Since Sid pointed me towards the fall camp schedule. I thought it would be time to start a whole new topic and finally move on from the "Spring" topic. Kelly's press conference is tomorrow. Camp starts at Culver Mon Aug 4th. There is still no air conditioning at Culver dorms from what somebody posted, so god help them if they dodn't get a cool spell. I saw a story about when Lou took them to Culver the guys finally ended up sleeping in the Ice Rink so they could get cool. Hope it's still open. They will start the traditional game week prep for Rice following the Aug 22 end of fall camp.
In unrelated news. Brady Quinn has signed on to be a Fox Studio Analyst. Not a bad gig, bet Brady does a pretty good job. He's classic case of you never know about college QB's. I thought for sure he would be a solid, maybe even excellent NFL QB, but nope it wasn't to be for him. If you remember Charlie said he'd be one of the top 5 NFL QB's after 3 years or something like that, I believed him.
Eric Hansen of the SB Tribune reports on Twitter that: -Backup NG Tony Springmann's career is over because of a back injury. -Freshman TE Mike Heuerman will miss another month because of a second hernia surgery. -Coach Brian Kelly said linebacker Jarrett Grace is expected to be close to being game ready when the season starts.
ND <t>Well August is finally here. I've been trying not to get overly excited about this upcoming season but as we start to hear the fall camp reports roll in I get that same familiar feeling I always get this time of year and can't wait to see the Irish open the season. It's a tough schedule but Kelly and the team are going to have to come up with 9 or 10 wins if they are going to keep this thing going in the right direction. On offense, Kelly has what he needs now to play the the game we saw at Cincy and prior stops. We gotta score some serious points this season to win some of these games. Golson should be good and Zaire looks to be very capable as backup. We have lots of targets at the receiver/TE position and an O-line that should be able to get a couple of quality running backs some yardage and protect the QB. It's time for Kelly to put this all together, no excuses. <br/> <br/> When I look at the schedule we should be able to come up with a least 9 wins and maybe take one from a team that has more talent. FSU, Stanford and USC look like the most logical places for a loss. I think we can beat both Stanford and USC if we play the way we should. That's just me though.</t>
Two things about Kelly that still trouble me. He is still looking for his first big win in South Bend. Until he gets that this program will not get the respect it needs. Secondly is his " a win is a win " attitude. Because beating teams by 4 points on Saturdays gets you a noon bowl game in NYC against Rutgers in December.
Well today is the 1st day of camp for the Irish. Observations/the obvious. 1. Offense should be good, QB is experience even if a bit rusty. OL is young but talented. WR corp is young but also very talented. RB are good not great but have potential to be very good. TE is young but talented, lead however by an excellent Sr who is poised to have a great year. As Kelly said it's the first time he's had a group of QB with similar skill sets, a group he can make 1 game plan for and run 1 set of plays. Not like previous years where the immobile Tommy Rees was a poor fit for his offense. 2. Defense is where all the anxiety is and will be all year. Thin and inexperienced in the front 7. Sheldon Day and Jaylon Smith are AA candidates, and Jarron Jones is a rising star (we hope). But the rest of the group are some what suspect till proven otherwise. Joe Schmidt has the heart and intelligence to be a great inside LB, buttttttttttttt he's more than a little undersized and is a former walkon. Ben Councell has had lots of injury problems, Jarrett Grace is recovering from a really bad broken leg, Ishaq Williams has a world of athletic abiltity but has never shown anything consistently. Romeo Okura another kid with measurables but no production to show for it. We'll be expecting contributions from freshmen, Nyles Morgan esp. DB's we do have some good ones, Fla transfer Cody Riggs, Cole Luke and Max Redfield were highly rated coming out of HS and saw some action last year, are they ready? Austin Collingsworth is the Joe Schmidt of this group except he wasn't a walkon. The guy I hoped would really becoming into his own is Nick Barratti but this kid looks like he's going to be derailed from what he might have been by the injury bug. Then there is the new guy, Brian Van Gorder. Are his schemes solid, can they be learned by college kids, he doesn't have them the same number of hours he had in the NFL. But then he's been in college before so he should be familiar with that. 3. Special teams. I can't remember when we had a better place kicker and punter. I can't remember when we had worse punt returns, KO returns have been ok. 4. I think it's an esp strong situation for the OL, young but talented and I have a lot of faith in Harry Heistand, he really seems like a top OL coach. 5. Mike Denbrock. Tough break that he had to have surgery and won't be there for fall camp. Nobody has said what the surgery is for and certainly he doesn't owe it to the fans to tell us, but I do wonder about it. I wish him the best and look forward to his return. Kelly will be the OCoord for fall camp, maybe that's a good thing or maybe it's not. Will this distract Kelly from his duties as HC or will he delegate a lot to the new QB coach, who might not be that familiar with what Kelly wants. I thought hiring Mike Denbrock was a good move as he and Kelly seem to be on the same page. Let's hope Denbrock makes a full recovery and that our young offense gets on the right page without him around this month. Guys who I'm expecting big things from this season 1. Jaylon Smith. Great young player, should build on last year and have a ton more confidence. 2. Sheldon Day. I like Day a lot, I think he can be an AA level player if he doesn't get injured. 3. Jarron Jones. I think this kid is ready to explode on the scene. 4. Tauren Folston. Another ready for PT player along with 5. Greg Bryant. Physical runner, I'm thinking he, Folston and McDaniel will reduce the Fade to just another play in the red zone, not "The" Play. 5. Davius Daniels. I have no doubt this kid is one of the better WR in college and wants to have a great year so he can move on to the NFL. Maybe that semester off to get his head straight will be a big motivating factor 6. Corey Robinson. Big, Not Blazing Fast but FAST enough. He can catch anything thrown sort of close to him and will force a lot of DB's to foul him as their only defense. 7. Ben Koyack. Ready finally for a big year. 8. Everett Golson. Had it all taken away from him, IMHO is extremely talented, strong arm and see's the field well. Should be ready for a big year. He's got targets, more of them and they are better than in 2012. 9. Chris Brown. I'm surprised I'm putting him on this list, but everything I've read about him is that he's still the fastest player we have but he now understands the playbook and route running.
I'm looking forward to seeing Torii Hunter Jr. play. His dad, now with the Tigers seems like a great guy.
Ugh...it's in the Twitterverse that Ronnie Stanley was carted off the field already today. 1st day!!! Mike McGlinchey is a kid who has a lot of promise as a tackle but it's too soon to ask him to step up...but NEXT.
:x Ouch. Stanley is the left tackle. His job is to protect the QB. I'm not aware that we have a ready replacement for him...