Tim, I hope you have a nice breakfast and enjoy your day. First game of the season and we are all anxious for some football. I am anxious to watch Hartman.
The O line and Estime tore up the Middies. D kept them out of the end zone. The only injuries I recall were Navy players.Angili came in much too late. Irish scored 7 on their first 5 possessions.
Hartman was everything as advertised. Lots of quality depth which is new for the Irish. Complete opposite of last year's TE centric offense. That O-Line is huge. They are going to be tough to beat this year.
No doubt in my mind George, Hartman is an excellent QB. Overall the Irish looked very good on both sides of the ball. It would appear to me we will be challenged when we visit South Bend the last of September.
Two side notes. The broadcast team and the video personnel did not fare nearly as well as the team. I counted four times where the cameras missed plays almost completely, totally faked out. The play by play guy was a last minute sub for the ill regular so he gets a pass for misjudging yard lines and forward progress throughout. Jason Garrett is getting roasted today for his dry and obvious comments. On the plus side the Irish female cheerleaders are getting attention in the press today for the first time ever that I can remember. My son picked up on that midway in the first quarter. Big upgrade.
Another from Lou “after a loss you’re not as bad as you think you are and after a win, you’re not as good as you think you are.” Yesterday taught us nothing about our pass rush and pass defense. We know our O line can push around an undersized opponent but last year we had problems doing that. I thought our LBs had good speed and reaction and the defense as a whole showed unit discipline. It was nice to see so many young receivers get a chance to contribute.
Congrats to your Irish. Looked impressive from my seat. We don't know anything about Navy as yet, but the Irish impressed nonetheless. It's a whole different looking offensive attack with a quality QB. Hartman has put your offense on another level, imo.
Exactly. Navy gave us fits all second half last year and one thing is obvious, a good QB was the answer to that same blitz they gave us last year.
Perfect example, after a penalty we faced 3rd and 12. Navy blitzed and Hartman hit a wide open Estime who went to the right spot. Result-first down. Perfect counter play. The coaches and team were well prepared.
Tennessee State with Heisman winner, HOF, and Buckeye legend, Eddie George as the head coach come to South Bend. I think most of the fanbase, even given the historical nature of the game, would really rather we no play FCS schools. But we are, so we have to hope the game is over sometime in the 1st half and that backups get a lot of playing time. Oh and no injuries of course.
Of course I'll watch the game but there's no real excitement and anticipation about it. We'll get to see our D against a traditional throwing offense and hopefully get to see some of the backups. An injury to a starter in this type of game is maddening.
The bookies won't even lay odds on this game. The predictions from the Irish press are in the neighborhood of 58-0, 52-7.
The sole purpose of this game is to have a home game with an opponent that won't require a return visit. It's nice for the coffers to have these games but not the fans. I'm pretty sure that the ratings for this game will be less than half of what they were last week. With the conferences realigning, I'm sure that that will cause even more headaches for the ND AD. For instance we probably can't play Stanford every year because they're going to be just another ACC team that we have to play on a rotating basis. Will SC be able to play ND in the middle of Oct. as they do when we're the home team? Lots of changes coming.