Notre Dame 2019

[Irishman]

One of very few real tests for the Irish in Athens, GA tonight, especially since Michigan replaces Florida State as the consistently most over rated team by a mile spot. While it was close, Georgia was more convincing. Way too many costly mistakes for ND. It seemed like a bad combination of plays not being called in and players being confused. That cost them a time out in each half. Imagine if they did not have to waste time outs like that. Huge difference in QB play as well. Fromm looked poised and comfortable most of the night. I thought it might be good that the Irish defense got some shots early on him. Book had one drive that looked good. He had the Georgia defense guessing wrong and they got down field in a hurry with a great mix of short passes and long passes. They never did get back to anything resembling that. Even on the last drive, there was time to run routes over the middle. It was wide open. The defense started out fantastic. I love the overall speed and the way they fly to the football. But they were on the field WAY too much that second half. 

While I am glad it was not a blowout, the score is not really indicative of how much better Georgia really is. The question does come up though; is this as far as Kelly can get them? I am not saying he should be gone per se, because who is out there to actually take this to another level? Is it really a matter of being a player or two short of the next level? I am no fan of moral victories....a loss is a loss. I disagree with Gary Danielson too. No matter what happens the remainder of the season, the Irish are on the outside looking in. Too many people complained last year, even after it was all settled and they proved they belonged in the playoff. Clemson won’t lose. The ACC is weaker than the B1G in my mind. There very well could be two SEC teams in, and Georgia will be one of them. Is Alabama the other? Even if they meet in the conference title game? LSU has a great offense, but their defense is nowhere near as good as Georgia’s imho. 

Ok....rant over. Time to finish tonight’s work on hudl 🙂☘️

[Staxawax]

Agree with everything.  ND is lucky the score was even close.  ND QB was scrambling out of the pocket even when he had pocket protection.  

But, I'm not sure it's really Notre Dame that's bad or just a case of one of the SEC's elite kicking butt!

[Bobref]

I had the same thought about Kelly. Sometimes a guy can get you so far, but you need another guy to take you to the next level. See, Doug Collins coaching the Bulls with Jordan. But, I’m not sure at all that he’s the limiting factor. It may be time to accept that the Irish will never be in a position to compete year in and year out with the Clemsons, Alabamas, or Georgias of football. The reason: they simply can’t get enough of the difference-making athletes. I hate making excuses, and that’s not what this is. It’s more of an explanation, because this limitation is self-inflicted. The University has made a choice. Notre Dame is one of the hardest schools in the country to get into, rejecting more than 80% of the applications. They have decided that they’ll only go so far in relaxing admission standards, and no further. And that handicap simply cannot be overcome, except by catching lightning in a bottle once in a great while. Hope is not a plan.

But they are also handicapped in a different way. Without a conference affiliation - and the conference championship game that comes with it - they have to run the table to have a chance. Under present circumstances, a 1 loss Irish team will never get a chance to play for the big prize. The combination of playing a pretty difficult schedule and having no margin for error is a killer.

For these reasons, I doubt I’ll see another Irish National Championship in my lifetime, unless something changes. The only issue I have with that is that I believe the Athletic Dept., and the University governance as well, is not committed to competing at the highest level. Instead, they are into maximizing all possible revenue streams. Again, this is a self-inflicted wound. The $$ the football program brings in ($72 million in profit annually) does so much good for the rest of the University, that it’s hard to criticize that ... unless you are of the opinion that competing at the next level will necessarily generate even more revenue.

Bottom line: Until the Irish remove these built-in barriers, i don’t expect to see them climb the mountain and get to the top again. If their decision is that they will not compromise the University’s admission standards to win, I’m fine with that. Believe it or not, Our Lady’s University is about lots more than football.

[Guest]

23 hours ago, Bobref said:

I had the same thought about Kelly. Sometimes a guy can get you so far, but you need another guy to take you to the next level. See, Doug Collins coaching the Bulls with Jordan. But, I’m not sure at all that he’s the limiting factor. It may be time to accept that the Irish will never be in a position to compete year in and year out with the Clemsons, Alabamas, or Georgias of football. The reason: they simply can’t get enough of the difference-making athletes. I hate making excuses, and that’s not what this is. It’s more of an explanation, because this limitation is self-inflicted. The University has made a choice. Notre Dame is one of the hardest schools in the country to get into, rejecting more than 80% of the applications. They have decided that they’ll only go so far in relaxing admission standards, and no further. And that handicap simply cannot be overcome, except by catching lightning in a bottle once in a great while. Hope is not a plan.

But they are also handicapped in a different way. Without a conference affiliation - and the conference championship game that comes with it - they have to run the table to have a chance. Under present circumstances, a 1 loss Irish team will never get a chance to play for the big prize. The combination of playing a pretty difficult schedule and having no margin for error is a killer.

For these reasons, I doubt I’ll see another Irish National Championship in my lifetime, unless something changes. The only issue I have with that is that I believe the Athletic Dept., and the University governance as well, is not committed to competing at the highest level. Instead, they are into maximizing all possible revenue streams. Again, this is a self-inflicted wound. The $$ the football program brings in ($72 million in profit annually) does so much good for the rest of the University, that it’s hard to criticize that ... unless you are of the opinion that competing at the next level will necessarily generate even more revenue.

Bottom line: Until the Irish remove these built-in barriers, i don’t expect to see them climb the mountain and get to the top again. If their decision is that they will not compromise the University’s admission standards to win, I’m fine with that. Believe it or not, Our Lady’s University is about lots more than football.

As an Irish fan, as long as academics is #1, absolutely fine with this supporter.

It is amateur athletics.

[BTF]

On 9/22/2019 at 2:09 AM, Staxawax said:

Agree with everything.  ND is lucky the score was even close.  ND QB was scrambling out of the pocket even when he had pocket protection.  

But, I'm not sure it's really Notre Dame that's bad or just a case of one of the SEC's elite kicking butt!

The game was close because Notre Dame proved that they are, at a minimum, just as good as Georgia. If I'm the Bulldogs, I don't want to play Notre Dame on a neutral field. Crowd noise was a factor and the cause of Notre Dame's self inflicted wounds. 

On 9/22/2019 at 12:06 AM, Irishman said:

While I am glad it was not a blowout, the score is not really indicative of how much better Georgia really is.

Not sure you and I watched the same game. Georgia loses to Notre Dame on a neutral field. They were lucky Notre Dame didn't beat them in Athens. 

For all the Notre Dame haters (just one on this thread that I can see), get used to Notre Dame being part of the playoff conversation as long as Brian Kelly is their coach. Not many coaches in the country could accomplish what he has with the academic standards the university has for it's athletes. At the end of the day, Notre Dame is a top five program............and that is just eating away at the haters. 

1st Tier: Alabama and Clemson

2nd Tier: Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame

Notre Dame will always be in the limelight. Will always be part of the playoff conversation. Will always be the team everyone wants to play and beat (record crowds when the Irish come to town). And will always compete with the country's best on a national stage. 

[Staxawax]

1. I’m not a hater.

2. You’re delusional.

[BTF]

Notre Dame.............either you love em or you hate em.

1. Only a hater would say something that absurd...................."lucky the score was even close."

2. Not delusional. Just stating what the haters don't want to hear. Notre Dame proved that they can run with anyone in the country. Even Kirk Herbstreit agrees.............and that's saying alot. 

 

[Bobref]

Losing Daelin Hayes for the season with a torn shoulder labrum is significant.

[BTF]

11 hours ago, Bobref said:

Losing Daelin Hayes for the season with a torn shoulder labrum is significant.

Hopefully losing Hayes for the year doesn't have half the impact that losing Love in the Clemson game last year had. 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, BTF said:

Notre Dame.............either you love em or you hate em.

1. Only a hater would say something that absurd...................."lucky the score was even close."

2. Not delusional. Just stating what the haters don't want to hear. Notre Dame proved that they can run with anyone in the country. Even Kirk Herbstreit agrees.............and that's saying alot. 

 

Notre Dame fan here.  They would get beat, badly, by the top 4 teams imho:

Clemson

Alabama

Oklahoma

Ohio St.

And at this juncture, Ohio State is the best team in the country.

[Irishman]

My first experience of seeing ND vs. usc in person....what a great day it was. Got a great parking spot for tailgating at 8:30 am, had a lot of good food, beverages , stogies, etc. 🙂 Has fun razzing a few sc fans along the way as well. 🤣 As for the game itself, the offense looked great in the 2nd quarter, but struggled most of the day beyond that. It was nice to see the run game going even while it was struggling. Not sure why the OC was so committed to the wide passes at the LOS so much. I thought Book looked average at best. He has some fantastic receivers that can catch poorly thrown balls. Seeing it in person, it is more obvious that he holds the ball too long. I did not see him throw a guy open once. Every throw was made after a receiver came out of his break. Many of his throws gave the DB’s time to break on the ball and be a factor in the play. Defense looked great at times, especially in the first half. One consistent theme for them throughout the game was missed tackles; way too many misses. The defense struggled at times in the 2nd half as sc was able to run at will. The two long TD drives by sc were impressive. I am not sure why they don’t give Stepp more carries. That dude is a beast. The Irish FG team and kicker were the difference makers in this one. The wind was howling all day long, and to hit from 40 and 52 was impressive. 
one of the great parts of the pregame....the ND announcer giving the game time forecast and saying “Trojans, you are not in LA now”. 🤣

[Irishman]

One other observation, Claypool plays a lot on special teams. He limped off the field on the last ND kickoff. The limp looked bad. 

[Bobref]

Not impressed with the way they played last night, but it’s hard to feel bad about a win over the hated Trojans. They will have to play better in the Big House in 2 weeks. They’ll need the bye week to get healthier. I suspect that, after Penn State smokes Michigan next Saturday, Khaki Boy will be coaching for his job against us.

[Coach Nowlin]

Please send Jim Harbaugh packing.... wait, don't, need him to stay at Michigan......   😎

[PHJIrish]

5 hours ago, Bobref said:

Not impressed with the way they played last night, but it’s hard to feel bad about a win over the hated Trojans. They will have to play better in the Big House in 2 weeks. They’ll need the bye week to get healthier. I suspect that, after Penn State smokes Michigan next Saturday, Khaki Boy will be coaching for his job against us.

I agree Bob.  Rival or not they should have taken USC to the woodshed!  It seems they played a prevent defense, especially in the 2nd half.  It seemed they just wanted to coast at times.   I sure was glad to see Markese have a big game.  I talked to his dad recently and he said he's be ready for this one.  He needs to get the rock on a regular basis, imo.

[BTF]

8 hours ago, Irishman said:

My first experience of seeing ND vs. usc in person....what a great day it was. Got a great parking spot for tailgating at 8:30 am, had a lot of good food, beverages , stogies, etc. 🙂 Has fun razzing a few sc fans along the way as well.

 ND hosting USC on a fall Saturday can rival any other experience. Something every ND fan should get to do at some point. 

54 minutes ago, PHJIrish said:

I agree Bob.  Rival or not they should have taken USC to the woodshed!  It seems they played a prevent defense, especially in the 2nd half.  It seemed they just wanted to coast at times.   I sure was glad to see Markese have a big game.  I talked to his dad recently and he said he's be ready for this one.  He needs to get the rock on a regular basis, imo.

Rivalry game. I'll take the win. I think some forget that USC is actually a pretty good football team..............Top 25 worthy.

[PHJIrish]

13 minutes ago, BTF said:

 ND hosting USC on a fall Saturday can rival any other experience. Something every ND fan should get to do at some point. 

Rivalry game. I'll take the win. I think some forget that USC is actually a pretty good football team..............Top 25 worthy.

I disagree, USC is very ordinary.

[Staxawax]

On 10/13/2019 at 6:23 PM, BTF said:

 Rivalry game. I'll take the win. I think some forget that USC is actually a pretty good football team..............Top 25 worthy.

My how this thread has died.  Georgia's loss to South Carolina removed ANY chance of ND cracking the top 4.  And a close win at home vs. an ordinary PAC-10 rival didn't help.  Michigan will probably knock them clear off the New Year's Day Bowl schedule.

[Irishman]

2 hours ago, Staxawax said:

My how this thread has died.  

Bye week 🙂 I agree that their chances of being in the playoff are fading fast, BUT if Georgia can beat Florida and Alabama, it could help. Funny thing is that just like in years past, the chips are falling in favor of the Irish moving up. Had Georgia not lost to SC, who knows? 🙂 I look for Michigan to give  the Irish a tough game, but am counting on Shea Patterson being Shea Patterson. I am think Harbaugh is regretting the loss of. Brandon Peters at this point. 

[BTF]

Notre Dame is out of the playoff picture for two reasons:

1.     The winner of the Alabama/LSU game goes to the playoffs.

2.     No one can stop Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Clemson. 

Notre Dame, Georgia, and Penn State are the next three out.................in that order. There is a gap between the first five and Notre Dame. But it's not a big one. 

The Irish will be crucified big time if they lose to Michigan. No shame in losing to a heated top 20 rival on their home field..........at night............on ABC. Win or lose Saturday night, the Irish are still at top 10 team.............easily.

Notre Dame is going for their third straight 10 win season and it's driving the haters nuts. I love it. Keep hating. Go Irish. 

[Irishman]

6 hours ago, BTF said:

Notre Dame is out of the playoff picture for two reasons:

1.     The winner of the Alabama/LSU game goes to the playoffs.

2.     No one can stop Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Clemson. 

Notre Dame, Georgia, and Penn State are the next three out.................in that order. There is a gap between the first five and Notre Dame. But it's not a big one. 

The Irish will be crucified big time if they lose to Michigan. No shame in losing to a heated top 20 rival on their home field..........at night............on ABC. Win or lose Saturday night, the Irish are still at top 10 team.............easily.

Notre Dame is going for their third straight 10 win season and it's driving the haters nuts. I love it. Keep hating. Go Irish. 

I agree with everything you said except about Saturday. I don’t see Michigan beating them. I think Harbaugh is hanging on by a thread. I also think Shea Patterson struggles too often on the big stage. My hope is that ND has a similar game plan as Wisconsin did against Michigan. Sure the big house will be a hostile environment, but it isn’t “Georgia hostile”. The Irish are used to the big stage games. 

[Guest DT]

1 hour ago, Irishman said:

I agree with everything you said except about Saturday. I don’t see Michigan beating them. I think Harbaugh is hanging on by a thread. I also think Shea Patterson struggles too often on the big stage. My hope is that ND has a similar game plan as Wisconsin did against Michigan. Sure the big house will be a hostile environment, but it isn’t “Georgia hostile”. The Irish are used to the big stage games. 

Would ND push out Kelly to hire Urban Meyer?

[BTF]

5 hours ago, DT said:

Would ND push out Kelly to hire Urban Meyer?

No. Absolutely not. Kelly has put a better product on the field than Meyer (the last couple of years) has despite higher academic standards to get into the university. The only thing that separates Meyer from Kelly is the quality of recruits, due mainly as a result of Notre Dame's admission requirements for it's athletes. In fact, if Kelly jumped ship to Ohio State, I think people in Ohio would forget who Meyer was. People forget how great of a coach Kelly is. He's coaching at a University that most coaches run from. In order to win championships, you have to have access to the best recruits in the country. Notre Dame is at a disadvantage there. What Kelly has done is nothing less than remarkable. It would be fun to see what Kelly could do at an Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Texas, or Florida. But it won't happen. He's Notre Dame through and through. He's catholic. He's a long time fan of the University. And he upholds and respects Notre Dame's high standard for it's athletes, acedemics, and playing by the rules. 

Urban Meyer's better days are behind him. He's in one of the hot bed recruiting states in the country and struggled to dominate like he should have. Failed to make the playoffs last year (Notre Dame was better despite Kirk Herbstreits biased opinion), and was humiliated by Clemson the last time they made the final four. But somehow no one ever brings up that embarrassing loss (way more embarrassing than ND's loss last year). Anyone who thinks otherwise regarding Meyer need look no further than the success Ryan Day is having this year. Ohio State is the best team in the country this year IMO because Day is the head coach and Meyer is not. I have nothing against Meyer (other than ruining Rod Smith's college career). He's just not the same coach he once was. If Notre Dame let go of Kelly for Meyer, I'd have a heart attack.

[Gipper]

Just now, BTF said:

No. Absolutely not. Kelly has put a better product on the field than Meyer (the last couple of years) has despite higher academic standards to get into the university. The only thing that separates Meyer from Kelly is the quality of recruits, due mainly as a result of Notre Dame's admission requirements for it's athletes. In fact, if Kelly jumped ship to Ohio State, I think people in Ohio would forget who Meyer was. People forget how great of a coach Kelly is. He's coaching at a University that most coaches run from. In order to win championships, you have to have access to the best recruits in the country. Notre Dame is at a disadvantage there. What Kelly has done is nothing less than remarkable. It would be fun to see what Kelly could do at an Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Texas, or Florida. But it won't happen. He's Notre Dame through and through. He's catholic. He's a long time fan of the University. And he upholds and respects Notre Dame's high standard for it's athletes, acedemics, and playing by the rules. 

Urban Meyer's better days are behind him. He's in one of the hot bed recruiting states in the country and struggled to dominate like he should have. Failed to make the playoffs last year (Notre Dame was better despite Kirk Herbstreits biased opinion), and was humiliated by Clemson the last time they made the final four. But somehow no one ever brings up that embarrassing loss (way more embarrassing than ND's loss last year). Anyone who thinks otherwise regarding Meyer need look no further than the success Ryan Day is having this year. Ohio State is the best team in the country this year IMO because Day is the head coach and Meyer is not. I have nothing against Meyer (other than ruining Rod Smith's college career). He's just not the same coach he once was. If Notre Dame let go of Kelly for Meyer, I'd have a heart attack.

Urban will be coaching at USC ultimately.  I like BK--he has surprised me.

[BTF]

Just now, Gipper said:

Urban will be coaching at USC ultimately.  I like BK--he has surprised me.

Meyer is still a great coach, don't get me wrong. USC + Meyer would be dangerous. With the talent California has, all it will take is a top 20 coach to put that team back in the playoffs.