A slow start on Saturday afternoon had Irish fans worried about another horrible upset from a MAC team. However, a stabilized defensive effort and some explosiveness from the running game led to a solid if not sleepy 28-3 win over the Miami (OH) RedHawks.
Now 3-1, let’s recap the first home win of the season.
QUARTERBACK: B-
We’re already a third of the way through the regular season and the Riley Leonard experience and the passing game remains full of struggle and a bit sad to watch. The game was highlighted by a beautiful 38-yard touchdown pass to Beaux Collins but Leonard’s other 15 completions netted just 116 yards for a 7.7 YPC average. There were some inaccurate throws, frustratingly on some of the easy short stuff, and a continued lack of cohesion with the receivers on timing routes all over the field.
Leonard’s grade is bolstered by his running ability where scampers of 50, 43, and 21 yards made him the game’s leading rusher by a wide margin. Although, he did lose a fumble on the 43-yard run.
We saw a late appearance from Steve Angeli who had one inaccurate pass, a standard completion, and a nice throw on the run that was dropped by KK Smith.
RUNNING BACK: C+
Notre Dame only ran 26 plays on offense in the 1st half and spent a not-insignificant amount of time late bleeding the clock and using the 2nd-team offense. As a result, we only saw 11 carries for Jeremiyah Love and 6 carries for Jadarian Price. Combined, they couldn’t quite crack 100 yards (99 yards total) with long runs of 15 and 14 yards, respectively. Love also fumbled heading into the end zone but it was recovered by Aamil Wagner thankfully.
This was a pretty pedestrian game for the running backs.
WIDE RECEIVER: C
Can I give out a grade of incomplete? Beaux Collins remains the favored matchup for Leonard with 6 targets, hauling in 4 receptions for 60 yards, including the aforementioned touchdown. Through 4 games, he leads the team with 16 catches for 176 yards.
The offense just has such a hard time getting anyone else going. Jordan Faison returned to the lineup, promptly fumbled a punt return, and I don’t think he got much if any run on offense. I thought Jaden Greathouse would be the leader in receptions this season and he was targeted once on Saturday with a 12-yard catch. In 4 games, he’s totaling 9 catches for 79 yards. We should not be on pace for a sub-30 catch season from Greathouse, but alas.
We did see a decent amount of receivers get involved, but not enough playmaking ability from the group as a whole. If the scheme continues we’ll need to see someone take a hitch or out, make a guy miss, and pick up some big yardage. Otherwise, the offense will continue to serve up a steady diet of 5 to 8-yard completions with an occasional deep shot attempt.
I’ve been paying attention to the YAC lately and there were only 22 yards from the receivers against Miami (OH) this weekend.
TIGHT END: B
Mitchell Evans drew a defensive pass interference penalty and showed some nice footwork and strength near the sidelines to pick up some extra yardage. I’m still surprised this unit isn’t getting more targets in the pass game, although it really does seem like Leonard struggles and does not like throwing over the middle. Most of the throws are short and to the sideline, leaving the tight ends as little more than glorified fullbacks hoping to run past the 1st down line and move the chains as defenders dive at their knees.
OFFENSIVE LINE: B
Who was going in at right tackle if Wagner couldn’t have continued? That’s the question everyone was asking themselves when the cameras kept panning to him limping. Luckily, he was able to continue and doesn’t appear to have suffered anything too serious.
I thought the line played fine, there was only one sack and the pass protection was solid. The run blocking clearly wasn’t playing at a high level and slowed down Notre Dame’s athletic running backs.
DEFENSIVE LINE: B+
Things didn’t look awesome early and there was a bad taste in the mouth when this game was close. Still, the RedHawks only scored 3 points and 1 of their 2 red zone trips was thanks to Faison’s punt return fumble. As the game progressed, the Irish started dominating up front.
I thought Chuck Martin gave up on the run way too early. For a while, I was having flashback nightmares to his time in South Bend! It was like the RedHawks forgot about running and were chucking up prayers down the sideline to well covered receivers.
Was this the game where the Boubacar Traore era began in his first start? A pair of sacks and a forced fumble is a nice day at the office.
LINEBACKER: B+
Some of these weaker teams have found success pushing Notre Dame off the ball early and it’s affected the linebacker play. I wonder how things will fare against a really strong offense.
It was hard not to notice Drayk Bowen on the series where he broke up a pass and followed it up with a sack. I do think the helmet and facemask combination he uses looks super weird, though. I’ve put him our header photo for the game review.
Do we not blitz as much with the linebackers this year? That aggressiveness seems down by a healthy amount this year. I wonder if that will be increased as guys like Ausberry and KVA get more comfortable as the season goes on.
DEFENSIVE BACK: A
For as frustrating as Notre Dame’s passing game is to watch, imagine being a Miami (OH) fan and playing the Irish? Their quarterbacks combined for 22 incompletions, only mustered 119 yards through the air, didn’t throw a touchdown, and were intercepted twice.
Not great for the visitors!
I checked and 8 passes broken up is the most since the NC State game just a little over a year ago.
NOTES:
Not a whole lot from me in this section, I thought this was an intensely boring game all around.
James Rendell punted well! A 47.3 average on 4 punts is well above average, I think? Who really knows punting numbers outside of the Rigney Brothers? All I know is he came into the game with a 39.1 yard average (4th worst among qualified punters) and it looked much better on Saturday.
I’ve always thought Faison is a little too loose catching the ball on punt returns. You don’t need to be Willie Mays Hayes out there in center field. When he was caught up in traffic that looseness bit him.
The RedHawks were limited to just 3.6 yards per play which makes it 3 out of the first 4 opponents held under 4 YPP this season. That NIU averaged just a tick under 6 yards per play remains maddening. The Huskies also lost their MAC opener at home to Buffalo despite out-gaining the Bulls 359 to 184. We all saw it coming.
Adon Shuler’s unsportsmanlike penalty for tossing the ball at the Miami sideline after getting a 3rd down stop goes into the bonehead Hall of Fame, luckily it didn’t end up mattering.
Bryce Young blocked the first of what may be many field goals in his career.
Oh for a game from our QB filled with “standard completions”.
On some of Leonard’s inaccurate throws I find myself questioning the WRs effort. As a unit there may be more of them this year but, their production isn’t much improved. Didn’t we all expect more ?
No mention of Pendelton’s 3 false starts ? It looked like Leonard was making more of an effort to step up in the pocket. That helps the Oline.
I have a fun game – rank these QBs by (lack of) enjoyability to watch: 2010 Crist, 2013 Rees, 2017-2018 Wimbush, 2022 Pyne, 2024 Leonard.
IMO, in order of increasing frustration: Rees (benefitting from having already-set expectations), Wimbush, Crist, Leonard, and Pyne as the most frustrating of all. I think there’s an argument to be made that Leonard is the best of the lot, but also he may have underperformed expectations the most too.
Pyne was really bad, but 4 games into the Leonard era things are not looking great
Least to most frustrating:
2010 Crist: Insufficient data for a meaningful answer.
2017-2018 Wimbush: Had some great games in 2017, beat Michigan in 2018, and there was a clean plan for replacing him.
2013 Rees: The definition of average. Forced into the role by Golson being suspended.
2022 Pyne: The final and most serious symptom of Rees’s QB recruiting.
2024 Leonard: We are paying millions of dollars for this.
Thank you for this – especially during the first half, I could not stop thinking “I do not enjoy watching Riley Leonard leading this offense.” The opposing team – a mid level MAC team – knew to sell out on stopping the run.
This offense is just plain bad. A good defense, that can take away some of Leonard’s runs, and who doesn’t need to resort to PI on one-on-one deep attempts, will shut it down.
The defense did not look spectacular, but they are consistent in not giving up many points.
Overall, happy that they won, but boy oh boy does the passing game look bad. If I was a high school WR recruit or WR transfer, I’d say no thanks to an ND offer
I agree with you on the offense and I think we have a Miami 2017 situation headed our way, possibly as soon as September 28. An above-average defense will create major struggles for this offense; a good defense will piledrive it into the dirt.
That said, there’s a good post on BGS that’s made me second-guess my negativity about the offense, at least for this season. The short version is that we already have an excellent rushing attack that Leonard is an essential part of, and trading that for an OK rushing attack and an OK passing attack with Angeli isn’t worth it at this point. Maybe true.
That THAT said, I still think the Leonard plan is damaging to the long-term offensive health of the program.
I’d rather roll with any of the back ups for the developmental reason you laid out before and for having some level of variation. We know for sure if the running game isn’t clicking, then we have nothing. I don’t think this team is as good as the Purdue game or as bad as the NIU game, but we’re clearly not a playoff caliber team even if we somehow manage to limp our way into the new expanded field. In short, bench Leonard and fire Freeman.
Seems to be a common theme but this team is not fun to watch and almost all of that boils down to leonard at qb. the o line isn’t great and the injuries along both lines make it less fun; some freeman decisions as well (the timeout post adon shuler personal foul was really dumb and just plain stubborn and setting for a 52 yard fg attempt was not smart). But mostly its leonard is a really tough watch.
Getting a free pass in all this is the announcing crew. garrett is awful, boring and adds nothing insightful. he’s like a pre recorded video game announcer who says the same 9 things and offers nothing extra. He commended nd for getting the second half started with a nice drive starter. it was a 3 yard gain to set up 2nd and 7.
“He commended nd for getting the second half started with a nice drive starter. it was a 3 yard gain to set up 2nd and 7.“
Notre Dame is the best at this in all of college football.
I think the grade has to be incomplete for the WRs. Sure, some more playmaking would be nice, but that’s facilitated by a qb with even average ball placement. Leonard can’t hit slants with proper timing/placement, they’re relying on simple and short routes that are easy to sit on bc there’s v little threat of various other routes part of a decent offense aside from occasional go balls, overall I just don’t have a clear sense at all of how good the WR corps is.
Given the last half decade or so of Notre Dame WR play, I’m comfortable saying they’re not particularly good regardless of how bad the QB is.
One 1000-yard receiver since Fuller left, yikes
Appreciate everyone’s thoughts, as always.
The whole Riley Leonard saga, following Sam Hartmann and indeed Jack Coan, highlights Urban Meyer’s recent comment about why in the world Notre Dame is relying on portal QBs.
Which as one of you points out dates from BK’s inability to recruit enough really good ones. Which leaves me sympathetic in a sense to HCMF’s dilemma, and I am not sure I can blame him for trying one more bandaid in the transfer market before one of Minchey or Carr develops.
But the bandaid can’t throw well nor visualize the field as a passer (though remarkably he visualizes the field extremely well as a runner).
This all kinds of reminds me of the Dan Devine era and all the ups and downs before finally settling on Montana — only at least back then all the QBs were our own guys. So I am wondering… does the fact that we must have organized million(s) to get RL here put a burden on Freeman to not pull RL out? Let me surmise, to not disappoint some sort of sponsor? I may be way off base here, but the presence of lots of money in the portal process is clearly a brand new factor in evaluating what’s going on, so I wanted to toss that out there.
Mike Goolsby keeps harping on ND not getting Leonard in for a medical checkup before landing him. If that’s true isn’t Leonard’s lack of progress from missing so much camp somewhat on the coaching staff too? It’s mind boggling to think they didn’t do that after a season ending injury.
Having a QB with such accuracy problems is so disappointing. I still think this is a team with enough talent to have secured a home playoff game and win in the opening round, alas, except for the QB issue. Now I think they are most likely one loss away from no playoff game at all and playing on road if they run the table. While watching the last two games, I find myself upset at myself, that I believed all the Leonard hype. Every time he throws a bad one, I sink a little deeper into despair.
I think everyone including the staff needs to stop thinking about the playoffs. Even if we could make it there at 11-1 — which is going to be a stretch given how bad the NIU loss is going to look — what does anyone realistically expect this team to actually do in the playoffs? We can’t stay focused for more than one week at a time and we’re going to be facing some of the best defenses in the country. Getting pounded by Alabama or Ohio State or whoever a week before Christmas does absolutely nothing for the long-term good of this program.
It’s going to be a Gator Bowl type year. That can still be productive in its own way, but not how this team is being coached now.
I’ll take a nice Gator Bowl win with some hope over losing by 38 to Ohio State or an SEC school
If they were to get to 11-1.(unlikely) I don’t see anyone beating them by 38…. IMO , 11-1 means the passing game has improved some and the O-Line too. I still have great confidence in this defense.
11-1 just as likely means we win a bunch of very ugly games – hey maybe some more Purdue games in there too – against a very, very soft schedule. I think the defense, which I am very high on and have been for a few years, is good enough to pull that off.
im pretty sure aside from having it as the stated goal the staff is not thinking about the playoffs. but at 11-1 they are in, 100% lock.
from a fan standpoint i get that no one wants to have a postseason failure. but making the playoffs (and what that means you did the rest of the regular season) would be huge. and the first round would far more likely be a Penn State or Miami or Tennessee type of team. who knows what this team will look like or those by December.
nobody is going to argue that’s unlikely or that you should keep your hopes up, but you gotta be fine with people who choose to go put themselves on the other end of that spectrum
Yea count me in the “playoffs are an important milestone” train.
It might not mean as much anymore to make it because it’s bigger but then at the same time it’s worse not to make than it was before for the same reason.
And of course coaches and players just need to be focused on the next game. No one is really good enough – let alone ND – to do anything differently. But that doesn’t mean it’s still not a goal and an important one at that.
Well the new playoff ruined everything, and the bowls are now even more devaluated. With the top 12 teams out of the old bowl rotation, at this point the Gator Bowl might as well be the Boca Raton Bowl or whatever the one in Arizona is that changes sponsors every single year, where it’ll feel like a let down just getting there, a good 10-20 players will no longer be with the team, and you just have to hope that your opponent had even more guys sit out for the draft or the portal than you.
Well the bowls are definitely more devalued – but that was already happening with all the players opting out too (which was not a result of the expanded playoffs).
Or maybe you mean the 4 team playoff ruined everything (not sure what you mean by “new” – the 4 team or 12 team) but yes it devalued the bowls. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is another question but that is definitely true.
Well playoffs turned out to be a terrible idea in general, and now the 12 team version will only make the problem worse. Great sport we’ve got here.
A terrible idea for what though? It’s not terrible for determining an actual champion.
I’ve tried to stay away, but like a heroin addiction I just can’t control myself.
Feel the same as many here regarding Leonard. He’s just not the answer for this team right now. He looks like a sad, beaten down puppy out there IMO and you can’t have it as your starting QB. Even the Purdue game had a feeling of “when is something bad going to happen” among the players.
I don’t think you have to go to Angeli 100% for the rest of the season, but Leonard needs a pause. For a staff who has preached ultra competitiveness and starting younger/inexperienced guys over 5th year seniors, they have failed to do so 2 years in a row at the QB position. After the Clemson game last year, there was no need for Hartman to take another snap at ND. Hand the keys to Angeli and see what he has to offer in game, but it didn’t happen and here we are. What a frustrating 3 weeks and I have to say I’m so happy to have a dinner and concert with the wife and friends on Saturday night so I don’t have to put myself through the emotional roller coaster live.
There’s a small weird part of me that wonders if Angeli isn’t getting more run because if he started a bunch of games it would be harder to anoint CJ Carr, which seems to be what The Plan is.
I’ve thought the same tbh and then tell myself I’m just being a cynic. Hell, I would take them putting in Carr for a couple of series then if that’s the plan. It’s so hard to play one dimensional football and right now with Leonard that’s where we are at.
The throw Angeli had to Harrison had against Purdue was enough for me to say, yes you have to make this move. However, I think the team will drag this out and wait until we’re down 17 or 21 points to make a change, wouldn’t surprise me if it’s this weekend.
I really think the reasoning is simply that Freeman knows he’s likely not going to make the playoff next year and if he doesn’t make the playoff this year then he’s getting fired at the end of next season. There’s a bit of a principal-agent problem in terms of what’s best for the program in the long term right now, one that is only solved by (a) losing a second game or (b) making the playoff. In some ways a worst-case scenario for the program in the long term (assuming we don’t collapse to 7-5 or worse) is going into USC 10-1 and losing.
I’m not saying you’re wrong — in fact I largely agree with you — but I think people are just going to have to see with their own eyes how meaningless merely making the playoff is. It is not going to be fun when ND’s season is completely over on December 20 after we shat the bed at home in a first round game.
I didn’t even enjoy when we got smoked in the four team playoff. If we somehow sneak our way into the expanded one, it’s going to end the season on an even more sour note.
I think we could still make the playoff with Carr or Angeli at QB. The team put 59 offensive points against Purdue with zero threat of a passing game.
I think a threat of any intermediate to deep completions would change everyone’s feelings including my own. But when we’re completely stubbing our toe on the easiest throws i it makes it very difficult to move the ball effectively.
I mean, maybe? But my point is that people are assigning a ton of importance to checking the box of “made the playoffs” when that, in and of itself, means very little.
Put it this way — do you look back fondly on times when your MLB team lost the Wild Card series, or when ND basketball lost in the first round to a liberal arts college with 2000 students?
I don’t know, it does and it doesn’t. I understand what you’re saying that making the playoffs is meaningless especially in the historical context of CFB. But imagine if it were still a 4 team playoff or the old BCS. ND’s season would have been done and the rest of the season means nothing.
I 100% agree with you that hanging a banner saying we made the playoffs 3 out of 4 years means little. But for a sport that I invest wayyy too much time into, I want to see them make the playoffs. And oddly enough, I think a Freeman team in the playoffs would be fine. I trust him against the top teams way more than I do the bottom 3rd of our schedule and I don’t think he would get blown out.
No, we’d go to a different bowl game and maybe get to end the season on a nice note. Like we did last year.
You can firmly count me out of wanting that. I felt like last year ended like paying a hooker. It was quick, easy, and felt good for a few minutes, but it left me feeling empty and uncertain.
There are no more good feelings for elite programs playing in non-playoff bowl games any more. They are all straightforwardly loser games, at least from the perspective of a program that claims to aspire to national championships.
As is getting pasted by Ole Miss in the Citrus bowl or whatever. You’re not a big boy just because you limped to the #10 seed in a charmin soft schedule
Yea it’s basically playoffs or bust from now on.
It’s the NCAA Tournament mindset now. The only thing worse than getting embarrassed in March Madness is not even getting invited.
Yes, I think so. But in football it would basically mean regularly being a top 10 program.
Making the playoff is absolutely better than not. How is 11-1 and in the playoff not better than 10-2 and not in the playoff? How is one more game that actually matters not better than a glorified scrimmage? Because you’re afraid of a possible result?…yikes.
“Over ranked Notre Dame gets nationally embarrassed in major bowl game” has gotten a bit tiresome as a narrative in my lifetime.
True, no one likes getting embarrassed. They’ll be many playoff games that are one sided. As a matter of fact teams get beat badly every week. Getting a kick at the can is still better than not. To say you’d rather not compete? Now that’s embarrassing.
I’d rather we hire a good coach and field a national title competitive team but that is apparently too much to ask.
Strawman.
2007 called it wants it’s “name a fallacy on a message board” argumentation back.
Not a downvoter but I have to say I disagree with this a little bit. I think now if you don’t make the playoffs in any year at a program like ND, it’s a straightforwardly bad season. I take the point that you can make the playoffs and still argue it wasn’t a good season, but all non-playoff seasons are bad results now. To my mind the standard for a good coach at ND going forward is at least 2 playoff seasons for every non-playoff season.
And if Freeman doesn’t make it this year, that’s basically three dud seasons in a row of various degrees of dud-ness. He’ll be on the hottest seat in the country going into the season next year, which will probably affect recruiting and just be a super dreary offseason. If we make it, even if we lose by twenty to Tennessee, we can still make the “Freeman is building something” case, give him a mostly-fake extension that doesn’t add much to his buyout but is done for appearances’/recruiting’s sake, and see how next year goes.
And a major factor for next year too is whether or not the QB (whoever he is) shows some major promise (even if he makes some rookie-like mistakes). Is the QB an obvious building block for a playoff/championship level team or not? If yes, Freeman can sell the ‘building things’ narrative. If not, well he could be done depending on what happens the rest of this year.
I do agree that a non-playoff season is a bad season for Notre Dame, full stop. But – but – you can take positives away from a non-playoff season, including a bowl win to set you up for the next year on a positive note. The issue is not that missing the playoffs mean you had A Bad Year but that making the playoff does not mean you had a good year or are set up for good things going forward.
I’ll liken this to the Bears and Matt Nagy. He limped into the playoffs in 2020 which is on its face good. Except the team sucked, was very lucky to get there, got embarrassed, and they’re still rebuilding from the domino effect.
Making the playoff is better than not making the playoff any year. You need a better team to do that. Would making the playoffs this year mean greater success for ND next year ? Probably not, as they’re losing a bunch of players. Winning a bowl game they still lose those players.
For ND to make the playoff now, they won’t be “limping” in. It’ll take 10 wins in a row.
Ask the players which they’d prefer. Of course they’d say playoffs. So would recruits.
I guarantee the “mojo” of 9-3 with a bowl win will not be very good.
This is kind of circular, no?
If we make the playoff, we are a good team, because only good teams make the playoffs.
You don’t really need a better team, not functionally. Like ACS pointed out somewhere else, an 11-1 vs. 10-2 Notre Dame team this year is going to be the same regardless but given our schedule, one makes the playoff and one doesn’t. Could be as simple as a missed FG changing the season. A slightly inflated win total can paper over underlying issues (we can’t develop QBs or WRs)
I mean, think back to 2015. Ohio State poops out of a game against Michigan State and ends up in the third-place B1G bowl, despite being the only good team in the conference.
I was looking at the list of playoff participants and 2015 Michigan State feels like a lifetime ago. But I do still remember them having something like an 8 minute, 15 play, 85 yard drive to clinch the B1G title game.
An important distinction between the NFL and college in making the playoffs is that in the NFL making the playoffs has a distinct disadvantage in terms of making your next year’s draft pick worse than if you had lost a few more games, whereas making the playoffs in college is basically all upside in terms of effect on the program, at least as compared to not making the playoffs.
The best thing that can be said for the latter is it might accelerate getting a coach fired, so basically the only reason to not want ND to make the playoffs this year is so that it might ensure they get rid of Freeman quicker. But if that’s the goal you might as well cheer for them to lose the rest of our games.
Only marginally so in both cases. You change a couple slots in the NFL. Going by the Jimmy Johnson chart, the value of last in vs. first out is 25 points, or the equivalent of a late 5th rounder. At this point in college, the entire class has basically signed already come playoff time and it doesn’t seem to make too much difference for kids signing a year later. I’m not even sure how much winning it all totally helps – last year Michigan was #16 in the composite, this year they’re #15, right now they’re #20 for next year. Bit of a special circumstance with the coaching change and all.
And yes, I want to get rid of Freeman quicker. I don’t want Notre Dame to lose any individual game but I also don’t want to have him do juuust good enough where people squint and say that’s fine let’s lock him down. I had very similar thoughts about Tommy before.
Here’s what I’m struggling with:
Freeman goes 10-2 this year and we miss the playoffs, go to the Citrus Bowl or whatever. That’s a “dud season” according to you.
Freeman goes 11-1 this year and we make the playoffs and are immediately bounced in the first round, perhaps in a blowout.
What is the substantive difference between those two seasons?
Making the playoffs is now a benchmark – like winning a division in pro sports – or winning a conference in college football.
And while in one way there can be only a small difference (like making one field goal or catching one INT or something like that) that would make one go from hitting the benchmark to not reaching the benchmark, it turns into a bigger deal when considered with respect to the benchmark.
So the quality of the team may not have been that much different (in some cases at least).
But the importance of benchmarks are different than just telling you about the quality of the team. In college football they are probably most important for fan-base, donors, recruiting and the overall narrative of success. In the end are you reaching the goals set for the program or not (regardless of whatever advanced analytics say about the quality of the team)? Winning/reaching those benchmarks are still the preferred/simplest way to measure success.
For me the substantive difference is that I learned nothing about Freeman as a coach in the 10-2 season that we haven’t already known in years 1 and 2.
11-1 and making the playoffs, we will get to see how he and his teams respond in those huge moments. That’s what I want to see and learn.
I think you can learn and change the approach in the Marshall’s and NIU’s over the years. But I think you’re either a big game coach or you’re not, rarely do those coaches end up getting over the hurdle and changing – ala BK.
Maybe it all falls apart this season and Freeman starts getting blown out, but I’ve yet to see a game where his team has been blown out in any game so I’m not really sure why so many are convinced ND would likely get blown out in the playoff.
I think he struggles with not keeping the foot on the gas 100% of the time for the lesser than opponents. He falls into the trap of saving players/saving plays against the crappier teams. NIU they didn’t run Leonard outside of the first series really and it cost them. Purdue – they were still running Leonard, Price and Love when they were already up big and had already lost 3 guys for the season.
He’s only been a HC for 3 years. Saban had been a HC for 8 years before winning his first NC and had been coaching football for 30 years at that point. CMF is only 38 years old. If BK were just a marginally better coach and ran Dexter Williams more against UGA in 2017, they’re not playing for a NC and then it’s 5 years before they’re playing for a Natty.
I want to see CMF play in big games and making the playoffs guarantees that happens. I also want to see him start beating the snot out of the patsies and I’d love to see him make a move at QB.
OK, that’s an interesting reason — let’s see if Freeman is maybe an OK regular season coach but a great playoff coach, like a football Tom Izzo.
Thanks!
Could be! And if that’s the case, then just be honest with Angeli about his future and start Carr.
I think Freeman can make a totally reasonable case that (1) he took Leonard because Carr was so young, (2) Leonard was a massive bust, and (3) when that became apparent, Freeman moved on to Carr as the QB of the future.
I for one would accept that explanation even if it meant a 7-5 type season this year.
Not a fun game to play. If ND misses the playoffs, how many guys on the two deep sit out the bowl game?
15?
“Oh boy I hope ND doesn’t get to the playoffs to bet embarasssd by Tennessee”
[Monkey’s paw curls, ND has all the seniors sit out and gets embarrassed by a fired up Indiana team in the Pinstripe Bowl]
ah the Pinstripe Bowl, or, Tommy’s Greatest Hits Vol. 3
Pete Sampson had a couple of interesting articles in the Athletic this week. He apparently spent the week with Chuck Martin’s staff as they prepared for ND, and wrote some pretty damning things about their scouting of us. Seems like there are some very obvious tells based on formation that make our offense more predictable and easy to defend than you’d like.
Also, Miami (OH) was banking on making Leonard beat them with his arm, confident that he couldn’t. Now, they weren’t able to execute that defensive plan as well as they wanted to, but it seems like the book is out on Denbrock’s offense, at least as long as they’ve got Leonard on the field.
This is what bothers me about keeping Leonard on the field 100% of the time. It doesn’t give the defense anything else to think about it so you’re just left hoping that Leonard finally starts throwing the ball well or reading a zone defense. I’d prefer to make a change than hope a player “figures” it out mid game.
I don’t trust Sampson about much of anything, but if even half of that is true, woof.
He says directly what the tells are and they’re pretty obvious stuff that anyone watching film should pick up on too. He didn’t use the example, but it’s like the level of a lineman lining up square vs. one foot back for running vs. passing downs.
However, someone on NDN says they rewatched part of the game after reading this article, and found that those tendencies were not holding true, so either we had self-scouted and stopped those issues, or the article makes too much of it.
We got ’em right where we want ’em!
Oh wow almost like Sampson just puts out bullshit to flatter whoever he’s with.
It was a Chuck Martin puff piece. Chuck seems like a nice guy and all and it wasn’t a bad read, but yeah, very very favorable.
Three games in and they have the book on Leonard and Dembrock ? Ya, sure they do….. Funny how Flammang was talking about different wrinkles they put in vs. Miami.
I didn’t read Sampson’s article as particularly damning. I took it as basically what all staffs probably try to do and find tendencies in other teams. And they thought they found some.
The main thing I thought was damning was that they saw the same thing we all see – if you can bottle him up and make him throw, he’s not a threat. That’s… not a great scouting report for a QB
I see but it’s not damning from a schematic perspective which is what it seemed like you meant. It’s not that our schemes are somehow so obvious to teams (at least not any more than any other teams), it’s just that are QB has some limitations. That’s obviously true.