The Fighting Irish took to the Notre Dame Stadium field on Saturday afternoon for the 90th edition of the Blue-Gold Game. For posterity purposes we must mentioned the Gold Team (defense) defeated the Blue Team (offense) by a score of 58-45. No, it does not matter how the defense accumulated its points.
As per usual, the second half of the game was roughly 98.4% useless and sped by in a little over a half hour time as they instituted a running clock. However, the first half did offer us some insights into the developing 2019 Irish team.
1) Scrap Sideline SkyCam Immediately
Most of you know SkyCam from the NFL where it was used during a Patriots game when fog rolled into Gillette Stadium and then later during a Steelers game, too. Those were the first times fans saw SkyCam used for the main play-by-play camera. However, that was the SkyCam behind (and above) the offense.
On Saturday, NBC debuted the Sideline SkyCam for main play-by-play action and it’s awful.
In theory, I don’t hate this idea. At times, the angle provides a greater view of the field, particularly in the defensive secondary and stretching the width of the screen to see receivers a lot better. It seems like NBC is really keen on “changing things up” and providing a “different” experience on television and, well, this provided that.
Super excited to see the camera centered on the slot receiver.Â
Yet, the Sideline SkyCam has a few fatal flaws as presented during the Blue-Gold Game:
1 There’s far too much motion. On most snaps the camera is panning away from the offense which is going to take a lot to get used to at best and is head-spinning at worst.
2 It seemed to me that the SkyCam operator had a lot more freedom than a traditional play-by-play cameraman which I think might be part of the appeal. When the offense is spread out the camera pans way, way back. When the offense is bunched together the camera focused in a lot more. Maybe that’s cool for some but I found the lack of standardization really jarring. And I’d bet it will open up cameramen to missing some key moments in live action from this camera.Â
3 When the ball is on the far side of the field and the offense is spread out the camera looks a mile away from the action. Do I enjoy seeing more of the defensive backfield? Sure, but not at the expense of the players looking like ants. You can’t even read most player numbers!
In some ways this was a neat change of pace. But I see way too much downside overall. I don’t see the point of a camera that makes you feel like you’re in the 73rd row in the bowl. The advantage of watching on television is to be able to get up close in a way that isn’t available in person. This feels like a step backwards.
I thought Sideline SkyCam looked great on punts, though. I’m a reasonable man.
2) Officially Worried About Phil
On one of the recent Irish Illustrated podcasts they mentioned that quarterback Phil Jurkovec struggles to throw a spiral on nearly every throw. Maybe that was hyperbole I thought but after Saturday’s spring game there are alarm bells going off for me with Jurkovec’s arm talent.
To me, this is by far the most troubling aspect to analyzing the young Irish quarterback. He throws a terribly ugly ball. It doesn’t look natural at all. The weird thing is he’s not super inaccurate–if he threw a nice spiral I don’t know if we’d be talking about this right now. In fact, one of his best passes to Tommy Tremble (it was called back on a “sack”) was simultaneously one of his best and most wobbly throws on the day.
Jurkovec isn’t too inaccurate but he’s really struggling to throw clean spirals. pic.twitter.com/vGzdl4T0Sp
— 18 Stripes (@18stripes) April 14, 2019
Compounding that issue was Jurkovec looking absolutely frozen in the pocket on most snaps. Even if we factor in him playing most of the time with a very young backup offensive line (he got some snaps with the starters but not a ton) and some sacks may have been avoided if he were live, Jurkovec looked really lost out there.
Plus, he took 12 sacks. 12 sacks!!!
Jurkovec threw the ball 26 times for 135 yards (5.1 YPA, yuck) and with sacks added in basically accounted for the same amount of offense that Book had in one throw to Claypool.
Some people aren’t too worried since this is Jurkovec’s first real extended run as a college quarterback and he’s still very young. I think that’s very fair. Still, for a top 100 recruit I think it’s also fair to say from what we’ve seen his ceiling isn’t that high and even if he does improve significantly it’s not a guarantee he becomes the starter some day, or at least holds on to the job for a long time.
Book returning for 2020 is very, very important until proven otherwise.
3) No Worries for Ian Book
Book was the polar opposite of Jurkovec, calm and in command the entire game. He finished 16 of 21 for 220 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns. He was crisp, accurate, and displayed his characteristic good decision making. True, he didn’t really test things down field but the one time he did it was a beautiful ball over safety D.J. Brown and into Claypool’s hands for a 43-yard gain.
It was only 6.5 months ago that we were arguing whether Book should replace Wimbush. Now, Book is shaping up to be a terrific college quarterback.
4) The Pass Rush Looks Almost Too Good
Officially, the Irish defense notched 15 sacks in the Blue-Gold Game. At times, they were completely overwhelming the offense with speed and precision off the edge. Certainly not a great look for the offensive line but it seems like we’re talking about a generational pass rush heading into 2019.
Julian Okwara could approach Justin Tuck’s single-season record of 13.5 sacks. I feel like he will have a 4-sack game this year and 16 sacks overall would nudge him past Tuck for the most in school career history, too. This doesn’t feel absurd to think it can happen.
5) Up and Down for Doerer & Bramblett
After the first offensive touchdown we saw Jonathan Doerer lazily boot the PAT through the uprights but the ball drew pretty hard to the left. Throughout the rest of the game he looked more confident and kicked really well. Until he missed a field goal late in the contest. Overall, some progress but Doerer is likely going to fight for this job in August.
I thought Jay Bramblett punted really well after his first attempt. There are so many bad punters throughout the country that I think he’ll be at least average out of the gate. A little worried but it’s not a huge concern.
6) The Tailbacks Took a Step Forward
Jafar Armstrong averaged 56.2 yards per game of all-purpose yardage last year. He’s going to blow that mark out of the water in 2019. In the spring game he totaled 156 yards on only 13 touches! Armstrong is perhaps the main reason why I think we’ll see a much more pass-oriented offense this year in year 3 of Chip Long. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 receptions for Jafar wouldn’t surprise me. My biggest concern is keeping him healthy when he’s bound to touch the ball 25 times every game.
The backups looked pretty solid. Flemister seemed to take a back seat to Jahmir Smith and Kyren Williams as the latter two took most of the non-Armstrong snaps.
Ain’t nothing down there, Simon.
Our writers joked that Williams looks quite hefty for a smaller running back. He certainly displayed really good feet as seen by dropping linebacker Shayne Simon in the hole above. He took a Jurkovec pass near the sideline in a different part of the game and quickly danced his way to a near touchdown, too. At worst, it appears Kyren will be an interesting inside tough runner who will be difficult to tackle.
Smith definitely looked the best of the young bunch, totaling 93 yards on 11 touches. He looks so much like Tony Jones, Jr. (who also wore #34 early in his career) in appearance and in the way he plays the game. I’m not crazy high on these guys due to a perceived lack of speed, however, they will be an interesting complement to a ball-control passing offense that should be efficient moving the football down the field.
7) Moala’s Presence is Real
I’ll admit when Paul Moala was moved from safety to Rover I was skeptical of the decision. At the time, Rover was still dealing with Owusu-Koramoah and Shayne Simon with the staff apparently super high on freshman Jack Kiser, too. It didn’t seem like a move for Moala that was going to give him much playing time any time soon.
On Saturday, Moala looked like one of the best defenders on the team. He’s a lot longer and athletic than I thought and I can see him playing 300 snaps this year. For the day, Moala totaled 9 tackles with 2 sacks.
8) Corey Robinson Returned in STYLE
In the middle of the 3rd quarter as the backups and walk-ons were beginning to get a lot of work the NBC Sports cameras focused on Drue Tranquill for quite a while. After a minute, the camera panned out just enough to see former Irish receiver Corey Robinson in all of his glory.
Ohhhhh, get it Corey.Â
Where will Robinson be in this world in 20 years? He’s probably one of the most fascinating Fighting Irish football alums to watch in the future. Super smart, but a little weird too.
9) Can Agoro Get a Scholarship?
Temitope “Timmy” Agoro stepped into the spotlight with a solid 3 pass break-ups and nearly a 4th that was called for pass interference on Kevin Austin (although it was a close call). Agoro completely looks the part (6’1″ 203 pounds) and impressed quite a bit during the spring. He’s a walk-on but depth at corner could end up shaking out in his favor if he continues playing this well. Maybe becoming a starter is well out of reach but 50 snaps on the season could be reasonable.
In my opinion, linebacker Jon Jones (was he even playing?) and receiver Javon McKinley will be moving on from the program soon. The quest to get down to 85 scholarships should happen over the next 7 weeks.
10) Soft Up the Middle
We know it’s going to be tough to replace the 4 starters in the middle of the defense–3 of whom were some of the best defenders of the Kelly era. The spring game clearly indicated there will be holes to run through and the linebackers won’t always clean things up real well.
One could say the ceiling for this team in 2019 is going to be defined with how well Clark Lea gameplans around being weak up the middle when his pass-rushing and safeties are going to be a strength.
11) Selling Tight End Stock
No one should take too much away from a spring game (contractually every spring game recap must mention this) but I don’t think we’ll see a ton from the tight ends in 2019. Some are completely enamored with Cole Kmet yet to date he’s still all potential and looks like a quality tight end. I’m not sure I’ve seen a difference maker yet.
Plus, as I mentioned Armstrong should be a huge part of the passing game and the receivers are going to be taking a step forward too. Claypool/Finke/Armstrong could catch 70% of the passes in 2019 and I’m not sure how many balls there will be for Kmet & Co. at tight end.
I was excited to see Tommy Tremble and beyond one catch that was called back I was disappointed. But, still really high on his game.
12) The Shirt 2019
Notre Dame unveiled the 30th anniversary of The Shirt in a heathered navy color. This edition received universal praise from the 18 Stripes writers room. What are your thoughts?
The university also unveiled a throwback 30th anniversary crew shirt that is an homage to the original Shirt from many years ago. That’s also a really strong effort.
This is a fantastic write-up and I agree with everything. By far the two most important takeaways are #1 and #2.
As I noted in the pregame comment section, that camera angle is terrible. They need to get rid of it, immediately. (As a reasonable man I will acknowledge that it is good on inside running plays… and that’s it.)
On Phil, yikes. This game was the negative opposite of the 2017 spring game, where I was watching to see if we had a backup QB, and Book more than assuaged my concerns. Phil looked really, really bad – and, yeah, if Book goes pro after this year, next year might be really rough. At least he didn’t throw an interception?
Also, does Kyren Williams have a gut?
Gut confirmed.
Maybe this is fine! I’m hoping he will end up being a sweet complement to Tyree – Scat Back and Fat Back.
The thicc back
Should we be concerned with the Oline tackles or are our DEs that good ?
There really are a bunch of things for Jurkovec to clean up. Stepping up in the pocket being one. His instinct is to fall back further. I wonder if it were real, would he be more likely to tuck it and run ? You can say he’s still a pup but, he’s a pup that throws one ugly pass. I hope Brendon Clark surprises later in the summer.
I’m sure he’d be running plenty if he actually had to play in a real game!
I think it was the Irish Illustrated guys who pointed out that our DEs are the best our tackles will see all year. Okwara and Kareem are being hyped as All-American candidates, and our 3rd stringers would start on many D1 teams. Then add the fact that in the BG game, a “sack” occurs any time a defensive player gets anywhere near the QB. In a live game, Jurkovec would still have been sacked a bit, but some of those would be throws before/as he was hit, some would be broken tackles (he’s not a small dude), and some would be scrambles. I think it’s safe to assume it’s the quality of the DEs plus the rules of the BG game more than it is a concern about the OTs.
This makes me nervous about the staff’s approach to Jurkovec. We don’t know what they think except on background or sanitized press conferences but last year I kept reading how yeah he’s got quirky mechanics but so does Phillip Rivers. Now it seems like his throwing shoulda been totally overhauled and we’ve lost a year. This is distressing to western pa fans who couldn’t help but get hyped for the next Unitas or Marino.
He looks like he’s shotputting the dang ball.
From what I’ve gathered he’s always shot-put his throws going back to high school. Seems like the word on the street is that they’ve tried to correct his sidearm a bit and now he’s having a hard time throwing clean spirals.
To me, it looks like his natural shot-put motion + fear of not getting rid of the ball is resulting in a super hurried motion that is even quicker than before. He barely even brings the ball back in the above GIF and it looks like he’s throwing with his hand more than his whole shoulder and body.
I’d think things would get better as he gets more comfortable (and maybe brings the ball back more with time in the pocket?) but he’s always had a weird throwing motion and it might not ever happen.
Wow, looks like he’s trying to throw with a shoulder injury.
Wild guess…but hand size. When you have small hands, you have to throw it like this because you can’t really grip the ball that well.
I was thinking about this, too. But he’s 6’4″ to 6’5″ and he’d have to be working with some really small hands relative to his size.
Like everyone else, I worry about whether we have a backup QB. Then again, DeShone Kizer was a less-heralded recruit, looked equally as bad in a spring game, and considered giving up football. So I won’t right Jurkovic off yet.
Also, newest edition of the shirt is on point. Probably my favorite one yet.
I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to Kizer. A few notes…
1. Kizer got very little work in 2015 during his first spring on the same timeline as Jurkovec. That was the spring of Golson and Zaire battling with all the uncertainty if Golson would stick around for the fall. We barely talked about Kizer that spring of 2015 because he was pretty far off the radar in practice.
2. People don’t remember Kizer only threw 5 passes in the 2015 Blue-Gold Game. He only completed 1 and he skipped a couple others. It was ugly but it was an extremely small sample size super late in the game with all of the scrubs. Jurkovec’s sample size in comparison was enormous.
3. Kizer was dealing with his girlfriend’s brain surgery that spring and not super focused. When Golson left in the summer, Kizer stepped up and looked pretty solid in August camp. If we’re comparing the players we’ve seen more of Jurkovec so far and he’s been worse than Kizer to date in their respective careers.
Also, I was looking back at some stuff from 2015 and found this comment from someone: “Wimbush is a polished passer who can make all the throws.” Just goes to show a lot can change from high school.
Agree, Kizer comparisons are like, super hopeful, probably unmerited. I think the concern about Jurkovic, especially compared to how Kelly seemed to be about him, goes back to last season for me. I mean, he didn’t get much of a shot, obviously. But when he was in there, he was underwhelming. And I think the past couple decades, ND QBs have mostly been who they were from start to finish. That isn’t to say none of them improved, but they flashed who they were at the beginning. Kizer and Book, IMO, showed a pep in their step immediately. Brady Quinn was always going to be good. Tommy Rees was a mixed bag, and he showed that early. Dayne Crist was talented but couldn’t seem to handle that much spotlight/pressure, and as such, really screwed up in key moments. Andrew Hendrix and Gunner Kiel, showed us they were basically useless (Hendrix’s one exception being when he came in the 2nd half against Stanford and starting launching ball in the direction of Michael Floyd). I suppose some of the exceptions might be Jimmy Clauson (got MUCH better, but a lot of that might have been about how awful the team was during his freshmen year), Everrett Golson (who I thought was quite good early on, sprinkling in some freshmen-ness, before totally deteriorating), Malik Zaire (who was incredible against a bad Texas team in the opener but who kinda laid eggs the rest of the way), and Brandon Wimbush (who, in hindsight, I think we were able to hide some of his weaknesses for a while because of how good the team was). I hope I’m wrong, and that Jurkovic gets a lot better, becomes the QB Kelly thought he would be, but right now I’m going to trust the eye test and hope Ian Book stays healthy!
I actually liked the camera from the shot you showed, Eric. Could see all 22 players and where the receivers went away from the play, then it closed in enough to catch the meat of the play. I didn’t watch the game though so my data-set is insignificant.
On the Jurkovec pas you show, looks to me like 54 tipped the ball, thus the extreme wobble?
The tackles looked really bad. Hope they were just taking it easy.
Great write-up, Eric.
Based off some quick research of the NBC cameras last year this new Sideline SkyCam provides about 8% more of the field in the extreme edges. Meaning, where the refs stand behind the offense and way, way back in the defensive backfield. I just don’t see the need to see those areas of the field when 99% of the time nothing of significance happens there AND you’re losing clarity on the actual path of the football and where most of the players perform. The ‘normal’ NBC cameras are pretty great.
The ball wasn’t tipped, although it’s pretty close!
Agree with you for sure, the new camera angle was bad. I don’t mind them trying to be innovative and look for new things during a spring game, but the regular NBC angle is just fine and hopefully will be used during the real season. Swing and a miss on trying this one, but hey, gotta try new things.
If there’s any non-tradtional camera I would want them to use, why not put it behind the QB and get the vertical look instead of the horizontal look, or some weird angle like they did on Sat. That could be fun.
NBC uses the SkyCam behind the offense for every broadcast. Just not for play-by-play yet in college. I think it’s great for certain replays. Thinking of Armstrong’s TD run against Michigan last year, for example.
I think the Jurkovec worry is way overblown. Other than the sacks, he didn’t make bad decisions throwing the ball. Decisions are way more important than arm talent. I don’t remember any passes even close to being picked off.
In college you can be a good QB with a weird throwing motion and not great spiral. Maybe not national championship level, but 10 win level.
When has a freshman QB ever looked good at an ND spring game? He clearly isn’t Trevor Lawrence, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t on pace to be Kizer. I believe Book put up around 58% completions last spring game.
From everything I have heard about Jurkovec, He definitely out performed my expectations.
But mostly, with all the things that go wrong with ND football every year, is it really worth worrying about how we MIGHT be in trouble NEXT year, IF Book goes pro. I’d be much more worried about Book getting kicked out of school this year for accidentally turning his math homework in to his history class.
I agree with you (disclaimer: I only watched the first half). Jurkovec was very rocky at first in the early 2-3 series but then settled in and did OK, IMO. I also think regarding those sacks that his long pass would have been fine. So too when he made a great throw to Tremble that they blew dead but still would have been released prior to taking a shot from the rusher.
Also didn’t I see a stat that Jurkovec was 7 for 9 for 77 yards at one point? He ended 15 for 26 for 135 yards, but if that’s 17/26 for about 190 (which it should have been) it looks a lot better. Surely better than Kizer 1/5 and one hopping passes. From just fan reaction I would have thought Jurkovec was Andrew Hendrix or something, and I didn’t think that at all from how he played.
That said, no doubt he has a long way to go, but he has time. Even if Book leaves after this year, I’m assuming Jurkovec in Spring Game 2020 is way better than he was here. (And better still for the season in Fall 2020). That’s a lot of time and he is a good athlete and should be able to improve with experience and has nothing but time. The bigger concern than 2020 is a Book injury in 2019, that would be a season ruiner.
He threw one across the field into double coverage that was a bit high but close to a pick six. I believe the announcers went “yikes” or something to that effect. But you’re right, silver lining there weren’t a bunch of interceptions.
Still, when we’re talking about decisions it’s not just decisions throwing the ball. He played about 40 or 50 snaps and accounted for like 50 yards of offense. That’s by far the worst QB performance in a spring game relative to experience that I can remember. I’m not sure how much a bunch of safe, short throws that weren’t intercepted adds comfort, for me at least. And I’m not sure how much his funky motion should be glossed over especially as it’s apparently worse now than it was in August.
It’s funny you brought up Book’s completion percentage from last year’s game (reminds me of the excuses for Wimbush last September to be honest).
If we’re counting a quarterback’s first spring as a freshman (I’d call Jurkovec a sophomore now) then Ian Book is the last frosh quarterback to look good in the Blue-Gold Game: 17 of 22 for 277 yards in 2017.
Book is 50 of 73 for 789 yards, 3 TD, and 0 picks in his 3 spring games.
My point isn’t that Jurkovec somehow looks good, or even compares positively to other QBs. He doesn’t. It is that everyone looks bad as a freshman, apparently other than Book, and that it doesn’t necessarily reflect one’s career trajectory. He had one season as the 3rd string, and 1 spring as the 2nd string, expecting much from him seems like asking for disappointment.
Where did you find the old stats? I only found last years, and think it was the page they now use for the 2019 game, but it hadn’t been updated. Are there any frosh other than Book to look good in their first spring? Maybe my memory is just really poor.
The stats are scattered and not always complete. They haven’t even released full stats for this weekend’s game and might not ever. Going off what’s available and some memory for the quarterback’s first spring games:
Rees – Small sample size, don’t remember much. Nate Montana took too many reps.
Golson – Pretty good, passing was so-so and running was great.
Hendrix – Actually looked quite good.
Zaire – He looked really good.
Kizer – Small sample size, didn’t look good.
Wimbush – Looked fine in limited reps.
Book – He looked really good.
Jurkovec – Already covered above.
Based on this, shouldn’t the interpretation be that this is meaningless in the long-run? If Kizer looked bad, and Hendrix, Zaire, and Wimbush looked good, what can we really learn from this?
Interesting. My memory must be poor, if all these guys looked at least decent. Maybe I have a hard time differentiating between the new freshman, and the old walk-on SR who is cleaning up the games. I do remember Zaire being impressive.
In general, my memories of B-G games are of the offense looking pretty meh, a few big plays that get people excited for a certain player, and pretty inefficient QB play across the board. Probably has to do with the fact that ND is always on offense, but the QBs bounce around, so even if someone like Book has a great game, it is constantly mixed with another ND QB not having a great game at the same time.
Upon further reflection. It is spring. We can’t not take anything away, even if it all isn’t necessarily predictive. So it’s fair to make the QB heir apparent’s poor play a big-ish deal.
I’m just much more worried about CB and kicking game. If you had dropped this to like 8, and wrote the exact same things, I probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it.
And one final comment.
The Shirt should have been takeaway #1. Already in mid-season form, it’s floor is top 5 all-time, it’s ceiling is best ever, and it’s already the best in the past 15 years.
In the reveals of it on the twattergrams, it also looked like they make a women’s cut version.
I still ride for 2011 but this year’s version is way, way up there.
I think 2011 had the best design on the front for sure. T the silhouette four horseman was simple and awesome. I would put it on every shirt.
They did. And a long-sleeve version.
I look at it another way.
Who is the last QB to get, at minimum, backup reps for their first spring or second fall camp who didn’t inspire much confidence but then went on to a really successful career? To me, it’s Jurkovec’s spring game combined with a decidedly mediocre set of spring practices that’s a potential issue long-term.
What year was Kizer’s bad spring game? It was spring 2015 and then fall 2015 he was playing, no? He might not have gotten the reps in the spring game (though what we saw was enough) but he was still thrust into a starter role when many didn’t know what he was capable of. That turned out alright. Not sure on the semantics of the conditions posed, but the overall thought of “really bad spring game at one point, developed into a solid starting QB” train of thought applies.
Yup, spring 2015. Kizer enrolled in June 2014 so he was working on the same timeline as Jurkovec.
As I mentioned, the key difference was Kizer was a distant third-string quarterback in spring 2015. Very few reps, barely any mentions during practice reports, and he played maybe 2 series in the spring game. Once he became the backup in fall camp 2015 people were immediately surprised at how developed he had become.
…to Fire Kelly?
This is the same point I am with Jurk, too. It’s not that he was winging it all over the field and getting picked or making dumb throws. His bad decision making was that he was taking TOO LONG to make a decision and not cutting it loose when he should have. There was one play, I cant remember if he threw it to Austin or who it was, but Chris Simms (BTW, man I love him as a color guy. Can we PLEASE replace Flutie with him?) made the comment that if he had thrown it when he should have, the catch would have been made with a ton of open space to run after the pass. Instead, Jurk hesitated, scrambled to the sideline and had to throw a last second, off-balance throw that only went for the 15-20 yds the ball travelled in the air. It was still a good play and throw, but when you figure an extra 5-10 YAC lost…not so great. But I’m with hooks here as well, there is PLENTY of time for him to progress and become a quality CFB QB. I’m confident he’ll work it all out.
So far I can’t shake the feeling that number 19 should be kicking the ball on the back of The Shirt, but other than that the color, tagline, and front design are all impeccable.
The returning important position player hopes are a catch-22 in the spring. If the season goes the way we all hope it can then there is no chance Book comes back, and we have to move on in 2020. If Book is available in 2020 then the 2019 season won’t have been particularly successful, so on balance the hope should be improvement from Phil more so than a senior year from Ian.
Am I the only one that thinks even if Book has another great year he’s not leaving for the NFL because he doesn’t have the arm strength to be a high pick in the league? There are those who are great college players who aren’t good NFL players because they don’t have the physical traits to make it on the next level. Book seems to be one of those possibly.
I somewhat agree. I think he’s a really good college QB. And I actually think he’s got better physical traits like arm strength than people think. His problem on deep balls isn’t distance, it’s accuracy–he often overthrows it. But being a smaller QB, it’s easy to just say “oh, it’s arm strength.”
That said, so far he’s more Trace McSorley than Baker Mayfield. This year he may improve, and I think he could be a good NFL QB if he ever gets a shot, but I don’t think he’s “skip a year, go pro early.” I think he’d need that extra year to convince a team to give him a chance.
McSorley probably would’ve been a first round pick if he didn’t come back for his senior season, so if the comparison applies, then Book should sure as hell leave after this year, assuming it’s a good one.
McSorley runs a 4.5 and this year they wanted him to workout as a safety at the combine. Aside from being a not-very-tall QB, I don’t think he has a ton in common with Book.
But I do agree with what seems the majority that if Book has a good year this year, he’s probably going pro. He’ll have 20+ starts if he stays healthy and will probably be ready for the new challenges. He’s going to have to be a backup anyways, makes sense to get to the next level and get for it. You don’t really see QB’s come back for a 5th year if they have two strong seasons (which I think we’re all assuming he will have).
I didn’t really mean in terms of physical comparison, other than height and he has the same arm-strength critics that were said about McSorley, especially early in his career. No one is going to work Book out at safety, for certain. But McSorley was a productive but not pro-level college QB. Yes, as alstein points out, he might have gone in the first round had he left early–but then he had a season without Barkley behind him and some of his receiving targets from his junior year, and he came back down to earth. If the line performs as we want, the receivers exceed expectations, and Jafar goes for 1500 all-purpose yards, then we’ll likely think of Book as a potential first round pick. If he doesn’t have all that help, he’ll continue to be good, but I don’t see him as the difference maker that Mayfield was. Mayfield, also because he’s short, is another QB I’ve seen Book compared to, and I don’t see that. I think, trajectory wise, Book is more McSorley than Mayfield.
My thoughts on arm strength aren’t from the deep balls. Arm strength I think comes into play more I think from throwing to the wide side of the field with routes going towards the sideline. And from memory Book does not throw those ‘on a rope’ like say Baker or Kyler Murray. And it gets harder in the NFL to make those throws with wider hash and faster DBs.
Some of the beat guys are adamant he’s as sure as gone if he has a good year. Under the thinking he’s pretty confident and some players are just ready to move on to the next challenge.
I recall some of the beat guys saying that people close to Book had to shut down the idea of leaving after last season. To my understanding Book sees himself as an NFL QB, he’ll have his degree, and he’ll have been the starter at ND for nearly two years. I have a hard time thinking he could have a good season and also decide to come back.
He put his name in to the evaluation board this year. If he replicates his 2018 numbers, he’s gone.
So when does Drew Pyne get on campus?
I’m on board with you on most of these, especially on Book(wow he looks deadly this year), the skycam, and the kicking game. I completely disagree with you and the “18s writers room” on the thoughts about “The Shirt.” Book- man that guy really is going to have a lasting legacy I feel. We started comparing him to Joe Cool at one point last year and he REALLY is starting to look like he has the “it” to make that stick. He’s so calm and collected back there. His biggest issue in the Cotton Bowl were his happy feet and tendency to work too fast without seeing the field. Hopefully it wasnt just a factor of him knowing he couldnt be hit because if he plays like THAT against UGA and scUM and SC, boy we could have another great year! SkyCam – I dont mind it from time to time, but yeah I’m with you on it’s use as the permanent camera angle. I hate it. I was trying really hard watching the game to not be the “get off my lawn, no turf, no jumbotron” guy with this all game and I just couldnt bring myself to appreciate it. I felt like I was so far out of the game watching it. Sight lines were so funky and unexpected, I couldnt focus on what I wanted to see out of a play. Bramblett/Doerer – Did the former’s first punt travel 15 yards or did I imagine that? I seem to remember seeing the first down marker about 5 yards away from where that thing went OOB. Dude, come on now….drive that sucker. I will say I think the rest of the game they were a little more normal kicks but nothing that really impressed me. Man oh Man do I miss Yoon now. I actually thought it was him holding for kicks and I started pining for the guy. I really do think this preferred walk on kicker we’ve got is going to have a schollie in hand REALLY soon after seeing that performance WRT “The Shirt”, I’ve made the same thoughts known on both HLS and TOS…it’s fine as just a shirt. It’s a nice color to complement a pair of jeans and just wear around. I absolutely love the lettering that looks exactly like the stadium signs and feels very 1930’s glory years. However, this is the de facto official gameday wear item for the program every year. We’re going to see, on Sept 8 the NBC cameras pan in over the stadium and see Boob Davie run out of the hallway with his stream of players and then the shot will be the Skycam panning over the crowd…and it will look like a giant mud spot and nothing will pop on camera. These shirts are AWFUL about the color choice, yet again. To steal a thought from SubwayDomer…”what happened to Irish Wear Green?” We have a green-out scheduled for the SC game. Is the university… Read more »
We have a green out scheduled for the USC game? They need to communicate this stuff to STHs someway other than via twittergram.
I think what’s got lost in recent years is that The Shirt is the gameday shirt…..for the students. In my experience you don’t see a ton of non-students wearing it to games. For the general population and alums it is something worn primarily casually around town or at the gym. I realize some want that changed but that’s never been the tradition. So it’s not just about making The Shirt the same color it’s about getting everyone in the stadium to wear it, too.
Also, does green pop?
If the only way to really see the green is through tight SkyCam shots then the same holds true for blue. Both colors look dull from wide shots. Even during last year’s Michigan game most outside of the student section didn’t wear The Shirt.
It seems like keeping the shirt green every single year is such a diminishing return. Very few people will wear it to games and even if they did it doesn’t look that good.
This is a terrible comparison. First of all, the shadow in the student section is contributing to it not “popping” and secondly, you chose ND as your example of green. This is exactly my issue, ND DOESN’T have a consistent uniform color. That’s why we need to stop with the “different color shirts every year” process and standardize on one, possibly two combinations like Nebraska and the others do.
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Here’s a more accurate picture of how green absolutely pops on cam:
Finally, I dont know that I agree with the “The Shirts are only sold to students” mantra. Maybe you have some kind of balance sheets that are telling you that, but I dont buy it if you’re using conjecture for that statement. Why does the bookstore have 5 tables overflowing with them all season and everyone is picking them up and buying them when I go in there every single year? The point of the “The Shirt” committee is to raise money for charity, so why would they market only to students? Wouldnt they want mass appeal to get as much as possible for the chosen organization? And even if you’re absolutely right (and you might be, I admit this) that’s part of my problem, in general. Why are we making a shirt that only a small portion of our fan base is buying and utilizing? Why aren’t we designing something that EVERYONE wants and EVERYONE wears? Taking it a step further, if we have the exact same color every single year, then it doesnt matter even if it IS just students buying them because you just have to buy one during your 4 years there. Then, when you graduate and come back what are you wearing? The one “The Shirt” you bought and it’s the exact same color as the one for this year. And all the fans that are buying them, same phenomenon. Eventually, we’re no longer a hodgepodge of Navy, Sky Blue, Gold, Piss, Brown, Orange, Green, etc etc; we are a UNIFIED fan base.
Is there a benefit to the stadium being a unified green?
Sarcasm font or legit question?
Legit question.
I am a fan of mostly cold weather teams that wear Navy blue (ND, Patriots, Red Sox). So stadiums never really look unified.
Other than it looking cool, I have never thought there was any actual benefit. I honestly haven’t thought about it much, but don’t see any reason that having a unified color in the stands would make a difference.
I think the pro/college discrepancy here is a big factor. In pro sports, no I dont think it’s that big of a deal. In COLLEGE, though where the kids are all running on adrenaline and emotion I think it’s a big factor. Did you watch UGA two years ago and Nebraska in, what was that 1998? Yes, I definitely think crowd factor is a big…um..factor in home field advantage.
But crowd factor wearing similar colored shirts.
I see how having a loud, engaged fan base makes a serious difference. I’ve been to a few ND games where that was undoubtedly the case.
I just don’t see how wearing the same color shirt helps accomplish that.
I will say there was a “Blackout Thursday” at a basketball game in college. THAT DID THE TRICK. But I’m not convinced it was because we were WEARING black, as we were in a STATE of blackout. I would fully support a unified black out Saturday night at ND stadium.
Same color fan superpowers, dude.
SCFS, for short.
Wait a second, I was told last year’s Green Out was amazing. I’m just showing it didn’t pop much at all on television.
I agree, if you want to do green it should be a much brighter neon green. Even still, green simply doesn’t work well in contrast to an outdoor venue with a green football field. Plus, Notre Dame Stadium’s lighting system keeps a large chunk of the seats out of the light so green pops even less at night.
The North Texas example above isn’t that great and the Marshall one is better but nothing even comparable to what a Penn State white out looks like. That’s what I struggle with. Everyone wearing green is supposed to UNIFY the fan base (seems kind of silly to me but I’m getting older) but really it just doesn’t look worth the effort.
I didn’t say The Shirt is sold only to students. I said it’s primarily only worn to games by students. They sell 150,000 of them every year, of course it’s not just students buying them.
It seems like you’re advocating for a lime green shirt similar to what Muffett McGraw has popularized with the women’s basketball team:
One, that’s not a school color. Notre Dame isn’t likely to standardize that as any sort of school color.
Two, of all the colors Irish fans could wear lime green is probably near the bottom in popularity. Since 99% of fans outside the student section don’t wear The Shirt to games you’d need to market additional apparel in lime green to achieve your goal. It won’t be popular.
Isn’t it just easier to advocate for one-off shirts/apparel/towels for one game a year instead of messing with The Shirt, creating some non-traditional green, and never changing the shirt color anymore? Even if The Shirt was lime green every year we’ve already established it doesn’t lead to a green-out anywhere outside the student section.
I wouldnt say standardize on lime, no but if it were mixed in with some kelly and forest, I think that would look really awesome actually. Kind of like a field of shamrocks. My first color choice would be along these lines:
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I dont think those wash against the grass at all and frankly, I think that’s not a major concern anyway. Fans arent on the field so who cares if they match or clash with the turf?
As I mentioned above. The shirt should switch to black. Black Out Saturday. At least 80% of the stadium would get behind that.
Would they? I don’t know, if it’s not an organic thing that the fanbase just gets attached to I don’t think it ever comes off well. I know in NHL the Penguins actually give out a yellow shirt every playoff game and about half the crowd doesn’t even put it on. And you can have a loud, cohesive crowd without everyone wearing the same color shirt, too!
It’s cool when done right, but should not be a reason to monopolize The Shirt as always having to be green. “Irish wear green” is a silly saying with no long term viability since the football team wears blue 95% of the time at home anyways. I’m for flipping colors of the shirt and the 2019 version is one of the finest in years, IMO.
BLACKOUT SATURDAY! who wouldn’t get behind that?????? One does not have to wear black to participate, but it’s more fun when you blackout on the outside and inside.
Touche
Brother, you were just talking about standardizing a color and now you want multiple greens? Make up your mind!
I’ll take an example of kelly green on players jerseys with relief from gold, blue, maroon, and white colors surrounding it that a green out in the crowd doesn’t look very good.
Guys,
Sorry for the slow reply, the Notre Dame fire has been a true downer and a complex factor.
Anyway — I know quite a lot about The Shirt, as part of my passionate quixotic quest to get ND Stadium louder for home football games, I got into the notion of getting the crowd one color. Key points:
(1) The faculty committee that oversees the students (who gain academic credit for their management of the program) will never ever countenance one color, as they firmly perceive that changing colors is essential to keeping sales up.
(2) Even if we were to try (which I still wish we would in my heart) the answer is not Blue, nor Green, no matter the shade, but … (ta da!) .. GOLD.
(The shade on the Dome.)
Pops right out, goes with all our jerseys, and/ would make one hell of a stadium ambiance.
But, it is not gonna happen.
The problem with gold is actually getting a decent shade on the shirts. Past attempts have veered between piss yellow and flesh colored, both terrible in their own ways.
Eh oui!! Bravo, KG. In fact, one has to get the right shade for blue and green as well. Thanks for making me dream!
If it were to be one color for vibrancy’s sake honestly it should just be yellow like the PLACT sign. It’s the simplest solution.
Anyway, biases against different shades of school colors is one of my favorite topics. It’s fascinating how different everyone thinks.