ND <t>While I must say I've been pleased so far by the Showtime series on ND they are just killing me with the glimpses of Malik Zaire. Man, you just gotta feel for this kid. He really wanted this season so bad. It's so apparent that nobody on this team wants to win more than him. I feel bad for all the guys that have been injured. They all seem to great kids. Thankfully, if all goes as expected we will see them on the field again next year led by Malik Zaire.<br/> <br/> Go Irish!</t>
ND <t>I'm happy to report that I seem to be a little harsh on my comments about the Irish taking a verbal commit from Ian Book, the QB who had originally committed to Wazzu. He's tearin it up out there on the west coast in his SR season! not only is he getting passing TD's but he is getting a lot of yards with his feet which was what I was skeptical about before. God bless Tommy Rees but I never want to see another QB at ND who can't get some yards with his feet and extend plays.</t>
I'll watch Episode 3 of the Showtime series tonight, but all the talk so far is that it's another great episode. I wonder if ND is making these episodes available to recruits who don't have access to Showtime. It would be a positive I believe.
This series on Showtime has really been great, there was a segment with Jack Collinsworth and Kizer and it was really good and the scene in the Locker room where they give Drue Tranquil the game ball, it's another heart breaker and I hope I don't have to see any more of them.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/avMPtMX1EOA" frameborder="0"></iframe> I hope Tim Gentry doesn't have a dog to headbutt after watching this!!
<sigh> Jay Hayers benched for tweeting negative comments about coaching staff. :roll: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...hed-for-negative-tweets-toward-coaching-staff
Yeah I saw that, these kids can't stand it unless they express every thought that they should kee to themselves on Instagram or Twitter. But the positive on this is that it certainly alerts Kelly, BVG and Keith Gilmore what the kid is feeling. I'm not saying that they cowtow to the kid but they know what he's thinking and can handle it. If the kid isn't getting "coached" it's probably that he's got some attitude problems and they were letting him stew on them. But no matter what the outcome, everybody is now on the same page. Besides they wanted to redshirt him last year but were forced to play him because of the injuries and they were trying to redshirt him this year if they could. So maybe that's the problem, he doesn't like it on the scout team.
cj sanders return for td lit a fire under them. almost 500yds rushing, and how about the arm on wimbush
ND <t>Should be happy but mixed feelings about the game. Lot's of good things but still no reason we should have ever let UMass hang around at all.</t>
I am watching it now. I'm typing this at the point in which I walked into the house earlier today. I DVR'ed it because we were doing these family portrait things. I'm a rather lenient parent, but one of the few rules I have is family before football. Sometimes, it bites me in the ass. I hate rules. Anyway, I don't feel to bad about it. Uncle Rico's defense basically made 4 or 5 mistakes in the first half and were burned badly for them. Keeping things realistic, UMass' coach is one of the finer offensive minds in the game. We came out and opened up a 14-0 run. Then UMass went to several unbalanced fronts which confused our linebackers. We had 1 play in which Joe Schmidt made a bad mental mistake AND Jalen Smith got caught flat footed looking in the backfield. Neither of those things happen, but they did on that one long TD run. After things got tight, we opened up a big can of whip ass. I was worried listening to the news reports earlier today, but after watching it, I don't feel as bad. It was all mental. Sometimes, the other guy is smarter. We adjusted and used our best resources to just slaughter them and empty the bench with lots of playing time. I liked what I saw from the kids. Kelly cracked me up with his 1st half rant to the officials 'Wake the f*ck up! That's a F'ing hold. You're F'ing missed that hold!' Charlie Weis was everyone's friend. Kelly rubs people the wrong way, I kinda like that about him. He's an abrasive perfectionist, there are worse things. So, onto Clemson.... but I still don't understand how we get criticism for the type of game we played today, but TCU's Invisible Curtain defense gets a pass for getting shredded by a good, but not great, Tech offense.
One thing about Uncle Rico's defenses that could haunt us down the road is the weakness of our deep center coverage. Again yesterday. This defense sideline to sideline is very good. Up the gut , not so much.