Nice to have a no-stress road game. Coan played well, the depleted receiving corps did a good job and the D was effectively aggressive. How many times did we hear about Brennen Armstrong? I'm willing to bet that Kyle Hamilton goes higher in the NFL draft than Armstrong, they probably mentioned he was out once.
I was glad for the win, but it was pretty unimpressive to me. Don't forget that they have been a terrible defense. I think that the loss of Armstrong was more harmful to their offense than Hamilton to our defense. We had upper classmen to fill in for Kyle, that UVA backup was a true freshman who didn't play last year due to Covid and had only thrown a few passes this season. Again, glad for the win but not very impressed with the offense against a terrible defense
Ohio State and Alabama are examples of two teams leaving nothing to chance. They'll stop trying to score at the final whistle. Same with Georgia. They understand the beauty contest aspect of college rankings. The Buckeyes gave up 31 points to Purdue; ND gave up 13 to the same team. But all the press and pollsters will remember is that OSU rang up 51 on them. Kelly would be fine winning every game 2-0. As result, both teams are 8-1 but I would guess very few people put ND and OSU in the same conversation.
I understand Sid, it was a win and the game was never really in doubt. So we should all be happy for the win, happy that we apparently came out with no injuries and that there were some great plays to enjoy. Braden Lenzy diving for the TD, Kyren's 22 yard run for a TD, and the terrific pass and catch by Austin for a TD. Michael Mayer taking that ball off the defenders back for a catch, all those sacks (8 I think). 250 yards rushing, continued good play from freshmen Diggs and Styles. Buchner continued to play his role and move the team, like most I wish he'd gotten more snaps and worked on his passing game. It's just that UVA has a terrible defense, and I'm greedy. I thought we could lay at least 40, maybe even 50 on them, esp given that they were forced to play a true freshman at QB who struggled most of the night, although when he had time he made some good throws to UVA's excellent WR group. It just turned out different than I thought, if Armstrong had played and was healthy I expected a shootout as he's really a good college QB. But when they had to go with the kid, and I saw how much they struggled I thought we'd still score a lot of points. But we didn't, and in that I'm a bit disappointed. I'm not sure that it was because Kelly decided to have mercy and not run up the score or somehow our offense/playcalling was just not all that great, we didn't even have 200 yds passing. Again I'm glad for the win, glad we didn't get anybody hurt, didn't know at the time we were recovering from a flu outbreak on the team so that certainly could have been a factor. It was great that even though we were missing MTA and Drew White that the defense essentially pitched a shutout. Next up is Ga. Tech for Senior Day!
Coan did play a nice game, nothing really memorable except that perfect pass and catch to Kevin Austin for the TD. He did throw a bad pick but it ended up being like a punt as they didn't do anything with it. As far as the receivers', sure losing Avery Davis was a blow, and the numbers are not great. But still Kevin Austin, Michael Mayer, Braden Lenzy, Lorenzo Styles and Dieon Colzie are more than enough to do the job esp against the UVA defense and the ones coming up in the next 2 weeks. Plus it allowed Jayden Thomas to get off the scout team and start working with the big boys, which will help him to develop. It was encouraging to see Ramon Henderson get quality playing time as well as Xavier Watts, we need those guys to develop and playing is one of the ways they can develop. Rylie Mills had an awesome game filling in for MTA and Prince Kollie got a lot of snaps as well. All good for their development.
I owe you an apology for that post. Your explanation was not necessary, but it was your usual collection of excellent and on-point observations. It reminded me that, because of your intense interest in all things ND, and your intelligent insights into the football team's performance week to week, you make this entire board, and the ND topics in particular, interesting and highly informative. My kneejerk reaction conveyed a wrong message. Thanks for the wake up call.
While the topic is still going 1. Armstrong's loss was a factor but geez, the guy lost to Ga. Tech. and Fl. St. 2. With the claims that our performance was "disappointing" just how many teams beat the "spread" by more than 19 pts.? 3. Just to put the injury loss in perspective, Va. was missing their QB, ND was missing 4 team captains 3 of whom are on defense and Va. didn't score a TD. 4. Va.'s D isn't great but just like every other ACC team we've played, they got 2 weeks to prepare for us. 5. Kelly went pretty deep into his bench on Sat. Undoubtedly the flu had something to do with that.
1. Armstrong's loss was a factor but geez, the guy lost to Ga. Tech. and Fl. St. No doubt UVA wasn't a great team this season, but they did have the top offense in the country statistically at least, but one of the worst defenses as well. That's why they lost those games, not because Armstrong wasn't great but he doesn't play defense either. 2. With the claims that our performance was "disappointing" just how many teams beat the "spread" by more than 19 pts.? Good point, a number of teams that are highly ranked haven't done that this year. Alabama was 28 point favorite vs LSU and scrapped by them at home. Lots of other examples, teams that are highly ranked this year don't seem to be covering the spread by a lot as they have in years past. 3. Just to put the injury loss in perspective, Va. was missing their QB, ND was missing 4 team captains 3 of whom are on defense and Va. didn't score a TD. No doubt we were short handed vs UVA. But then our roster compared to their roster is why we could handle those losses but that 1 loss, Armstrong and they ground to a halt. It's why Alabama can sustain injuries and keep on truckin' They have recruited so well that while losing starters is still a big deal but the backup is likely to just be a young 5 star player who is getting his chance to shine. 4. Va.'s D isn't great but just like every other ACC team we've played, they got 2 weeks to prepare for us. This pisses me off, I wish Swarbrick could do something about it, but he can't. He can complain about it to the ACC commish, but they would come back with OK just join up full time and you won't have that problem. 5. Kelly went pretty deep into his bench on Sat. Undoubtedly the flu had something to do with that. No doubt we played a lot of backups and that was a good thing.