And the teams who are in a down period (who usually beat us). We’ll get blown out by the well coached very good to great teams.
Cool.
in over 25 years.
Doing that, even with some ugly results, would be noteworthy.
That being said, ND hasn't had a good season W/L wise that didn't include a season ruining blowout since... 1993?
Just using a low-bar baseline of 9 wins, here's the seasons that qualify going back to Holtz' tenure, and the blowout losses in each. Parentheses indicate borderline blowouts:
2018: Clemson
2017: Miami, (Stanford)
2015: (Ohio State)
2012: Alabama
2006: UM, USC, LSU
2005: (Ohio State)
2002: USC, NCSU
2000: Oregon State
1998: MSU
1995: Ohio State
1993: ---
1992: Stanford
1991: Penn State
1990: ---
1989: Miami
1988: ---
On the plus side, we're starting to regularly have good W/L records again. 3 seasons in a row, and 4 out of 5 would be good progress. But we haven't had an unambiguously good season in a loooong time. We crucially need to avoid blowouts, and could desperately use a serious prestige win. Fewer than 10 wins is a failed season.
With a 7 point lead, Ohio St converted 3rd & 9 and 3rd & 11 deep in their own territory. Had they not converted either of those, ND would have gotten the ball back with sufficient time to get a touchdown, and (as Weis later divulged) a game deciding 2-point conversion.
Yes I realize there was a large difference in total yards in Ohio St's favor but that doesn't make it a blowout. Nobody's saying we blew out South Florida in 2011.
And I agree, it wasn't a blowout.
Instead of correcting it, I'll let my brainfart remain there in the subject line as a testament to my stupidity.
BK continues to enhance ND's mediocre Bisquik brand of football.
Bookstore continues to offer honey packets with its $100 home game t-shirts.
You point is generally still valid, but we haven't gone 25 years without a top 10 win. MSU ended in the top 10 and Oklahoma was top 10 at the time we beat them in 2012. Weis also had some top 10 wins at the time of the game and so did Ty and Davie.
Holy shit balls, that's bad.
Iowa State had 2 such wins in 2017 alone.
Several more top 15 in that time frame. And a lot of losses.
The Boys down at the Bureau got a little bit suspicious regarding how good Jvan was at his ND game predictions. A little bit too good for someone like Jvan. It also did not help Board Ops cause that Bonger always posted with a slight Russian accent. The rest of this sordid tale will have to be read about in the post trial tabloids.
And two of them were card tricks.
Now he’s backtracking?
Seems like every year Michigan is going to be the team to beat. Harbaugh, like Kelly seems to get manhandled in big games.
And that includes beating absolutely no one in their non-conference schedule and 4 away games against nobodies in conference.
See 2016 AND 2018 for verification of that. They nearly were ranked higher than ND last year near season's end despite our victory over them.
The real question is can they go to 2 losses and make the playoffs - start off ranking in the top 5, lose early, lose middle, then beat a top 5 OSU team and a top 5/10 team in the big 10 championship.
I suspect yes, they can - their 2003 season would be the blue print - lost to Oregon early, to Iowa middle, yet after beating OSU - they were ranked #4 in the country - and they would have now been offered the Big 10 champ game too.
If so, the story-line here will be "When did Brian Kelly say he's retiring?"
10 - 2 isn't too bad.
Our schedule is below average compared to ND standards.
We play 4 teams that had 9 or more losses in 2018 -
the most ever.
(UL 2-10, Navy 3-10, UNM 3-9, BGSU 3-9)
We play 6 teams that had losing records (add USC and Va Tech)
We play 9 teams that had 5 or more losses. (add BC UVa and Duke).
Our schedule is ranked 53rd in preseason mags.
10-2 is the absolute floor.
if we get routed by Georgia or anyone else the seat will be much hotter for our coach.
Regarding our schedule it is ranked the 53th most difficult by Steele but the bad teams on our schedule are unduly influencing the mean [pulling it down]. If you take the average of our five toughest teams according to Steele [Michigan 3, Georgia 4, Stanford 22, Virginia Tech 25, and USC 32], the average is 17.2. This might be a truer measure of a top and low level schedule. Unfortunately, our three hardest games (Michigan, George, and Stanford are also away.
Personally I think there is a reasonable chance that we can go ten and one and be in the play off conversation. I am, of course, biased but the offense should be particularly hard to stop and the defense while inexperienced here and there, it does have notable players scattered across all facets of it. Our young linebackers could surprise due to their speed.
I thought they were imploding and half the team was transferring.
He could be all wet of course. Let's hope so.
And then Kelly loses to Stanford on the road (again!) to end up 10-2 and drop out of said conversation?
beat down. I guess people expect them to bounce back this year with Costello coming back.
We are fresh off an abysmal performance. The passes were there. Brilliant game plan. our receivers just didn’t execute.
good idea of what you can expect to be hearing from the man who brought us this quote:
Q. It's been kind of a tough situation for you, I think 2-9 against top-20 teams on the road. Has there been one common theme why that's been a bit of a struggle to overcome these types of games?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, playing top-20 teams on the road. It's hard to beat top-20 teams on the road. You know, I don't keep track of those records, but I'm sure there's been some really good games in that mix of 2-9, but you know, you go on the road, it's hard to win on the road, and if you're playing top-20 teams on the road, it's even more difficult. So you just prepare your team the best you can, and when you go on the road and you're playing top-20 teams, they're difficult competition. You're probably not going to be 9-2.
My guess is that he will view having to play at Georgia, Michigan, and Stanford in the same year like he's being asked to lead the Salvation Army in a winter invasion of Russia.
wins over teams that finished the year ranked?
(AP/Coaches)
'12- Oklahoma (15/15)
'17- Mich St. (15/16)
'18- Northwestern (21/19)
That call was BS. Other than that your point is valid and sobering.