I have no idea what to expect for this game other than there will be a winner at the end...no ties anymore. Hard to imagine Greg Hudson can do much in a week, maybe a simplified game plan that allows the talent to just cut loose and play like Flutie kept calling for during the game last week. Since George will be there and Met Life Stadium is very technologically advanced I expect live tweeting from him during the game!! 8) 8) Use #skyboxirish so we can find them! :wink: At the moment it seems like the fanbase that posts online already has Kelly gone at the end of the season. Talk continues of who to hire, oh and not surprisingly more than a few want Swarbrick gone as well. Go Irish.
ND <t>I have no idea what to expect from this team anymore. I have no idea how this game will end.<br/> <br/> On Kelly, it's probably already been said but really good, available NCAA football coaches are hard to find and get. Don't throw yours out until you have one you know will come. Kelly hasn't been perfect but in the post Lou era he's done better than anyone we have had.<br/> <br/> If Kelly can settle things and make something out of the rest of this season I doubt if the school will fire him. Couple more fiascos like the Duke game???? We'll see. <br/> <br/> I agree on the defense. Simplify it and let them do what they can. Can't be worse than what we've seen thus far.</t>
I agree with Tim's assessment of Kelly. The "fanbase" is at its most rabid when it gets lathered up and starts looking for change. IMO what's most important is a steady ship despite the "waves" of adversity. What we've seen these past few weeks are waves and not systemic issues, i.e., failure of the head coach to effectively lead the program through adversity and come out strong on the other side. He dealt with the issue of the defense, perhaps later than some would have liked, but he dealt with it. Now let's see how we come out of this for the rest of the season and into the future. Time will tell if he has control of the program and can guide it successfully toward a permanent place among the elite FBS programs.
Tim O'Malley had this quote from the Movie Cocktail, Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue starred.... “All things end badly. Otherwise they wouldn’t end.” O'Malley on the Glass Half Full One thing I do expect from this game, is that the offense will score plenty of points to win under normal circumstances. For all the talk about every position being open, I don't really expect to see any major changes on offense. Kizer will start. I won't however be surprised if Dexter Williams gets the start at RB, but we'll still see plenty of Adams and Folston. On defense, maybe Cole Luke doesn't start, maybe some different starters on the DL but they'll all play. In spite of being frustrated by the poor tackling and all I don't see that we have guys sitting on the bench who should be starters. Hopefully this defense will be motivated to show that they are better than the worst defense in football. I mean if we just play like the 50th best defense in college we might be undefeated. That said, Syracuse is a bad match for us because they are an up tempo offense like Texas and Duke and that means they get the ball out so fast it's hard to sack the QB and you have to tackle the pass catchers right away to keep them to short yardage. We also have to stop the run, can't let them run for 200yds. I don't know how good the Syracuse Defense is, but they did give up 62 points to Louisville. Lamar Jackson is really really good and as a college QB is probably better than Kizer because he can do so much with his feet, not that Kizer isn't a good runner, but Jackson is a great runner. But I think we can score on these guys. But can we stop them.
On the positive side. ND Fall Sports are doing pretty well, both Mens and Womens Soccer teams are doing very well and are amongst the leaders in the ACC. Womens Volleyball just finished a sweep of the Miami Hurricanes and are also one of the top ACC teams. So it's not all doom and gloom.
These come from twitter or message board updates, so take with a grain of salt re: proper context and general accuracy. - "Team's not playing well, that's my fault" - BK called Swarbrick for approval to fire VanGorder. BK initiated conversation - On defense: "I can’t have 15 different personnel packages. We have a few”. - “There are too many good football players that haven’t been playing.” - players on defense are overused and inexperienced. Need to play more people - overuse, fatigue contributed to tackling issues - both long and short term position changes on D, but didn't elaborate - Kelly says he has to be more fiery and he has to turn it up. “That’s who I am. I need to be who I am." - Wants more emotion/celebration from defense - Hayes had zero reps. "That can't happen." - On Zaire handling being the backup: "Ask me Thursday" - Compares passion of Hudson to Dexter Williams (BK really seems to like Dexter Williams . . .) - Dexter, Jay Hayes, Asmar need to play more
I'd like to see the context for this comment. As far as I'm concerned, it's pure bull crap. There is no excuse for poor tackling. None.
Kelly just announced his depth chart for the Syracuse game. After proclaiming all 22 positions up for grabs last Sunday, I can report that his depth chart is 100% unchanged. Even CB Nick Coleman, who is still in the burn unit of South Bend General's 'Hopelessly" torched ICU has retained his starting job. I will be in attendance and will try to Tweet my real time emotional obsrvations as they happen. :twisted:
I just want to see 3 things. 1. Our defense tackle well 2. An Irish win 3. Kizer throw a gosh darned 10 yard out route as well as Max Redfield threw away his future.
Tim Prister = Captain Obvious Of course it was Swarbrick's call. Kelly has said that from the beginning. Who ever thought it was Kelly's decision alone? Not I. Kelly made his decision and cleared it with Swarbrick, who could have said yes or no. He said yes. In any program, it should be up to the AD to make the final call. What's the big deal with "multiple sources?"
Well I would think that Coaches in general are allowed to make their own choices with regards to who is on their staff. Now, I'm sure the AD gives his approval after they have been vetted to make sure that they have no hidden skeletons in their closet. But the coach makes the choice. Same thing when somebody is going to be fired, they have a contract and there is always potential for somebody who has been fired (joe moore) to sue the school for one reason or another. So that Kelly told Swarbrick that he wanted to fire BVG, again not unusual, just so that it's not after the fact that Jack finds out. It's not very common that an AD demands an asst be fired, but it has happened at Texas when Mack Brown was under the gun for some really bad defeats to Stoops and OU, a couple of 60 point thumpings. The AD and Mack had a meeting and the AD demanded that Mack fire the DCoord. Which Mack resisted doing, but it was resolved when the DCoord went ahead and retired rather than put Mack (his longtime friend) in that position. My imagination leads me to believe that Kelly and Swarbrick had conversations after last season about BVG, and with the way the season has gone so far I could see Swarbrick calling Kelly and telling him something has to be done, or asking him what are you going to do about the defense. So at that point, losing to Duke, Kelly decides BVG has to go. Now whether Kelly had the idea first and called Jack or Jack called Kelly, who cares. I'm sure the whole thing had been talked about after the Bowl game when Kelly and Jack sat down to review the season and talk about the future.
I'e seen quotes like that many times in the past. My conclusion: Words are cheap. I know I probably over emphasize leadership, but I have to wonder if this team has it. We should see sooner rather than later as they try to climb out of the hole they've dug in the first four games. Terry, after reading your follow-up post above, I see what I didn't see before. Prister is saying that Swarbrick initiated the call to fire BVG. I guess it's possible, but I can't see it happening that way exactly. Your theory that they probably had talked about it previously, and Swarbrick might have brought it up again is plausible. Who brought it up first likely is known only by the infamous multiple sources.
Syracuse QB may have hurt his hand in the UConn game and might not play. From Tuesday: Dungey was not made available to the media Tuesday as he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed injury, Stephen Bailey of the Post Standard reports. Analysis: Dungey took a number of hits in Saturday's win over Connecticut, but he was able to finish out the game with one of his better stat lines of the season. Obviously with an undisclosed injury there's no way to know the severity at this point, but there figures to be an update on his status later in the week. If he's unable to play Saturday against Notre Dame, Zach Mahoney would likely take over at quarterback for the Orange. From Wednesday: Head coach Dino Babers did not provide an update on Dungey's undisclosed injury during Wednesday's ACC conference call, Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com reports. Analysis: Dungey missed his media availability Tuesday to receive treatment on an undisclosed injury and Babers did not provide any further detail Wednesday, saying that the Orange coaching staff is "not going to talk about injuries." According to Bailey, Dungey seemed to be favoring his throwing hand during Saturday's narrow win over Connecticut. Regardless, Syracuse will likely remain mum on Dungey's status until the Orange take the field for pregame warmups against Notre Dame. From Wednesday also: Dungey (undisclosed) is taking part in practice Wednesday, Brent Axe of ESPN Radio Syracuse reports. Analysis: Coach Dino Babers failed to provide an update on Dungey's injury earlier Wednesday, but it appears he'll at least go through practice, although it's unclear if he'll be on any sort of restrictions. While we still don't know the details of his injury, his practice availability Wednesday is a good sign for his status for an upcoming matchup with Notre Dame. However, we'll likely have to wait for another announcement Thursday or Friday before getting a better idea about whether he'll suit up or not.
Alan Page, former ND AA DL from the 60's and an All-Pro and member of both the College Football HOF and the Pro Football HOF was selected as the 2016 Heisman Humanitarian. Had a great post football career as a lawyer who went on the Minnesota Supreme Court. What a man. Don't make'm like him anymore.
The first day I was at ND I went to the snack bar, The Huddle and there I saw my first ND football player.....it was Alan Page. It was shock and awe. He looked like a slightly smaller version of King Kong. The 1966 championship season had a number of great plays but I think the most important one occurred in the early game against Purdue. Purdue with Bob Greise and Leroy Keys had a great team. Late in the game with Purdue driving for what would have been a go-ahead TD, Page blindsided Griese and caused a fumble recovered by ND. It turned the game around and let to what was going to be an undefeated season.
He was a year behind me, and I would see him often on campus. You couldn't miss him. Back then, 6'5" was like 6'8 or 9 today. His fellow linemen, with whom he often was walking, were around 6'2 or 3 and seemed much smaller next to him. He had a stellar pro career with the Vikings. I didn't get to see the game Gip described. The '66 season was after I graduated, and I was at Army Reserve boot camp at Ft. Knox during the football season.
Haha. No. It's kind of an interesting story, the kind you tell in person when everyone in the group is swapping tales.