The Official Notre Dame Football Thread

[padman59]

Army thoughts:

-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.

 

[Bear Pand]

With ND playing so well

:bizzaro:

 

[FirstTimer]

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!!

I'm not going to mention it only because I don't have a section called "Fucking cool"

 

[FirstTimer]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-notre-dame-story-20101121,0,3185959.story?page=1

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.

Huggins didn't go to the game last night...

Who?

 

[FirstTimer]

Savon Huggins

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.

 

[FirstTimer]

Savon Huggins

I guess he had a family illness. Notre Dame is still a "very strong" candidate.

Would have been nice for him to see..but he already visited during CMU...and it would be huge for him to see the Irish knock off USC next week.

 

[Irish]

He said the fact that the coaches didnt meet with his parents at the Utah game kinda set things off.

I think he will stay. I don't think Michigan will blend well with him and if he comes down to Tennessee, I will tell him whats up.

 

[padman59]

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?

 

[FirstTimer]

Ohhh...

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.

 

[FirstTimer]

Army


The Good

-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.

Go Irish. Beat Trojans.

 

[FirstTimer]

Excellent post from Her Loyal Sons on the Lizzy Seeburg situation

Unfortunately, I’ve not had a chance to do a proper write up of the Army game, and I don’t feel right about doing so before recognizing that a far more serious story has been exposed by the Chicago Tribune; that of the tragic death of Saint Mary’s College freshman Lizzy Seeburg 2 months ago, and the alleged sexual assault of which she was a victim 9 days prior to her death.

We’ve received a number of e-mails, tweets, and comments in other posts questioning the behavior of the University of Notre Dame, its football team, and the Notre Dame Security Police. We find such questions difficult to answer in part because we don’t know many facts, and in larger part because, frankly, the actions of the Chicago Tribune both in reporting the story and then opining on the story have obfuscated any facts that may otherwise been known to the point of making a mockery of journalism. The Chicago Tribune’s actions have done a disservice to journalism, a disservice to Notre Dame, and, worst of all, a disservice to the family of Lizzy Seeberg.

Nate, one of our regular commenters, made an excellent post on our Sideline Forum regarding this entire mess, and I think it articulates many of my thoughts on the matter quite well:

I think all of us here would agree that if there is a case against a player on the team, be it Dayne Crist, Kyle Rudolph, Mike Floyd, Manti Teo, Barry Gallup, or Joe Blow, it doesn’t matter: take him off the field once evidence has been presented. I’m encouraged that the Univ has taken the calm approach and done some due diligence in investigating before making a knee-jerk reaction (see: Elam, Abram, and McCarthy, Kyle) this time.

…

I sincerely pray for the girl’s family, and hope they get closure. I hope that if one of our players was involved in an illegal, negative way with this girl before she took her life, that the player has to pay the necessary penalty. But jumping to conclusions and damning someone without a full investigation isn’t productive.

Further, to head off any more questions about the identity of the player under these accusations and questions about any perceived “lack” of response by the university and their police department, let me just say this: 1) The NDSP is a state certified police department, and the case of the alleged sexual assault falls under their jurisdiction. And by accounts from the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, the NDSP made the prosecutors aware of the case and their investigation before the Chicago Tribune got ahold of the story. Far too many people seem confused as to why the NDSP didn’t just write up a report and then refer the assault case to the South Bend Police Department. It would be akin to the Trenton, NJ police taking a report and then asking the NYPD to investigate the matter, as far as we can tell. 2) Notre Dame has a legitimate (and possibly legal) interest in protecting the identity of the accused football player in this matter. To punish the student athlete by benching him as a response to the allegation, and only the allegation, without compelling evidence to support the allegation, would severely risk the life of that student athlete. Crimes of a sexual nature carry far more stigma than most any other crime, and to even be publicly identified under these allegations could be disastrous to that student (and tragic, if the allegations are unfounded). 3) It’s not under Brian Kelly’s purview to even attempt to identify the facts of this case, nor should it be. I don’t want Brian Kelly, with any of his conflicts-of-interest, investigating this matter any more than I’d want Urban Meyer trying to investigate any criminal cases that occur on the campus of the University of Florida. 4) The apparent suicide by Lizzy Seeberg provides not one modicum of “proof” of the allegations. Nobody, near as we can tell, has made any claims to knowing the mental state of the young woman in her last days of life, nor should they feel qualified to do so. 5) We do not know the identity of the accused player and we do not wish to know. When not so much as charges from the Prosecutor’s office have been levied, we choose to not cast such a shadow on the character of anyone until such time as charges may be brought forth and call that character into question. Further, even if we did know, we’d not identify him here or via any other form of communication. It’s out of our purview to do so, and would be, at best, a legal misstep.

Finally, I’d like to reiterate how we at HLS wish nothing but peace for Lizzy Seeburg, closure for her grieving family, and justice for any crimes if any crimes were, in fact, committed.

 

[FirstTimer]

Welp looks like the Tribune didn't dio much (if any) research into this story before it was written...

http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20101122/News01/101129748/1130

SOUTH BEND — St. Joseph County police said Monday they were, in fact, notified by the University of Notre Dame that a Saint Mary's College freshman who committed suicide Sept. 10 had reported being sexually assaulted 10 days earlier.

On Sunday, county police reported the opposite: Officials said they had been unaware of the alleged sex assault case while they investigated 19-year-old Elizabeth Seeberg's death.

Assistant Chief and spokesman William Redman took responsibility for providing the incorrect information to The Tribune and other media outlets.


On Sept. 10, Seeberg was found unresponsive in her dorm room at Saint Mary's. She later died of a drug overdose, and her death has been ruled a suicide, the St. Joseph County coroner said.

Days earlier, on Sept. 1, Seeberg reported to Notre Dame police that she had been sexually assaulted the previous day in a Notre Dame dorm room. According to the Chicago Tribune, she made the allegation against a Notre Dame football player, who is still on the team.

The Chicago Tribune also reported that Notre Dame did not tell county police about the alleged assault, and that the prosecutor's office might also have been unaware of it.

But both entities have since said they were, in fact, notified.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, has declined to comment on the case, citing federal law that prohibits it from speaking on "disciplinary cases" involving its students, according to a statement from the university.

Notre Dame has its own police department and detectives who are capable of investigating sex crimes, officials said.

But Notre Dame would not confirm if an investigation was taking or had taken place regarding Seeberg's allegations, citing federal law.

As a result, it is not clear how soon Notre Dame notified officials from Saint Mary's and law enforcement about the sexual assault claim.

The county police detective assigned to the death investigation, Cpl. Steven Metcalfe, said Monday he was told about the assault case "a couple days" after the suicide. County police handled the investigation since Saint Mary's does not have its own police department.

However, Metcalfe made no mention of the assault allegation in his police report. He closed the case once he determined no foul play was involved, Redman said.

St. Joseph County Coroner Dr. Michael O'Connell said he was made aware of the alleged assault case by Saint Mary's security. He ruled Seeberg's death a suicide by drug overdose and is still processing the death certificate, he said.

Redman said Metcalfe "did not do anything wrong" by not including Seeberg's allegations in his reports.

But since Metcalfe did not include the information in his report, Redman assumed the detective did not know about it, leading him to tell reporters that the county was unaware, he said.

 

[FirstTimer]

Hayes gave a verbal to Michigan

Lame.

 

[padman59]

Quick thoughts:

-First and foremost, it's good to break the streak against USC. I realize ND got a lot of breaks on that last drive by USC, but I'll gladly take the W. Now it's time to get a bowl win streak going with win #2.
-When USC scored the go ahead FG, I thought to myself how ironic it was that ND finally had a defense on the field that played well, but the offense was anemic with a true frosh QB and inconsistent ground game.
-Glad to see Robert Hughes coming through in the clutch. When ND needed to move the ball the most, he came through. I think he was underutilized this season to say the least.
-Ruffer is still perfect, and while he probably won't win the Groza, he's been a consistent bright spot throughout the season. I'm not sure if he has a 5th year available, but I'd love to see him back on the field next season.
-Turk needs to get more distance on his punts. He gets enough hang time to let the coverage get to the returner, but he gave USC a short field to work with a lot this game. This should be his #1 priority this offseason.
-Brian Smith has played the best football of his career the last few weeks. He came up big again a few times tonight.

Glad to see ND get to 7 wins. As far as bowl game scenarios go, I have no idea what is going to happen. From what I understand, the Champs Sports Bowl seems to be the most likely option. However, I don't see how the BE would respond if a bowl decides to select ND over an eight win team. I remember how the BE responded a couple of years ago when a committee member of the Sun Bowl opined about possibly getting ND over a BE team. Regardless, there's still one more game for us to digest and possibly get a glimpse into next season's team, and hopefully, get a big win in the process.

 

[Mogriffjr]

USC does nothing for me, I think ND is riding a bit high and will beat them...

Pg 16 I called it...:smug:

even though those two dropped passes could have swung this the other way, a win is a win...

 

[FirstTimer]

Pg 16 I called it...:smug:

even though those two dropped passes could have swung this the other way, a win is a win...

I called it back on Pg 6 and 7

After '64 and '05 the gods owed us one(or two). The first drop was bad but honestly the only reason it wasn't a pick was because Mustain threw such a shitty pass. If he throws even a half way decent football Blanton picks that and scores. Mustain/USC got lucky the ball was poorly thrown and Notre Dame got lucky it was dropped. However even if it was caught Te'o and Walls were both close by. It would have been a nice 15 yard gain but not a TD or anything.

 

[FirstTimer]

this team aint winning against usc lol

You say that as if USC is playing worth a shit right now. Plus I fully expect this Notre Dame team to be better late in the season than they are right now. I'm not sold on how much USC will actually improve during conference play...plus Kiffin is a terrible coach.

Hey stevsta..

Tell me how my azz tastes.

:smug:

http://www.vsndaily.com/showpost.php?p=1280051&postcount=91

http://www.vsndaily.com/showpost.php?p=1280053&postcount=92

 

[padman59]

Interesting stat of the day:

-Notre Dame ended up playing 10 bowl-eligible teams this season. The only two that didn't earn that distinction was Purdue, because of its record (4-8), and USC, because of probation.

No team in the FBS played more bowl-eligible teams this season.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20101127/SPORTS13/101129359/1023/SPORTS13

It's a good thing ND plays such a weak schedule...

 

[ram29jackson]

big deal, ND beat USC last night.

at least the game looked competitive with both teams sucking.

 

[ram29jackson]

Yeah the fake team in your signature played a really good game too.

you cockless cunt

the Trojans and Irish are sub par right now = yes