Another sub par game by ND. The defense was exposed by Williams who seemed to run at will. Lots of bad tackling. More poor play by Golson. Not sure how they keep on winning but they just seem to will themselves to win and never quit.

Florida State with dual threat Winston looms. They are going to need a great week of practice and I don’t know what to beat Florida State in Tallahassee next week. Go Irish!

Kelly holds the Irish offense back at the beginning of each game with his stubborn insistence that Cam McDaniel start. I love McDameil but he should concentrate on blocking on kickoffs instead of turning his back to the kickoff coverage and always telling Carlisle not to return every kick

The Irish were torched by a very bad football team. Too many mental lapses to count on both sides of ball yet they win due to the poor quality of the opponent. They have not looked good since the Michigan game, except the D, but here they are 6-0 and now the D has huge question mark. Golson’s mistakes are maddening and FSU will surely take advantage of them.
ND may need to score 60 to have a chance to win if play does not improve.

Kelly doesn’t know how to prepare or motivate a team, he learned nothing from the Pitt game in ’12. Everyone, including Kelly (I think), knew this was a trap game coming off the big win against Stanford and playing FSU next week; they came out flat as a pancake and looked totally unprepared to play. He loves to say everyone plays their “game of the season” against ND, but if he knows that why can’t he get this team ready to play? The D, as well as the whole team, took a huge step backwards today.

Brian Kelly has done some great things at Notre Dame and is a good coach, but he will coach ND out of some wins. This team can beat FSU and it is up to the players to make that happen. The only thing the players can’t control is who gets to play, so Cam is the starter. It’s bad when a coach has already handcuffed his team before the game starts.

Hopefully the team – on both sides of the ball, on the field and on the sidelines – got the mistakes out of their systems. FSU would have scored an easy 60 on yesterday’s team and we’d have been sent to bed without our supper and maybe 10 points.

Nothing I have seen tells me Golson can lead this team to a win over FSU.

Hope I’m wrong.

Next up: Dr. J Winston, Therapist.

Did playing an emotional game with Stanford cause the flat scattered performance or was it the fact this was midterm exam week? Most likely a combination of the two.

Let’s not forget these are University students and not full time footballers. This is the same week the team struggled so much against those undermanned Pittsburg teams the last few years.

For the team-I don’t like this midterm v game prep quandary. But for the players and University-I am happy education comes first for my team. When was the last time you heard other teams having trouble on the field because of exams? I’m proud the university values its players for more than their athletic abilities. Another reason to love Note Dame, they do college athletics right.

Go Irish!

Give Kelly credit for being 6-0. With the suspensions we have overachieved to this point. Hoping we don’t take a beating next week and lose the esteem we’ve built to this point like the Alabama game. After four bad hires we now have a consistent winning team which should be even better next year. Shame on the university for making the suspended players wait so long to know their fate. How would they feel if it was their kid? Wondering if any of those players are deemed innocent whether they would have legal recourse for what was taken from them and the humiliation they have suffered. Hoping for the best at FSU.

I think we’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of a team that was not that talented or experienced to begin the season, and now our young players have some serious game experience. The defense was a serious question mark before the season began and we caught huge breaks when it turned out that our competition wasn’t nearly as good as thought pre-season. The questions about the defense didn’t go away because our opponents weren’t good. Now they have 6 games under their belts, which is about as good preparation for FSU as we could have hoped for. The same is true on offense — Stanford’s “D” was tough as nails. FSU’s isn’t nearly as good. So we passed all the tests so far and now we have the hardest one with more reason to think we can pass it than before the season began. What remains maddening is the unwillingness to let the RBs carry the football. It appeared we could have run at will yesterday, which may also have greatly improved the mediocre pass protection and turnovers. Golson continues to take more tough hits that he should. BK and EG need to channel 2012 Oklahoma this week.

I completely agree with the comment that the University should be ashamed of itself for the way it has handled “scandal”. I am completely embarrassed and ashamed of the way this has been handled. Even if they are guilty and even if they deserve to be suspended, the university has botched this beyond comprehension.
I feel bad for those kids whether they are guilty or not.
Also agree that we should be thrilled to be 6-0 butI still doubt Kellys ability to get the team ready in big games and i question why he abandons the the running game and refused to put any emphasis on special teams play. this is a huge part of every big game. We started the season returning punts and blocking on punt returns. the last two games Rigs has three to five opposing jerseys around him each time he catches the ball.
I am optimistic that FSU has a number of weaknesses –if we prepare and execute we can beat this team

Exactly the game I predicted and I really wish I was wrong but a win is a win and we move on!
Although FSU is clearly the best team we will play this year I have a lot of confidence because its all about how you match up with a team. We should have success running and also getting our receivers over the top. If golson avoids the turnover big we have a good shot. Rest up boys and lets get ready to shock some of the morons over at ESPN!

All of you characters calling Kelly a bum are nuts. Our team is really, really young. If all you were looking at when evaluating North Carolina was the score of their previous games this year, you came into this game ill informed as to the talent level on the other side of the field. Yes, the Tar Heels had lost games due to tons of turnovers and lack of focus, but their coach was also trying to figure out which quarterback he was going to go with. But going into South Bend, you knew these talented guys would focus and the coach stuck with the better QB. Plus, every team gives ND their best shot so they can tell their grandchildren some day about the time they beat ND.

Now should the game have been so close? No. Golson again couldn’t hold onto the ball when running and threw some late/bad balls. As I said last week, I love his competitive fire, his toughness, his willingness to take a big hit and pop right back up and the pure talent he has. What I continue to see from him though is hesitation, especially after he has made some mistakes or gotten pressured continually in a game. He sees that a receiver is going to come open, and you can even see his body undulate like he subconsciously wants to make the throw. But he waits an extra second until the receiver makes the cut and delivers the ball late or then pulls it down and goes to his later reads or runs. If you need some context here, think of Eli Manning. If you watched the Eagles game last night, he became skittish because the center couldn’t plug the middle of the line and pressure was coming right up the gut. So even when Eli had time, his feet weren’t set properly and he hesitated. This is some of what Golson is dealing with as well due to the line not keeping proper protection right up the gut on passing downs. So it isn’t all just on Golson. If Golson doesn’t spot NC 14 points right off the bat due to turnovers, however, the game would probably have played out a bit more comfortably in our favor. But give the offense credit for continuing to produce and bail out a shoddy performance on defense.

When an offense scores as many points as ours did on Saturday, the blame for a close game rests squarely on the shoulders of the defense. Our defense struggled against an offense in NC that was very multiple. Their QB was on target with his arm, was good with his feet and was a load to tackle. Remember, if you want to talk about dumb coaching, the NC coach was rotating this QB with another one who was a drop back turnover machine. What was he thinking? When you have a QB who can throw and run it makes the defense have to play a very smart game and stay in their assignments. We have a young, athletic defense who didn’t always do that. We also, for some reason, had a tough time tackling. Not sure why that was, but I’m going to guess that the multiple looks had our guys hesitating a step, thinking too much before reacting. This was a very, very good primer before heading to FSU. I am actually really glad that we faced NC’s offense and were able to get a primer for a mobile quarterback who can throw right before the big showdown.

This next weekend, we will see another QB who can run the ball. Winston actually doesn’t throw lasers if you watch his games, having more of a Tebow-esque arc on the ball. What he does have is good timing (leads his receivers right under the balls that hit softly in their hands) and receivers who will fight for the ball. He is also a killer when he runs the ball because you have to respect the pass so much and he is very athletic. If ND plays a clean game in the turnover department this game will be a barn burner. If we lose the turnover battle, we most likely get beat. Golson and Winston are both unbeaten in the regular season as starters. One of those streaks will end Saturday. Here’s hoping it is our guy, the one who also showed the character to sit out the year, come back to school, and finish what he started.

Go Irish!

for the comments regarding lack of QB development in decades, godson has developed a lot and by the way Brady Quinn developed a lot so that person who said that hasn’t watched much ND football in the past few years
The defense was porous last week but 21 of the 43 came off of turnovers including a pic 6 so the defense which did not play great was not as bad as the points suggested. Finally, good field position gives the offense freedom to do things and puts the defense on its heels is a major issue for ND because we have horrible special teams right now and have since Kelly has been coach. that is one thing that has to improve or we can’t compete with good teams

ND made that UNC game a lot tougher than it had to be, but give credit to Larry Fedora and his talented recruits. They played pretty well. They have the talent to play, and Fedora put them in great situations by preventing ND from substituting on defense. His up-tempo offense (with strategic personnel substitutions late so the defense couldn’t react) was a thing of beauty. He has always been a great coach (Southern Miss and back to OSU), so he had his boys prepared.
ND just need to take care of the little things on their end. Primarily, taking care of the football. I also think Golson has stepped backwards in his decision-making the past few games. He seems slow to get the ball out of his hands. I also question the waste of the 3rd quarter offensively. It felt like we were trying to protect a lead instead of attacking, but this could have been a mechanism to feel things out for the 4th quarter.
I am not an expert (but I have coached the game for years at the HS level), so I am interested in other observations. I think ND can beat FSU if they clean things up this week at practice and really break down the “must’s” to beat FSU… should be fun to watch Saturday!