The Official Notre Dame Football Thread

[CrimsonGhost56]

ND will at least be in the Gator Bowl mark my words

 

[padman59]

You really have pictures of ugly Purdue girls in your sig? Don't get me wrong Purdue has nasty women in general but I'm sure Purdue women > ND women.

Anyway good luck this week.

 

good luck recovering from the loss

Only the pregnant ones drinking a beer. Classy lady.

........what I dont get is how a coach can talk to a network about the timing of their commercial breaks with the teams play style as an excuse....?

If you've watched a ND home game in the past few years, you'd have noticed how long and often NBC likes to take commercial breaks during the game compared to other networks. This change has been a long time coming IMO.

 

[Irish]

I was kinda upset that Shaq is transferring because if ND needs anything its athletes at all positions. Shaq coulda been a solid WR behind Duval and Floyd.

But then I read that after all the practices and off season workouts, Shaq was listed 6th on the depth chart behind Roby Toma. I was like if you can't beat out Roby Toma, a 5-8 white guy from Hawaii, when you are the 4th best WR when you were recruited out of sunny Cali, then maybe he isn't that good.

Floyd, Kamara, Riddick, Jones, Goodman, Toma, Smith, Jackson. We will be just fine without him.

 

[FirstTimer]

I was kinda upset that Shaq is transferring because if ND needs anything its athletes at all positions. Shaq coulda been a solid WR behind Duval and Floyd.

But then I read that after all the practices and off season workouts, Shaq was listed 6th on the depth chart behind Roby Toma. I was like if you can't beat out Roby Toma, a 5-8 white guy from Hawaii, when you are the 4th best WR when you were recruited out of sunny Cali, then maybe he isn't that good.

Floyd, Kamara, Riddick, Jones, Goodman, Toma, Smith, Jackson. We will be just fine without him.

Kamara isn't even the other starter.

It's Riddick.

Kamara is listed as the back up to Tai-ler Jones at the 3rd WR position. Toma is backing up Riddick at the #2 and Goodman is backing up Floyd at the #1.

 

[NAHSTE]

Shaq was 6th on the DC? Just another example of the overrated ND signee. I swear you get a half a star bump just for getting an offer from the Irish.

 

[FirstTimer]

Shaq was 6th on the DC? Just another example of the overrated ND signee. I swear you get a half a star bump just for getting an offer from the Irish.

..............?

Evans was being recruited by all the big schools. His finalist schools were USC, ND, Michigan, and Colorado. ND didn't even become the leader in the race until late in the game.

He would have been a 5 star recruit had he signed anywhere else. At one point he was considered a soft verbal to USC and still a 5 star guy.

Shaq Evans issues weren't that he doesn't have the talent. His biggest problems were his work ethic and attitude. The talent is/was still there. He saw the field a bit last season..played decently as a true frosh then got into Weis' doghouse for some attitude issues and never really saw the field again.

Kelly came in and Shaq got out worked by pretty much every other WR on the roster.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

..............?

Evans was being recruited by all the big schools. His finalist schools were USC, ND, Michigan, and Colorado. ND didn't even become the leader in the race until late in the game.

He would have been a 5 star recruit had he signed anywhere else. At one point he was considered a soft verbal to USC and still a 5 star guy.

Shaq Evans issues weren't that he doesn't have the talent. His biggest problems were his work ethic and attitude. The talent is/was still there. He saw the field a bit last season..played decently as a true frosh then got into Weis' doghouse for some attitude issues and never really saw the field again.

Kelly came in and Shaq got out worked by pretty much every other WR on the roster.

One thing I've learned following the recruiting game is that what you said, is rarely the case.

There are very few guys that are being actively recruited by "everyone in the nation"...

Shaq Wilson sounds like a situation Louis Nix was in and sounds about to have the same attitude. "Recruited by everyone" but the schools didn't want or wouldn't take his commitment and the school he was committed to, stopped wanting him.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

This. People keep asking me how many games ND will win or how I think they will do. I have no idea. Look at the schedule and 8 wins is a real possibility. Then again so is 6-6. Last year that team's only losses should have been to Pitt and Navy. Those are the only two teams that really outplayed them the entire game overall. They went 6-6.

I just want to see improvement out of this team and see them moving towards the something great that we all thought they were moving towards before the 2008 and 2009 seasons.(The two most frustrating seasons of my Notre Dame fandom.

Brian Kelly is a legit coach...real deal Holyfield. He gets the best out of his players.

Gator Bowl.

 

[FirstTimer]

Interesting comments from Kelly on the transfer:

"I can only assume that playing time was a factor," Kelly said. "This was not a two-way conversation. This was a one-way conversation. ... I'm disappointed." Evans, who Kelly said was "better suited for the slot position for us ... but he didn't see it that way," played six games last season, catching seven passes for 61 yards.

 

[NAHSTE]

..............?

Evans was being recruited by all the big schools. His finalist schools were USC, ND, Michigan, and Colorado. ND didn't even become the leader in the race until late in the game.

He would have been a 5 star recruit had he signed anywhere else. At one point he was considered a soft verbal to USC and still a 5 star guy.

Shaq Evans issues weren't that he doesn't have the talent. His biggest problems were his work ethic and attitude. The talent is/was still there. He saw the field a bit last season..played decently as a true frosh then got into Weis' doghouse for some attitude issues and never really saw the field again.

Kelly came in and Shaq got out worked by pretty much every other WR on the roster.

Okay, it's not just Notre Dame. Recruiting services in general are retarded. He was a 5-star recruit according to Rivals but coaching staffs who evaluated him probably felt otherwise. And as Larry said, I doubt Shaq had a committable offer to USC.

 

[FirstTimer]

Looks like he's heading to UCLA.

Really good article from the SBT on the transfer.

SOUTH BEND — Patience.

In the days leading up to wide receiver Shaquelle Evans decision to march into Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly's office Monday and declare his intent to transfer, it was the factor that most impeded his climb to the top of the depth chart.


"It would be easy for me to say, ‘He just needed to be patient,' but he didn't see it that way," Kelly said Tuesday. "We were happy with his development. He was moving in the right direction. It was (just) going to take a little bit longer.

"Sometimes that's the difference today, when we're in a society where, ‘I want it now, I've got to have it right now.' "

By leaving now, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound sophomore from Inglewood, Calif., does have a chance to land at a school that hasn't yet started classes and still be eligible to play the entire 2011 season.

Kelly said he wouldn't restrict the list of schools from which Evans could pick. Predecessor Charlie Weis wouldn't release transferring players to schools he knew would appear on upcoming Irish schedules.

"He's a West Coast kid," Kelly said. "I think he'd like to go back to the West Coast to be closer to his family. We'll release him to any school he chooses that's the right fit for him."

That would include presumably Irish arch-rival USC, where Evans committed initially as a high school senior before flipping to the Irish. However, it appears Evans will end up at the Trojans' crosstown rival, UCLA.

Those close to the program characterized the transfer as a done deal late Tuesday afternoon with only some administrative kinks to work out.

"We have contacted Shaquelle," Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel said after practice Tuesday."

UCLA, on the quarter system, doesn't begin classes until late September. Former Irish tight end Joseph Fauria transferred there in the summer of 2009 and is currently the No. 2 tight end.

Evans, a former prep All-American and No. 44 prospect nationally in the 2009 recruiting class, per analyst Tom Lemming, is the second Irish player to announce a transfer since Kelly was hired last December. Freshman cornerback Spencer Boyd transferred in July to the University of South Florida.

Evans was not immediately available for comment, but his mother, Kallisha Wright, said Tuesday her son is still attending classes at ND until he finalizes the transfer.

Evans battled homesickness and depth-chart doldrums as a freshman in 2009. He had seven catches for 61 yards in 33 minutes of playing time last season. Four of those catches for 34 yards came during what appeared to be a breakout game against Washington in game five of the season.

However, those turned out to be his final Notre Dame career statistics. The only one of ND's final seven games of 2009 in which he saw cameo time was a blowout of Washington State on Halloween night.

"After the Washington game, I didn't play anymore, for reasons that are unknown, still," Evans said back in the spring. "I don't know why (the coaches) wouldn't let me play anymore. I wasn't hurt or anything."

Kelly's hiring offered Evans a new beginning, and by all accounts, he took full advantage of it. In the summer, he earned a reputation as one of the team's hardest workers.

But it wasn't enough to get him into a starting role.

Junior All-America candidate Michael Floyd locked down one receiver spot. Evans then was moved to challenge freshman TJ Jones at the X receiver position, but he couldn't get past him.

Ultimately, he settled in at the slot receiver position, but converted running back Theo Riddick earned the top spot there.

"I think you have to look at it that he's still a young receiver developing," Kelly said of Evans. "He was better suited in the slot position for us, and Theo Riddick was outstanding. (Riddick) clearly had a skill level that could put him in a position to play right away."

Kelly said Monday's meeting with Evans was a one-way conversation and that the coach didn't try to talk him out of the decision.

"I am not really good at talking anybody out of staying with a football team," Kelly said. "I just have never been down that road. I'll point out some things that I think it's important to point out, but I don't know my role really is to talk somebody out of quitting.

"I always will say, ‘Have you talked to your family? What are your family's thoughts about this? Have you clearly talked to them?' Because if they haven't talked to their family, that's a red flag for me. He said he's talked to his family about it, and that's why we wish him the best.

"Sometimes those decisions are ones that we really won't be able to understand. And maybe in five or 10 years, you look back on it and go, ‘That was a great decision, that was a poor decision.' I've been doing it for 20 years, and anytime a player leaves, it's disappointing."

 

[FirstTimer]

Okay, it's not just Notre Dame. Recruiting services in general are retarded. He was a 5-star recruit according to Rivals but coaching staffs who evaluated him probably felt otherwise. And as Larry said, I doubt Shaq had a committable offer to USC.

ESPN had him ranked highly too.

Plus if the article above is right he had verbally "soft" comitted to USC then changed to Notre Dame.

I have yet to read or see anything saying he was never a soft commit to USC..the flip flopped to ND.

 

[NAHSTE]

Sounds like all parties handled it with class. Good on Kelly for allowing him to transfer wherever.

Plus if the article above is right he had verbally "soft" comitted to USC then changed to Notre Dame.

I have yet to read or see anything saying he was never a soft commit to USC..the flip flopped to ND.

I'm not pretending to know for sure, I have no insider information. Just gonna say that in recruiting, just because a kid commits to a school doesn't mean the school has committed to them. LSU had the same thing happen last summer when Storm Johnson (who was listed as offered on Rivals, etc.) tried to give Miles his verbal commitment. The staff was like "Uh, can you wait a few months?" because he was behind a few other backs on our board. We ended up taking the backs we liked better and Storm went elsewhere.

Not saying this happened with USC and Evans, but it does happen a lot. There's a big difference between an "offer" and a committable offer, especially with the top flight football factories.

 

[FirstTimer]

Sounds like all parties handled it with class. Good on Kelly for allowing him to transfer wherever.

In all honesty I just wish coaches wouldn't comment on it. But I agree with Kelly allowing him to transfer wherever.

I'm not pretending to know for sure, I have no insider information.

Nor does anyone really. But I think it's less reliable to go off a guy's "doubts" about a recruit from 2 years ago, than it is to go off of what basically every major news outlet was saying. Logically I don't think it would be that much of a shock if Evans had a commitable offer from USC. He's from the LA area, was highly regarded, and frankly up until the last week or so of his recruitment people were basically writing him off as a lock to USC.

Just gonna say that in recruiting, just because a kid commits to a school doesn't mean the school has committed to them. LSU had the same thing happen last summer when Storm Johnson (who was listed as offered on Rivals, etc.) tried to give Miles his verbal commitment. The staff was like "Uh, can you wait a few months?" because he was behind a few other backs on our board. We ended up taking the backs we liked better and Storm went elsewhere.

No doubt that this happens...however to say it did here...with no proof whatsoever is a pretty big leap IMO.

Not saying this happened with USC and Evans, but it does happen a lot. There's a big difference between an "offer" and a committable offer, especially with the top flight football factories.

Agreed. I can't say for sure if he did have a committable offer from USC, however, it wouldn't be surprising if he did and no matter where he ended up he was still a REALLY highly regarded prospect....

Tom Lemming is an ass clown and a joke IMO but the whole "he was only highly rated because Notre Dame was looking at him" thing is lame. Overall I lean towards agreeing with the general consensus of sites like Rivals, Scouts, and ESPN.

 

[Sportsbuck]

USC, UCLA, and ND were the 3 teams recruiting him the hardest... he definately had a committable offer from USC.

He felt more at home at ND and fell in love with the school.

Quote from Evans a month before he committed to ND: "Right now, I'm really feeling Notre Dame. I had a great trip back there and that's where I feel most comfortable. It's hard to explain but I just felt so at home at Notre Dame and I've never felt that way around any other school."

 

[FirstTimer]

USC, UCLA, and ND were the 3 teams recruiting him the hardest... he definately had a committable offer from USC.

He felt more at home at ND and fell in love with the school.

Quote from Evans a month before he committed to ND: "Right now, I'm really feeling Notre Dame. I had a great trip back there and that's where I feel most comfortable. It's hard to explain but I just felt so at home at Notre Dame and I've never felt that way around any other school."

Which is funny/ironic to read because last season he battled "home sickness."

Sad it didn't work out and I wish Evans the best.

 

[NAHSTE]

In all honesty I just wish coaches wouldn't comment on it. But I agree with Kelly allowing him to transfer wherever.






Nor does anyone really. But I think it's less reliable to go off a guy's "doubts" about a recruit from 2 years ago, than it is to go off of what basically every major news outlet was saying. Logically I don't think it would be that much of a shock if Evans had a commitable offer from USC. He's from the LA area, was highly regarded, and frankly up until the last week or so of his recruitment people were basically writing him off as a lock to USC.



No doubt that this happens...however to say it did here...with no proof whatsoever is a pretty big leap IMO.





Agreed. I can't say for sure if he did have a committable offer from USC, however, it wouldn't be surprising if he did and no matter where he ended up he was still a REALLY highly regarded prospect....

Tom Lemming is an ass clown and a joke IMO but the whole "he was only highly rated because Notre Dame was looking at him" thing is lame. Overall I lean towards agreeing with the general consensus of sites like Rivals, Scouts, and ESPN.

Yeah I really shouldn't have even said anything given my ignorance to the situation. There are plenty of chances to rip on Notre Dame's recruits, this was not a good one.

I apologize for the reach.

 

[Irish]

Now that Shaq is out, I am really hoping we sign a WR this year. We have 16 verbal commits so far, 0 WRs and 0 Safeties. I am assuming we will grab maybe 4 more guys this year. Hopefully 1 is RB Savon Huggins, then I hope we can grab 1 WR and 2 safeties. I doubt it goes down like that, but thats what I hope.

Obviously we need safeties. Hopefully BK can get some signed, and high quality guys.

Then before Shaq leaving I was fine if we didnt sign a WR now I think its a must.

(Assuming Floyd leaves our potential depth chart next year)

Tj jones, Riddick(will be his second year at the position), Goodman, Toma, Smith, Jackson, Collinsworth, and Deion Walker who I always forget.

Thats a very inexperienced group right now, and none are really highly touted guys, TJ being the exception kinda. I would like to see 1 guy added to that group.

 

[FirstTimer]

One thing I've learned following the recruiting game is that what you said, is rarely the case.

There are very few guys that are being actively recruited by "everyone in the nation"...

Shaq Wilson sounds like a situation Louis Nix was in and sounds about to have the same attitude. "Recruited by everyone" but the schools didn't want or wouldn't take his commitment and the school he was committed to, stopped wanting him.

Nix scores major points from me for still choosing to go to Notre Dame even after Weis was let go because Nix felt ND was still the best choice for him all around regardless of coach. Nix could have gone to a few other top tier schoosl which at the time were still more stable but chose to go to ND when they essentialyl had no head coach.

Nix has been shown to have a much better attitude than Evans has since he's been on campus and it wouldn't surprise me if he sees meaningful playing time by mid season.

 

[FirstTimer]

Nice to get that first win.

The Good:

- Mike Mayock in the booth. He did an amazing job breaking the game down and really did an excellent job overall.

-Shorter commercial breaks. Thank God.

- The running game. Granted Purdue is known for having a crappy run defense but even still Notre Dame's run game hasn't looked this good since Week 2 of last season..regardless of how bad some of the teams they were playing were in run defense. Allen looked faster than last season and Cierre Wood earned himself a ton of playing time and looks to be a real big play threat.

- Dayne Crist. For his first start he didn't look shaky, only really forced one pass, and took what Purdue gave him. I was actually impressed to see him not force the ball into Floyd all game but hit him when he needed to. He missed Floyd on one pass over the top in the end zone and air mailed a throw to Rudolph, but overall he look good and the knee looked great when ever he had to move around.

-Gary Gray and Darrin Walls. Both played great games. Gray played great against the run and both played well in pass coverage. Walls almost got beat deep once but that was mainly because the Purdue WR almost made a spectacular catch. Neither was really out of position at all.

- 2nd-4th Qtr Manti Te'o. Looked fast, strong, and to be a sure tackler.

- Kyle Rudolph. Made plays whenever he was called on...especially on 3rd down.

- Coaching staff. That game could have very easily turned against Notre Dame after the Floyd fumble and Purdue score. But credit this staff with instilling some mental toughness with this team.

- Bennet Jackson. Meet this years Mike Anello. I swear he had roughly 150 special teams tackles.

The Bad

- Brian Smith. The guy just seemed to be out of position all game long. Whenever you saw a replay involving him it was him over pursuing a play or getting beat underneath in coverage. The adjustment back to OLB is going to take some time but it's really clear why Kerry Neal beat him out for the job.

- Pass Rush. We got some sacks, yes. But we never really generated any consistent pressure. Which is a concern. Thankfully Marve sucks so he wasn't able to do much with the extra time but as the season moves on we are going to need more pressure generated in the pass rush.


-1st Qtr Manti Te'o. I think he missed about 3-4 tackles on one drive that would have either stopped the drive on 3rd down or made it 4th and 5 or 6 and a punt rather than putting Purdue in position to go for it on 4th and 1 or 2. Seemed to be leaving his feet way too much and launching himself at ball carriers rather than wrapping up.

- The Notre Dame's backup QB's red hats. I know it's so Crist can get the calls but.....sweet Jesus...Couldn't they be like Gold or Kelly Green or something?

The Ugly

- Floyd's fumble.....Could have been REAL ugly had Purdue come all the way back...but you HAVE to hold on to that football.

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

Biggest concern for next week: Denard Robinson's mobility. Notre Dame had a real tough time defending the roll out plays by Purdue and Robinson's ability to tuck and run with those rather than just throw could cause some big problems. Hopefully Kelly and Diaco can scheme something up.