It sure was an exciting game despite the outcome. Hopefully the Irish can bounce back this week against Nevada.
Clearly he was watching a different Irish defense... it's not that our boys are saints, but we didn't hit anyone all night. The thing I will miss about Redfield is that he was a cheap shot artist. I am alone in this, I realize. He took dump penalties, I fully agree. At the same time, there were guys on turtled tip toes when they crossed our deep 3rd with him back there. Football isn't a game played by choir boys swinging pillows. I don't wish ill on the Horn kid for his hit. I just want him justly penalized for it. Since the adults in charge blew it, I want them punished.
He specifically mentioned the hit on Beuchele when he made the pick, Rochel hit him up around the head. I was so far from the action I didn't see it and haven't watched a replay. Of course the difference is that Beuchele got up and tried to get back in the play, Hunter couldn't get up. Obviously the hit on Hunter was awful and I hope he is ok, and really just because he's in the protocol and comes out of it cleared to play doesn't mean he's ok. The whole head trauma thing is cumulative and he could be impacted down the road in middle age. That's the reason that Corey Robinson decided to give up football, he'd had a couple and the effects weren't going away in a week. Smart move by a smart kid. As with all games so many what if's.. What if Hunter hits wide open Kizer on the previous play, he scores. What if the targeting call is made, we get the ball inside the 10 1st and 10 maybe we score and if we have to kick the FG maybe it isn't blocked. What if when we are up 35-31 and we get the ball in decent field position and get more points, or even if we don't get more points we actually get off a good punt and pin them back. Maybe.... But then there is reality. ACC office has reportedly told ND the refs missed the call. Also no reports from the B12 office on their crew in the booth. Won't change anything of course. Biggest problem of course is the defense, they need to quickly figure out something to help the young DB's. Also need to, as has already been said , make Kizer the #1 QB not the #1a. Zaire is the backup, gets backup reps. No need to bring him in for running situations, Kizer is good enough. I saw some where that Kelly was asked about it, and said he hasn't met with the QB's and no decision has been made. I hope that's just for Nevada, because he didn't need to watch film to see that Kizer is the better QB. Prister had this to say on BVG Just as Chollie's undoing was not just his own self absorbed greatness, but he had no clue on how to assemble a staff on defense. Looking like lack of great defense will be Kelly's undoing as well.
Well put by the Coach. I agree with him. Chill. Terry, your what-if questions illustrate just how possible it was to win the game. That's what makes the loss so doggone frustrating.
And so with 1:30 to go and the ball at the ND 30 we ran twice out of 3 downs and then punted. The offense might have had a chance to win the game if they had tried to move into fg range before OT. Instead he played for OT where his defense could lose it.
It's not easy to chill when you know you must score 40+ to win a game. I agree with Corey about this D needing a nasty edge to it. Nyles Morgan looks like the man for the job. Turn that dog loose and see if he's contagious.
:idea: I suspect that Texas was better than everyone thought. Let's not fire BVG unless Nevada tacks 50 points on us...
BGI, ISD and II all had articles on the defense and while not saying the words fire BVG, they came pretty close. I think it was either Prister or Sampson that said the problem is that there is no one on the staff to take over the job as DCoord. This is an area where the Alabama approach with so many analysts on their staff who are former coaches could be a big factor. You could move an analyst to coach and he'd have been with the program and know the scheme and there would not be any problems with terminology or anything. As far as the B12 not saying it was targeting, reading it like the lawyer I'm not, they don't say it wasn't targeting they do say it wasn't egregious enough to warrant the Booth throwing the flag when the crew didn't. I think this is going to be a problem going forward, I don't believe the guys in the booth want to start calling penalty's from up above and will use the egregious modifier to justify not making a call at all.
I watch, listen to and read an absolute **** ton about Alabama football. One of the ways to beat Alabama (this really is not a secret) is to force them out of their 2 high safety formation. They want to rush 4 and drop everyone else into coverage, be it man or zone. They believe their front 4 are so good, they don't need another body. For a good long while now, they're right. However, and this does get back to ND football just stick with me, if you make them bring a safety down to support a LB or to support the run, one of their corners is going to have to be in man. They've had some great corners and usually one of them is a man up specialist. The key is to get the match up you want, forcing them out of their formation, and then you attack the kid who can't run with your WR. You don't always have to do this with the run. Ole Miss will dink, dunk and gash them to make changes they don't want to make and force them to play another hand. Ole Miss is also the one team in America with the most success against Bama recently. With our defense, perhaps it is there and I am just not seeing it, but there just isn't the plain logic that shows safety protection for the corners. We are sending the kitchen CONSTANTLY and leaving our guys on an island. That's risky even in the NFL where you most likely have 2 guys out there that will put you on an island. We let that freshman QB have a whole lot of easy reads. We should have made that kid dink and dunk us to death. I'm not sure he can do it. We went 2 high once, got a little interior pressure and the kid threw and INT. You would have thought we'd learn from that, but instead we went back to shooting the gaps (which creates running lanes that are easy to read in the read zone option) and allow for a young QB to simply throw the ball 45 yards downfield to a world class sprinter. I agree with Sid and Coach in that we need to chill. I also agree with George in that we don't have an identity..and for the love of God please hit someone with bad intentions. Niles Morgan has been doing that since he's a freshman. Let him do it some more. I guess he's an odd fit because BVG likes very disciplined guys sticking in their lanes, and it's a rather complicated defensive set that we run. I'm just not sure we need to make it that hard, especially when we're so young in the secondary (at least in terms of depth etc) I think the scheme we used against Texas should work against Nevada simply because we have better athletes. The problems arrive when we run into guys who have athletes as good, or better, than ours. That's when we need to protect those guys and make the opponent execute underneath. Show a little patience.