Well it's the Shamrock Series week... Irish travel to Fenway Park for a game with Boston College. It's a home game for the Irish, so the crowd will be decidedly pro ND. BC has the #1 ranked defense in college football. So I expect to have a tough game on offense. They are not a good team on offense though, so I don't expect they'll score many points. If they have a good trick play we are susceptible to that so maybe they can gash us there. We did get some good news in that Deon McIntosh a Florida RB gave his verbal to the Irish. He's reportedly a speed back to compliment Tony Jones Jr who is more of a power back. I wonder if Joel will be at the game!
CJ Procise is 50-50 to play against BC. Starting LB Jammes Onwualu is out with a sprained ACL. TE Nick Weisher and DL Daniel Cage are expected to return from concussions. Gipper was right. This team has had to play through and incredible amount of injuries this year on both sides of the ball. That effects every aspect of the game.
ND <t>Well it's a lot better playing Fredo in Fenway than it would be in that snake pit they call a home field for sure. So they have the #1 defense and the #119 Offense? Go figure. Doesn't matter if they are winless they hate us and think it's a rivalry game. If the boys play their game this should not be that difficult a win. Put up 21 pets and it's over. But.....chances are that's not what will happen. It will be close and hopefully they find a way to pull off a win. Hopefully.</t>
"Fredo in Fenway" needs to be a shirt!! I think Kizer is going to have to rely on his legs more in this game to keep the LBs underneath and out of the blitz package. I don't think we showed a lot against Wake, which usually means a coach is holding onto a few aces in his sleeve. Given the status of the team regarding injuries, I don't know how many more we could possibly hold.
Basketball season is off and running. I see that Kentucky looks like Kentucky and they took down Duke pretty handily last night. Irish are 2-0 with wins over St. Francis and Wisconsin Milwaukee. In both games DJ showed that he's going to be one of the premier guards in college basketball this season. Irish are in a group behind Pre-Season favorites in the ACC UNC, UVA, and Duke ...they are with Miami and NCState in the next group. UVA has already been upset though in their first game. Zac Auguste, Beecham, Jackson, and Vasturia and Bonzi Colson look like a pretty solid starting five....the freshmen are showing some promise but they are freshmen. We get Illinois in the Big10/ACC Challenge and IU in the Crossroads Classic after Thanksgiving.
A month ago Clemson beat BC 34-17. It would be a good thing if the Irish duplicated that effort or exceeded it. Clemson rushed for only 112 yds, but passed for a whopping 420. BC actually ran for more (159) but passed for only 87 yds. BC is #1 in Total Defense, #1 in Rushing Defense, #3 in Scoring Defense and # 8 in Passing Efficiency Defense so it could be an ugly game.
Wow...Doug Flutie lost both his mom and dad today. They died seperately of heart attacks. Married 56 years. Condolences to Doug and his family. http://www.wcvb.com/news/doug-fluties-parents-die-on-same-day/36526436
If the BC defense is really that good, then Notre Dame must be very careful and protect the ball. Great defense is a dangerous thing. :?
Low 40's high 30's for the game Sat night. kp is right, great defense is a dangerous thing. For the most part when it gets down to the nitty gritty that's what lets teams win championships. Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships. We're a flawed defense, not likely to suddenly become great.
unlike kp, while I'm always happy we win no matter the score, I won't really enjoy it unless it's more than 16 points!
Nobody thinks we can run on the BC front 7, that we better be prepared for a lot of tackles for losses on running plays. Thought is that it's likely though that we'll break a few big ones on them because they sellout to stop the run and if somebody misses then there will be a lot of real estate open behind them. To me given that entering the season this was said to be our best OL in awhile, to not be able to run the ball on BC even if they are a great defense is surprising. Some have pointed out that our OL is really banged up with 4 of the 5 dealing with high ankle sprains and heavily taped ankles. Kizer is going to have to beat them with his arm, and recognize their blitz and get the ball out quickly. This could be the most passes he's thrown in a game. I got this from listening to the Irish Illustrated podcast. On the flip side they don't think the Eagles can score on us, maybe a shutout. The apparently really stink on offense. Everybody thinks that if they do score it will be a defensive score. That Addazio will have the defense breathing fire when they hit the field saturday night. I'd really love to stuff these guys.
Pretty cool story on Kelly and coaching Womens Softball at Assumption while he was still a student . http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14177124/notre-dame-coach-brian-kelly-heads-back-diamond-fenway-park
ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> and so would I.<br/> <br/> If BC is going to sell out to stop the run it would seem to me that Kizer and Fuller will have a pretty nice game. but that's just me. <br/> <br/> Go Irish!</r>