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-Glad to see Diaco change to a 4-4 defense today.
-As much as I've been down on Diaco, I have to say that after the Navy dabacle, the Irish defense has been pretty stout against opposing offenses which is something we rarely saw during the Weis years. Even the weakest of opponents seemed to put up points.
-The secondary (corners in particular) had a great game. Walls and Gray were great in coverage, and Blanton was always in position to force the pitch on the outside. All of three were sure tacklers.
-It was good to see both Eiffert and Toma stepping up as well. It appears that ND's string of great TEs is going to continue for a few more years.
-I think Ruffer may be the only kicker in the FBS that has remained perfect this season, and his streak now stands at 20 FGs. Great job by him this season.
ND is now bowl eligible and will certainly be headed to one this postseason. However, ND has a chance to increase the profile of their bowl with a win over USC to become 7-5 on the season. This could be the year that ND finally ends the losing streak to the Trojans as they seem to be at their weakest in the past decade and coming off a thumping in Corvallis. The defense is going to have to extend their good performances, and shut down a good Trojan offense that may or may not have Matt Barkley at the helm. On the flip side, the Irish offense is going to have to find a spark and consistently move the ball and score next week.
If Rees can go 13-20 for the third straight game, we will win. The key is balance and running the ball. I'd like to see us go from under center with Hughes more often but that is probably wishful thinking.
I can't wait to see "The Good. The Bad. The Ugly." from FT...the Ugly will be Te'o's broken nose. COUNT ON IT!! :D
I'm not going to mention it only because I don't have a section called "Fucking cool"
Cliffs
- Girl reports sexual assault of an Irish football player Aug. 31
- University doesn't report case to South Bend SVU
- Article insinuates that Notre Dame had something to do with her death (ridiculous)
- University handled the case within
- Article insinuates Notre Dame did something wrong by not commenting on her "suicide" (she doesn't even attend Notre Dame)
In the wake of the Delcan Sullivan ordeal, this is not good at all. It does seem there is a little bit of irresponsible journalism, because many facts are still up in the air; however, something like this probably has legs. The girl went and got a rape kit but I guess nothing was found. With ND playing so well, this is really publicity that we didn't need. But, something like this is serious and should come to light. Some things are more important than football.
I always take the wait and see approach on this shit. I find it surprising/odd this story is just now coming out and some of the insinuations made in it are irresponsible.
However, it's terrible the young woman died and I hope whatever outcome of the investigation that it is fair to the young man accused of the crime.
I guess he had a family illness. Notre Dame is still a "very strong" candidate.
You had me confused as hell. I thought you were alluding to some no name ND player who didn't go to the game as a result of the allegations of sexual assault. Then I went to ND's website and there is no player named "Huggins" and my mind was blown.
A lot of people think there are shady things going on with Tennessee. I guess he got a Notre Dame tattoo and he has been one of the most solid verbals and has even been recruiting other guys to come to South Bend with him. We'll see though...
LOL. So there have been two decommits where one got himself a ND tattoo and the other spread his grandfather's ashes at ND Stadium? Pretty weird to be that committed and suddenly have a change of heart. Do kids think things through anymore?
I created a thread in the Locker Room about the whole incident.
From the Sun Times:
It's all about image. Regardless of Kelly's culpability, these ''university matters'' start to add up -- the players arrested for underage drinking in the summer, the death of Declan Sullivan and now allegations of sexual assault.
:lolwut:
At some college kids getting busted for drinking being mentioned anywhere near the Sullivan situation and a sexual assault allegation........Talk about apples to oranges.
-Tommy Rees. Didn't dazzle but managed the game well and outside of one bad throw played very well. The Rees hype train seems to be in full force with people talking about him starting next season and to a certain extent rightfully so. However there are still two games to go this season against would could be very good competition. Rees like a lot of young QB's tends to stare down his routes at times and could be facing an athletic defense away from having a 2-3 INT game. He's playing great football and seems to have "it"..however the season is not over yet...but you can't ask much more from the kid than what we have gotten so far. His accuracy on deep balls is great and something that was missing with Crist. Much like the next guy on this list the development Rees has made this season under Kelly has been fantastic.
-Cierre Wood. A light has gone on with him. He still seems a bit prone to fumbling at times but as a pure runner goes the last few weeks haev eben really impressive. If he can work on his pass catching skills this offseason he is going to be a real threat for this team next season as an all around player. Every now and then he will be a bit too impatient running or dance a bit too much but from where he was at the start of the season until now is (hopefully) a great indicator of the type of development players will make under this new regime.
-Tyler Eifert. Made a spectacular diving catch for an (almost) TD. Then made another great grab over the shoulder for his touchdown. With him and Welch for sure on the roster and Rudolph possibly coming back next season the Irish looked to be stacked at tight end for the foreseeable future and with a host of young inexperienced QB's having dependable targets like that over the middle is a huge plus.
-Michael Floyd. Only had three catched but when he did make a catch he made the most of it. He averaged 21 yards per catch and had a nice run on an end around. You can tell his hamstring still isn't quite right but he's out there every week playing his butt off and making plays.
- The offensive playcalling/gameplan. I loved how they really used Army's aggressivness against them. It was a small wrinkle but I thought the jet sweep action on the running plays really helped to make the Army defense either overreact to the jet sweep to Floyd or froze them just enough for Wood to have some really nice lanes to run on the back side. Kelly made an attacking down hill defense have to slow down and play uncomfortable.
- Robby Toma. Didn't do anything spectacular but made some nice third down catches made yardage after the catch and like Mayock hammers home very week could be the perfect fit at the inside slot position for this offense. With some of his lateral quicks and agility I'd like to see him get some looks at punt returner for next season because we need more out of the phase of the game.
-David Ruffer. Still perfect...however the cynical side of me is starting to think his first miss will be a potential game winner rather than a meaningless 46 yarder late in a blowout. This can't go on forever.
- The Defense. Holy cripes! Where was this game plan a few weeks ago? I loved the attacking nature of the defense. Four downline men. Ten guys in the box. Harrison Smith playing a type of "Wolf" or "Centerfield" position. After the first drive I was a bit worried but they made some nice adjustments and Blanton really picked up his play. It seemed like after the first drive Blanton was told to make sure everything was forced back inside and if Army was going to pitch it was going to have to be late which allowed Walls, Gray, and Smith plenty of time on the edges to come up and make the play. It was an incredibly solid and well executed game plan with some nice in game adjustments. The Navy thumping stills stings and Army isn't as good a team as Navy is but it was still nice to see the defense come out and have this type of dominating performance. The stat at the end of the game showing how we outrushed Army was very telling. Another telling stat of how this defense has been playing recently against some high scoring offenses is that in the last three games they have given up less than 20 points.
The Bad
-My only real complaint is a seemingly minor one. On the first drive Wood is gashing Army and running really well and as soon as we get inside the 10 yardline Jonas Gray comes in. I like Jonas Gray and am excited about what he brings to the table but with Wood running so well why take him out?
The Ugly
-Manti Te'o's nose. The slow motion video that NBC showed of him taking off his helmet and blowing blood out of his nose and mouth was both gross but on some levels awesome.
-Johnny Lujack's fingers. I don't know if anyone else noticed them(In my opinion how the hell could you miss them?) during his interview with Alex Flanigan. I've met Lujack many times in person, he own's a car dealership where I live, but I've never noticed his 45 degree knuckles until he was waving them around 12" in front of the camera. Also ugly was Lujack was about the launch into a story about the game in 1946 and Flanigan cut him off because NBC had to go to commercial for an injury timeout. Not really Flanigan's fault at all as she has people in her ear telling her to go to break but still lame.
Bowl eligible. After the loss to Tulsa this didn't seem probable and now it's a reality. The extra practice time will help. This turn around late in the season will be nice for recruits to see and each week Kelly moves this team closer and closer to turning it around. As I mentioned last week Kelly has a chance to get this program turned around now. Win over a ranked team in Utah. Beat a rival in prime time in Army. Now the last two phases remain. Break the streak against USC and a gimpy Matt Barkley then go and win a bowl game. End this season on a hot streak and build a ton of momentum for next season. This team seems to have turned some corner. They seemed to have bought into what Kelly was selling over the last few weeks and it shows. No matter what happens at USC the thing you can't do is go out and lay an egg. If you are going to lose the game(please don't) lose it close. A deflating loss to USC could halt some of this progress Notre Dame has made over the last two weeks.
Another thing that I'm starting to notice is the nice in season progression of guys on the team. Whether they are freshman or seniors. Rees, Wood, Eifert, Toma are guys that stand out on the offensive side of the ball and on defense right now you have guys like Brian Smith, Darrin Walls, Gary Gray, and Harrison Smith playing not only the best football of the season but perhaps of their entire careers. Throw in young guys like Prince Shembo and Kona Schwenke starting to contribute as well and you can really tell this coaching staff is experienced in coaching up college players. Something that was a glaring omission from the last two coaching staffs as a whole. You can even see the coachign staff evolving. Kelly is adjusting his play calling style/strategy for Rees and Diaco has really rebounded nicely since the Navy debacle. It's nice to see progress. Now let's keep it going.
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