Top 10 ranked Cincinnati Bearcats come to Notre Dame Stadium this Saturday. I doubt if Swarbrick thought he was scheduling a top 10 team when they got on the schedule. But they are, and they are also a veteran group with a veteran returning QB in Ridder who played very well last year and has started the season well this year. Irish are slight favorites; I think I've seen 1.5 points. This will probably be our biggest test of the defense this year in terms of a team who was expected to be good and who has met that expectation. Reading Kelly's press conference from today, he was very complimentary of their skill players as well. We'll need another great effort from our defense to slow these guys down, as it's unlikely in one weeks time we'll suddenly find ourselves with an offensive explosion that will allow us to get into a shootout with anybody. Notes from Kelly's press conference. I had never heard what Kelly says about Jack Coan transitioning from being an under center QB to a mainly shotgun QB. I'm not sure I'm buying it, while no doubt Wisconsin QB's probably are under center a lot more than Irish QB's, still Mertz had more than a few Shotgun snaps Saturday and I have to believe that Coan had plenty of shotgun snaps before coming to ND. On health of quarterbacks: "The quarterback situation is such that I think I mentioned after the game if Jack (Coan) is healthy, Jack will be our stater. Tyler (Buchner) felt really good yesterday after treatment. Declared himself really good. "We'll see when we get on the field tomorrow. I really can't give you an assessment until we get on the field. "If (Coan) looks good, he'll be our starter and Tyler Buchner will play like we had before we went into this last game. If he can't, then Drew is ready to go and it appears that Tyler is going to be in pretty good shape to play for us. So the two quarterback situation, depends on which two from that standpoint." On the offensive line: "Offensive line, it is what it is. Hoping to get (Mike) Carmody back. At Sunday check-in, he felt like he was about 95%. "I think you're going to continue to see rotation with (Andrew) Kristofic in at the guard rotation. Hopefully with Carmody and (Joe) Alt, you'll see four tackles playing. That's what we have on the offensive line. We've got to continue to work together and continue to get better." On how Jeff Quinn is handling offensive line struggles: ”We've had periods like this at Notre Dame before. I've know Jeff for over 30 years, so there's nothing I don't know about Jeff. He takes it harder than anybody else. He's got to keep working with his group like he has every day. We've got to get our best players playing their best. We'll keep coaching them, we are who we are. From a production standpoint, it's everybody, it's the quarterback, it's our tight ends, everybody's got to be on the same page. It's our running backs who did a really, really fine job in protection on Saturday. But it's everybody. The O-line is always going to get the scrutiny and that's kind of my point, but this isn't just throw the O-line under the bus. Everybody's got to pitch in. Coaching, players, and we've all got to get better and we're committed to doing that.” On if things can just all of a sudden click for the offensive line: ”Well, the right side has been assignment correct. They've done a nice job. We've got to be a little bit more consistent on the left side, certainly. But they're a little bit inexperienced. So we need to meet that consistency on the right side with the left side. “And (Jarrett Patterson's) got to bring that all together as well. It's a little bit of all those things. Those kids are working their tails off. They have a standard, too. They have a high standard. They'll work towards reaching that standard.” On QB mobility being important with current state of the offensive line: ”I don't think you could ever say mobility would ever be a negative in that situation. What's most important is that the ball's got to come out on time. You can't hold onto the football, you've got to be decisive and for me, within this offensive structure, the ball has to come out on time. “The offensive line is under scrutiny here, and they have to play better. Not all that is on the offensive line. The ball has to come out on time and there were certain situations there were the ball needed to come out in a timely fashion and it didn't. “I would say in answering the question, that it's more important that in shotgun quick-drop, the ball has to come out first and mobility second.” On Jack Coan’s transition to more shotgun: ”That's where he took all of his snaps (under center at Wisconsin). He's really made incredible progress. I mean, we're really pleased. He's thrown nine touchdown passes, he's 16th in the country in touchdown passes. He's made an incredible transition. There's still work to be done there and he would admit it as well. There is a bit of a transition that he's going through. “We have to shorten his drop, he's used to taking a hitch step, but he wasn't brought up in a shotgun offense. So there is a bit of a transition.” On QB Drew Pyne making quick decisions: ”Yeah, he's pretty good at it. He's had to be good at it. That's how he was successful. When you recruit somebody that's standing on the yellow pages to be 6-1, you've got to see it and the ball's got to come out. He's really good at that stuff. We knew what we had with him, that he was going to be a guy who saw it, got it and move through his progressions. Kind of what he did on Saturday.” ________________________ I think the Irish win this Saturday, but I think like with the 4th qtr exception vs Wisc this game will be like all the rest a very tight game and we'll need to do something in the 4th qtr to come away with the win.
I'm glad we got to see how Pyne can play. Knowing how many time our QB gets pounded, it's nice to know we have backup QBs, blood donors and a transplant list.
Kelly said that if Pyne had gone down it was going to be Avery Davis in the Wildcat last weekend. Yikes I love Avery but I don't think we win that game with a Wildcat since the Wildcat is a running offense. I wonder if Ron Powlus Jr would have been pressed into duty! Probably not. As gipper noted above about our QB's taking a lot of punishment, I have to doubt if Coan, even if his injury is just soft tissue like Kelly said after the game with no structural damage, can hold up under the 5-6 sacks a game and stay healthy for the rest of the season. So Pyne and Buchner are both likely to get their chances. I do get a sense that many ND fans are undervaluing the Bearcats, since they are an AAC team just a half step at best above being a MAC team. I respect them, they have some talent and Fickell is a very good and upcoming young coach. Those guys will be ready and they will be hungry for the win and it's a must win for them to have that outside shot at the CFP. I haven't read anything on injuries so I assume they will arrive at !00%. Only thing I saw on the Irish roster is that C'Bo will be available for this game, but having watched the OL play and lack of success of his mates running the ball you have to wonder if he's going...well coach I'm a little rusty maybe I'll sit this one out, those other guys need the work!
I assume that some of the D players on the Bearcats were recruited by Freeman. No doubt their D has some havoc makers.
I'm sure that you are right and even though Freeman isn't there defense was Fickell's expertise so I expect that between him and whoever if the new DCoord that they will be well coached. The good news is that Freeman knows those guys and can give Rees and Kelly a good scouting report.
Many Irish fans are still torqued over the recognition that Kelly is getting for 106 wins. They want his record to reflect the 21 wins that the NCAA vacated and have his official record at ND be 85 wins. They don't want it to be 106 wins with a notation that the NCAA vacated 21 wins. It's mostly about their dislike for Kelly IMHO. I do think that even if you take away the 21 wins, and he coaches through the end of his contract, which will include the 2024 season he's going to break the record (again). That's 8 more games in 2021, 12 in 2022, 2023 and 2024 including likely post season games adding another 4 games. So that is 48 more games for him to coach. His current winning % is 73%. So if he maintains that over the rest of his career at ND he'll win another 35 games to put his wins at 120 even if you took away his 21 games vacated by the NCAA. He'd break the 105 for Rockne at the end of the 2023 season, again.
The issue is Kelly himself, obviously not all fans dislike him, but there is a cadre of very vocal ND Internet fans who just detest him and take every opportunity to take shots at him. Most hope that he'll retire this year, they don't want him as the ND coach. I firmly believe that many of those would still feel that way even if he won the Nat'l Title this year. They feel that he doesn't really "love" Notre Dame. Not like Lou or Ara. That he's resigned that he has to stay here because nobody in the NFL wants him. Anyway, it's been that way almost since the day he was hired.
Compare ND to other once top programs such as USC, Mich. Tex. and Penn. St. Considering the disabilities that he has to work under he's put ND in the mix more than all but 2 teams. They're delusional just like millions of other Americans who have made bad choices. If you ask them who they'd like to see in place of Kelly you'll get some stupid answer like Belichick or Saban. I'd like to spin wool into gold but I'm probably more realistic than those morons.
It was announced that BYU and ND will play a Shamrock Series Game in Las Vegas Oct 8th 2022. Good move, bet it's a well attended game, it's Vegas!! "We are really excited about the opportunity to return to Allegiant Stadium and face Notre Dame," BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said in a prepared statement. "This has been a process, with a lot of back-and-forth, to be able to find a return game in this series that would work for both sides. We feel very good about playing this game in Las Vegas, where Cougar Nation always shows out, and look forward to an incredible matchup and atmosphere." It will be the ninth game in the Notre Dame-BYU series and the first played at a neutral site since the series began in 1992. Notre Dame is 6-2 against the Cougars, and has won the past three games, all in South Bend, including the most recent game in 2013. BYU last defeated the Irish in Provo with a 20-17 victory in 2004.
Idiots, all of them. It's why I ignore the ND boards. However, Terry, I appreciate very much that you keep us informed
Yeah sometimes that NDNation board is hard to read if you aren't a Kelly/Swarbrick hater. If you try to defend them you are just inviting posts calling you an idiot or something like that. But they also can be good to read as well.
While it's unlikely he'll get into a game, but apparently Brendon Clark is practicing and is the #4 QB. I would say he's a likely candidate to enter the portal at the end of the season. I don't remember if he was an early entry in Jan 2019, if so he might be able to graduate this Dec or May and do a Grad Transfer so he could play right away. If you remember Clark has had knee surgery after the season (December) and missed Spring and Summer recovering. History. If you remember Cade McNamara was a ND verbal commit in the 2019 class, but then flipped to Michigan. That sent the Irish after Wisconsin commit Graham Mertz who the story was that he would have committed to Notre Dame had they offered but McNamara unexpectedly committed on the spot when the Irish offered so they never got around to offering Mertz who was as I said very interested in ND. Mertz then of course went with Wisconsin, and when ND came calling again he thought about it but had developed a good relationship with the Badgers staff and didn't want to back out of that. So the Irish scrambled and flipped Brendon Clark from Wake Forrest.
Terry, under the new transfer rules wouldn't Clark be able to play immediately whether he has graduated or not?
I'm in agreement with Sid. I can't think of a more difficult problem for an AD to have than keeping his football team independent and still find a place for his non-football teams to compete. The agreement with the ACC was, in my mind a master stroke but because we committed to 5 games a year vs. ACC teams it's made scheduling very difficult. (with our yearly games with Navy, USC, and Stan. we have very little flexibility to to host 7 of 12 games, but we do.) I'm like Sid, I avoid ND Nation they make a lot of noise, just like empty barrels.
Yeah there are more than a few who think he sold us down the river with the ACC deal, that he got rolled by them to agree to 5 games. Some think he sold us down the river with the Under Armour deal. He has a daughter who works for Peacock and that's why some say we ended up on Peacock for the Toledo game. Some think we should go back to being independent and just join the Big East for the rest of the sports. I think it was a great that we were able to find a great home for our non-football sports and only have to play 5 games. I doubt seriously that the Big 10 would have done that deal, nor the SEC, or even the B12 at the time, now today the B12 might do that deal. Anyway, the last AD that I really liked was Moose Kraus. I liked Gene Corrigan and Dick Rosenthal though, and actually met Rosenthal at a function one time very nice guy to talk to and didn't big shot you. Since Wadsworth I haven't cared for them as much, I'm ok with Swarbrick. I blame him for the decline of ND baseball he let it just dangle with poor hires that he kept too long, current hire of Link Garrett is a plus though.
Re: the five game ACC deal, let's remember that we were playing BC and Pitt on an almost yearly basis. In effect we just agreed to 3 additional games. The real problem was the traditions of playing Navy and making a Thanksgiving trip to the coast every year. Before we played Stanford yearly we were playing Miami every year (another ACC team) playing them on Thanksgiving weekend when we weren't playing SC. In reality the schedule is different but not by that much. The big difference is we don't play at least one Mich. school every year.