The Official Notre Dame Football Thread

[padman59]

I've not been a proponent of Kelly since they hired him...but I hate him even worse after yesterday. One of the biggest things that pissed me off was punting with 12 minutes left in the game on 4th and 3. I know we sucked all day, but you don't just give up. It sends a bad message to the players and the fans. I know that overcoming a 25 point defecit with that much time left would be nearly impossible, but I've seen crazier things happen. One of the things I enjoyed with Weis is that he never gave up. I think that's why all of our losses last year came by 7 points or less. I lost a lot of respect for Kelly yesterday.

I stopped watching after the 3rd, but I agree about not giving up. Hell, Navy almost came back against ND two years ago when they were down 20 points (albeit with the help of an inept replay official).

As far as Weis' philosophy goes, he always gameplanned to put points on the board quickly to build a lead because he knew that Navy's offense will just chew up clock and limit your opportunities if they're still in the game. Offensively, you have to be aggressive and mistake free due to that reason. I honestly think Kelly underestimated how hard Navy fights to win ballgames based on his comments during the week.

[FirstTimer]

The Good

......

- Duval Kamara I thought he did a good job of filling in for Floyd. We all know he isn't Floyd but he made some nice catches played physical and did what he was asked to do.

- TJ Jones. Had one drop late in the game when it didn't matter but otherwise played a very good football game. Seemed to be one of the few Irish players who played with any sense of urgency.

- David Ruffer. Still perfect.

- Armando Allen. Ran hard and still had a nice game on offense despite most likely playing at less than 100%

The Bad

Where to even begin....

- The entire team outside of those mentioned above. We came out and played flat uninspired football. For whatever reason this team came in to town with the attitude that they were 7-0 rather than 4-3. We looked almost disinterested in being on the field at times and seemed bored playing against Navy. Not that "fire and passion" would have made a hell of a lot of difference but the teams attitude was a bit scary to say the least.

- The defense just looked awful. Pathetic. Ian Williams did nothing for the first time all season. Te'o had one good play and then got manhandled the rest of the way. The OLB's looked completely lost. Brian Smith overrunning an OBVIOUS screen play on the first Navy TD was ridiculous but par for the course with this kid. I guess I don't have much to say about the secondary because Navy rarely passed and they had to deal with fullbacks running full speed at them nearly untouched but the front 7 of Notre Dame today looked terrible.

- The coaching staff. I really saw no major adjustments in the game plan and it seemed our kids had never seen a cut block before. I wasn't at the practices or at the meetings all week but our defense looked ridiculously unprepared and not "uncoached'

- Dayne Crist. Wow. Amazing how a loss really starts to brings out all his weaknesses even more so. He had a nice scramble or two but his accuracy was again off and something needs to be done about his throwing motion. He has an odd hitch in it and he takes too long to get rid of the ball. I'm not suggesting a large change but he seems to have a bit of a looping throwing motion and we need to do something to quicken his release. Any pass over 10 yards seems to float and his down the field accuracy is really bad. The interception at the end of the first half was a huge mistake. Getting to the half down 14-10 or 17-10 after a punt and keeping it a one score game at the point would have made a huge difference rather than being down two scores walking out of the locker room. Maybe it winds up not mattering at all because the defense couldn't stop Navy all day but you can't turn the ball over there. You jut can't.


The Ugly

- Navy 35 Notre Dame 17.

- The CBS announcers. Holy hell was it bad. David "Ruffner", John "Goodwin", etc. Seriously? Maybe have it happen once and have the producer get in your ear you're saying the kid's name wrong....Nope. All game. It's like this crew showed up after an all night bender sat in the booth with a roster card and just raved about Notre Dame's "size" and Navy's "heart".

- CBS's wide camera angle. We get it. Notre Dame runs a spread but having a camera angle for them on offense that seemingly puts you in the nose bleed section is terrible presentation.

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The most embarrassing loss I can remember in my 20+ years as a Notre Dame fan. That includes the 2007 debacle season that we all really saw coming to some degree. I mean even in 2007, our worst season, it took Navy three overtimes to beat us. If someone has a more embarrassing loss I'd like to hear about it. This team, even in transition, had more expectations. We were one play from beating the #7 team in the country. One play from beating Michigan, and beat a solid Pitt team. This is a team that many saw as possibly winning 8 games all of a sudden with the way we had played recently after a 1-3 start. We got dominated by a service academy. Pathetic.

I almost turned off the game about 5 times but stuck it through. For what reason? I don't know. But in some odd way I expect this team, program, and school to not give up so I'm not going to.

Brian Kelly's honeymoon/new coach/new coach grace period is officially over. How this team and this staff respond from this next week will show a lot. I think we all expected to have a "thud" game on the schedule at some point....but not to Navy.

Hold on to your hats Notre Dame fans.....here we go.

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I've not been a proponent of Kelly since they hired him...but I hate him even worse after yesterday. One of the biggest things that pissed me off was punting with 12 minutes left in the game on 4th and 3. I know we sucked all day, but you don't just give up. It sends a bad message to the players and the fans. I know that overcoming a 25 point deficit with that much time left would be nearly impossible, but I've seen crazier things happen. One of the things I enjoyed with Weis is that he never gave up. I think that's why all of our losses last year came by 7 points or less. I lost a lot of respect for Kelly yesterday.

If the defense had shown ANY ability to stop Navy I might agree but they hadn't. I don't think it was so much Kelly giving up..but having to play with the cards he was dealt and making a decision based upon what had happened for the previous 48 minutes.

I didn't lose any respect for Kelly yesterday. I think the team and the staff laid a collective turd but it doesn't make me respect the man any less.

As far as Weis' philosophy goes, he always gameplanned to put points on the board quickly to build a lead because he knew that Navy's offense will just chew up clock and limit your opportunities if they're still in the game. Offensively, you have to be aggressive and mistake free due to that reason. I honestly think Kelly underestimated how hard Navy fights to win ballgames based on his comments during the week.

The offense was a nightmare. That opening drive set the tone for the rest of the game. I didn't understand the gameplan at all. Why try to pound the ball and run the clock against a team that specializes in it. IMO ND needed to score early and score fast to take Navy out of the game, and only then would I want to see them run the ball.

I think they tried to..the best they could. That's why you saw Kelly go for it on 4th and 1 on the first possession rather than kick the field goal. I liked the decision and all but I also think Kelly knew he needed to play from a lead and was trying to play from the largest lead possible.

Also, I don't think Kelly could run his offense at the faster pace he wanted to. He was missing basically his three best players on offense in Floyd, Riddick, and Rudolph and his other best player on offense(Allen) wasn't at 100%. I think that really limited what Kelly could do on offense and how quickly he could do it as well.

Yeah Notre Dame's first three drives were all long but they also all resulted in points or at least should have. The first drive should have been a TD if the OLine gets any push on 4th and goal from the 1. The next drive was a FG and the drive after that was a TD. Crist threw an interception on the last drive of the half and the wheels came off after that. I don't have so much of an issue with the offensive game plan as I do with Crist's poor play and the defense looking terrible. Not that the offense played well enough to win that game yesterday but with the game Crist had after the middle of the second quarter I really think any offensive gameplan was a moot point.

I will not be surprised when there are rumblings of a QB controversy this offseason.

Still a bit of season left and it depends on who they bring in or what Rees, Massa, Hendrix, and Montana do in the offseason as well.

[FirstTimer]

There is no excuse for punting the football. I've been to a number of games where it seemed all was lost but we had a comeback. Three timeouts, twelve minutes, spread offense and only four possessions for three yards? Jesus Christ. I remember during the 2006 season when noter dame played army on senior day. Even though the Irish were ahead like 52-7 in the fourth quarter with 40 seconds left, army called timeouts and tried to at least move the football. I don't care what the score is, you should never come home with timeouts in your pocket and conceding defeat because of what you predict will happen. Shit, I still don't get why Oklahoma punted last night down by only two possessions. WTF was stoops thinking?

And a defense that has barely made a stop and an offense where the quarterback had more luck finding a Navy DB than his own WR's as of late. I think it's ridiculous to lose respect for Kelly for punting when down by 25.

[padman59]

I think they tried to..the best they could. That's why you saw Kelly go for it on 4th and 1 on the first possession rather than kick the field goal. I liked the decision and all but I also think Kelly knew he needed to play from a lead and was trying to play from the largest lead possible.

Also, I don't think Kelly could run his offense at the faster pace he wanted to. He was missing basically his three best players on offense in Floyd, Riddick, and Rudolph and his other best player on offense(Allen) wasn't at 100%. I think that really limited what Kelly could do on offense and how quickly he could do it as well.

Yeah Notre Dame's first three drives were all long but they also all resulted in points or at least should have. The first drive should have been a TD if the OLine gets any push on 4th and goal from the 1. The next drive was a FG and the drive after that was a TD. Crist threw an interception on the last drive of the half and the wheels came off after that. I don't have so much of an issue with the offensive game plan as I do with Crist's poor play and the defense looking terrible. Not that the offense played well enough to win that game yesterday but with the game Crist had after the middle of the second quarter I really think any offensive gameplan was a moot point.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but the pace could have been helped with the extra practice time available. I simply do not understand why Kelly didn't opt to use it to prepare for Navy's unique offense, and to bring some of the backups up to speed. Use what you have available to you to better the team IMO. I'm not saying run the guys into the dirt, but make sure the players know what's going on. If that means that extra film prep, walk-throughs, position meetings, etc. is required outside of the normal practice period, so be it. IDK, I'm just pissed at how bad these guys looked yesterday.

[padman59]

After attending the 2006 MSU/ND game, I've known that anything can happen.

Too bad Johnelle isn't coaching there anymore. Those late game collapses were epic.

[FirstTimer]

IDK, I'm just pissed at how bad these guys looked yesterday.

Yeah, honestly....as bad as they looked I really doubt extra practice would have helped much.

Also, for all the talk in posts I'm reading about what Weis did to Navy with his offense let's not forget last year he put up a whopping 21 points.

After attending the 2006 MSU/ND game, I've known that anything can happen.

Yes epic comebacks happen at times but so much was different from the talent ND had on offense, the type of scheme MSU ran compared to Navy etc.

I just think losing respect for Kelly because he punted when he was down by 25 points is a large leap. Be pissed the team looked bad, unprepared, etc but to stretch it and say you lose respect for Kelly for punting doesn't make much sense.

I find it odd now that people are already pining for Weis when they forget the reason a comeback like MSU was even needed to begin with was due in part to Weis' own shortcomings. The grass is always greener I guess...even if you just came from next door.

[FirstTimer]

Although I think ND should've waited one more year to let Weis go, I'm not asking for him back. Kelly is the guy so I can do nothing but hope this is just growing pains and our offense will someday look like Cincinatti's. I've lost respect for Kelly more and more as time has gone, but just didn't want to admit it to myself. That play set it off.

Explain?

[Maize]

Everywhere Kelly has gone, he has won, and usually has won right away. The step from Cincinnati to Notre Dame, in terms of academics is much larger than the step between Central and Cincinnati. More so than academics, but expectations and history.

The last time he took a "step" like this, it was from Grand Valley to Central, and it took a season. I think Notre Dame fans are not willing to completely wait a year, and I do expect a bowl birth. 6-6 is below what everyone expected, but it will come along.

[FirstTimer]

At first, the team looked great especially tackling wise. Starting after the Stanford game, it became obvious that this team is nowhere near it needs to be. They go on the road and beat BC then come home and beat Pitt and the team acts like they won the national championship. Hoopin' and hollerin', clibing into the student section, etc. We beat a shitty Pitt team by a lot less then we should've. Notre Dame hasn't finished a game yet this year. Then they go out to play Navy and he clearly, CLEARLY overlooks them. For 46 straight years, we haven't overlooked Navy. We've lost to them, yes, but it wasn't as if we didn't respect them and didn't play hard. Still, Kelly comes out with his "deal with it, it takes time" stuff in his statements. I'm sorry, but you have to at least compete with Navy. This is Notre-fucking-Dame, not Central Michigan or Cincinatti for god's sake. I want him to succeed, I want the team to be athletic, I want them to win, but he HAS to at least go above 6 wins with the guys we have.

Fair enough..but I guess I just don't see that as a reason to lose respect for Kelly. Stanford is a flat out better team. I think losing to them and noticing that this team isn't where it needs to be is kind of obvious as it's part of the reason Weis lost his job. I think the team came out really flat and maybe wasn't prepared well enough, but honestly I think this was to be expected at some point. This team isn't good enough, experienced enough, or mature enough to reel off 5 or 6 wins in a row like people thought or hoped they could. I have no explanation for it really but I think maybe Notre Dame's number was just up this past weekend.

[padman59]

I think we can all agree that whatever disconnect Kelly and his staff had prepping for this past game and making in-game adjustments needs to be resolved, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

[FirstTimer]

http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/

Terrible cheap shot by Neal in this game.

I hope Kelly sees it and suspends him.

[padman59]

Wow. Neal needs to sit a game or two after that. Unacceptable behavior.

[FirstTimer]

Wow. Neal needs to sit a game or two after that. Unacceptable behavior.

Don't tell that to the guys over at the irishenvy.com board.

http://www.irishenvy.com/forums/notre-dame-football/56258-kerry-neal-stomps-navy-player.html

LOL.

They closed the thread.

Wow.

[FirstTimer]

OMG Seriously???

I loved Neal and he's grown into a decent player but that is absolutely unnecessary and unwarranted. He should be suspended, if not more.

At that board...are they serious??????????????????
I thought ND had standards to live by...service academy games by far draw the greatest respect of any opponent. Its been that way for years. Helping each other up, congratulating, etc. The Navy player even got up and said "What the hell, man?"

It's hilarious because one of the guys there got all over me for not holding up the "standards of Notre Dame" when I called the BC girls "trolls" a few weeks ago..but then comes in that thread and excuses Neal's action as something that happens "all the time".

Put an FSU jersey on Neal and have it be against Notre Dame and that board would be exploding.

[FirstTimer]

FYI Jayrock. Irish LAX over at that site is a current Notre Dame LaCrosse player.