The Official Notre Dame Football Thread

[FirstTimer]

Unfucking real.....

WHAT THE FUCK WAS BRIAN KELLY THINKING?

You don't take that shot with a veteran QB let alone a freshman QB.


I've officially lost all patience with this team.........For the first time this year I was cursing while watching the game and kicked a rubbermade tub so hard i cracked it.

[FirstTimer]

Do you think Kelly is done at year end or will they give him 1 more season?

I think you're a worse poster than Kelly is a coach.

[padman59]

Thoughts on the Tulsa game:

-Worst playcall of the year by Brian Kelly at the end of the game. There's no reason to risk having a true frosh QB literally throw the game away with under a minute left when you have a kicker who has made every FG attempt this season. Dumb.
-Kelly needs to get the running game going. When you have a true frosh QB under center, you need to give him some relief. Making him throw over 50 times isn't the way to break him in IMO.
-Poor special teams. Let a guy walk through the inside of the line for a blocked PAT, which lead to two points for Tulsa. Then allowing a punt return for a TD.
-Once again, the defense folds when it needs to step up at the end of the game. Entirely too conservative at the end.
-Too many times, receivers were running uncovered in front of the markers because everyone in coverage was in a zone past the first down sticks. Easy first downs for Tulsa.
-Also, almost no adjustments appeared to be made to stop the jet sweep.
-Tommy Rees looked accurate, but his arm strength doesn't seem very good. His passes hung in the air a while especially when throwing to the far side of the field. He was able to get away with that today, but he's going to get picked off on those passes when defenses are in tighter coverage.
-Who knows if Michael Floyd will be back next season, but he's making the most of his playing time. He's doing everything he can to get extra yards, and his one-handed grab was a thing of beauty. With the way the season has gone, I feel almost as bad for him as I did for John Carlson in 2007.

With the injuries mounting and the loss to Tulsa, the possibility of a bowl game is now slim to none. Kelly is going to have to do some soul searching with regards to his staff this offseason. About the only thing better about the defense has been tackling. Guys still look lost in coverage at times, and there is virtually no pressure coming from the down linemen. There is still a lot of room for improvement on the defensive side of the ball, and Bob Diaco doesn't strike me as a guy who is ready/able to bring this team to where it should be.

[FirstTimer]

So you like Kelly?

Fail...........

[Irish]

Aaron Lynch de-committed.



Lets hope this is what is becoming an annual rock bottom of the season. Because if it gets worse than this....

[FirstTimer]

Aaron Lynch de-committed.



Lets hope this is what is becoming an annual rock bottom of the season. Because if it gets worse than this....

He has seemingly been waffling for weeks now....

Will be interesting to see if he come s back to ND because he said he still plans on early enrolling wherever he goes.

I guess the rumor is he was scared off by the academic work load...

Really odd move seeing as he scattered his g-pa's ashes around the outside of the stadium during his visit.....
ND is looking to be compeltely out of the picture and it's back to the FSU, Florida, Miami.

[padman59]

I wouldn't be surprised if there are more guys ready to jump ship. Kelly has put two very bad losses on the board in two weeks against weak opponents. He's going to have to steal either Utah or USC, and avoid getting blown out by the other to keep the class together IMO. A loss to Army would probably be a death knell.

[ram29jackson]

this actually seems to be a worse year than the last couple under the previous coach.

[padman59]

Looks like Armando Allen's football career is over. Too bad. I remember being very hyped for him. He was consistent this year but never fully lived up to potential - a byproduct of Weis' philosophy I'm sure. At least he has a Notre Dame education to fall back on.

Unfortunately, staying healthy has been his shortcoming. He always gets banged up toward the middle of the season. Playing last week against Navy was probably a bad idea in hindsight. He really took a leap last year when Weis brought on Alford, and he got better this season. Bad luck, I suppose.

I wouldn't write off his football career just yet. Assuming he recovers well, I'd be surprised if someone doesn't give him a chance in training camp. Same thing for Robert Hughes.

[Irish]

John Goodman
I have too many injured friends right now... God please help them. Seriously... Its not cool.

From his twitter.

With all the injuries on offense, I am starting to wonder what is it gonna take for Duval Kamara and Deion Walker to make a play, or atleast see the field.

[padman59]

John Goodman
I have too many injured friends right now... God please help them. Seriously... Its not cool.

From his twitter.

With all the injuries on offense, I am starting to wonder what is it gonna take for Duval Kamara and Deion Walker to make a play, or atleast see the field.

Based on his lack of movement up the depth chart, I would have to guess that Walker just doesn't have what it takes to be college player. For whatever reason, he just hasn't made the transition.

Kamara, on the other hand, has had a history of dropping passes. However, it seemed from the few times he's played this season that he's much improved in this area. I wouldn't mind seeing him and Goodman switch TBH. Catching the ball is something that Goodman has struggled with this season.

[FirstTimer]

Aaron Lynch de-committed.



Lets hope this is what is becoming an annual rock bottom of the season. Because if it gets worse than this....

I guess the rumor is he was scared off by the academic work load...

Really odd move seeing as he scattered his g-pa's ashes around the outside of the stadium during his visit.....
ND is looking to be compeltely out of the picture and it's back to the FSU, Florida, Miami.

[FirstTimer]

Tulsa

The Good

-Michael Floyd. Had(another) a great game. Blocked well, ran good routes. Made every catch he should have...and one he shouldn't have that was a freak play by a freak player on the sideline. Get ready to have your work load increased a ton Mr. Floyd.....Kelly HAS to find more ways to get him the ball. I thought Kelly did a decent job of moving him around trying to create mismatches and keep the defense off balance. If Notre Dame has any chance of winning games down the stretch Floyd needs to average at least 8-9 catches a game.

-Tommy Rees. Yeah. He made a bad throw to end the game. But 4 touchdowns in his first extended action is impressive. His arm strength looks really iffy and his ball seems to flutter a bit at times but he did a very good job moving the offense, especially considering the complete lack of a running game. It almost seems his hand is too small to grip the football real well. On some of the slow mo replays you could see him regripping or attempting to re grip the ball right before he threw. He might want to look into wearing gloves. Do I expect him to play this well each week? No. But he played well enough to win this game and I think most any Notre Dame fan should be VERY pleased with his performance.

-Roby Toma. You can tell Rees and him worked together a lot on the second team offense. They seemed to have a real good connection and Rees trusts Toma. With Rees being the QB the rest of the season and with Allen now gone for the year a guy like Toma will have to step up. Toma showed himself to be a nice fit in the slot for this offense and him, Floyd, and TJ Jones will have to step up big time from the WR position in the coming games.

-The defense (kind of) Yeah they gave up a 3rd and 26 on the final drive but overall they only gave up 13 points and even though they looked slower than dirt at times compared to Tulsa they played well enough to win this football game had Notre Dame's offense, and special teams not handed Tulsa two touchdowns. Had the defense not held after the Goodman fumble this game could have been over much sooner. When Kapron Lewis Moore plays well on the edge this defense is very solid. When he doesn't we don't generate much pressure. It was nice to see the sack total being so high but some of those were the result of good coverage down the field and Tulsa scrambling into trouble.

-Mike Mayock. He has been great all season in the booth but this game was one of his best efforts. Did a great job breaking down the Tulsa attack and a very good job dealing with all the moving parts on Notre Dame's offense and really scouting the players and game as it happened. He may be the best thing going for Notre Dame football this season...........

The Bad

-John Goodman. Drops at WR(again) and a fumbled punt. The guy offers practically nothing in the punt return game so if he is going to fumble we might as well put TJ Jones, Bennett Jackson, or somebody else back there at this point. We need something out of the return game...or at least have the threat of something out of the return game. Goodman has 19 return yards all season. He's barely averaging more than two yards per return. With the nice game by Roby Toma I think John Goodman's time on offense is about up as well. I would expect to see more of Kamara and Toma in these final three games.


-Special Teams(outside of Ruffer). Ben Turk reverted to punting terribly. The coverage units were iffy and Tulsa was able to break a return for a score. The blocked XP was a bad bit of blocking by the line and really other than the execution of the fake punt and a decent return by Jackson the special teams unit on Saturday was less than inspiring. It's really one of the first times all year the entire unit had a bad game.

- Run blocking. Very bad game for the offensive line in terms of run blocking. They protected Ress pretty well but the run blocking was bad. Wood didn't have very much space to operate. When he did have room he made the most of it and had a pretty good game running the football but far to often the line wasn't getting much push and opening much in the way of holes for him. With Allen out and with Rees as the QB the rest of the way Notre Dame will need a rushing attack to hang in against Utah and USC. Wood can be an electric runner with space and the last few weeks has shown he has gotten over the early season "hangover" he was experiencing. They need to give him space.

-The defense(kind of). While they played well enough to win the game giving up the 3rd and 26 on that final drive can't happen and far too many times they were allowing the underneath crossing routes for big gains. They had no answer for the Jet Sweep and looked very slow. Maybe allowing the underneath routes was part of the game plan but that remains to be seen. They also dropped a couple interceptions as well. Kapron Lewis Moor played well for stretches but again pulled a disappearing act far too often. Blanton played well but got abused on the TD pass and far too often Te'o let Tulsa's QB pick up extra yardage on scrambles.

The Ugly

-The officiating. Both teams had some horrendous calls go against them. The offensive pass interference calls against Tulsa were laughable at best and Notre Dame was the victim of some phanton calls as well. Tulsa made some absolutely boneheaded plays and many times played flat out stupid football so maybe the refs started watching them far too carefully but some of the calls are inexcusable. I'd also like an explantion on the two point blocked XP return as to why the points were allowed? Maybe I was thinking of a rule implementation that is going to happen next season but I thought this season if the player started celebrating before the endzone the penalty was a spot foul and the touchdown/return etc was disallowed. The Tulsa player started his flip before he got to the endzone yet the points still counted. I don't feel it helped decide the game. More just a point of curiosity/clarification for me at this point.

- The energy by the team and in the stadium. I know it had been a tragic week at Notre Dame but still. There was no energy in the stadium(from what I could tell from the TV broadcast) and the team came out very flat. You think they'd come out and want to play with a little more emotion but the entire stadium and team seemed to be sleep walking through the game. This has become all too common at Notre Dame in the last few seasons and it's too bad. Maybe someone who was at the game can correct me or confirm this for me but there seemed to be no atmosphere or emotion at this game.

-The Final Play Call. Ok. What the hell? It's arguable if you make that call with a veteren QB and a high powered offense, let alone with a decent offense and a freshman QB playing in his first real expanded action. What makes it even worse is they called this play coming out of a time out when they had time to think about it. Yes, Rees should have known better and maybe thrown the ball away or if he was going to miss, miss into the 15th row; but Kelly can't make that play call. You can't leave the choice up to a true freshman QB for a team fighting for a bowl bid. As it stands now this loss realistically takes the team out of bowl contention. You miss extra practices, miss a chance to get one more game in front of recruits and the loss to Tulsa hurts recruiting anyways. The worst part of this is Kelly defended the call after the game, essentially saying he'd do the same thing over again and that "is the way this team is going to play". We don't want a team to play stupid. We want them to play hard, smart, and fast. You were brought in because far too often Weis' over aggressiveness lead to bad losses. You take wins in a season like this any way you can get them. You don't get into a pissing match with Tulsa down by 1 at home on their 19 yard line with a chance to win the game with a kicker who has yet to miss a FG attempt in his Notre Dame career. If this is the way this team and this program is going to play it's concerning. Will a call like this maybe cost a zero, one , or two loss Notre Dame team a chance at a National Championship or BCS bowl game down the road? In the end I think(hope) it was posturing by Kelly post game but I'd still rather see him stand there and admit the mistake in calling the play in the first place and move on.


-----------------------------------------------------

Looks like a 5-7 season is upon us. Aaron Lynch has officially decommitted and the fear now is this will get the ball rolling to even more decommits. Also, now this loss will be analyzed, talked about etc for two weeks with the bye week coming up as well. Hopefully we get Riddick back by the game against Utah but other than various bumps and bruises the injury damage is done. Crist, Allen, Rudolph, maybe Riddick are all lost for the year or extended time and a young team just got a lot younger and more inexperienced. Let's just hope we win the game against Army at Yankee Stadium. Floyd plays well and decides to stick around for next season(though I doubt it), Wood, Riddick, TJ Jones, Toma, Rees, Eifert all give us hope for the future of this offense and the young defensive players(especially along the defensive line) step up and play well. Even 2007 didn't seem this bad. In many ways this could be the worst Notre Dame season I have seen in my lifetime. Perhaps topped only by the 2004 season where the entire team quit on Ty. Hopefully this is a case of the night is darkest before the dawn...but right now it's pitch black and very depressing.

Go Irish. Beat Bye Week.

We are ND.

[padman59]

Quick thoughts on the game:

-Good to see a win over a ranked opponent, and a win on Senior Day for those guys. The last two losses in the home finale have been awful games to watch.
-Good effort by the secondary. All three corners looked good, and Harrison Smith had the great interception early on.
-We had a Jonas Gray sighting. He looked good in the few carries he got.
-Kamara with a big game replacing Goodman at receiver.
-I am shocked at how the defense looked. They came out ready to play and stuffed Utah for most of the game. It's too bad they don't get two weeks to prepare for every opponent. Let's hope that this effort and gameplanning is here to stay.
-I was happy to see the linebackers roughing up some of the receivers to throw off their routes over the middle. Crossing routes have killed ND this season. Good to see they're doing something to take those away.
-The offense didn't look spectacular for most of the game, but they made the most of Utah's mistakes.
-It's interesting to see some of the true frosh getting PT, and making an impact. Shembo and Schwenke seemed to be doing a lot of good out there.
-There is going to be a QB controversy this offseason. Rees has played very well for a true frosh, and while he doesn't have the arm strength of Crist, he is accurate. Meanwhile, Andrew Hendrix is going to be the darkhorse in the whole thing.

With a surprising win over Utah, ND now has a good chance to become bowl-eligible. However, ND is playing a tough Army team next week that runs the triple-option. While this should be a win on paper, ND is going to have to have a better week of preparation than they did for Navy, or we might witness another defense looking lost on the field.

[Woy]

Props to JayRock for calling this upset.