OK face it, Ball State isn't even a good MAC team this year. They were voted to finish last in their division by the coaches. So this game should be over by half time and it should have a score that looks something like 60-0. I doubt that's what it'll be but it should be a big time blowout. Of course who knows, sometimes after a big emotional win the team doesn't really show up ready to play and lets a bad team like Ball State hang around when they shouldn't. We played Miami of Ohio last year and the final was 58-17, this game shouldn't even be that competitive. I look for Book and the backups to play a lot of football in the 2nd half. I expect that Wimbush will play some in the 2nd half but not much if the game is well in hand. The OL starters need to play a little bit more to continue their development as a unit, and Jafar Armstrong and Avery Davis need playing time because they are so new at their positions. The defense should be substituting liberally and maybe use up one of the 4 games freshmen can play in and still retain their redshirt and get some guys who maybe are ready to play but down on the depth chart due to being freshmen. I imagine the Irish will crack the top 10 this week.
Ball State put up a school record 652 total yards of offense in a 42-6 win over Central Connecticut State. Respect every opponent.
I watched Kelly's press conference and he cited the lesson learned from Michigan is to put your opponents away. I can think of many other games where that same lesson could have been learned in Kelly's tenure. To me, that is a function of coaching. As was said on the other topic, he takes his foot off the gas early and sometimes finds himself in a ball game at the end. He seemed content to go three and out and give UM the ball back with 2:20 left and a 7 point lead. So I hope he was speaking in the first person !
Well Ball State did have a big game as Sid pointed out v Central Conn State and we all know that sometimes teams play over their heads when they come to ND Stadium. Sometimes ND doesn't come out ready to play a team like this who is fired up and the game ends up being closer than we think it should be. Lou always said you could only get your team up to max potential for a few games every year, it's just to draining on them emotionally. So you have to pick your games. That said I hope the team prepares well and respects Ball State and is ready to go from the kickoff and that we beat them handily. I hope we don't try to run up the score on them if the game does get out of hand. I hope it's in the High 40's low 50's, but in the end it just needs to be a win, and we hope to have no injuries. Robt Hainsey as we all know missed a lot of fall camp with a leg issue but was able to go v Michigan. This would be a good game for him to start and play but sit down and give his backup plenty of playing time.
I see that Jonathon Doerer will be getting another chance at KO's v Ball State. He was horrible v Michigan and was benched for Yoon. But he needs the chance to develop and see if he can be the guy next year. This is Yoon's last year and Doerer was supposed to be his replacement. He handled KO's in 7 games last year as a freshman and finished the year pretty strong. He's our only scholarship kicker other than Yoon. We don't have one in the 2019 class either, we have a Punter from Alabama, but no kicker. So we'd better hope that the Michigan game was just a bad game, because we need him to develop.
Nicholls State is in Louisiana. Thibodaux to be exact. We're entering our so portion of the schedule. We should be able to handle the next two weeks and come out with some experienced gained, wins earned and injury free... hopefully.
I seem to recall that Yoon's KOs weren't consistently deep his first year. After a few seasons of practices and weight training he should be stronger. As I remember Doerer's KOs came down just outside the endzone but it was terrible coverage that caused the terrible results. Coverage has been a problem for a couple of years at least.
Yeah, but our special teams guy can recruit. The way I see our staff is that we have some great recruiters and some great coaches, but not a lot of guys that do both.. at least from my perspective.
ND <t>Just let Yoon kick the ball into the endzone while we have him. We'll deal with it after he's gone. I don't want to see another kickoff return for a TD this year.</t>
As someone who wagers on the Irish this is one of those weeks I dread. ND is giving 34.5 against Ball State and should cover that with ease. But Kelly has a nasty habit of making these games closer than they should be.
Prister on Ball State. • When I think of Ball State…it’s important to remember that they have their quarterback back from injury (Riley Neal), they have two 1,000-yard rushers (James Gilbert from ’16 and Caleb Huntley from ’17) with an all-purpose back (Malik Dunner), and a 78-catch receiver as a freshman last year (Justin Hall). Their head coach, Mike Neu, was Drew Brees’ quarterback coach for a couple of years with the Saints. Much like Miami (Ohio) last year – the RedHawks scored 17 points with two passing touchdowns – the Cardinals are capable of scoring some points. (They didn’t last year because they were decimated by injuries.) Their defense likely will have a tough time holding Notre Dame under 50 points, so those offensive assets easily could be negated and Notre Dame romps.
That was a terrible display of football by the COPs. (I will not call the center, guards and tackles on the offense a LINE.) They were nothing more than a Collection Of Pylons. If we can't run the ball on Ball St. we're going to get ripped by Stanford, VaT, and SC.
Yeah a terrible game by the offense. Those 3 picks that Brandon threw were just awful and as you said the OL had a horrible day. Defense was what won the game for us. It was a win and other than Kmet it appears we didn't have any injuries.