You other than I expect to beat Rice I have no clue what to expect from the team this year. Before all that academic stuff came up I thought we'd be pretty good, thin and young on defense but solid on offense. Now I don't know. All those young guys in the 2 deep is rarely a good sign. Plus what is the psyche of the team, do they think their teammates are getting screwed over, where is Brian Kelly? Is he telling his agent get me out of here after this year. Herbie said we'd be lucky to win 7 games, that means he thinks we'll win fewer than 7 games if we aren't lucky. I was thinking 10 games, lucky maybe 11 I thought 9 wins would be the low side. If we win 8 games this year it's going to be very rough to be an ND internet fan...if we win 7 or fewer I'm taking a sabbatical.
You guys will win this easy. I might take Rice to cover due to the huge spread, but that's because you are down some players, and have had a LOT of distractions the last few weeks.
Missing another player Eilar Hardy, in the defensive back rotation and special teams, suspended yesterday as the 5th player caught up in the academic investigation.
Notre Dame 48 Rice 17 Everything looked AOK to me. Even the depth on defense. We had some true freshmen that looked like real beastie boys. That Andrew Trumbetti is another New Jersey goonie. What do they feed the kids in that state? Even with the loss of captain Austin Collinsworth to injury, we still have plenty of safeties... 1. LB Joe Schmidt is a head banger. He doesn't just tackle people, he hammers them. The crowd reacts on most of his hits. 2. Both of our QBs are a WOW. It's been awhile since we could say that. 3. Fuller and Brown are as advertised. Their speed on the outside gives the Irish a deep threat on every play. 4. The OL started slow (especially Hanratty), but played well in the 2nd half. 5. Schmidt and Jaylon Smith give us two of the faster LBs in the country. In fact, the overall defense appears to be very fast. However, I still worry about how fast they would be if we lose too may LBs and DLs to injury. 6. C.J. Prosise has never had my confidence as an offensive player and his drop of an easy TD toss that hit him in both hands didn't improve my opinion any. His later TD reception was the least he could do. I still worry about him and I have more confidence in the younger guys. 7. Nicky Baratti got burned by peaking in the backfield when he was the deep free safety. I hope that was just rust. He had tremendous potential before his injury. 8. We finally have KICK RETURNERS! Remember them? Like Zbikowski and the Rocket? My favorite was Riggs. His new team fits him like a glove. 9. Our field goal team still makes my stomach churn... 10. Our three running backs may be even better than advertised. We'll know more after Michigan, but right now, I wouldn't trade them for any backs in the country...
We were far from perfect. Normally, I'm happy as a clam with a win like this. Oh, I'm very, very happy. Our OL blocking and and RB speed and power enabled us to run the ball with confidence. Our QB can get out of trouble and make good things happen. Our defense played with a high level of energy and tackled very well. Did we have more punt return yards in the 1st quarter than all of last season? It sure seemed like it. What concerns me about today is our defensive backfield. We weren't even tested today, yet we still gave up two TD passes that shouldn't have happened.It will be a lot different next week. We have a lot of work to do re: communication and recognition among our DBs before facing Michigan and Devin Gardner. I hope we can make the corrections in one week.
Last year, 59 punt returns for a whopping 109 yds. Today 5 returns for 80. That seems to remedy that glaring problem from last year.
Collinsworth expected to be out 2-4 weeks. Not sure what happened from reading the description of the play. He went up in the air and came down awkwardly. Sounds like a twist or a strain or a hyperextension but apparently no ligament damage. That's good.
I am anxiously awaiting your game with the Wolverines. Only problem is our game with Virginia Tech is about the same time. Maybe I can peek in during the first hour, as we do not tip off until 8:00
I don't really know what to take away from the Rice game, but most of my thoughts have already been covered by others here. 1. I'm just glad for the solid win, after the first 2 series where we go 3 and out, I thought oh no here we go..slow start and we'll keep Rice in the game for longer than they should. I'm thinking of the USF game a few years ago. But after that the offense found it's rhythm and we played very well. 2. Like everybody else I'm worried about our defensive backfield. Those big plays that we gave up to Rice are very worrisome. Kelly said that we just need to communicate better. OK I'll buy that, and I'll even give him that those guys really missed the Collinsworth kid. But they did participate in the Spring didn't they? They did participate in the fall camp didn't they? Yet they weren't ready to play when called on. That worries me, it doesn't seem like something that can easily be fixed with another week of practice. I hope I'm wrong. 3. It did bother me that we didn't seem to get any pressure on the Rice QB till late in the game when they wore down. But then going into the season I think everybody knew we were thin and young on defense. 4. Like everybody else I'm pretty excited by how well our RB's played. Greg Bryant looks like a kid who will have a great year. Watching him reminded me of all the things that we thought GAIII would do but never got. Folston has that elusiveness and Cam is a solid back, but probably will and should be #3 in that group. Good solid win to start the season. Lot's of things to work on and we'll certainly need for the young guys on defense to be fast learners.