I don't believe Columbus ever stepped foot in North America, did he? I thought he landed in The Cartibbean somewhere.
Back on topic. Brian Kelly blamed the team's abysmal November to mental exhaustion. Are you shitting me! These are 18-22 year olds. Maybe Kelly should sign Dr. Phil as a sideline coach.
Sure Brian, your QB overthrew wide open receivers because he was mentally exhausted. And the dish ran away with the spoon.
I saw that. When I first saw an article posted on something Brian Kelly said, I actually thought to myself, "Please talk about how you're looking forward to the upcoming bowl matchup." But nooooooooooooooooooooo He just had to say something stupid... and if it's not stupid, then he needs to put the blame squarely on himself for burning his team out too quickly. Mental preparation is a staff/instruction issue. I understand that we play a high number of bowl teams every year, but at the same time, even Nick Saban constantly talks about seeking consistency because of the real dangers of peaks and valleys during a season which are unavoidable.
So anyway... once again while I read bulletin board material from idiotic 'recruiting gurus' over whether or not a certain kid is good enough to play at ND..... Alabama swoops in and offers him. http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2017/12/alabama_offers_in-state_3-star.html This kid just went from being a slam dunk in my mind to ND if we pressed hard enough, to now it will become a miracle.... and on Saturdays, we will wonder where Alabama gets all those kids with the big body, good feet and great quickness..
He has been offered by ND and he does have an official visit planned so I'm not sure what we did wrong. We can't prevent Alabama from coming in and offering him. The way things work these days even if he'd committed to ND sometime ago Alabama would have continued to decide if he fit their needs and offered him a scholarship. So if he's always wanted to go to Alabama it's likely he'd take the offer and call the Irish and say he changed his mind. The Irish beat Alabama with their offer last week...he's said all along that he's going to take his officials and not make a decision till Nat'l Signing Day. Again not sure what ND did wrong here.
They come in way too late. This is the time of the year, every year, that Alabama seems to come thru and offer a bunch of instate and local 3 star prospects. It seems that they chase the big 5 star prospects and right before bowl season, they weigh where they are at and then start filling in with the '3 stars' that internet gurus claim aren't good enough for major programs. No one is above the criticism. If you read the recent al.com articles, you'll see some Tide Pride internet jockey exclaiming that they are wasting their time with these guys, and spoiler, they aren't.. Saban has a keen eye for talent. They're good enough. Like recruiting a lot of areas, ND is starting at a block a little further behind because they aren't the local team. That doesn't mean they can't get the kids, as we all know, but they usually have to be out in front. They have to work harder. I've lived here for almost 2 decades and grew up playing in SoCal. It isn't like I don't know what talent is and looks like. I've been saying for years that the Irish need to be in this area. Teams that are better than us, regularly, are harvesting these kids and the Irish never touched them. Josh Marsh took an unofficial and he camped at ND. He's a kid whose parents run a local church here. He does missionary work twice a year in Africa. Both he and his parents chased ND for attention and both times he was up there, he felt blown off and ignored. They were the only school in which he camped that didn't offer him a scholarship on sight. As I said before, Kevin Steele was so impressed with his 40 that he stopped practice so he could come down and hold the watch himself to make sure he really saw what he saw. Auburn offered him that day and he's been a Tiger ever since. He never would have kept chasing offers had anyone opened their eyes while he was literally on the ND campus. In our defense, counting the rover/safety, we really need 6 healthy LBs at any given point in time during the year. I'm telling you right now, we don't have 3 better LBs than that kid. Right now. Michigan is setting up shop in our backyard. They nabbed 2 kids last year from this immediate area. Ohio State is starting to appear on more and more 'top 4 lists' for recruits in this area. Heck, even Washington is starting to pop up here and there. The one that I regularly never see is ND, and that's frustrating. If I do see the Irish, it's late in the day like with this kid when going head to head with the local team is a lot more problematic. I hope the Irish get him because with his natural speed and size, if you put 20 more pounds on him he'll be a nightmare on the inside. We have to work harder, and that's what we did wrong. Not work harder, even when they are on our own campus.
(No surprise) I disagree with recent criticism of Kelly's comment about the team being exhausted in November, but I understand it. I don't believe it was intended as an excuse. Using hindsight, it's my opinion that this year's team played way over its head in its first 9 games. I believe that because of the combination of outstanding team leadership, coaching, and just plain refusal to lose, this team in its first 9 games played at a level far beyond its physical capabilities and just plain ran out of gas toward the end. To those who feel otherwise, we can agree to disagree. Having said that, I can't help but chuckle at this quote from BGI's Lou Somogyi:
I don't get the going to NYC to play Syracuse. We played them at Giants stadium in 2016, this is a home game for us why not play it in South Bend. I really don't think we need the media exposure in NYC and we've played in Yankee Stadium twice already so there is no cache' to playing there again. As far as that comment by Kelly, I didn't take it as excuse making but right now Kelly is back on so many fans hate list that pretty much anything he says is used against him. He doesn't always help himself though with some of the things he says.
re: Travel That stretch for the Irish is more than a conference school will travel in a decade or more.
Why play Navy in San Diego? Then Syracuse in NYC? Why would you do that? These sound like self inflicted wounds to me. :?:
Well we always play Navy at a site of their choice when it's their home game, which 2018 is their home game. I don't think we've ever played Navy at Annapolis at least not in my lifetime. The Syracuse game is a head scratcher to me, it's a Notre Dame home game that has been moved to Yankee Stadium. Now we have been moving home games to different cities and calling it the Shamrock Series, so maybe that's what they are going to call this. Shamrock series games have been controversial for a number of reasons, mainly in that they give up a home game. But also a lot of fans don't like the special uniforms and some object to the opponents. Last Shamrock series game was in 2015 at Fenway Park vs Boston College.
You're correct, kp. Regarding the NYC game vs. Syracuse the "cover" reason is giving the enormous number of east coast Irish fans the opportunity to see the team in person. The real reason IMO is $. The net revenue from the game will at least equal the revenue from a 7th home game in South Bend and likely will be much greater. To achieve that revenue, ticket prices will be outlandish, thus allowing only the upper income fans who can afford the prices to see the game in person. That's what college football is about these days, at least as far as ND is concerned. I don't have a problem with the travel. It's what the kids sign up for when they come to ND. Based on what happened this past season, Kelly and his staff likely are re-assessing how they can coach the team to avoid a repeat of what's becoming our traditional November swoon.
Sid, I don't have a problem with the travel either, but some folks use it like it is some kind of hardship inflicted upon Notre Dame when in fact Notre Dame makes it worse than it has to be. Apparently, they could play the same schedule and travel much less. I guess that never occurred to me before. :?