him throw that dart to John Goodman and thought I'm going to be seeing a lot of that in the future. But John Goodman never amounted to anything at ND other than being a good teammate and the recipient of a record number of fair catches. Goodman first hit campus he was so talented that due to shortages at QB (again) he worked a little at QB as well as at WR. He was going to be Jeff Samarzdja, except faster and an emergency QB. But he has his degree and I'm sure he'll do well in the world along with Dayne.
Sounds like a description of some UF games this year. And that leads me to ask what is the general assessment of Kelly at this point in his third season at ND. ND and UF have each followed similar although not identical paths over the past three seasons with new coaches at the helm. Each lost several games in their coach's inaugural season.... including to a couple of annual rivals..... and UF was an ND loss away from playing Bama last year for the BCS title ( and would have been similarly blown out as a result ). And this season UF remains a step behind... losing a couple more than ND but each team faces a strong prospect of more losses down the stretch. So I wonder.... has Kelly done just enough more than Muschamp that the ND faithful are satisfied.... somewhat happy with his performance? How far is that gap between the two because at UF the noise in the system is pretty loud right now re: Muschamp's future as Florida coach.
Nope the natives are restless in NDNation. Lots of questioning of the way Kelly runs his offense, lots of questioning of our DCoord Bob Diaco who was the Broyles Award winner last year..but what has he done for us lately. His defensive game plan vs Navy was roundly criticized and many hope that he gets an offer from a MAC team to be the HC. But we have lots of stuff that makes us mad, like what to do about the surface at ND Stadium. There has been no offical decision but Kelly wants FieldTurf and that pisses off a lot of people who feel that Grass is our "tradition" and to go to the fake stuff is just wrong. Also there is fear that a Jumbotron is in the future and many feel that will totally ruin NDStadium. Nope there is lots of unhappiness. I guarantee you if Kelly was offered a NFL job (no way it will happen) many ND faithfull will gladly help him out of town.
As happens whenever Terry cites the NDNation point of view, I confirm for the unknowing that NDN is an infinitesimally small minority of ND fans who are very loud and generally very negative. Several years ago, I tried to stay with them but tired of the continuous ranting and testosterone-laced opinionating. Having said that, I can confirm that Terry is an intelligent and sensible fan whose opinions I value and who is in the minority of the NDN populace. P.S. Kelly is in his 4th year at ND. His records for 2010 through 2012 respectively are 8-5, 8-5, 12-1.
It's not just NDNation, if you were to read the things said about Mack Brown this year, after the guy gave all those years to Texas who restored the program from the damage that John Mackovic had done, had a Heisman Winner, and 2 should have Heisman winners, a Nat'l Championship, and another Nat'l Championship that should have been if his QB hadn't gotten knocked out in the 1st qtr, who had a record run of 10 win and 11 win seasons who is the reason that Texas expanded the stadium. Treated like a cur who showed up at your backdoor begging for food.
So basically Terry.... similar circumstances exist at UF and at ND except Kelly is in his 4th season and poised to possibly go 8-5 again depending on the bowl game results and/or BYU. 8-5 next year....Muschamp's 4th at UF and I firmly believe he will be out. I do think he gets that 4th year.... but I can't see Foley going for a 5th season with him if 8-5 is all he can muster again next season. So.... even though the ND end results were ever so close last season to Florida's does that one special year of finding ways to win buy Kelly a pass for a poor finish this season? Does he get a fifth?
I believe that last year combined with Kelly's new contract that he signed at the beginning of this year pretty much insulates him from being fired for a couple of years.
So it appears that Kelly is a small step ahead of the hangman... bolstered by getting his team to the BCS CG and subsequently rewarded ( and insulated ) with the new contract. Muschamp on the other hand has had a bit less success in all of his three seasons than Kelly has.... including coming up a smidge short of the BCS title game last year. I don't think a new contract is in the offing either after this season....so Muschamp is firmly sitting on the hot seat while the ND Nation seemingly have to put up with Kelly like it or not.
ND is still paying Chollie $2 million per year. I doubt if the Irish are anxious to pay three HCs at once.
Yeah that's just criminal what Charlie and his Agent pulled on Kevin White, at least in hindsight. Not to mention the uproar it caused with guys like John Saunders and the other black analysts that Charlie got a raise and Tyrone got fired. I don't have a problem that Kelly got an extension, or a raise. But I hope the contract is fair to ND as well as Kelly.