"you can never have enough DL."
I like that we're getting some real good players along the DL. I don't know how we're doing at OLB/DE but we should be very stout inside in the coming years.
I believe that a dead cat should be able to recruit stud OL at ND but it's always nice to live up to that and it looks like we have a plan there as well. I actually have heard very good things about the recruiting along both sides of the line, so that's nice.
Some home run threats at running back and wr are always nice as well and a scheme adjustment that would allow for more downhill runs would be good (pistol formation, anyone?).
We may pass on an LB this year
been watching old ND stuff recently. Watched the 1998 UM vs ND game. Most around here long for the days when we had the QB under center, a FB, and a Tailback in the I formation, no five wide, etc.
Davie and Colletto ran that offense. Everybody was glad to see Colletto go, but for that game, that offense, was power football like many would like to see today. Bring back Donut Jim's offense?
It meant Dick Enberg called all of our home games in 1998-1999. But then that benefit turned into a millstone. Enberg left NBC for CBS so he could go back to his wheelhouse of calling the NFL and NCAA basketball, and ND was stuck with Tom Hammond and NBC's then-neglected sports division.
The electric guitar victory march intro to the nbc broadcast.
Not.
1. Autry Denson was a fabulous RB. About 3/4th of the way through that video he pretty much engineered an entire TD drive on his own. Jackson kept feeding him and he kept producing.
2. It was pretty awesome to watch our guys pounding on the great Tom Brady.
it was the first game of the year with a new qb and major adjustments to the system from the year prior (Powlus was, uh, not as fleet a foot as JJ). There was no film on much of that stuff and we likely presented major gameplanning issues for UM.
That OL was bad ass though.
has made quite a mark in Austin. Coaching, AD, and he and the wife are trying to build a big Athletic Complex.
felt bad for the kid that he had to testify in the Moore case.
Of all the stupid ass things ND has done, trying to fight that case might be the dumbest.
And TWO is right; good for him for getting the weight off post-NFL. Probably saved himself several years of life. Unfortunately, most guys seem to go the other direction.
that lost a decent amount of weight after retiring from the NFL.
It seems like if you were one of those tall, athletic guys that needed to put on weight to play in the trenches you would lose the weight when you retired but if you were one of those "always been fat since childhood" guys who got put on the line because you were bigger than everyone else, you just get fatter when you retire.
We were still Notre Dame
The only coach I’ve seen recruit poorly at ND is Willingham. You get way TOO excited about Kelly and have fallen victim to his lowering the bar of expectations
I’m not excited about this class. Baker is the only kid I think is an elite kid. I do think ND has figured out how to avoid the yearly potholes that seem to cripple promising runs. They’ve gotten ahead of the game and appear very organized. I can’t say that about other years.
Davie and Weis both sucked for various reasons. As did Lou his last two years. Everyone of them left major holes.
I believe we’ve figured out how to be Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has capped the last five seasons with bowl wins, including a Cotton and an Orange.
Some years, I'd kill to be Wisconsin.
That gets you excited?
I'd rather be in the playoffs or in the playoff conversation.
So let's just go with the Orange Bowl win. Better than any bowl result we've had in at least 25 years.
They're in the Big Ten West which includes: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue.
Beating up on those teams, losing your conference championship, and then getting invited to one of the big bowls because you finished 2nd in the Big Ten isn't impressive to me.
I'd rather lose in a playoff game then beat Western Michigan in a bowl game.
under Brian Kelly. I'm not.
I think the six pack of teams you rattled off is actually more impressive than the six pack of duds we'll be playing this year (New Mexico, Bowling Green, Duke, Boston College, Navy, and Louisville).
If we can win those gimme games, handle the other teams we should beat at home (UVA, USC, Va Tech), and manage to win two out of three against Michigan, Georgia, and Stanford, we'll get another invite to a big bowl game, where we'll probably get our asses handed to us again.
Rinse and repeat.
South Florida, Central Michigan, Kent State, Illinois, and Iowa.
I never said I was happy with how things are currently. I said I'd never trade for what Wisconsin has going - which is nothing.
If you never get to the playoffs, you can never actually win them.
out that if we were to have been matched with an "up and comer" like WMU in the playoffs completely with "hot/fast rising super coach" with cool slogans ("row the boat") many on this and other boards (perhaps even you) would bemoan our fate of having to play such a hot team with "nothing to lose."
wouldn't count that as a Cotton Bowl win, but it's trumpeted as a huge victory for someone like Wisconsin because it took place in the Cotton Bowl.
I think Wisconsin ought to be ashamed of their out of conference scheduling and I've said so for years. I believe it's how Alvarez got that program back on it's feet when he got there so they are scared to change things for fear of not having success.
That said, they have plenty of big game wins over the past few decades and I'm not going to look down on them as a program. ND has shit away a lot of great opportunities during that same time frame.
...and ND has made essentially 2 in the last decade.
Wisconsin’s 2 latest bowl wins have come against #12 WMU and # 11 Miami.
We’ve played #2 Clemson (won NC), #7 OSU (underrated), and #2 Alabama.
Not exactly comparable.
It’s not clear that Wisconsin is in a better position. They’ve just played worse teams in their bowl games.
Lot of 4 star guys but no top 50 or 5 stars.
I'll give him that we are balancing the class
and filling positions of need, but where is the
unstoppable dominant skill player we should
get every year?
When the 5-stars commit/sign you'll see our recruit
ratings drop to about 8-15. Which is about where
we have been most years since Lou left.
Not Top 50 talent but 50% of commits for 2020 are Top 150 so baby steps of a sort.
From a Kevin Sinclair tweet:
Worth noting: Of #NotreDame's 22 signees in its 2019 class, three ranked in the Top 150 (Hamilton, Correll, Carroll).
With just 10 commits in the 2020 class, the #Irish already boast five Top 150 talents (Johnson, Baker, Botelho, Mayer, Mills)
*Citing @247Sports Composite
is Top 50 and recruited and pursued by Alabama and those type of schools.
Has a chance if we can get him.
We can still get him, but it will take a big effort.
Oklahoma, and every major player early in the process isn’t a big time receiver. Then you put too much stock in the recruiting services evaluations.
I guess the recruiting “gurus” think he is elite too.
Trust those guys. I prefer to go off committable offers if you can figure that out.
...so that effect is not going to be as dramatic as in years ost.
The key will be adding more 4-stars and stop being satisfied with
3-stars down the recruiting stretch.
A Sunday afternoon shout out to “The Dirty Dozen”