Terry, I think several teams have.one receiver maybe as good as Alabama. No one has 3 receivers as good as.Alabama
That was a heck of a victory for Alabama last night. After giving up a ton of points to Ole Miss last week and to Georgia in the first half, Bama comes out and shuts Georgia out in the second half. Good looking team. Georgia looked really good in the first half but lost in the second.
I agree Tim, there are criticisms for everyone. A lot of people think it's Book, some think it's the WR's not getting separation/open, and of course lots of people think it's Tom Rees and/or Kelly and the play calling. Bottom line is that we need to be able to be more effective throwing the ball. My biggest concern was the red zone failure against Louisville.
I would ask if you have enough data points to find any trends? With your season being so start and stop it's probably hard to get any good idea at this point. Maybe the passing game just hasn't had enough reps to get on track?
Scott, that's a good point. Additionally we've had WRs that have been hampered with nagging injuries. There are lots of tall, quick receivers in college football but what makes the difference is that the good ones have good hands and the great ones also have strong hands. So far, I haven't seen receiver with great hands. We miss Claypool.
We do miss Claypool that's for sure, we don't have a go to WR that even comes close to replacing him. Book had a good game vs FSU, it wasn't a 300+ yd game like the top QB's have in college, but he was pretty efficient and Boykin got seperation and made some good catches. I thought maybe that was his coming out party, but he had several drops vs Louisville granted none of them were perfect throws, but were passes that the guys at Clemson and Alabama will make.
My impression is that Kelly wants Book to avoid ints at all costs. He doesn't turn it over but he isn't nearly as productive as he was the past 2 years. He doesn't make fans happy but he sure has an impressive W-L record. I guess we're never happy.
He does have a good w-l record as a starting QB that's for sure. And the avoidance of mistakes, not a bad thing, is one of the criticisms of Book in that he panics too quickly and pulls the ball down looking to run and that he doesn't throw his receivers open...leading them with the ball placement I guess. In that Alabama game, Mac Jones did a great job of that. He also doesn't seem to like throwing the ball downfield. Whether he's being coached that way or it's just him. I don't know. But he's made more than his share of plays late in the game with his legs, last years Va.Tech game which got us out of our funk from the Mich game, and Sat night that TD run was another example. Bottom line is that Book is good enough vs most teams, but not so much against the really top teams.
Very good point. This will be an asterisk season no matter what. There is a lot to be said for the "do no harm" quarterback. You need a shutdown level defense to go with him though.
From Pete Sampson on The Athletic. 2. Unless Notre Dame invests in the development of Kevin Austin, Braden Lenzy and Jordan Johnson during the next couple weeks, it’s hard to understand how the Irish will move the ball against Clemson. Javon McKinley led the position in snaps again but rated last among the 17 players who got offensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus. At some point, the best attribute of your No. 1 receiver can’t be his blocking. That’s not how college football works in 2020.
Another take on the Irish passing game (ESPN) "Sure, the Fighting Irish came away with a 12-7 win over Louisville and remain undefeated, but let's temper any enthusiasm by offering a reminder that their opponents are just 1-13 versus other FBS foes. A bigger worry -- particularly if the Irish hope to topple Clemson for an ACC title -- is the absence of a downfield passing game. Ian Book was just 11-of-19 for 107 yards against Louisville, and through three games, the Irish wide receivers have just two TDs and three completions of 20 yards or more. Without finding some sort of threat on the outside, Clemson's defense will be licking its chops." Pass plays of 15+ yards (ACC): ▪️ Clemson - 45 (first) ▪️ Notre Dame - 16 (last)
So if you watched the Louisville game you have to remember the hit that JOK put on the Louisville back..it was epic. So Pete Sampson asked a question and was given an awesome answer by a ND Physics Professor!