ND <t>My son Brian and I watched the game saturday on versus. I was over at his house in Phoenix for the weekend. We put some burgers on the grill enjoyed the game. Too bad it had to rain in SB as it seemed to make game play sloppy but we still enjoyed it. Particularly like the play of young Mr Lynch. Golson made some mistakes but you can see already he has the talent to be successful in Kelly's offense.</t>
Oh yeah I forgot we also got a commit from a Houston area kid, Nick Baratti. He plays QB in HS but is projected and has been recruited to play safety. He's on the InsideTexas top 100 list as an "athlete".
A couple of things, before I go off the deep end and get all excited that we could finish in the top 10 and get a BCS bowl. 1. QB play is an unknown, it will have to be excellent. 2. RB is very thin, Wood does look to be legit. Jonas who knows and then there is Cam McDaniel a good HS RB from Texas who has potential but as we all know most Fr. RB's can't pickup a blitz and are a liability for the QB's health. 3. OL should be better, if for no other reason than they have the same coach and same scheme 2 years in a row. But I do think we have more talent this year, so if I think we should be good here. 4. TE: Few if any teams have the talent and depth that ND has at TE. I expect Tyler Eifert to be in contention for an AA slot and Mike Ragone to finally show us the talent he showed in HS. Young guys are studs in waiting. 5. WR: Michael Floyd back, we are good here. Riddick helathy the whole year a big plus, John Goodman finally have the confidence to go with his height and speed big plus. T. J. Jones staying healthy all year, and the natural improvement from Fr. to Soph another big plus. But the two freshman will push all those guys except Michael Floyd. 6. Defense: Overall on schedule to be our best defense in a long time. Louis Nix is a big time NG, Te'o is an AA. We have experienced and depth all along the line, and at the LB spots. Not to mention a couple of wildcards in Lynch and Williams. But at CB where we have 2 exp Sr's starting (Blanton/Gray) the backups have never played a down. Harrison Smiths backup is Dan McCarthy who has seen very little action due to injuries. He had a red jersey on for the Spring game. Jamoris Slaughter backs up Motta and he has experience. If either Blanton or Gray go down, it'll cripple the defense no matter how good the front 7 plays. On the plus side both Harrison Smith and Mant'i Teo have potential AA years coming up. Our schedule is a good tough schedule. Mich State will be good again, so will Stanford, Pitt and BC always play us tough, and Navy and Air Force runing that triple option will test us as they have for the last 5 years. Southern Cal still is loaded with talent and we have a 2 game losing streak to Mich and have to play them at their place at night...and they still have Denard Robinson. I think we could beat all the teams on our schedule, but it's unlikely that we will. I think 2 or 3 losses are likely, no idea who they will be to of course. If the defense comes out of the gate firing on all cyclinders like we all hope they will, then that gives the offense a chance to get rolling. If that happens who knows. If the offense struggles or Crist goes down or Cierre Wood goes down, or the WR's as a group don't step up it will be a struggle all year.
1. Thankfully we have a bunch of them 2. Thankfully, our HC doesn't like using them too much. 3. Agreed 4. Agreed 5. Agreed 6. We'll see.. I like the talent back there. So.. how's the Kool-Aid?
I'm trying to think of an off season where the evaluation of a team was that they were talented, experienced and deep at every position. I don't think I've ever seen that. Every team has questions before a season starts and every team hopes that injuries don't happen in those areas where they are thin. Slowly we are getting stronger "big Uglies" that ultimately determine the success of a team. Right now I'm trying to figure out who goes down with an injury first Dane Crist or Matt Stafford. Can't wait for football season.
I agree with Sid. Senior leadership is all-important. The younger kids always look for clues among the older kids. A good example is worth it's weight in gold, especially when things are going wrong.
For those of you who have to know exactly how long till kickoff of all of the ND games this fall..... Countdown to Kickoff
Crist <t>Well after Spring Ball there is nothing that will convince me that Crist will not be the starting QB this coming season. Unless something major happens between now and then Crist will be starting. I know he had his ups and down at the start of last season prior to his injury but I'm sure he gives us our best chance to win. I'm glad we had Rees last season who came in and did a great job with very little experience but Crist has a much stronger arm and is capable of hitting on the long passes that Rees hasn't displayed yet. Crist also has the leadership that we need which Rees will develop but doesn't have yet.</t>
I agree, Crist is likely to be the starter and I think he'll do just fine, maybe even great. The best thing about Rees coming in and playing last year is that he's now a proven backup should something happen to Crist. Also he'll push Crist. There is starting to be rumours that we will not get a QB in the 2012 class, that Maty Mauk is looking at our depth chart and casting his eyes towards Missouri and that Gunner Kiel doesn't really like the Kelly offense and could end up at Oklahoma. That's fine with me, as long as none of our guys transfer. A lot of ND fans are very high on Golson ((I'm not one of them) and Hendrix size/arm strength/mobility really intrigue me. So if those guys stay then I think no QB in this class is OK.
I never want players that think that they aren't good enough to beat out their competition on the roster. Then there's the type of kid who chooses where he'll get his education by the type of offense the school runs..... :roll:
According to Sporting News, Garrick Sherman, a sophomore center for the Michigan State basketball team, is transferring to Notre Dame. Last season he started 17 games, averaging 12 minutes and 3.1 points.
I like Hendrix over all of them. Golson will be OK. Remember, he's ahead of where Rees was at this time last year and Rees is undefeated... BTW- doesn't Oklahoma run the same spread offense as Kelly? I like Michigan State basketball transfers too...heh...heh...
OU does go from the shotgun quite a bit, but they also run I formation, QB under center much more than Kelly does.
The MSU Transfer is a good story, Brey seems to pickup one of these a year, and they've mostly been good additions to the team. This kid was pretty highly rated coming out of HS, just didn't workout for him at MSU, which given Izzo's reputation is a little bit of a red flag...but sometimes they just don't work out. Hopefully during his transfer year he'll improve his game and develope into a solid starter for Brey. Recruiting of HS players also seems to be doing pretty well.
Only 2 players in history have achieved what Cam Newton achieved this year.... 1. Heisman 2. Nat'l Championship 3. #1 Overall NFL Draft pick. the other 2? Angelo Bertelli and Leon Hart of Notre Dame.
8) re: Cam Newton He only attended Auburn for half a year. Did he ever actually attend a class? If there's a record for that stuff, he probably holds it....
Newton <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> so your saying he never took a class from a recognized academic institution..<br/> <br/> Attending a class at AU doesn't count....... <E>:lol:</E> <br/> <br/> Just kidding folks, just kidding <E></E></r>