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Tommy Rees fucking sucks
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I asked Gunner Kiel this week if he was going to ND, he said he's still looking at all options though.
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I feel absolutely awful about Jonas. If I feel this bad as a fan I can't even imagine how bad Jonas feels. This is just fucking terrible.
I was screaming for Crist most of the second half.
Regardless what Rees stats showed he had an absolutely awful game. he needs to learn how to step up into a pocket rather than doing that dumb ass fade/roll out against a two man rush.
Toma, Teo, Floyd, and Aaron Lynch balled out yesterday though.Comment
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Rewatching the 1st half Rees missed a few big throws.
The first was obviously him overshooting Floyd on the blown coverage.
The second was the lob that he didn't connect with TJ on. Rees missed a read before the snap that the BC safety was creeping down away from the play and it ended up being a blown coverage as Toma was wide open on the other side of the field. Rees reads that safety correctly and it's 7 points.
The 3rd was another bad read. It was on the last drive of the 1st half when he tried to find Eifert down the seam for a TD but Eifert was only able to get one hand on it. On that play he actually had Floyd on the outside single coverage with no safety help but instead tried to put it into Eifert. Any time Floyd is single covered and that safety isn't over the top the ball should go there.
Rees also had the drive before that killed by a couple penalties.Comment
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Kelly just confirmed Gray is done for the year. No specific diagnosis
George Atkison, Cam McDaniel, and possibly even Riddick to see time behind Wood this Saturday at RB.
Next year if we can get Atkinson in the wight room this off season he could be the down hill runner. Kid is already 6-1 200lbs. He comes in next year at 6-1 210 or so. Down hill with his speed I like what he could do.
Mahone could be an interesting power option as well.
If we get Keith Marshall all bets are off.
Rape.
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Also, Dayne Crist basically said "bye" to everyone at ND on twitter.
Looks like he will be transferring.
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Flu bag is ravaging the team as well. Tuit may miss the Stanford game. Another player was laid up last night after the game because of it too.Comment
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I am gonna rewatch the game online to get a better understanding of some things that happened. I will post my trip a little later.
I loved it though.Comment
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ND's current rankings:
BCS: #22
AP: #22
USA Today: #24Comment
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Time to post the trip.
I flew up saturday morning into Chicago with my father and then we headed east into Indiana. The first thing I noticed was how fucking flat Indiana is. Now I like to think of myself as experienced in a good amount of the eastern US, seen most of the biggest cities and most of the states in my life, but I was really taken back for some reason how boring everything looked.
Pregame
Well we get into South Bend around 2 pm and drive by Saint Marys and Holy Cross, and my excitement level is already thru the roof. Seeing all the ND fans everywhere, I knew immediately this was probably gonna be the best day of my life. We park at a lot near Holy Cross and across the golf course and then head on over to the campus. Now my dad isn't a fan of ND, but is a sports fan and he always wanted to see the campus and such, being Irish Catholic and all.
So we head into the heart of the campus and neither of us have any clue where everything is besides what we can see in the distance, so we just try to take everything in that we can and head to the landmarks we can see. We saw the Basilica, Golden Dome, Touchdown Jesus, the dorms, the memorials, and such. We never saw the Grotto but I am not that upset about it, I am sure I will be back some time later in my life. We head into the stadium, gate D by the Lou Holtz statue.
Stadium
We do our usual pregame sporting event meal with 2 hot dogs and soda(got the collectors cup which will hold my beers for the rest of my college career) then head to our seats. We sat in section 22, row 40ish. Pretty good view of TD Jesus and the ND sidelines. Now something that did hit me by surprise was the foot of space on a wooden plank that was supposed to be my seat. Now ND makes about 45k from a student thru tuition and you are telling me they can't spring for atleast a metal bench? I have never been in a stadium with wooden seats like that, at least Fenway painted theirs a couple times.
Atmosphere
One of the most intriguing thing for me to notice was the atmosphere. This was like a football game I have never been to. It feels completely different than any other event I have been too. My dad said it best when we were leaving, he said "People aren't here to have a party, they come here to be on the sacred grounds and enjoy the football game." Going to school at UT, football games involve drunken people partying all over the place yelling and screaming and singing Rocky Top 100 times. At ND I saw families taking pictures and more soda cans than beer. I didn't even see anyone throwing up which is a first for a college football game. Hell even Vandy games there are always people to drunk to walk 10 feet. It felt very odd for me.
Also I notice you guys talking about the atmosphere of the crowd and how it never seems electric. And I will confirm this is probably the weakest crowd I have ever been to for a football game. I felt like if they didn't play music so loud during games, the noise level would be equal to a Reds or Braves game in mid June, not so much a football game.
The actual game impressions
As for the game, I was pretty disappointed in ND's performance. Rees played like absolute shit. Te'o really can not cover. I felt like most of the game it really wasn't ND out playing BC but rather BC not being very good and not making plays. BC usually had a player open in the middle running crossing routes almost all the time. Rettig would either barely miss some receivers or they would just drop it completely. I was impressed with Jonas, the run d, Toma, and Floyd (besides dropping some passes and not going hard enough for the open deep ball). On that play I saw immediately Floyd one on one with no over top safety and was calling for a check from Rees. To my surprise he saw it too and it probably should have been the big play if Floyd runs a little harder for it. All in all I am glad they won on my trip. Would have sucked if they lost.
Random thoughts
I do think they need a video board of some kind. The not knowing if Toma caught the ball and such is kind of lame as you wait there and hope. It would really be nice to re see some plays which is why I had to rewatch the game after. I also thought it was neat with the Senior students throwing marshmallows(I learned was a senior day tradition), Bon Jovi leading on the band to Livin on a Prayer and Chicago playing with the band. I will say ND's band is a lot better than the pride of the southland band here at UT. I was also glad to be there on Senior day for the player specific walk outs as it gave me a good chance to thank and cheer for the players I have watched for years. We drive back to Chicago and fly back to Nashville sunday morning and I spend my day driving back to Knoxville.
The place probably is my heaven on earth and I loved every minute of it though. While I do enjoy being at a college with crazy parties every night and a lot(and I mean a lot) hotter girls, if I had the chance to attend ND it probably would be the greatest time of my life. Just to be apart of something I love so much would be worth it in the end. And I wouldn't have to hear Rocky Top anymore.
edit: woah this was long, I will put headlines to put the gists of each paragraphComment
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The new ICONs is up on und.com.
The field view of stuff especially during Seven Nation Army is awesome.Comment
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Random Rivals article about Cierre Wood. I had to post because I really do love Cierre's personality and think he is a great back for us.
In a perfect world, the “next man in” for Notre Dame at running back would be Cierre Wood?followed by Cierre Wood?with a change of pace from?Cierre Wood.
Matt Cashore
Actually, in a perfect world, Jonas Gray would be alongside his running mate in the backfield this weekend against No. 4-ranked Stanford. But the game-changing back who emerged from an early-season mishap in the season-opener won’t be around this weekend to form his tag-team partnership with Wood.
?
Gray went down with a torn ACL against Boston College, ending his Notre Dame career, which saw him rush for 791 yards, 12 touchdowns and a 6.9-yard average per carry in 2011. Did Notre Dame’s hopes for a victory at Stanford go down with Gray?
“I don’t know how the whole public feels, but I thought Jonas was having a great year, working his butt off, and doing a lot of good things,” said Irish running backs coach Tim Hinton. “It’s tough to lose a guy like that.”
Enter, or rather, re-enter Wood into the starting lineup. Despite leading the Irish in rushing with 1,001 yards, Wood had relinquished the starting job to Gray, who made the best of the opportunity by continuing to produce. It was a shift in roles that required the Notre Dame coaching staff’s finesse.
“Today, you better communicate with the kids, and we sat down with Cierre,” Hinton said. “To make those kind of moves is really tough emotionally, and we were honest. Cierre knows the one thing that’s going to happen in our room is honesty. It’s not always what you like, but you’re going to get honesty. I explained the situation to him and the bottom line is Jonas started playing very well and we just felt that it was time to make a little bit of a change.
“I don’t know that it was ever a demotion as much as we had two 1As. It wasn’t 1A and 1B; it was two 1As. So we felt really good about it. It can be very tricky, and (Wood) managed it tremendously well.? You’ve really got to compliment Cierre for how he handled it because some kids aren’t going to do as well as he did. The bottom line is he continued to come out and produce.”
While Irish head coach Brian Kelly and Hinton insist that freshmen George Atkinson III and Cam McDaniel have to play a role this weekend against Stanford, chances are Wood is going to get most if not all of the “important” carries. He carried 26 times for 94 yards against Boston College and figures to get a comparable - and perhaps even an expanded - role against Stanford.
“Whatever my team needs me to do, that’s what I’ll do, whether it’s carrying the ball 10 times or 50 times, it doesn’t matter,” Wood said. “If they call my number, I just want to get my job done.”
Kelly never lost faith in Wood’s ability once Gray moved into the starting lineup.
“He was still Cierre Wood,” Kelly said. “We didn’t see a drop-off at all. There was good balance there. Obviously, losing somebody that scored 12 touchdowns in Jonas Gray was a blow to us. But we still have a 1,000-yard rusher in Cierre Wood, and that’s a good thing to have going into your last game.”
Asked if Wood could play Gray’s role of power back in addition to his scatback form, Kelly said: “He’s got to do it all. He’s not Jonas Gray. He’s a different runner. But we had to use him late in the game against Boston College in that kind of role, and he stuck his nose in there and played physical. So yeah, he’s got a more expanded role, no question, with Jonas being down.”
If Atkinson and McDaniel don’t get an extended opportunity against Stanford, it could be former running back Theo Riddick, the converted slot receiver who has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury.
“We’re continuing to get him along physically with that hamstring,” Hinton said. “I never coached him at running back here, but I understand he was a very good running back with a lot of natural talent. If we need that work, we have to find ways to win this game and the best man has to go play.”
Hinton believes that the best man, or men, at least when Wood isn’t running the football, are the two freshmen who have trained at the position all season.
“The bottom line is at this point in the year, Cam and George have to produce,” Hinton said. “It’s their time. The negative is they haven’t had the practice reps because (we) were trying to get the two top dogs running. But now it’s their time. Now we’re expanding those reps and the knowledge has to be there.
“They’ve got to spend some film time with ol’ Coach Hinton, and every second of those 20 hours they’ve got to get it because the bottom line is they’ve got to be ready to do it. We’re playing a very good football team at Stanford and it’s next man in. We’re not going to take a step backwards. We’re going to maintain that level.”
Wood has no doubt in his mind that he can maintain the high level of play by the Irish running backs, sans Gray.
“It’s very difficult seeing my bro go down,” Wood said. “It’s something that bothered me when it happened, and it’s been bothering me ever since it happened.
“At the same time, I have to keep going, keep moving, because that’s what he would be telling me. ‘Listen, you have to take over now. Just go out there and do what you’ve got to do.’ I just want to keep coming out here and ball the way I usually do.”Comment
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Cierre Wood = hilariousComment
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ICONS:
Senior Day
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPbz3mpP75M&feature=channel_video_title"]Irish Connection - Episode 25 - Nov. 20, 2011 - YouTube[/ame]
Seven Nation Army at 6:35
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I'm done with Tommy ReesComment
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