George, I'm pretty sure the assistant coach getting his ass chewed is Polian. He's always getting his ass chewed. Our special teams really aren't bad, and I think Polian is kinda taking one for the team in doing it. Either way, Polian is a recruiting machine so it's all good.
I didn't quite understand our kicker not putting the ball out of the end zone. Was he not able or was that the strategy. On the punt mess up, I can't put that on the ST coach. Our LS has been very good all year so one bad snap is just that one bad snap, it happens. Punt and Kick coverage is a different story of course. I liked a lot of what happened Sat night. I didn't like how that VaTech QB carved up our defense and moved them up and down the field seemingly at will they weren't able to convert in the red zone so that's great, esp that goal line stand. But he completed a lot of passes. I'm not a fan of the bend don't break defense though. Book missing those wide open throws downfield is a little troubling, if he can't hit those teams are to start daring him to make those throws and play the short and middle routes much tougher. Running game...take away 2 carries from Dexter which totaled over 130 of his 178 yds and the running game doesn't look so great. Bottom line, we could have blown them out in the 1st half but we didn't and we did in the 2nd half so all is well. But there is work to be done with OL and running game, we missed Alex Bars. Tillery is going to see a lot more double teams so the other guys will need to step it up and get pressure on the qb or the DB's are going to look like they have feet of clay. WE WIN!! So I'm happy though! It's just that right now if we get matched up with Alabama in the 1st round I see a bad loss to make the season seem like a bad season.
Terry, the Alabama offense is clicking right now and seems unstoppable but your comments about the Notre Dame defense echo my sentiments about the Alabama defense in the Arkansas game. We need to correct that or we may HAVE to score 65 points to win and that does not win championships.
ND <t>I can’t help it but just have to say this..the whole “Hokie Effect†was pretty HOKIE.😜</t>
As far as Book being Jacked, Hyped, or Amped up as the reason he overthrew those wide open WR's ...I'm not sure I'm buying that. He's completing 70+% of his passes so he's doing a lot of things right, and he's making a lot of throws on 3rd down to keep drives going and he has a knack for making that tough throw that you have to contort your body and sort of shot put it over the DB's so he can improvise. So the long ball is the only apparent weakness, but then it's college football and a lot of QB's can be outstanding without having cannons for arms. Heck that Va.Tech QB had a cannon for an arm. He could really rifle that ball to the sidelines from the far hash mark. But he didn't win. Also that Va.Tech receiver Hazelton, that kid looked really good.
The Book on Book.. Stolen from someplace else: I didn't research this. To begin the breakdown of Book’s performance let’s take a look at Book’s pass chart: Book had a season-low completion percentage and had several deep ball misses, yet he still completed 71.4 percent of his passes. The junior has gone over 70 percent in all three of his starts while averaging 34 passes per game. Against Virginia Tech we saw Book stretch the field at a much higher rate than he had all season. Book threw more balls beyond 20 yards from the line of scrimmage against the Hokies (9) than he had all season (5) prior to this matchup. It was good to see Book so willing to press the ball downfield, something he’ll need to do moving forward. Going 4-for-4 for 93 yards and two scores on intermediate throws was impressive. Book continues to have woes against pressure, but he did scramble and get the ball downfield for a 40-yard touchdown against one pressure, which is certainly a positive sign. Book was a perfect 16-of-16 for 115 yards on quick/screen throws. He was just 9-of-19 on drop-back and play-action throws, which is where the majority of his deep throws came from. Being successful on first-down was a big part of Book’s performance in his first two starts. He completed 20 of 28 passes for 256 yards on first down in those two games, but he was just 6-of-13 for 88 yards against the Hokies.
Some blogger/radio host has posted on Twitter that he's hearing some terrible news regarding Notre Dame. No other clues at to what it might be about. https://twitter.com/BarstoolChief/status/1049403327161741318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1049403327161741318&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Firishsportsdaily.com%2Fforums%2F1%2Ftopics%2F27584
The "Chief" has deleted this now...of course the horse is out of the barn. and it's all over ND boards, Mods of various boards are silent.
OK it's all over Twitter now. The rumor is that Book will be suspended for cheating on a Test. Some of the tweets say it was on a Midterm, which can't be right because midterms started this morning. Of course it could have been an earlier test, I don't know. Hopefully it's fake news because if it's not it's a terrible kick in the nuts for not only Ian Book but for his teammates and for us fans who'd just begun to hope.
ND <t>Terry,<br/> <br/> from what I'm seeing now this rumor is turning out to be a lot of Social Media BS.</t>
ND <r>O.K herre we go, some believable info from a reliabler ND source:<br/> <br/> <br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE></r>