2012 Official Notre Dame Football Thread

[spiker]

Seriously, this is one of the worst things that could have happened this spring. They had at least two more years of this guy playing like an animal. This fucking blows.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Yeah...sounds like USF.

 

[FirstTimer]

I literally laughed when I found out.

Worse/most disappointing offseason in ND history?

I'd give it to some of Ty's.

 

[FirstTimer]

After a swirl of rumors, an excused absence, a long weekend with family, and a return to football, defensive end Aaron Lynch has decided to leave the Irish football program, with plans to transfer from after the spring semester. The loss is a blow to the Irish defense, with Lynch counted on to be the team’s best pass rusher.

“Aaron recently approached me about his desire to leave Notre Dame and return to Florida,” head coach Brian Kelly said in a statement. “I’ve always known and appreciated the affinity Aaron has for his home in Florida. However, the stark reality is you can’t make it at Notre Dame if your head and heart are not here. I am proud of the effort Aaron made in the classroom and on the field at Notre Dame. I wish him all the best in the future.”

After a string of rumors that reached a boil last weekend, Lynch also released a statement through the sports information department.

“I want to thank Coach Kelly for giving me this great opportunity to attend Notre Dame and be part of the Fighting Irish football family,” Lynch said. “This was one of the toughest decisions I have had to make, but I want to go back home to Florida. I’m grateful to Coach Kelly for understanding and allowing me to return home.”

There’s no question that the loss of Lynch on the field is a potentially devastating. Lynch lead the Irish in sacks and doubled the next closest Irish defender in quarterback hits, and looked poised to have a breakthrough sophomore season. While he plays a position where there’s plenty of quality depth, as a pass rusher, Lynch’s skills were unrivaled.

That said, while every coach would put on a brave face, there was resolve in head coach Brian Kelly’s words, evident in a press conference where he made Lynch’s decision a black-or-white issue. In a program that’s a pressure-filled and unique as Notre Dame’s, there’s no use trying talk any player into staying if he’s not into it.

“There’s a point where you’re either in or your not,” Kelly said. “When we’re recruiting, we’re laying our cards on the table. Here’s who we are, this is what you’re going to get when you come here. We’re not going to say, ‘You don’t have to live in the dorms.’ No, you’ve got to live in the dorms. We’re not going to say, ‘Hey, it’s easy in the classroom, don’t worry about it.’ We don’t say, ‘Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t snow here.’ The fact of the matter is, when you’re opened up like that, then you have to be that same way in the program, and we wish him the best.”

There’s long been rumors that Lynch has missed family, friends, and a girlfriend in Florida. While his mother moved to Ohio to be closer to her son, Kelly did acknowledge that these winter months of freshman year — like they do to so many college underclassmen — were when Lynch struggled. After giving Lynch a long weekend to reflect on being at Notre Dame and what he wanted to do with his future, Lynch and Kelly discussed his departure Thursday evening and Friday morning.

“Some of it is you’ve got a guy that’s young and you want to see him mature,” Kelly said. “And then you hit a point that it’s not about growing up, it’s where your heart is.”

Kelly was steadfast in stating that this won’t effect the morale of the team. “If this were doubles tennis, it might,” he quipped. And insiders close to the program have commented that Lynch never fully clicked with his teammates, with his bravado, and emotional outbursts — Lynch led the team in personal fouls last season — rubbing many players the wrong way.

Lynch’s future will be interesting. Notre Dame will likely control where Lynch can end up, and with Florida being mentioned in both coach and player’s statements, you can bet that he’ll only be released to schools in the sunshine state, squashing any Urban Meyer or Ohio State speculation. After a no-holds-barred recruiting war with Florida State, and retribution sought during the Seminoles recruitment of Ronald Darby, it’ll be interesting if the Irish release Lynch to the Seminoles. Lynch could likely end up at South Florida next season, where former Irish coach Skip Holtz mans the sidelines.

There’s little question Lynch will play in the NFL some day, and the decision to transfer away from South Bend could delay that eventuality. While any program that ends up with Lynch will file for an exemption and hope for immediate eligibility (like the Irish got with running back Amir Carlisle), it’s difficult not to look down on a decision made by an 18-year-old, and shake your head at its foolishness.

Yet football coaches have always talked about the forever unbeaten recruiter: the high school girlfriend. In this era of social networking and over-sharing, Lynch’s difficulties being away have been well chronicled, often times by Lynch himself. While the initial tidal wave of shock and anger from Irish fans is heaped on what looks like a petulant decision, Lynch isn’t the first or the last to make a decision that has generations older than him scratching their head.

Still, the polished head coach might have tipped his hand and shown his true feelings when he opened his impromptu media session. Stated quite clearly, from the very start, Brian Kelly’s opening words were likely his truest.

“As you know, Aaron Lynch has quit the football team.”

From Inside the Irish by Keith Arnold

 

[FirstTimer]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0m-3glcmbE"]this sucks more than anything that has ever sucked before - YouTube[/ame]

 

[FirstTimer]

From Herloyalsons.com

As far as the reason why Lynch is out, all ND has officially said to this point is that Lynch decided it would be best for him to go back home and transfer to a Florida school. Kelly issued the usual company line of players needing to have their "head and heart" 100% all-in to ND to succeed as expected. Unofficially though, rumors have been flying over the internet for quite some time about how Lynch would prefer to be in Florida over ND because of the weather, his home, his girlfriend, or a combination of all three. These rumors are not completely unfounded either. Lynch has mentioned some of his homesickness struggles in interviews and even his Twitter feed as well.

What has not been mentioned publicly though is the relationship with his teammates. Thanks to GrantlandX, we are able to get a full picture. Our anonymous student reporter (who, just to be clear, is not officially affiliated with the football team) was able to talk to some members of the team and shared some of his insights on Twitter today:

For the record, Lynch's teammates didn't like him anyway. He pissed them all off with his "I'm so tough, mean streak" edge.

— Grantland X (@GrantlandX) April 13, 2012

And I'm not kidding about that at all. Lynch was immature, and picked fights for the sake of doing it. Tate Nichols wasn't a rarity

— Grantland X (@GrantlandX) April 13, 2012

Won't deny that Lynch was a superb talent, but the team won't be crying over his departure. Rumors are that Kona Schwenke is a BEAST anyway

— Grantland X (@GrantlandX) April 13, 2012

Of course, after seeing this, we definitely wanted GrantlandX to expand on his tweets. And expand he did:

It was apparent in the 2011 football season that Lynch has a temper -- he racked up the personal fouls and cited that that's just how he plays, and it's bound to happen -- but that temper would often spill over from just game time. Lynch had an arrogance about him, carried himself as "better than you" to both non-athletes on campus and his teammates, and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I personally have seen him had to be restrained by teammates when he tried to a student for apparently "giving him a weird look". He has this strange, crazy edge to him.

Players on the team also weren't afraid to call him a hothead and say he needed to calm down, but that's just not in his DNA. He was frequently picking fights and arguments, which eventually culminated in the highly publicized, all-out brawl in practice with offensive lineman Tate Nichols that ultimately led to his departure from the team. While this was the most extreme example of his disconnect with his teammates, it was not his first altercation with some of them. The locker room will without a doubt be a better place without such a strong voice of dissent in it.

Now, to be fair, plenty of teammates like Aaron Lynch, and it wasn't like he was ostracized or alienated from the team. He is with them all the time, and they are indeed friends, even if they have disagreements. His temper and relentless, in-your-face competitiveness would get on anyone's nerves, but teammates aren't thrilled about him leaving. Having talked to several players after the news broke, they mentioned that they wish he would stay, but he had to make the decision for him, and Notre Dame was just not the place for him. Players said that he was a player that could've had a huge impact, but "we will be fine without him" too. And that's just it right there. Brian Kelly has always had that "next man in" philosophy, and it appears that Kona Schwenke could be ready to step into Lynch's role right now. I have heard nothing but rave reviews for Kona.

Now with the whole picture in front of us, it is easy to see why Lynch decided it would be best for him to leave. Being homesick alone is rough, I went through it too just about every winter in South Bend myself (especially when I came home during the winter); however, I never felt like my personality was at odds with my friends on campus and I never felt out of place. It definitely seems that Lynch likely didn't have that same comfort level and that missing piece simply cannot trump homesickness.

It sucks to see Lynch go, but thankfully Notre Dame, for the first time in a very long time, is stacked on the D-line. As GrantlandX pointed out, Kona Schwenke is having a hell of a spring and with this team's "next man in" mentality, he now has a big chance to step up. The other two members of the line, Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt aren't exactly pushovers and will only improve in 2012.

As far as Lynch's next destination, rumors thus far have him going to the University South Florida. Yes, that would be the same South Florida that has a Holtz on the sideline and will scoop up yet another Irish turnover. The irony is not lost on me.

Happy Friday the 13th...

http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2012/04/13/lynch-to-leave-nd/

 

[Sportsbuck]

Mom and family currently live in Ohio, but will be moving to move back home to Florida in the summer.

 

[Irish]

WHAT

 

[padman59]

:no:



:glen:

 

[padman59]

It seems like there's always a segment of every fanbase that feels a need to reject a player because they feel that they were wronged in some way when a player chooses another school whether it be by transfer/decommit/etc. It's not new the ND fanbase either. There have been plenty examples in recruiting over the past few years alone where people have turned against recruits (which is one of the reasons why I barely follow recruiting). People just take sports way too seriously at times. :dunno:

 

[Irish]

There is no other way around it, losing Lynch is bad for the program.

I have no ill feelings towards Lynch, he is a great player and only gonna get better. Just a shame it won't be at South Bend.

 

[Hasselbeck]

As a Trojan fan.. my reaction to the Lynch news:

 

[FirstTimer]

:smh:

Typical.

Everyone in love with him, "Lynch Mob," he's a beast, lalala.

Kid leaves.

Dude had a temper, was a hot head, didn't get along with all teammates. Possible cancer in locker room.

It's like UK fans when Shabazz Muhammed signed with UCLA. They went from loving him, to saying "we don't want kids who don't want to win anyway."

Shut up.

Honestly not surprised by the reaction to Lynch. I had kinda heard the same thing about his temper and stuff. Never made of an issue of it because didn't really care but if you're around it on a daily basis it could become wearing.

 

[FirstTimer]

I'm gonna :whoner: so hard September 22nd.

No lie..goosebumps when they ran out in that vid.

 

[FirstTimer]

Louis Nix's twitter last night scared me.

"Hoping on Delta and may never come back" or something.

The fuck?

 

[padman59]

:runaway::runaway::runaway::runaway:

WTF is going on?

On another note, I humbly welcome Ball State to a future schedule.

 

[Irish]

Why doesn't Tommy Rees want to leave too?

 

[FirstTimer]

ND vs Navy will be a 9am EST kickoff.

 

[padman59]

Great. I guess I'll be getting up at six to see the game.

 

[FirstTimer]

Great. I guess I'll be getting up at six to see the game.

Kegs and eggs!