I watch Mich. lose to Iowa, Neb. lose to NW, and MSU struggle against terrible Minn. and I guess winning by 7 on the road isn't that bad. Wake was 5-3 with a win over FSU. They're well coached and have some skilled players. On the other hand we're playing freshmen on the line and at least one was hobbled and had to leave the game twice. We've won 6 out of our last 7, there definately is something wrong with this team.
:roll: A ho-hum road win in a game the team didn't seem to care about. I'll take it, but if this coach gave a Knute Rockne speech would any of the older players be listening? -Tommy Rees: Will get a lot of victories against the Wake Forests of the world, because the team wins in spite of him. I was hoping for a little more than that out of the QB position. -Stephon Tuitt: Came up big today. He's still learning what he's doing, but every game under his belt adds more experience. Tuitt and Lynch are special players. -Punt returns: (Sigh) See Sid's Kevin Carretta post. I'll go with that. -Corrupt ACC referees: The list of their mistakes is too long to post, so I'll just mention one sequence of plays. A Wake player is running down the sidelines after a Rees interception and Zach Martin knocks him out-of-bounds. The refs throw a flag for a "late hit" although the replay shows the runner was easily 1-2 yards IN-BOUNDS when Martin launched him toward the Gatorade coolers. The hit was not even near the sideline. On the next play, The Deeks run a crossing route that turns the corner on Hayseed, because the blocker is holding him so badly that you can see his jersey stretching on TV: no call. -Mike Golic Jr.: Had a good game at center. That OL is good and deep. -Kickoff returns: Austin Collinsworth looks almost as good as Atkinson III. If they want to kick it to him every time that's OK with me. I've said all year that he should be the punt returner and I still believe that. -Jonas Gray and Harrison Smith: Showed senior leadership today. Jonas may be playing himself into becoming a low round draft choice and who would have dreamed of such a thing on opening day? -Tyler Eifert: Is definitely one of the best TEs in the country. He might be the best pro prospect at that position, which scares me. We might lose him too. -Carlo: Looked a little lost out there today and he wasn't alone. All those underneath crossing patterns had the LBs running in circles and running into each other. I'm not too sure about the defensive plan for this game either. Kelly blasted Carlo for not staying with his man on one such play, but Carlo was the right outside LB, who was asked to stay with a slot receiver who dragged all the way across the field to the other sideline without any planned help. I'm not aware of any college LB who can make that play; slot receivers are faster than LBs and the sidelines are 50 yards apart. The coaches should have had a better plan. -Winning: All road wins are good wins, because winning on the road is tough. Arizona State went down the drain in the Rose Bowl today; SCar lost at Arkansas; even Stanford had some early trouble in Corvallis, Oregon; a state where they had lost something like 12 of the last 13 times in road games to Oregon teams. I'll take an ugly win over Wake anytime...
Time for my JO'Co "piggyback comments. Thank God I have Jim to do my outlines A win on the road is a win but,as we all clicked back and forth between games for three hours, it was painfully obvious how far we have to go. Tommy Rees : Nice kid. Good for a couple of really bad TOs per game. Absolutely no threat to run the ball which takes 1/3 of the offense away. Crist looks good carrying a clip board; next year he may well look good throwing for the Florida Gators. Stephon Tuitt: Going to be a stud. All three Freshmen on the D Line played their asses off last night. Punt returns: an absolute joke. Not one return yard again last night. Again, an entire aspect of your offense that is completely dormant. ACC Refs: no comment. They're bad. Mike Golic, Jr. : I may like him more than Braxton Cave. His snaps are much crisper and his blocking was very good... he actaully moved the NT off the line. Of course, he one of Charlie's boys so don't expect to see much more of him. Kickoff returns: The sole bright spot of our not so Special Teams. Both those fellas are real threats. Gray and H.Smith: Two more of Charlie's boys who saved Kelly's behind in the second half. And I agree about Gray... he runs like a man. Tyler Eifert : great receiver and an improving blocker. I think he needs to bulk up a little more but he may go after this year. Carlo: Kelly has really screwed him up. Believe or not, Kelly still gives him a hard time about the personal foul against USC! Diaco is not standing up for him at all to Kelly. On the pass play in question, there were two guys dragging across the middle... Carlo took the back... no one took the slot receiver. Note that there were NO DBs on that entire side of the field. Teo got burned on the same play in the third quarter. At this point I would be shocked to see Carlo finish his career at ND... Kelly is trying to push him out and I can see him at UF or BC. And before anybody calls him a baby, this kid had 60 tackles in 7.5 games last year in his first year of action. Odds n Ends: Because we have nothing resembling a shutdown corner, our DBs give huge cushions which puts extra pressure on the LBs to cover space. Our defense is not fast on the edges. Teo is either hurt, upset with Kelly or both. He was invisible last night... again. What is with the rugby style punting? Short line drives.
I flipped back and forth to watch this game and it looked like David and Goliath in comparison to the size of the players. WF looked like a high school team playing against NFL players, they were so small and outweighed by ND, but they were fast as hell.
Speaking of the O line, pretty impressive stat that they went through Oct. without giving up one sack. That speaks for Rees somewhat but considering how many blitzes they must have seen during that time, they've been outstanding. Speaking of Rees, does anyone know why Hendrix doesn't see the field? Physically he's bigger, more mobile, and has a stronger arm than TR. What is keeping him on the bench? What happened to the KOs to the end zone? Brindza was supposed to solve the KO to the 10 yd. line problem.
Well I have to agree with gipper that the OL has played well this year not giving up sacks is mostly OL but also Rees getting rid of the ball. I have to say that I was impressed by how Mike Golic stepped in a played last night. Esp after last week I was on his mom's case for complaining about how the Weis kids are treated. He's earning his scholarship as far as I can see. On the QB issue: When I watch QB's who can move around and make some plays with their feet, who can throw accuarately on the run and then I watch Tommy I realize how much he limits what Kelly can do. I was thinking that maybe he'd go with Crist in the 2nd half last night, but we didn't. Like everybody I wonder how it is that Hendrix a pre-med major hasn't been able to assimilate the playbook enough to compete for the starting job. When the reporter asked about the problems with the passing game, Kelly went off on him last night. Now to me I think it shows he knows there are problems, but he has no answer. At this point he needs to win, he clearly thinks Rees gives him the best chance, why I don't know. Maybe Crist has already told him he's done and will be leaving, and playing Crist doesn't help him down the road. He has to try to continue developing Rees, but he can't feel very good about it. He has to be hoping that Hendrix will step up in the Spring and win the job or even Golson. Problem with Golson I think is that he's about the same phyiscal stature as Denard Robinson, and also there are rumours that Golson is struggling in the classroom, so why develope a QB who is not going to make it for sure academically. We need to get the Kiel kid in this class.
Terry, I watched the post-game press conference and chuckled when he dressed down the guy who asked the question. I thought it was kind of Lou Holtz-ish.
Kelly sees this team every day at practice. I think rightly or wrongly he is playing the team that will give him, in his opinion, the best chance to win. I was shocked that Wake was able to just go throuh their game plane on their opening drive. I was thinking that it was just too easy and a bad omen. The adjustment at the half by the defense was sufficient, in the final analysis to overcome the turn overs which Rees seemingly cannot eliminate. Other qbs do this as Price did in the Husky game with Oregon (3) and even Luck (2) with bottom dweller Oregon State, but this is rare with these qbs, it seems to happen consistently with Rees.
:idea: IMHO- the great danger in what Kelly is doing is that we might wind up with zero QBs next year. Crist will be gone for sure, having graduated with another year of elligibility left. Hendrix will find another good pre-med program that needs a QB and Golson will flunk out. This will leave Tommy and nobody. We'll need three Gunner Kiels in that scenario...
Given that possibility, Jim, what would you do if you were he? Somehow, I don't think Golson will flunk out. Will probably impact our graduation rate.
All I can figure out is that he realizes the magnitude of the microscope that he's under, he is trying to win week to week to keep his job. This is the guy who played, what, like 5 QBs in a season at Cincinnati? How did he have 5 (I am assuming) non-rocket scientist types at Cincy who could grasp the offense but he doesn't have 2 at ND?
:!: Vic, If I were Kelly, I would have alternated Hendrix and Crist until one of them won the job. Golson isn't ready and Rees is a backup. In any event, I would never have pulled the opening day starter at halftime of the first game and chained him to the bench...
I saw this morning that our pass defense is #33 in Div. 1, giving up 199 passing yards per game. It could be better, but it has been much worse. Of course, we haven't faced Andrew Luck yet.
That stat is somewhat misleading. We played 2 option attack teams in AF and Navy. This is the passing defense that gave up 80 yds. in 25 sec. to Shoelaces.
Excellent point, Gip. I wasn't thinking of the Navy and AF offenses when I read the stat. That's why you are such a successful attorney. You pay attention to details.
Well, guys, I guess ND is not interested in our opinions on the new helmets and uniforms. Here is an excerpt from an NBCsports.com article on the topic: Another article I read today about the players' reactions to the new unis and helmets shows that they really like them. Cierre Wood actually is in favor of a black-out, a white-out, or a green-out. Heck, if we are going to trash tradition, why not? :roll: