Right Kinda Cracks

47 passes. 14 runs.

I was driving home minutes before the game started, listening to the pregame on WSBT. Brian Kelly discussed the need to stay balanced. This was his comment no more than 20 minutes before the game started. Then he went onto the field and allowed his offense to be as unbalanced as it ever has been, maybe moreso.

In that same interview, Kelly discussed the need to tune out the crowd, the need not to be intimidated. When a leader repeatedly tells his players not to let the crowd get to them, the message delivered is that the crowd is intimidating.

The correct message is to have the team revel in the noise. Playing big games in great atmospheres is why they come to Notre Dame. Soak yourselves in the atmosphere. Be in the moment.

I’m all for a good trick play every now and then. They can be fun. However, a steady diet of tricky play calling tells the team it can’t compete straight up.

My problem with Notre Dame football is that it hasn’t been led well since Lou Holtz left. The players are willing. The coaches lead poorly. Intentionally poorly. I have nothing else to say about the game, the season, or the program.

I’ll save Virginia’s Assistant AD Jim Daves the trouble of passing the buck and pin the Cavs’ Hardin nomination caliber postgame note on his assistant Vincent Breidis who explained that Saturday’s game with Old Dominion is the first in their series. ODU will get a return game next season before disappearing from UVA’s schedule which renders the “series” not much of a series.

My Pinkel nomination goes to Wisconsin this week. The Badgers beat Ann Arbor’s Cleary University like it was Purdue’s giant drum. At least I think that was Cleary University.

I fell asleep in the recliner at halftime. Still haven’t watched the second half. Probably won’t.

:We’ll know who we are truly next week,” Kelly said referring to how the team will respond to the loss. I think the players will bounce back fine. The coach? Same old guy.

Kayo