Read the transcript of Brian Kelly's press conference today. I now fear Virginia!!! Seriously I do. Those guys are a great defense and have elite players. Now I know that coaches are always going to talk up the next opponent, so in spite of Kelly pretty much saying that Virginia plays SEC defense, maybe they are a really good team but not a contender for the CFP. The one thing I remember about our last game with UVA, is that they had us beat until Malik Zaire goes down and Deshaun Kizer comes in and throws that bomb to Will Fuller to win the game. That Irish team was in the conversation for the playoffs in 2015, our only loss was to eventual #1 ranked Clemson in another close game where we had a chance to win on the road at the end..but didn't. We eventually lost to Stanford in the last game of the season and that was it. But it could have all gone south permanently if we'd lost to UVA. That year (2015) we eventually climbed to #4 in the Committee's rankings before dropping out of contention with the loss to Stanford. First and foremost for the team is to put the loss behind them like they did with that Clemson loss in 2015. 2nd is I hope this game starts a resurgence of the Irish running game. I don't think we need to resemble Wisconsin. But we need to run more than 14 times for 50 yards. 3rd we have to get Book to be comfortable and patient in the pocket, we have receivers who can get open downfield. If DCoord can bring up their defense closer because we can't or won't challenge them with anything other than dinks and dunks even an average defense will look good. 4th the defense needs to continue it's improvement. They played really well vs UGA and everybody is giving kudo's to the young linebackers. Continue the improvement, and while everybody says our DE's are really good pass rushers we really haven't seen that much from them so far. This game would be a nice time to breakout the sacks! 5th we need good weather. I'm seeing some rain in the forecast. I think the team will be fine, but I'll be there and I don't want to tailgate in the rain!!
I remember that game well Terry. I doubt we will have to wait on a last minute bomb to put Virginia away. I'm thinking it won't be that close. Our defense look pretty good in the Georgia game.
I actually watched the ODU/UVa game. As I mentioned previously, UVa was clearly looking ahead a week. The UVa players kept expecting ODU to lay down, and to ODU's credit, they didn't. It's not like we're playing Alabama this week, but it's still a very good team.
An Irish win on Saturday puts them at 900 wins ( for the second time). Mich 955 Ohio State 915 Texas 911 Alabama 909 Nebraska 900 Irish had 21 wins vacated (2012 and 2013) Alabama has also had 21 wins vacated (2005-2007)
Interview with famous "Sad Virginia Fan". Pretty interesting. Hansen: Sad Virginia Fan finds happiness beyond the viral meme but not anonymity
This one is kind of tough to watch. Seeing Malik fighting back tears in the locker room. He'd worked so hard and to get to be the starter at QB and then it was all gone. There is a good article on him on The Athletic, he's doing well and is an Analyst for CBS, is doing the New Mexico/San Jose State game this weekend. Lives in L.A. and works for a Media company there.
It will be very interesting to see if the run game resurfaces vs UVA. Right now statistically UVA is a very good run defense and Bronco Mendenhall is known for emphasizing defense through out his career. UVA is only giving up 2.17 yds/carry so far this year. Also they handled a Pitt on the road that might be a pretty good squad having gone to Happy Valley and played PSU close and upset UCF last weekend. I would like to see our guys come out strong and take control in the 1st half of course, but UVa is probably going to take a 4 quarter effort to get the win. I'm really excited to see how our Defense plays they have improved every week and played really well against what everybody is saying is the best OL in college football in UGA. Young LB's are doing well. Drew White off to a great start, Jack Lamb playing well in his reps, JOK or Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah really has speed at the Rover position. Everybody seems to want Bilal out of there but he played well vs UGA. I think this defense if they don't get any big inuries has a lot of potential and could be really good by the end of October. Everybody hopes we see a veteran OL perform like a veteran OL this weekend. They have been underachieving so far and coach Jeff Quinn is getting a lot of scorn from the fans.
Michael Young and Jahmir Smith will be back, not sure how much playing time they will get since they are coming off of injuries. But Young esp will be nice to get back, he has some speed and could allow Chris Finke to go back to the slot where he belongs.
Bronco is a great defensive coach and I really think that this is a 4 quarter game. Their QB is a good athlete, but he's no Jake Fromm. I'd dare UVa to beat us passing.
With a 93,246-person crowd at Sanford Stadium on Saturday, Notre Dame marked its 10th attendance-record-setting game at an opponent field, a total which leads the FBS. So I question that stat. I know that both times we played in Austin, in '96 and 2016 we set stadium records for attendance. But with stadium expansion those have been eclipsed. I think we set a stadium record for the Big House for their 1st Night Game, and that's been eclipsed because of stadium expansion. Seems like places we only go occasionally or have never been before (like UGA) we tend to set stadium records for attendance.
Any thoughts on Kelly's statement that it's not his job to motivate the players? I mean, obviously, they are responsible for themselves. At the same time, that's a funny statement for a school whose program is defined by 'Win one for the Gipper.'