Irish travel to FSU for a Sunday night game with FSU. Last time we played on Sunday night was in 2016 vs Texas in Austin. Irish were favorites but lost a shootout in OT to the Longhorns. Both teams went on to terrible seasons with Texas coach Charlie Strong getting fired and many Irish wanting Brian Kelly to be fired. This year's Irish as has been noted have a lot of new pieces to be worked out. Reports out of practices have all been pretty good. Jack Coan has had an excellent camp and while nobody should expect a Joe Burrow or Mac Jones type of senior season from him, he will hopefully be a solid QB and leader. The OL solidified and will start true freshman Blake Fisher at LT, undersized Zeke Correll at LG, AA candidate Jarrett Patterson at Center, AA candidate/transfer Cain Madden at RG and 5th year Senior Josh Lugg at RT. Lugg has had injury issues throughout his career, hopefully for him that is all behind him, but Michael Carmody had a good camp and would be a good fill in should Josh go down. RB's solid with Kyren Williams and Chris Tyree the best Irish RB duo in quite a while and backup C'Bo Flemister is very solid and dependable. Logan Diggs the true freshman from Louisiana has really shown some stuff in fall camp but it's unlikely barring injury we will see much of him. WR group lead by Kevin Austin who seemed to exceed all expectations in fall camp, should be solid with potential to be excellent. Avery Davis, Braden Lenzy, Lawrence Keys and Lorenzo Styles all have speed, Styles a true freshman. TE is a deep and solid group with Michael Mayer having AA Potential and Kevin Bauman who had a great fall camp, long with the experience of George Tackacs and another true freshman who showed a lot in the Spring Game and had a good camp as well but is really inexperienced at the positon since he played OL in HS, Mitchell Evans. Keep and eye out for this kid in the future.
I know less specifics about the defense other than most report this is the deepest front 7 in quite a while for the Irish. Even after losing Marist Liufau to injury. JD Bertrand will take his place and he's ready to be a starter. Of course most of the buzz is around Kyle Hamilton the likely AA and 1st round draft pick. The unknowns are the CB's/Nickel Backs. Also good reports on Houston Griffith who has been a disappointment so far in his career and actually entered the Portal after last season but new DCoord Marcus Freeman talked him off the ledge. The players I'm most excited about watching this season on defense besides Hamilton are Jack Kiser who was a star in the smallest classification of Indiana football, and played QB. He filled in very well last season and is the starter at Rover this year, the kid has a nose for the football. Bo Bauer a LB who plays with a lot of passion, he sort of had a breakout season last year from special teams kamakazzi to actual on the field productive LB. And JD Bertrand who was a 4 star LB from Atlanta who came to ND initially as a PWO, with a promise to be move to scholarship as soon as they could. He had options to go elsewhere and get a full ride but he and the family wanted ND, in fact his brother did the grad transfer thing in baseball and had a good year as a pitcher for Link Garrett's Irish baseball team. He's been very patient and it's his turn now. I'm also keeping an eye out for is Jordan Bothello one of our Hawaiian guys. He was a mystery man this summer with all sorts of rumors about him leaving but nothing ever happened. He's a bit like Bo Bauer, plays with a lot of passion that can get out of control and end up with a personal foul. The big change is the move of Myron Tagoviola-Amosa from the inside to DE. He lost weight and gained speed, everyone is excited about his potential. Should be a very solid defense with fewer questions early on, unlike the offense. I'm expecting a win in Tallahassee, and not a repeat of the 2016 debacle at Texas. Go Irish.
On paper this team looks impressive. Lots of new moving parts though. The kicker worries me the most. he was bad the second half last year.
Midnight tonight is when 2023 kids can be contacted by the staff. So ND has put out a bunch of tweets about it, most of them are pretty tame but this one by Marcus Freeman ...rocks!
Good article on Jack Coan on ISD, I don't think it's paywalled. The letter is a dozen years old. It might as well be a crystal ball masquerading as faded notebook paper; Nostradamus would appreciate such a glimpse into the future. In painstaking, between-the-lines cursive writing – a precursor of his unflinching commitment to details – Jack Coan, days before his 10th birthday, details his top Christmas wish in a letter to his parents, Donna and Mike from December 2009. “If I had to pick one Christmas gift in the world,” Coan writes in charcoal pencil, a Notre Dame logo and former Irish standouts' names dotting the page, “it would probably be going to a Notre Dame football game.” Jack Coan's Irish Future Written Long Ago
Tim will be happy to see that the Irish picked up the verbal of 4 star TE from Concord De La Salle Hs in California, Cooper Flanagan. he's one of the top TE's in the country. He'll be in the 2023 class.
I mean Cooper Flanagan??? Sounds a little Irish to me huh? Where else was the kid gonna go to? Seriously though, TE U keeps it goin!! GREAT cimmit for Notre Dame! Sweet!!!!
One thing to look for Sunday night is our performance in the red zone. Last year as Kelly noted in his press conference we were terrible throwing the ball and pretty good running the ball. From Pete Sampson's article on The Athletic Notre Dame ranked 102nd nationally in red zone scoring rate last season at 76.7 percent. Its red zone touchdown percentage was slightly better, No. 84 in the FBS. But the 58.3 percent of red zone trips that ended in touchdowns was the worst mark since Rees’ senior year, when the Irish were deep at receiver but barely functional in the run game. That’s where Notre Dame has to improve most. “We were extremely efficient in the red zone running the football. Probably one of the best in the country,” Kelly said. “We were not throwing it. We were at 10 touchdown passes to 60 opportunities. That ranked as one of the lowest in the country. We got to throw it better in the red zone, and we have to be more effective when we do have those opportunities.” Book’s red zone passing numbers were a noticeable blight on a senior season in which he led Notre Dame to the College Football Playoff and set the school’s all-time wins record. His 44.4 percent completion rate in the red zone ranked 101st nationally; his 3.4 yards per red zone attempt ranked 92nd. His passer rating inside the 20-yard line ranked 93rd. Book was blitzed constantly in the red zone, and when opponents sent five or more rushers, Book completed 11 of 32 pass attempts, a 34.4 completion percentage that ranked among the 10 worst in the FBS under those conditions.
I know I have a short memory, but I'm floored by those stats. I didn't realize we were that poor in our red zone execution. I sure hope it improves a lot this season.
Those red zone stats surprised me. However, my impression was that Kelly really impressed on Book the need to eliminate turnovers. He cut his ints. in half and had a total of only 3 for the whole season. Of course by protecting the football Book often didn't pull the trigger in the red zone. Having a QB that is productive and protective is a real luxury.
Irish running backs C'Bo Flemister, Logan Diggs will not be able to play tonight, along with DL Jordan Botelho. Have to assume that it's covid related, though we won't get any sort of confirmation from ND. HIPPA. If they are vaccinated and asymptotic I imagine 5 days and 1 or 2 negative tests. If unvaccinated (we are not 100% vaccinated) it will be longer. I'm not sure what happens with close contacts.
Of course it could be something else. C'Bo had an off season incident, drove his car off the road and walked away. Initially lied and said it was stolen and then recanted. Botelho was subject of a lot of speculation /rumors. No clue what to say about Diggs he had a great camp. Freshman Rb Audric Estime, who is a big back will be the 3rd back.
Mixed reviews for the Irish in the the first half. Defense has been all over FSU for the most part, but they let that Rb bust the big TD run and that gave them life. Missed 4th and 1 also gave them field position and some more life and they turned it into another score. Irish did score quickly themselves and got the pick that we turned into another score. It was good to see that long FG, we need our kicker to have a good year. Overall our OL play has been spotty, but I am not real surprised with a true freshman at LT. Coan has been just OK., made some good throws but doesn't look all that comfortable out there yet. Kevin Austin, was supposed to be the savior at WR, 1 catch. Rbs with the OL not taking over the LOS have looked average. Defense will need to continue to get after the FSU Qb and force some turnovers. Coan needs to settle in and make some throws to move the sticks and most importantly we have to find a way to run the football.
Mixed reviews for the Irish in the the first half. Defense has been all over FSU for the most part, but they let that Rb bust the big TD run and that gave them life. Missed 4th and 1 also gave them field position and some more life and they turned it into another score. Irish did score quickly themselves and got the pick that we turned into another score. It was good to see that long FG, we need our kicker to have a good year. Overall our OL play has been spotty, but I am not real surprised with a true freshman at LT. Coan has been just OK., made some good throws but doesn't look all that comfortable out there yet. Kevin Austin, was supposed to be the savior at WR, 1 catch. Rbs with the OL not taking over the LOS have looked average. Defense will need to continue to get after the FSU Qb and force some turnovers. Coan needs to settle in and make some throws to move the sticks and most importantly we have to find a way to run the football.