The vastly superior color came away with the win on Saturday afternoon as the Blue squad defeated the Gold squad 17-3 in front of a few thousand students and family members during Notre Dame’s 2021 spring game. Here are my thoughts from all of the action inside Notre Dame Stadium:
I thought former receiver Corey Robinson did a very good job as the color commentator. Perhaps the bar is so low since he’s incredibly young but if this is something he wants to pursue he could have a great future. Also, rising 2022 senior Carolyn Pineda did a tremendous job with the sideline coverage, too.
NBC and Peacock not putting the down and distance on the screen, nor the first down line, was embarrassing. It was really difficult to get a feel for the game without those visuals. This led to a lot of confusion on a two-man touch whistle and suddenly the offense is punting.
Upon first watch, I thought Coan played better than Pyne but that it was somewhat close overall. After a re-watch, I gave a more sizable edge to Coan. Of the top 10 throws on the day, Coan had at least 5 or 6 of the best, flashed some nice arm strength, and gave us the greatest repertoire of throws to different parts of the field.
Coan looked to me like a smaller version of Dayne Crist, with a slightly weaker arm. That seems like a knock but to me it’s not, Crist had major physical gifts. But, I see a lot of similarities of staying in the pocket, making some impressive throws, and running in the open field when there’s space. His delivery is a little long and slow at times which hurts when protection isn’t great and he’s not firing with complete certainty. But, he steps up in the pocket really well and stands tall which is a huge bonus for the offense.
I really like Pyne’s demeanor, there seems to be something there that can’t be explained. It must be something about his leadership which always gets commented on during broadcasts. Yet, after a re-watch I was a little more critical of his performance. Until his move up the pocket and beautiful seam throw to Lawrence Keys early in the 2nd half there hadn’t been a completion for Pyne that was worth writing home about. However, his arm appears much more lively than Book’s and to date he’s not afraid to air it out deep. His delivery is just so nice and compact, a necessity due to his size.
I didn’t think the set up of the offensive lines gave Pyne much of a chance, to be honest. Here’s how things looked:
BLUE (Pyne)
LT Tosh Baker
LG Rocco Spindler
C Dillan Gibbons
RG John Dirksen
RT Michael Carmody
GOLD (Coan)
LT Blake Fisher
LG Quinn Carroll
C Zeke Correll
RG Andrew Kristofic
RT Josh Lugg
For the most part, the offensive lines did not look very good. The blue squad struggled immensely at times, seemed to settle down for a bit, and then continued to struggle. Gibbons (is he being groomed as the backup center for good now?) got pushed around, had a false start, and a bad snap. Spindler was okay for his age but got out-muscled big time giving up a couple sacks. Dirksen just does not look at the same level of physicality as his teammates. I didn’t see too many errors from Carmody (except a false start) but Baker was downright abused at times, including being beat a lot by speed rushes to his outside.
The gold squad looked far more cohesive and physical. The exception being Quinn Carroll who looks a bit too lumbering and struggles with moving his feet. He was beat on a spin move early in the game that gave up a sack and then got beat again for another sack later. To me, Fisher went nearly the entire game without making a mistake until Foskey got him with a nice inside move to pick up a tackle for loss in the 2nd half.
I’d open fall camp like this:
LT Fisher — LG Patterson — C Correll — RG TBD — RT Lugg
I think Fisher is ready for this immense challenge and he’ll excel with Patterson next to him. I guess you could put Patterson at tackle and flip Fisher to right tackle but this opens up way more questions at guard. From what I saw today, I’m not sure Tosh Baker is ready to start yet.
Where is the hype meter for Buchner after this performance? I’m mostly of the mind that we shouldn’t take for granted that how he performed, and how he looked doing it, is super rare in college football. Remember, he also played behind the worse offensive line, too. His seam throw to Keys on the first touchdown drive of the game was an absolute highlight. It was interesting to hear Robinson’s comments on Buchner’s throwing motion too, I think it’s kind of beautiful as well. He definitely has a weird action on short passes but on most other throws his release is outrageously quick with the ball coming out swiftly. With no visible accuracy concerns this is a huge win for Buchner this spring–he looks immensely talented.
If we are assuming the offensive line is going to have some poor moments, this seems bad for Pyne. He had a throw in the second half on a comeback route to Keys that fell at the receiver’s feet. Pyne had a ton of pressure in his face (this is the header photo in the article) and just doesn’t have the physical gifts to muscle the ball across the field. Like I said, there’s something about Pyne that makes me think he’s going to start a bunch of games at Notre Dame but I can’t lie and say that Buchner isn’t way more enticing, even for 2021.
The offense gave up 9 sacks which actually seems average for most spring games. Still, so many of them came on 3rd down and stalled drives so it felt even worse in real time. I think it’s fine to be pleased with the performance of Coan and Pyne but neither led a touchdown drive!
During the game, the offense went 5 for 21 on 3rd down AND 1 for 5 on 4th down. That’s a big yikes for me. A lack of a legit No. 1 receiver on the outside, plus missing Book’s legs, could really cripple this offense on 3rd down unless there’s a surprising amount of explosiveness to cover that up. I think there’s a belief that Coan’s arm is going to open up the offense with throws down field but the situation at receiver could really neuter this attempt. You can only throw so much to Michael Mayer on third down.
The quarterbacks threw 67 passes so even though some of the receiver stats look good it was a high volume day that sort of skews the data. For the record, Coan and Pyne combined to go 29 of 55 (52.7%) for 343 yards (6.2 YPA) with 2 interceptions. Buchner was 6 of 9 (66.6%) for 140 yards (15.5 YPA) with a rushing touchdown. Coan just over-throwing Davis in the end zone really prevented him from truly coming away from the spring game with more headlines.
Davis (5 receptions for 84 yards) is a known commodity and looked good in executing his specialty intermediate routes. Lenzy (5 for 88) was also flashing at times. I was less impressed with Keys and Wilkins. The former had 115 yards on 5 catches but it took 14(!) targets while Wilkins only caught 2 passes for 35 yards on 7 targets. They would’ve combined for a far more pedestrian 3 or 4 catches during a normal game and 30 overall pass attempts.
Jordan Johnson had a couple nice blocks and wasn’t able to bring in an inaccurate fade towards the front of the end zone so he was held without a catch. It doesn’t seem like a JJ breakout is happening any time soon. Same for freshman Lorenzo Styles (2 catches for 9 yards on 5 targets).
Michael Mayer didn’t even play but are we witnessing freshman Mitchell Evans break out before our eyes? In our game preview I wondered if we’d see anyone who looked like the future and Evans did just that hauling in 3 catches for 59 yards on just those 3 targets. So far, he looks a little less lumbering than the other tight end options.
The sacks ruined the rushing stats, just 64 yards overall for the day. However, Williams and Tyree combined for a respectable 59 yards on 13 carries with a handful of decent runs.
I thought it was weird that in a game where they weren’t running the ball very much they did so on a 3rd & 2 in the red zone that got wrapped up quickly by a flying Ramon Henderson tackle. Earlier in the game, Henderson had great coverage on Lenzy but a late tug on the receiver drew a flag.
I didn’t pay attention as much to the defense in this game. In terms of scheme I didn’t see a whole lot but I did find some things worth pointing out:
*I’m not sure I saw many–or even any–true 3-man fronts. I made a business decision not to watch the game a third time and rewind while counting all the positional players.
*They seemed to alternate between covering the center (usually a sign of a 3-man front but not always), shading more towards the guard, or keeping the nose guard and/or defensive tackle far away from the ball. At times, there were a lot of 6-man front looks before the snap with the 4 defensive linemen pulled out wide and the middle linebackers hovering near the ball. Usually, the linebackers pulled back in coverage but a few times they blitzed. This should be a staple of Freeman’s defense.
*Did you notice the Vyper pass-rusher almost always was standing up? This was a feature I noticed Freeman utilizing at Cincinnati with his 4-man fronts and as far as I could tell it was just about every snap on Saturday during the spring game. Sometimes, you’ll see this position lining up way, way out wide.
Shayne Simon had a super interception that looked almost too easy for him, so casual! He was actually in coverage on a split out Kyren Williams which is a huge mismatch for the offense. The defense actually stayed in a 4-3 against a 5-wide receiver look which isn’t ideal, but it was just a tremendous play from Simon. I think Coan is susceptible to these types of throws without a super quick release. And yet, Simon finishes the game with just 1 tackle. He’s just not around the ball it’s extremely weird.
Simon’s INT formation: Uncovered center, Foskey standing out wide, Simon on Kyren!
Kiser seems way out ahead in the battle to play Rover. Using this game as our guide–and knowing Drew White is starting–it seems like the top linebackers will be White, Liufau, Kiser, and Bauer with maybe some Simon sprinkled in there occasionally.
Cam Hart has the physique of a basketball player. He looks hilariously long but not really heavy or slow the way I compared his specs to Donte Vaughn. I’m intrigued, for sure.
KJ Wallace had a really impressive break on the ball for a PBU, although he got there a bit early.
Backup safety Litchfield Ajavon sure seemed hyped up in a way that bordered on weird for a spring game. He laid a big hit on the sidelines, broke up a pass in the end zone that surely would’ve been called targeting in a real game, and finished things off with another PBU to get a stop in the red zone.
Caleb Offord made a beautiful diving PBU but also seemed to get lost while giving up a 3rd & 18 reception to Lenzy. I saw Offord backpedal as if in zone coverage and pass off Lenzy to a safety who wasn’t there.
Freshman safety Justin Walters made the play of the day with a diving interception off Pyne. The ball was slightly behind the receiver but Walters showed off impressive burst to close and create the turnover.
***
We basically just went a whole spring and saw 1 full practice in a game setting. The usual caveats about taking too much away from the Blue-Gold Game applies.
I think we have a good handle on this defense. If they don’t suffer a couple bad injuries in the secondary it looks like there is admirable player development going on there to make us feel better about the future in 2021 and beyond. On Saturday, the likes of MTA, Hinish, Foskey, Botelho, and Jayson Ademilola blatantly showed they are among the best players on the team and can wreak havoc when needed. This is going to be a problem for most of the offenses Notre Dame faces.
I’m still lukewarm on the offense. They really need a Michael Floyd-type to raise all boats at receiver and throughout the whole offense with that hope being Kevin Austin ascendance or bust now it seems. Without that type of difference maker I think the ceiling just isn’t very high with a projected okay offensive line and the dual-threat quarterback ability pretty much gone from the offense. I can see why there are reports the program is exploring options in the receiver transfer market, although you have to wonder how much of an impact player would come this summer. Either way, a major breakout at quarterback or receiver needs to happen to change the calculus. I’m not sure Coan with what we know about these receivers right now strikes much fear into the top third of Notre Dame’s schedule.
Nice writeup. I think Liufau is going to be a big problem this year, just seems like he flashes a lot and isn’t subtle, big hits. Front seven in general should be fun and the strength of the team.
Your end thoughts on the offense were a little more down than I expected. They barely played Kyren and no Mayer, no Patterson and no Austin — not shocking why they didn’t look great. I’m not quite sure what to make out of Coan. I did love how he would step into the pocket and trusted his eyes and was gunning it down the field. That stood out after being used to Book. The lack of mobility and ability to use legs to move the chains will be some of the downsides..I feel like Coan is OK, and probably QB1, but I don’t know that he’s got a very high ceiling, but at least the floor of what he will give it fairly high.
I also think you were a bit harsh on Pyne, but I didn’t rewatch the game. Given the significant and unmentioned factor about the wind, I didn’t think his arm looked too terribly weak. There were those couple throws he was inaccurate on, but he was throwing it downfield and across the field and showing some pop. He’s not Mahomes or Josh Allen, of course, but I thought Pyne at least checked the box that he can operate the offense if they need him.
Liked Buchner, it’ll be interesting to see if they work him in. Remember when Wimbush was the starter in 2018 but they brought Book in under center in the red zone? Wonder if they consider something similar for Buchner in 2021….Especially since Coan sputtered getting in the end zone after getting down the field a couple times too..
While the offense was missing its best player, the defense was missing its two best players (at least arguably). I think the relative pessimism on QB and WR is pretty warranted. I think a sign of “we might have a problem” for QB is if Pyne is still considered in the mix in August, and the quasi-equivalent for WR if there are rumors that Wilkins is still up for starting consideration around then. Those are guys whose capabilities have strong “career backup” vibes… but they might not have anybody better in front of them.
On the offensive flipside, I was pretty impressed with how Tyree looked. We might have the best RB corps in the country next year. It will be interesting to see how much great RBs can do behind a developing line. Conventional wisdom at this point is that RBs don’t matter nearly as much as the line, but ultimately you still have to tackle them.
Also, Blake Fisher, wow. He’s huge. Give him four years with Balis and that seems like a surefire first-round pick.
The defense was missing some quality but the DL vs OL was unaffected and always going to be a huge mismatch. Especially in spring games and touch sack quick whistles. Defense could have had Kyle Hamilton and they’re still giving up all those sacks..
The 2 most talented pass catchers were out, so by the same token, how good are the receivers gonna look? I was pretty impressed by Davis, he’s going to make some plays this year. He’s got some magic in him, he gets separation or finds ways to get open. It was also a positive day for Lenzy.
I’m pretty upbeat about an Austin-Lenzy-Davis normal starting set of WR for this year, even if putting a lot of faith in Austin is risky. If Keys and especially Wilkins get this much playing time and targets in the fall, I’d be worried. It’s spring though.
I agree about the bullishness on RB. Really hoping and expecting them to use 2 RB set a bunch, motion either Tyree or Kyren out and send him in space. Both are good receivers. If the line is shaky then don’t rely on that, get playmakers out in the field and get them the ball and let them go. If that’s not the identity, the team is in trouble. But, I mean, the best skill players are: Mayer, Williams, Austin, Tyree, Lenzy…I’d expect (or hope) those are the ones on the field the most..
Fisher is a stud…Spindler kinda gives me vibes of Quenton Nelson’s little brother with his attitude on that play basically throwing the walk-on RB into the end zone. He had that one “welcome to college” moment from Hinish, but considering Spindler should be in HS right now, that’s bound to happen…Future looks real bright eventually on the OL with Spindler and Fisher.
It’s largely hinging on Austin at this point. I believe the hype for him, I don’t even feel like it’s hope at this point in terms of raw talent. But, he’s missed so much damn football, practice and games. Just 6 career catches. Even if he’s super talented what are the odds he puts together 13 games and ~80 catches?
If he’s the guy then we’re cooking.
Patterson/Mayer don’t really move the needle for me insofar as I’m mentally already including them in my mind as being great players. But also, I’m not sure an OL/TE combo really raises the ceiling that much. Unless, Mayer nearly doubles his average per reception and gains 60% more yards per game and give us a Kyle Pitts-type year.
To me, it’s mostly quarterback/receiver and hoping for a blossoming from massive talent that likely isn’t possible because it doesn’t really exist for 2021. Right now, we seem much closer to Power 5 average at these positions than really dangerous.
Gotcha, I suppose I was giving more grace as to why the offense didn’t look amazing in May, but your bigger picture and long concerns are very valid. This doesn’t look like it has the skill to be a very dynamic and dangerous offense. Last year’s team ended up at 33.4 points/game, is this one going to be in the 28ish range?
I do think this team is going to win a lot of 28-17 type of games, on average. Defense is going to have to be the strength. I think they can probably get away with that with this schedule though and get 10 wins, but it’s true and concerning for modern football that this doesn’t look like a team capable of truly out-scoring a quality opponent.
Lol Jordan Johnson is transferring. If Lenzy/Austin get hurt, the 2021 WR group is gonna be rough, but dear god our 2022 WR crew may be Styles and 5 Skowronek-ish transfers.
Colzie, too.. Sounds like some good blockers!
Jamie U was talking about a play from the spring game where Johnson was blocking but he should have been the intended target of a screen pass and that kinda sums it up…Just didn’t end up being the right fit for either of them. Now even more reason to go find the 2021 version of Skowronek..
For a second, I thought you meant Colzie was transferring before even coming to campus.
This is the play Johnson messed up:
https://twitter.com/greg2126/status/1388916393182056450?s=20
If 2021 is best described as “rough” for the receivers, then Del Alexander is going to be out of a job. And then maybe we’ll find that there was more untapped potential in the unit than previously assumed. I see no reason to give up on guys like Watts or Brunelle yet, and certainly not ones like Colzie or Thomas before they’ve even set foot on campus.
Brunelle was a low 3 star. Colzie/Thomas will be young WRs who weren’t early enrollees (young WRs do not play for BK unless they are legit stars). Watts is a guy I was intrigued by as a recruit, but I haven’t heard much buzz about him. I’m definitely hopeful they can make use of his speed.
Alexander should have been gone after the 2020 season IMO, but BK has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt lately in regards to coaches. But I’m certainly hopeful he is encouraged to find a new job after 2021.
There does seem to be something wrong in the WR room. I can understand not having a full complement of OSU or Bama type receivers, but there should be some decent play and development of the younger players.
I wonder if McNulty should spend a little time helping with the receivers? He seems to be doing well with the TEs and is a former o-coordinator.
I’m def not on the pro Del Alexander hill (he’s probably one of the lower-end position coaches on the staff, if you had to rank them, I’d bet)…But the “young WRs do not play for BK unless they are legit stars” is interesting to me.
I know it feels like this is true, but is this true? Obviously the team is going to get a known quantity and reliable Ben Skowronek over a 5-star freshman Jordan Johnson who doesn’t know the playbook….But can a young WR play for ND?
Top 3 WR’s receptions:
2016: St. Brown (red fresh), Hunter (red jr), Stepherson (freshman)
2017: St. Brown (red soph), Claypool (soph), Stepherson (soph)
2018: Boykin (redshirt jr), Claypool (jr), Finke (red jr)
2019: Claypool (sr), Finke (grad sr), Keys (red fr)
2020: McKinley (sr), Skowronek (grad sr), Davis (red jr)
Certainly, recency effect, past few years most WR’s were veterans….But I bet if ND had more Stepherson/EQSB/Claypool level talent in 2019-20, they would be getting more freshmen/sophomores on the field at that position like they did from 2016-17. (Like, if Austin isn’t so star-crossed in his career, he’s probably on the above 2018 list in the top 3 WR receptions as a freshman and 2019 as a sophomore)
And there are some players that are not “legit stars”, at least as youngsters. Like Claypool in 2019 was a MUCH better player than he was in 2017, but he still got plenty of playing time early in his career..
And I mean they’re trying to find roles to get younger guys the ball (Styles as the main PR now). More of that would be good, better still if they can find a way to get Styles on the field a few plays per game.
The guys at II had some frank comments on Johnson. Mostly that he was greatly overrated by the services and is just not very good. They cited their class rankings of him (7-9th) prior to his arrival. Between football and school he was struggling all around.
I think this offense could be good but, they have to find two receivers that can get downfield. If they can, the TE’s and RB’s become so much more dangerous in the pass game.
Can’t disagree about the player/school fit, but I’m not sure about the very predictable media erasure that he was terribly over-rated. We’ll find out in his next stop, I suppose. Do think it’s totally fair to say he wasn’t up to speed to be an early contributor, despite recruiting service rankings, but I’d leave it at that.
I think you’re right on about downfield threats. It’s not a sexy name, but IMO Davis is a guy with a knack of getting open and can make plays. He’s gonna be a big part of this season. Lenzy is a weapon too that can take the top off. If Austin’s healthy, there you go. Probably a big ask, but we’ll see.
The offense also has really good players in Mayer, Kyren and Tyree. A real key will be how or will Rees be able to get them (especially the RBs) into space and get them the ball. It’d be preferable to have a Floyd and a Fuller as a stud WR — but there is good skill talent available.
I’m extremely excited to see how Rees uses Mayer this year. I’ve come to believe Book wasn’t tall enough to really get a good look down the middle of the field. Mayer was constantly hitting short slants/crossing routes/out routes last year. Opening him up down the middle third of the field with Coan (or Buchner) could add an exciting element to this offense we haven’t seen in a few years.
It wasn’t hindsight by the guys at II. They played down Johnson’s abilities when he signed with ND. At that time, none thought him a 5 star and two of the three thought Watts was better. I was a little surprised how frank they were on the matter on today’s podcast. My take is their sources have been letting them know that the staff was disappointed in Johnson, for a while.
I didn’t say it was hindsight, I said it was erasure. And by that I meant what is being erased or downplayed is that Johnson wasn’t very good in the first place. Jordan Johnson was ranked as the 37th best prospect in the country and the 6th best WR on the 247 site. The II guys might have never liked him, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t an elite prospect coming out of HS or wasn’t seen as a star and massively important and talented recruit.
If they liked the 65th best WR in the class (Watts) over the 6th best on signing day or eight months after signing day, their evaluation is either faulty or loaded with additional meaning (i.e. they can say they never liked him if it didn’t work out).
It’s fine to say “I watched his tape and didn’t think he was a 5 star” but I don’t buy for a second that a smart, unbiased observer wouldn’t have to be very impressed and positive about his skills coming into Notre Dame as an elite pickup based on his size, speed and skills.
I get that it didn’t work out and he struggled on and off the field and maybe was never a fit in the first place but to say he never was very good coming out of HS is just a bridge too far for me..
I’m just saying what they said back then (Watts is better and Johnson is not a five star) and what they’re saying now (He was overrated and has been disappointing). That evaluation doesn’t look faulty. It certainly looks like who ever rated Johnson the #6 WR might have more explaining to do than the guys at II.
O’Malley ranked Johnson as the 45th best player for Notre Dame’s 2020 season in June 2020 and Prister had him 52nd to give 49th overall on their countdown….They had Watts at 58th overall on the same list.
I looked and didn’t see their 2020 class rankings, but there was some talking out of both sides of the mouth now at this point if they’re on the “oh we didn’t expect anything from Jordan Johnson at all, we always knew Watts was better”….They didn’t for the 2020 season..
Not sure if it’s behind the paywall or not but here’s the link:
https://247sports.com/Article/Counting-Down-The-Irish-No-49-Jordan-Johnson-148041934/
BACK THEN(signing day) they said he was overrated. Fact. NOW, they are saying he’s not that good. Those are two different things. Obviously, to me anyways, their opinions of him as a football player, dropped even more.
All of those things can be true, I’m not claiming that II never brought up red flags or concerns about Johnson, just that they I’m just adding they were part of the hype machine last summer with their season rankings.
It’s expected for the media types to say the player wasn’t that good when they leave the program — a lot of this talk feels very similar to Phil Jurkovec and he was a perfectly decent P5 QB and caught a lot of the same commentary then that Johnson is getting now.
It might be also true that Jurkovec/Johnson weren’t going to amount to much with how their courses were charting at Notre Dame, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not good players.
I think we have a few points that largely track with what you’re saying.
1) Johnson was overrated in their eyes, especially relative to his hype from the general fan base. As long as a player remains with the team I don’t expect the beat media to loudly disagree with hype and expectations, though. Once a player leaves, however, there’s a tendency for them to seem like they are downplaying when in reality we never get the closest truth until someone leaves.
2) They seemed to know for a while that Johnson wasn’t fitting in and I’m sure that colored their perception on his ability to succeed at Notre Dame.
3) We only got a fall camp and spring camp with Johnson and the media barely saw those workouts. He could be a very good college receiver but it’s safe to say he wasn’t a “can’t miss” type of talent. So, if he wasn’t that type of talent and you know he’s not fitting in too well you’re likely to downplay his exit.
I kind of feel like he might be the new Shaq Evans, to be honest. I can see Johnson having a nice career somewhere else.
That’s well-put, especially the fan hype for a player based solely on recruiting ranking, which is the other end of the spectrum and surely inaccurate as well. At the end of the day the fit was wrong for both parties, unfortunately. I do still believe it’s wrong for the media to stoke a narrative Johnson is “just not very good” when he actually is probably pretty good or likely to develop into it. Just didn’t go well in an ill-fitting spot would be a better level of accuracy and nuance. A frustrating situation for everyone.
Good post Eric. Obviously I don’t know how things will turn out for Johnson. I am surprised at some of the comments in the II podcast. Like O’Malley saying it might not be Johnson’s last transfer. I found that unusual for him and telling as far as what they might have been hearing about JJ.
I think too, that the clamoring for him to play last year and the Kelly won’t play freshmen narrative, they found to be annoying. Their first comments yesterday, “he was never a 5 star” may have been an effort to stop that narrative in it’s tracks, with their readers.
Yes, I definitely think their comments were largely driven by the annoyingness they’ve endured from fans over the past year. Which, I get it.
I think the problem that I have with some from a couple of Irish podcasts that I listen to (really respect the commentators and think they bring fair analysis) is that in the middle of the season they were criticizing the starting WR as being unable to get separation and were calling for the young guys (Johnson and Watts) to see some time on the field.
Fast forward a few months and now their commentary is basically that they are not surprised that Johnson didn’t see the field b/c he was overrated and so him leaving is not a big deal.
So which is it? You can’t have it both ways. You can’t be crying for him to get on the field b/c you think he could be a difference maker when our current WR are not and then after watching one spring game you are declaring that he really wasn’t that good and in fact he was overrated.
Who would those commentators be? The guys at II are always quite adamant that “the coaches know, because they’re the ones at practice” and that “coaches play the guys that give them the best chance to win”. Blue and Gold just posted an older video of Lou Somogyi saying the same.
Also II’s has stated from day one that they thought Johnson over rated but, only lately have they gone as far as to say things are going poorly for him. Those two views are not the same thing.
There’s another guy at another site that I think you might be listening to. My opinion of him is that he thinks himself to be the smartest guy in the room, including the coaches, and he truly loves to hear himself talk. It might be why he’s been at 4 sites in about 8 years. Or maybe he’s just good at fooling people.
Irish Sports Daily and Irish Illustrated. I have a few issues with Irish Illustrated but overall both are much more realistic than ND Nation or other sites/podcasts IMO.
“If there’s a freshman on offense who can place his name on the depth chart this fall, it’s the highly-touted Johnson, although Michael Mayer and Xavier Watts could do so as well.” — Tim Prister, June 2020, when he and O’Malley had Johnson as the 6th highest ranked WR on their countdown series,
Not going to pull quotes, but just let’s not be obtuse enough to think O’Malley and Prister thought Jordan Johnson was a bum. They were upbeat and talking about Johnson’s recruiting ranking relative to Michael Floyd and even included that in one of four season scenarios below.
https://247sports.com/Article/Counting-Down-The-Irish-No-49-Jordan-Johnson-148041934/
Not being obtuse at all. They said he was overrated (5stars), not a bum, when he signed. Why wouldn’t they be upbeat? (shiny new toy).. June of 2020 would mean they hadn’t seen him in more than one practice at ND. Neither had the coaches. So it was purely speculation at that time. As ND got into the season they most certainly were not clamoring for Johnson to see playing time. They let on that he was struggling off field and that the coaches would be playing him if he were showing he deserved to play in practice. Obviously as time went by their hopes for him continued to diminish.
I’m not being obtuse at all. There’s a time line here to follow. “He’s not a 5 star” is not calling him a bum. (signing day) Hoping him pretty good in June of 2020 (after one practice) is hoping the shiny toy to be good. That fall they most certainly were not clamoring for him to play. (though many were) They repeatedly said he must not be earning playing time. Certainly their opinions soured even more on him since then.
True, but there’s a difference between that and holding them up as bastions of “they thought he was over rated”….They didn’t really put him in that light when comparing him to Michael Floyd and floating that as a possibility for Johnson’s freshman year or when they had penciled him in the two-deep for 2021 in 2020, which they did.
So how much “I told ya so, we always knew he was over-rated” can they claim to have at this point? Obviously rubs me about wrong, I think that’s maybe my hang up with what I perceive as the II guys taking a victory lap on trying to say they were ahead of the curve, when they really weren’t at the spot in May 2021 that they (or maybe you….or maybe how I’m reading you) are saying they always were.
Mostly it’s because you’re twisting their comments. They have never ever called an ND player a “bum”. Their comment in 2019 was that he is not a 5 star. None of them were happy ( victory lap? please.) about this happening. That’s not how they roll. In the summer of 2020 they continually explained to their readers that they were not at practice and therefore were writing with very limited info. Most of their conversation of Johnson last fall were about the fans clamoring for him to play. They thought that foolish. Their comments in the last podcast were about Johnson continuing to show little progress as a CFB WR. They had heard rumors, of the same and were not surprised by the news. They wanted the listeners to understand that. Again a victory lap? I don’t think so.
Except poor Darnell Ewell.
🙁
You’re a big help.
Darnell was supposed to be, though.
Prister has repeatedly admitted they missed wildly in their recruiting evaluation of him.
I was being a bit tongue in cheek, obviously.
“Most of their conversation of Johnson last fall were about the fans clamoring for him to play. They thought that foolish”
I don’t see why, they ranked him as the WR they expected to have the 6th best season…So with some WRs hurt and some struggling to get open, why wouldn’t fans be intrigued and pointing to someone they listed as potentially a difference maker? They can’t have it both ways that he was over-rated, yet they listed him as a potential instant impact maker (which…they did).
That’s what rubs me the wrong way. They say he was over-rated and not a 5-star, they also said “there’s always the possibility this could be the next Michael Floyd!” before the season. Now they’re saying or the attitude it feels like it’s being presented as is “oh we’ve said all along he was over-rated and never close”, which I’ve provided links as being untrue. They’ve spoken out of both sides of their mouth and were a part of the hype train by even putting Jordan Johnson in the same sentence with Michael Floyd — which they DID!
That’s all, this is becoming a bit circular so I’ll leave it at that.
Truly a remarkable twisting of what they’ve said over the course of a year and a half.
If Styles doesn’t put up numbers this year, it will have essentially been 4 years since a young WR made an impact. 4 years is an eternity in college football.
Lenzy scored 4 TDs and had 454 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2019 and missed some time with injury/fatigue, I wouldn’t say it fair that he had no impact or was not played enough by Kelly simply because he was new. Coaching wasn’t standing in Austin’s way from making an impact as a young player, either (thinking to the original point of “young WRs do not play for BK unless they are legit stars”).
Is there somewhere to watch the full game?
Peacock had the full replay as of last evening.
Thank you
Which doesn’t help us outside the USA. Do you think there might be another version somewhere, or even extended highlights?
I haven’t seen anything on YouTube, sorry!
Thanks anyway!
I’m in wait and see mode on the OL. Kelly has never produced a truly bad OL at ND, and he’s produced several good to great ones. I think maybe we have to trust the infrastructure here and be optimistic that we’ll have an OL that is at least serviceable in the fall.
That said, we can probably guess what the offense will look like overall — around 30 nationally, dominant against inferior opponents, mostly harmless against top-flight defenses (if we play any).
I agree.
I think the OL will be fine. But I’m also one of those people who thinks the 3rd best through the 29th best OL’s in the country really aren’t that different and unless you have a truly elite group it’s not much of a differentiator.
Oh, you’re one of “those people”.
I won’t disagree at all. How did you size up Alabama’s O-line? They looked massive, and not that slow, and the Death Star had so much other talent that they would not have had to been elite — but do you think they were?
Yes, Alabama has the best of everything really.
I think you could put that group in the top 2, so Eric’s theory doesn’t apply to them.
Last year Alabama was a top 1 OL, so that would be a big difference from the 3-29 range.
They were also a top 1 RB, WR, QB, and probably most of the D as well. Must be nice.
I agree with a lot of the posts here (and the article) that there is some reason to be concerned with the offense based on what we saw. But, if a clear group of starters can emerge, then they should be okay (maybe not playoff level, but a pretty good team).
I’m interested to see Coan operate behind an o-line like E described, with Kyren and Tyree rotating in the backfield, and then Mayer, Austin, Lenzy, and Davis catching passes.
We better all hope Mayer doesn’t get hurt.