:roll: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: 1. This was a perfect win. The USC folks will micro-analyze this one to death. There were so many opportunities to win against a team with a crippled offense...the missed field goals...the penalties...the injured WRs...the inexperienced QBs...Orgeron's cookies......Little Kiffin......yes, I can hear them now......the agony... 2. (Sigh) Even the broadcasters were wondering why Notre Dame didn't have a backup QB who had been trusted with the whole offense. It was so obvious that Dr. Hendrix had only been given a small package of read options that they were predicting that the Irish wouldn't score again for the rest of the game after only a few plays had been run. It was plain for all to see that Notre Dame had entered this game with only ONE game-ready QB. If this had been generally known, everybody would have been taking pot-shots at Tommy's head long before this... 3. The performance of the Irish defense in the second half was one of the greatest in school history. 4. Petros was right about Tuitt. The Trojans had no answer for him. He was a man among boys. 5. Jaylon Smith, Carlo and .........Joe Schmidt from Mater Dei HS...Wowza! 6. My Trojan of the Game is local Catholic school guy Max Tuerk from Santa Margarita H.S. He had his choice between N.D. and USC, and thank God he made the right choice...for us. He had so many yards in holding penalties, that he was probably the leading Irish ground gainer in the second half... 7. The OL played well under impossible circumstances... 8. Cam McDaniel looks good when we run an offense with the threat of a pass. 9. Troy Niklas looked great again and some of the younger receivers, like Fuller are beginning to contribute. 10. It's only my opinion, but the Irish should grab another QB in the next class...
2. We watch other teams trot out freshmen QBs every week. How insecure was Kiel that he couldn't compete on this team? Pray for Tommy. 5. Jaylon Smith is a budding superstar. Schmidt played BIG. Carlo came through when they needed it the most; right after Rees was injured and it became apparent that we would play a man short on offense for two quarters. And Dan Fox made a couple of big stops in space as well. 6. USC's O-Line was completely overmatched all night. 7. The single greatest blocking effort I have ever seen. USC played ten in the box for almost two entire quarters. The only place you will see that is Pop Warner. As Tommy is mo threat to run, Hendrix was no threat to complete a pass and Orgeron packed the LOS. 9. Niklas could be a star. If he were more aggressive like a Gronkowski he would be unstoppable. This Fuller kid is exciting; get him the ball quickly and let him run. 10. Tell you right now... there is no guarantee that Golson is coming back. Kid has a lot of baggage and he was just settling in on the mental aspect of the game when he got himself suspended. Do you want to go to war next year with Hendrix and Zaire and nothing else? Better recruit not just a QB but the best one you can get. Under Hendrix the offense had 47 total yards on 29 offensive plays with one 1st down in an entire half of football against a team with a below average defense.
Well we do have a commit at QB in the class that will enroll in 2014. DeShone Kizer from Ohio. He's the #8 ranked Dual Threat QB on Rivals. Just for reference in the 2011 Dual Threat class, Marcus Marriotta was #12, Johnny Football #14 and Golson #16. Oh and Braxton Millier was #1 and Brett Hundley was #2. And I do agree, we see RS Freshmen all over the land playing like Sr's. Hundley, Marriotta, JFF all were RS Freshmen last season, the kid at FSU is a RS Freshman. Hey Texas Tech is 7-0 with a combo of a walkon true freshman in Baker Mayfield and a scholarship true freshman in Davis Webb. At this point if Tommy isn't going to play vs Air Force, then Kelly has to get Zaire ready to play and play him if necessary. I know he has wanted to keep his RS but it's time to forget about that and play the kid if he can.
I'm not ready to write off Hendrix. We'll know early this week whether or not Rees will be available for Air Force. In any event, I'm guessing (hoping) that the coaching staff will work with Hendrix as if he was going to start the game. Given this preparation and the relative ease of knowing he is going to play, he may be a different QB than the one we saw last night. If not, we are in deep doo-doo. George, I've supported Carlo and Fox from the get-go. I've said before that they are not Manti Te'o, and I did not expect them to be. They each play very well within the scope of their strengths. Last night, they and their teammates ratcheted their games up a couple of notches when the pressure was on. In an ironic way, the Rees injury may be the best thing to happen to our defense. It forced them to come together and - finally - play up to their potential. I believe that it was the turning point in our season regarding the level of play of our front seven. If our defensive front continues to play like they did last night, it should take pressure off of our DBs and allow them to play better vs. the pass. We'll see. Niklas played much better last night than in previous games. He was catching passes and not dropping them. His blocking has been consistently stellar all season, but his hands have not been reliable until last night. I hope he has turned the corner and is ready to emerge as our next great TE.
Some stats: Hendrix QB rating was 0.00. He is the "Blutarsky" of college QBs. Cam McDaniel had 102 yards rushing. The Irish completed 14 passes... all Rees. Troy Niklas and TJ Jones each had 4 catches. Daniels had three. Calabrese was the leading tackler with 8 including 5 solos and one TFL. Next was Tuitt and Jackson with 7 each and Tuitt had two sacks. Stunning season stats: Rees has one yard rushing and is completing 53% of his passes. Hendrix completion percentage is 10%. But his forte is running. He averages 2.8 yards per carry ad has rushed for 37 yards. TJ Jones has amassed 76 yards in punt return yardage. Matthias Farley leads the team in INTs with 2. Fox leads the team in fumble recoveries with 1. No one else has any. ND averages 373 total yards per game. Our opponents average 368. And the Irish are 5-2 !
ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Sid, I can't say I'm with you on this one. I was one who more than once mentioned we should be considering starting Hendrix instead of Rees. I was horribly wrong on this one. He doesn't have it. <br/> <br/> We need to get the Freshman ready and give him some playing time quick. I'm not worried about burning his eligibility time either. He's going to end up backing up EG for at least a year anyway. <br/> <br/> I know it was a weird game last night but I woke up feeling really good this morning anyway. It's been a long time since we beat SC two years straight. <br/> <br/> You thing Ed gave his boys cookies on the plane ride home?</r>
Tim, my point was that I don't feel I can judge him based on what happened last night under the circumstances that existed at that point in the game. If he is to be our starter next, week, he will have had a full week of preparation. Then we'll see what we have in Hendrix.
It was quite a night. During time outs I was switching to the Tiger-Sox game. Talk about an emotional rollercoaster! I know there is a lot of discussion about our QB situation. The big problem is the modern athlete who will transfer at the drop of the hat. It would be nice if we could stockpile talented QBs who'd sit for years hoping for their chance to play but that's not going to happen. Kiel is a perfect example of a kid who would rather play for Cincinnati than sit at ND. It probably says that he felt he was going to be behind both Golson and Rees. I loved this so much I posted it again. Oh and George I liked the Blutarsky reference too.
Not that anyone wants my opinion, but I don't think you can write off Hendrix. You don't, nor do I, know if he can truly run this offense. When he's trotted out there, the defense knows what is coming and load up for it. When we go to let him pass, we run routes that are literally his greatest weakness. (the short underneath timing routes) He won't set his feet. If any of you have a DVR, you should try re-watching one of our games after the woe and worry of uncertain victory/defeat is removed. We piss away so many wide open WRs At this point, I'm done ripping the kids because this is a player development and play call issue. In year 4 of your coaching tenure, you're out of excuses. Kelly is still spitting them at us like we've never seen good football.. Back on point about Hendrix... for all we know, the kid could come out in the next few weeks and look great. Rees has been the single biggest liability on this team for a month now. Now he's the grand champion? Nonsense. This is all on Kelly. I also don't think it's fair to blast or label Kiel. The kid may be a wuss. Maybe he took a look at all this ******** and hypocrisy, didn't see an opportunity to develop, play or compete.. and he made the best choice for him? That's every bit as possible as him being a wuss. I watched our QB in the 'Elite' competition this year. He's not bad, but I highly doubt he'll be ready to play next year.
Did anyone notice the score of the Arizona State-Washington game? ASU lambasted the Huskies 53-24. Interesting for those who are concerned about our SOS.
I saw that. Kes and I were debating who is the most bipolar team in college football. It's gotta be LSU or Arizona State... and after a night's sleep, I gotta say it is the Sun Devils.
Thanks Tom. In the big picture, I really don't have any negatives in this. Stop and think, when is the last time we beat USC at home? If you can't be happy with this win, you can't ever be happy. I'm happy. Onto next week.
Corey and all of the ND Faithful, I really I did not think you could pull this one off. Congratulations.
ND <t>We'll at least we won't have to put up with any more of the Ed Ogeron bulls*** this week. Frankly I got a little tired of hearing about the "change ", " letting them loose", "having fun" "just letting them play" and all the other touchy feely stuff. Yeah, that worked for Arizona but they ran into some boys from South Bend on the defense who put an end to their party.</t>
This weeks ICON video on the USC/ND game is very good. I'm not sure how much coach speeches affect today's players, but Kelly's pregame and halftime speeches fired me up. The other good moment was Dan Fox coming over to congratulate Joe Schmidt on his breakup of that crucial 3rd down pass. JO'Co told us we'd be glad we got Schmidt, that he'd been one of the top players on a very good Mater Dei team and would help us someday...well now is his day, Joe Schmidt will play a lot over the next 5 games. He's undersized no doubt and that's why he didn't get a big time offer, according to Rivals his only offers were from Air Force and Cincinnati. I'm glad he decided to accept a walk on from us, can't measure heart.
A kid like Schmidt is a throwback to a time when kids came to ND to attend the school and hoped to play football. So many of todays high school athletes want to play football and if they have to sit for a while they up and transfer. It seems to me that very few of kids that transfer actually play for any time in the NFL.