The game started harmlessly enough. At first, it seemed like both Notre Dame and Michigan State were feeling each other out before Notre Dame mounted a touchdown drive to take an important lead. Then in the second quarter things went completely off the rails for the Irish as the Spartans built a lead that was too much to overcome. As 7-point home favorites Notre Dame fell at night in front of its own fans to move to 1-2 in this early season.
Brian VanGorder
I recently wrote about the Age of Offense and how hard it is to consistently play good defense. The thing is it’s fine to get lit up once in a while. Just this past weekend Florida State, Alabama, and Oklahoma got trashed by their opposing offenses. Narduzzi just gave up 640 yards. Charlie Strong just gave up 50 points. I’m completely okay with a couple poor performances per year, especially if they are against good competition. These things happen in today’s game.
There are a couple promising receivers (Donnie Corley, for example) at Michigan State and L.J. Scott is a nice if not a little overrated young running back. However, I’m not sure there is anyone on the Spartans offense that will be All-Big Ten and they more or less had their way with the Notre Dame defense after a slow start and before going into a conservative shell following a big lead.
This kind of crap is not okay.
I like yards per play as a measurement a lot more than total points or even yardage. Over Notre Dame’s last 23 games they have held opponents under 5.0 YPP just 5 times:
Texas, 2015 (3.13)
Georgia Tech, 2015 (4.75)
Clemson, 2015 (4.63)
Temple, 2015 (4.76)
Wake Forest, 2015 (4.59)
I’d say 99 times out of 100 if we played Clemson in a non-hurricane we are not keeping them below 5.0 which leaves one great performance against a highly dysfunctional Power 5 offense, a couple of enormously over-matched offenses in terms of talent, and one really quality shut down of Georgia Tech (remember, they had lots of garbage time success).
It’s kind of lost now but things against Michigan State started out pretty well. The Spartans first 5 series featured 3 punts, an interception, and one near-interception that was lucky* to be turned into a touchdown. What’s more, L.J. Scott was held completely in check opening the game with runs of 5, 3, 2, 1, 4, -2, -1, and 4 yards to start.
Crap, MSU went the first 20:30 of the game without scoring and didn’t score for the last 18:45 of the contest. Essentially a little under a quarter and a half absolutely crippled the Irish.
*By the way, it’s one thing to play poorly but when things are patently cooked for a coach you start to see those weird moments when seemingly great plays get turned into utter crap.
From that horrendously momentum swinging bounce off Boykin’s leg-turned interception haha no touchdown for Michigan State the Irish have up 9.90 yards per play over the next 33 offensive snaps from the Spartans. How does that happen? How do things go from solid to suddenly looking like an all-star team is playing against this defense?
This isn’t working and I’m completely fine with firing VanGorder right now. There’s nothing worse than being bad and uninteresting. Literally no one wants to sit through the final 10 games with a VanGorder defense. A couple of weeks ago I talked about the pretty poor defensive staff as a whole and how there isn’t a quality in-house interim leader to take over this defense. There’s also something to be said about making a move just to make a move and quieting the masses. However, we’re beyond that point. I’m not sure it can get worse on defense and at least a change would be interesting to watch.
Brian Kelly
The other day I was driving home from work when my mind floated to that place thinking about Notre Dame where I wonder what it would take for a loss here or there not to have such deep meaning anymore. You know what feeling? For 20 years it’s always felt like every loss was a potential program crusher and big victories (however few that came our way) were simply fleeting.
It felt like during the early part of the 2013 season Notre Dame was in a happy place. We lost a wild one at Michigan which was frustrating but I think back to that home loss to Oklahoma, too. We played okay, rebounded after a disastrous start and just didn’t have it that day. The future still felt completely fine…then we’d later lose to Pitt and things really haven’t been the same.
This program could use a breather year, of sorts. A year where there could be 4 or even 5 losses and everyone, from Notre Dame fans to the national media, think the next year will be a bounce back season no worries. One of my big goals to rebuilding Notre Dame was having back-to-back 10+ win seasons. Just to freaking relax for once!
Well, Brian Kelly has lost 4 out of his last 5 games and he’s very likely not winning 10 games for the second year in a row. There will be no breather year in 2017, no patience for a rebuilding year if it’s needed. Through 81 career games with the Irish he’s won 69.1% of his games. The 2012 season was a magical run but that ended 42 games ago and Notre Dame still hasn’t won a major bowl game (or even a bowl game of great significance if you want to lower the bar slightly) and more damning (if Texas and MSU stay ranked) this program is 1-9 in its last 10 games against ranked opponents.
Are we seeing the beginning of the end for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame? It’s tough to say but the signs aren’t particularly encouraging right now. For one thing, we can very likely assume the administration on campus won’t be super proactive meaning Kelly’s job is safe through 2017 at minimum. The super frustrating thing is that instead of maybe a program reaching into the Top 5 or even Top 10 while checking off some big goals over the next 23 games we could be entering a time of great upheaval instead.
I’ve said this for the last 6 years: I expect the end stages of the Brian Kelly era to be very dark for Irish fans. If only because the firings of Davie, Willingham, and Weis were easy, no-brainer decisions. Some folks may not have liked that those decisions came a year or two too long but in the end they were simple inevitable decisions. We’re in a different place today. Right now it’s “we’re losing too many big games” “this shouldn’t happening in year seven” and this coach “won’t win a championship.” It’s just a totally different set of arguments than the past where the whole country was laughing.
Plus, no one has had a tenure quite like Kelly’s at Notre Dame, at least while most of us have been alive. This might be a 7-5 season but they won’t fire Kelly for it which will bring plenty of criticism. Then next year there will be a new DC which will bring hope and more bickering about how much of a leash Kelly should get with that project. One more year only? “He needs a second year to prove this DC can get his system fully installed.” It’s coming soon.
CEO Coach to the Podium
Brian Kelly is entirely fallible when Notre Dame is playing on Saturday. We see every wart, all the wrong choices, and we have a keen sense of what he does and doesn’t do well. Be that as it may, Kelly has always shown a penchant for being a strong CEO head coach who consistently puts his program in a position to win, get better, or reload.
The choice of bringing VanGorder to Notre Dame is looking like a massive mistake. The questions moving forward are whether he can rectify this problem and if that solution is enough to keep him around long-term in South Bend.
To be honest I’m not sure he’s all that comfortable in the position he’s at right now with Notre Dame. Kelly was in kind of a similar situation at Grand Valley State where he had very good but not great success for a decade and was on the hot seat. Then he adopted a wide open spread offense, ripped off a 41-2 record, and began his cycle of quickly rebuilding Central Michigan and Cincinnati. He’s not losing 2 games over 3 years at Notre Dame in the future, a drastic offensive (or maybe defensive!??) overhaul is unlikely to be a magic potion, and Kelly isn’t his late 30’s anymore.
On Sunday, the head coach at Notre Dame put on a brave face and stood up publicly for his defensive coordinator. Without a loss to a really poor team (may I suggest Syracuse in a couple weeks?) it appears VanGorder’s stay will be continued.
So, here’s the deal. The program is trending in a bad direction and the wolves are going to keep circling while cackling louder this season. Kelly has also built things up where the wolves want to hang him for not being a championship-level coach. It’s mostly a thankless job at this point because losing 4 out of 5 and having so many people feeling like Irish football is in the dumps doesn’t satiate the desires for ultimate glory.
At some point it was highly likely that a restlessness was going to settle in with Kelly as he had the program close to greatness but couldn’t get over the hump. With the trajectory of 2016 and an unwillingness to cut VanGorder loose now he’s just welcomed aboard a whole host of new critics who are going to want him gone for less than Tom Herman, or whomever is this off-seasons Next Great Thing.
I can’t help but think that a huge part of the future will be convincing (or is it hoping?) DeShone Kizer wants to return for 2017. Let’s pray he’s really set on getting his degree in 4 years, or feels like he needs another year of seasoning, or doesn’t want to play for the Browns just yet. Let’s pray Kizer has some faith left in the program by the end of the year.
Oh, There Was a Game to Talk About
Lots of talk about the lack of a run game. Of course, it was disappointing but not shocking. Remember, we know what Kelly is and is not at this point. Something in the 3.5 YPC range was probably the absolute best we would have seen out of this game. The offense never got into a rhythm when the score was close in the first half and they didn’t run many plays before falling behind. Moreover, they only gave 6 carries to running backs in the second half. Given how the game unfolded 43 yards on 16 carries from Adams/Folston wasn’t surprising. This easily puts to rest that the Irish have the best offensive line in the country.
Equanimeous St. Brown had two drops in this game and it’s becoming a bit of a problem. On the other hand, he’s on pace for a 1,000 yard season so that’s cool.
Durham Smythe doubled the tight end reception total on the year all the way to 2 catches–and it was a nice touchdown, too! Smythe also had one of the least athletic plays in recent memory after tripping over air near the goal line on a throw from Kizer.
With all of Sanders’ cut-backs we felt due for a lost fumble, to be honest. This is going to be a challenging part of his future as a smaller player who will open himself up to tackles from chasing linebackers and linemen.
The momentum swing in this game was about as drastic as I’ve ever seen. Looking back, the first drive of the 2nd quarter while leading 7-0 having just picked off O’Connor was super disappointing. I wish the Irish had that one back instead of a quick, fruitless 3 & out. Minutes later we had the dumb Boykin “fumble”, a quick touchdown stolen right out of Luke’s hands, and a fumble by Sanders. It all unraveled from there. I also wonder how things change if Claypool hauls in the Hail Mary at the end of the half which would have made it 15-13 pending the PAT. It was SO close. Also, credit Claypool for a clutch 33-yard reception.
I’m a little surprised how Josh Adams went from the 1B option to really being the force-fed playmaker in this game. He got 35.5% of all the offensive touches! The coaching staff really seemed to realize what most of us had in the first two weeks that Folston wasn’t playing very well.
Ryan Newsome had a terrible first punt and then played like an All-American the rest of the game with 3 punts inside the State 20-yard line and a booming 71-yard punt. It’s too bad the Irish couldn’t take advantage of these numerous field flips–only 3 more touchdown drives allowed of 75+ yards. We should think long and hard about not punting once we get past our 40-yard line.
We should have gone for it on 4th and 7 from our own 32-yard line but it was obvious the sack on third down totally flustered everyone. Kizer deserves some blame here, too. In that moment on third down with one more play possible in the comeback the last thing (besides a turnover) is a really bad sack. Still, I hate that with this Kelly/Denbrock/Sanford team of playcallers they weren’t ready for that scenario, quickly called a timeout, and then punted.
Nyles Morgan really seems to be coming into his own as a good linebacker. He’s far from perfect but put up 8 solo tackles and is good for a couple hard and loud tackles per game.
I’m sure there will be plenty of bad film to review for everyone on defense. Still, I thought this was Jerry Tillery’s best game in a Notre Dame uniform from a disruption standpoint. He had a couple Sheldon Day-esque physical domination tackles for loss.
Zero sacks and 14 tackles for loss (97th nationally) through 3 games. The blown coverages are a little better so far this year, but the gap control and tackling have been so awful. Those two areas are also ones that could benefit the most from a different coach and better teaching.
Sneaky big moment in this game was Kizer’s run for first down while the score was still 8-7 and the Irish were digging themselves out from their own goal line. The play was reviewed and upheld even though I think he got the first down. Up next, Newsome’s 71-yard punt and a damn 92-yard touchdown drive by Michigan State.
I actually thought Kizer was okay in the first half. The lack of a rhythm was a big deal as Michigan State held the ball for 6 more minutes and limited the Irish to just 27 offensive snaps before the break. What really hurt was the beginning of the second half when the Spartans were beginning their run. Kizer went 1 for 5 on consecutive series with several ugly, off-the-mark throws and an interception. Suddenly, a one-score game became 29-7 real quick.
Brian Kelly – “We need to do a better job coaching”.
tlndma – “Thank you Captain Obvious.”
The standard for Kelly being the coach in 2018 has to be avoiding 6-6 or worse this year and then getting 11+ wins next year. Nothing less.
Tough but maybe fair.
I’ll raise the stakes and say even a 7-6 season this year is unacceptable, but even if he goes 10-3 next year my rule is: never-ever-ever-ever fire a coach after a 10+ win season. 8-5 or better into a 10-3 or better season and everyone can take a breathe and let their blood pressure go down.
Georgia appropriately fired Mark Richt after a 10-3 season last year. If we had an analogous season next year (i.e., 9-3 with an unimpressive bowl win), Kelly should not be spared just because he got to double digits.
Not sure Richt’s firing will be borne out as appropriate. Even if I generally agreed they needed to move on.
Fair enough; “appropriately” was not a great word choice. It was intended to get at the point that, despite a 10-win season, UGA had good reason to just get it over with. As would be the case with Kelly after a hypothetical similar season next year.
I’m not a member of Kelly’s immediate family so my concern isn’t whether or not he’s “spared”. If you can find a coach who looks like he can win a NC and will sign on to coach and ND then we can talk about firing a 10 win coach. I’m not firing a 10 win coach for a Bob-Davie-Look-a-Like plucked out of the SWAC.
THIS. Firing a coach doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Unless there is an air-tight candidate, no. And even then, make sure they aren’t just playing us for money.
Ha I didn’t even realize the pun. That wasn’t intentional.
I think there are different types of 7-5 seasons. If ND is blown out in five games and barely ekes out the others in embarrassing fashion, then 7-5 can feel like 3-9. Pile on a bowl game blowout and Kelly would not survive it. And with this defense, and with the “let’s ease into the game” offensive gameplan, that outcome is conceivable. Maybe not likely, but conceivable.
Likewise, 7-5 when ND plays well down the stretch and beats a ranked team in the bowl game would feel much better.
In any event, BK needs to get rid of BVG in the least disruptive manner. Whatever he does will be used against ND on the recruiting trail. If he fires BVG midseason, the message will be “ND is in chaos” and “Kelly has demonstrated he hires the wrong guy at DC, how can you trust that he’ll get it right this time?” If he waits until after the season is over, the recruiting message against ND will be “Kelly might keep VanGorder who is just inept and will turn you into an undrafted player … look at five-star Max Redfield who could learn Chinese but couldn’t figure out what VanGorder’s defense was supposed to be.” I say Kelly fires him now and then repeatedly delivers the message to recruits that ND will not tolerate anything but a championship caliber defense.
Dang, I don’t see the upside here in the short run. Not on the field and not on the recruiting trail. In the words of Mr. T, “I see pain.”
I think you’re spot on about DK in 2017. And as a browns fan, I hope he doesn’t end up there. I would hate to see them ruin such a talent.
If he takes over the #1 draft spot from Watson, I definitely think he would (and should) leave. I hope he doesn’t end up on a crap team, but that seems inevitable for the #1 or #2 QB in the draft.
Totally agree that he should leave if he’s #1 (or maybe even #2). What QB’s would be entering the draft in 2018? Rosen?
OH MY GOD JOSH ROSEN WHAT AN ARM GREAT NFL ARM WOW
/4-yard dumpoff to TE
//incomplete
Yea, that was my point lol
Does Lamar Jackson go this year if he continues on this pace? He’s a true sophomore.
As a true sophomore, Jackson can’t declare for the draft.
Geez, I just watched a recording of the Louisville FSU game. Jackson has the fastest acceleration I’ve ever seen on a football field, including Rocket, who was amazing . Supposedly 4.4 speed and he’s there within 2 steps, very sudden, very shifty, very fast. Good ball handler ( fakes exceptionally well) , terrific arm. He just totally trashed FSU.
We have a terrific QB in Kizer, but Jackson is on another plane. Easily the best QB I’ve seen this year. If he doesn’t get hurt, since he runs so much, lookout.
i watched a recording of Jimbo’s presser after the game. He and Kelly could have been reading off the same script “my fault, gotta coach better, my coaches have to coach better, blah blah blah”. A joy to watch.
Lamar Jackson is the most jaw-droppingly amazing single player to watch since Cam Newton.
As a native Clevelander i have to say it is so sad that you are so right about the Browns 🙁
I liked this comment – but I’m not sure if I should’ve disliked it instead lol
i would not be offended by a dislike for that comment 🙁
At least the Cav and Indians are good!
Going 9-4 this season means winning one of three, Stanford at home, Miami at home, or at USC and winning a December 30th bowl game. That’s not what we had planned at the start of the year, but look down at all the plays made by true freshman and sophomores, this season could still turn out very much like the 2014 season. After we beat LSU we had a very good situation at several positions and a chance to win a lot of games the next year, and we ended up losing two heart breakers to avoid the playoff.
As long as the team doesn’t fold the rest of the year there should be some optimism about the future at Notre Dame.
It kills me to say this, but ND Nation was right: Kelly is a not a coach cut out for a major football program. He’s a head coach that can thrive at the lower levels, but when it comes down to it, he fields 8-4 teams that might occasionally have a 10 win season. I guess that’s fine at a program like NC State, but it’s embarrassing for a school that has hopes of being a respected program.
Kelly has had some pretty bad injury and suspension luck, but he’s also done less with more. The only impressive things I can think of were getting the 2012 squad to 12 wins, and developing Kizer into a great quarterback. During Kelly’s tenure, one side of the ball has always been a mess, struggling to be competent at basic things. For the first several years it was the offense, which only improved when he finally brought in some new blood to replace stale long-time associates. Now it’s the defenses turn to crap the bed, as Kelly for some reason brought in an old buddy who was loathed by every fanbase that had the displeasure of watching his teams for the last 10 years. Fundamentals have absolutely gone to hell. Coverages are routinely blown, no one can tackle properly, gaps are never properly filled. Our “aggressive” defense has zero sacks over three games. This honestly might turn out to be statistically the worst defense ever fielded in the university’s history.
So we’re back to where we were in 2013. Instead of the prospect of consecutive double-digit win seasons that would give the program the aura of being back as a force in college football, we’re forced to watch a squad struggle-eff it’s way through a season, shackled by one side of the ball that is incapable of getting out of its own way. We’re once again watching talent wasted due to abysmal coaching that is incapable of minimizing the team’s weaknesses and magnifying it’s strengths. And I for one don’t see how any of this will get better.
Kelly’s extension hasn’t even kicked in yet. Hopefully they had a lawyer read the fine print so we don’t end up paying him while he coaches USC.
Can’t tell if this is meant to be ironic or not, but Jack Swarbrick was a partner at a fairly large law firm for a couple decades, so presumably at least one lawyer read the contract.
If you can’t tell that was meant to be ironic, I need to go back to joke school.
Points of irony:
1) Holy hell, people, his five year extension (awarded after a 10 win season) hasn’t even started yet and now we are talking about firing him. I don’t know (seriously – I have no clue!), maybe that’s the right thing to do anyway. But maybe that might also call into question the judgement of the lawyer you just mentioned.
2) If we fire him, there is a non-zero percentage chance he ends up at USC. Wouldn’t that be ironic?
3) While I’m sure they reviewed this contract carefully, Jeez!, we paid Charlie Weis for like a hundred years while he was also getting paid to destroy several other college and pro teams.
It’s NOT like some good advice you just can’t take…
Too soon to start worrying about 7-5 or 6-6. If ND had pulled off the close win, we wouldn’t be talking about 8-4 or 7-5. It’s just gloomy after a tough loss.
Stanford is a coin toss game. I don’t trust that Miami is really good. USC is in the middle of the whirlpool, staring a 1-3 start right in the eye. Notre Dame legitimately can win out. Personally, I think 9-3 is still more likely than 6-6.
While this could be the beginning of the end for Kelly, it could also be the beginning of the beginning for him. BVG has been a disaster, but the program has still taken steps forward. Notre Dame is capable of fielding a dominant defense under Kelly, and his offense consistently has plenty of talent. Getting BVG out of this job could clear the way for getting back to having a talented DC, similar to how ND landed Sanford for the offense. That could be the thing that puts it all together for ND, turns them from a program hanging out at 8 or 9 wins each season into one at 11 or 12.
Gotta say, I agreed with the call to punt on 4th & 7.
If we don’t convert, MSU gets the ball right near our end zone with 3+ minutes left — we’re basically handing MSU 3 points, maybe 7, and then getting the ball back on a kickoff down at least 11 points with what, hopefully 2 minutes on the clock?
I understand people’s objection to trusting our defense, but they had been coming up with stops at that point in the game. If we had forced that 3 & out, we’re looking at getting the ball down 8 points with 2ish minutes to go.
Any way you slice it, we were in a tough spot and things didn’t work out, but I think the punt was our best shot at finishing off a comeback.
They’d been coming up with some stops because MSU was conservative. They’d also given up matador 70-something yard TDs.
Exactly, MSU was conservative – and they continued to be conservative. Running twice and only gaining 3 yards on two carries. We had them at 3rd and 7. If Cole Luke hadn’t [insert favorite pejorative euphemism here], it would have played out just as planned and we would have had 3 minutes to score.
If it were up to me, I probably would have gone for it, as would most fans. But from a coaching point of view, punting was at least a reasonable option and arguably the right call to make. It didn’t work, so he’s getting crucified for it. But if Luke defends that pass (and he had someone behind him, so he could have played far closer defense), the call works.
The strangest thing for me to understand is how our O-line did played so poorly. I understand, they are not as great as we all had thought, but is MSU’s line that tough? Didn’t Furman run for over 200 yards?
By the way – allow me comment on one bizarre statistic that has bugged me, personally this year. I sat in the north end-zone, behind the band for both the Nevada and MSU games. During those two games, there have been 18 scores. A full 16 of them (everything except for one ND TD and a NV field goal) have been in the south end-zone, at the opposite end of the field where it is next to impossible to see what is going on if you are sitting in the north end-zone. There have been fourteen touchdowns (plus the safety) in the south end-zone, but only one in the north. I wonder what the odds of that happening are? (Oh, and by the way, anyone who doesn’t want a jumbo-tron is nuts.)
Dude, I was in the north end zone as well and thought the exact same thing! First & forth quarter, defending Touchdown Jesus, our boys do work, and 2nd & 3rd, defending what, Legends? We play like garbage! Maybe the field is tilted, or the team really doesn’t want to risk the second coming of Golden Tate from leaping into the team? Weird…
Well, I am now a convert: momentum is real. Worst quarter and half ever! Also, I need new friends. But my polynesian civilization is picking up steam, so I got that goin’ for me…which is nice…
I’ll try to avoid the sky is falling conversations and offer a new topic: what names should we chase to be DC? I’ve been thinking about realistic/prudent moves we could make.
1. Derek Mason (Vandy head coach): He might get fired by Vandy this year which would make him available. He’s already proven to be a good coordinator at smart people schools. The defenses he has coordinated have ranked #22, #11, #9, #76 and #20 in S&P. It’s not Alabama good, but we would be undefeated right now if we had a defense in the top 25.
2. Phil Snow (Temple DC): His last two Temple defense have ranked #16 and #17 in S&P and had some really good defenses at UCLA and Arizona State. He’s a guy who’s aggressive like BVG, but actually has results.
3. Todd Orlando (Houston DC): The biggest pipe dream on this list because I could see him getting a head coaching job after this year.
4. John Jancek (USF safeties coach): This might be the most likely option. He’s familiar with Kelly (served with him at GVSU and Central Michigan) and he followed Diaco at UC. When he was DC at Tennessee his defenses were #46, #12, and #18. The good: he improved them from #81 to #46 his first year there. The bad: his defenses blew several big leads last year. But they are mostly competent and we could kill for that.
Anyone else want to add anyone?
Would love Mason. 12,000 yds, 66 TDs, what’s not to like (well MSU). Oh wait, Derek. Would also like him. He also has DB coaching experience. It doesn’t seem like he has any tie to BK or ND, would he be a legit possibility, or is this pure speculation?
Just names that I threw out. I figured BK might make an outside hire like he did with Sanford.
Dave Aranda might be available if Les Miles gets fired.
That would be amazing. But I’ll be willing to bet that he’ll get another SEC DC job. Good coaches who go there usually never leave.
Mark Stoops? Pete Kwiatkowski? Brady Hoke?
Anyone from Dantonio’s defensive coaching tree?
DE Donavan Jeter is Irish.
Kizer is very very good, but he needs to work on being more consistent with his mechanics. He can get into a bit of a rut where he starts really just using his arm and forgetting his footwork/lower half. When he’s got everything going right, he might be the best pocket passer in the country. If he can be consistent, he’s going to be an outstanding NFL QB someday.
This is probably bad form but I am going to post part of a comment I just made on the Instant Reaction thread (living in Europe I am always coming in on the end of threads, and these thoughts belong more in this discussion).
(1) BK right now does feel a lot like Elmer Layden. Like Layden, BK is a good CEO, runs the program right, dangles a little fools’gold (the 1938 almost NC); gonna be stuck at .700 forever.
(2) So here we are stuck in purgatory (not heaven, not hell).
(3) BK will not leave for a while. The question is, can he salvage the defense? Here is a thought on how, based on a true story from the Fighting Irish lore:
one year under Ara, we lost to Purdue big (Mike Phipps went off the charts as I recall) – something like 38-20. Anyway, Ara announced to the coaches that, nothing personal, but he was going to take over coaching the defensive unit that week. Much to the dismay of John Ray, the DC (and unlike BVG a good one). That even led to a practice field brushup as Ray pushed back against a typical Ara bitchy correction. Worth noting — the defense improved…
For me, that is BK’s best of a bad set of alternatives – de facto, take over the D (he does not have to talk much about that), leave the O to Mike D and Sanford. Maybe sideline Lyght and bring Elliott out of semi retirement..
What I see on the field is the product of not hitting at practice. The symptoms are there: poor tackling, shying away from contact, bad pursuit angles, poor run blocking. Plus we’ve seen the inane practice videos where it seems all we do is work on swing passes and long bombs.
This quote from yesterday’s presser is telling:
Q. With regard to tackling and fundamentals and fits, can you improve all those things without a ton of midweek contact during the season? How much contact are you getting during the week?
COACH KELLY: I think we’re a little bit out of control in our tackling. Our safety position has missed some key tackles. We’ve got to be in a better position to run fits and tackle. We’re just a little bit out of control, quite frankly. We’ve got to come to balance and just be fundamentally a little bit better in terms of our tackling fits.
Yeah, those are things that we can certainly do in our circuit training without having live contact. It’s just a matter of the confidence level of those guys that are closing in space.
Yeah, I’ve been wondering if too little contact in practice is the issue with tackling. Is he saying you can practice tackling with no physical contact??
Who knew??
As much as I like the idea of “modern” practices with less live hitting, I have to say your idea seems highly, highly probable. I wonder if we’ve dropped live practice sessions to a greater degree than other programs because of the injury issues we’ve had the last couple years. Sure, many have been noncontact, but we’ve also had a good handful of concussions, it seems.
Edit: just saw the comment below.
It is clearly tied to preventing injuries. Kind of hard to blame BK after the huge amount of them in the last two years, for which he took a ton of heat. He made some very revealing remarks on this recently, noting the moves in the pros and within the NCAA to reduce tackling in practice. I think he is hyper concerned about that – agree 100% that the above quote is telling, but also shows that he is worried over precisely your points above. I think he is between a rock and a hard place, as I suspect the big push on reducing injuries he is so proud of has been directly responsible for the lack of tackling practice, and I further suspect ND is ahead of other schools in this regard.
This is one of those cases where being ahead appears to put you behind
This poor tackling started when BVG arrived. It is not a new phenomenon because of safety concerns this year in practice. It may be worse to some degree but, there was a noticeable difference when Diaco left and BVG took over.
Yeah, I think a big factor is division of practice time. Diaco stressed fundamentals like tackling and gap responsibility over more complex schemes. BVG’s super-duper complex NFL packages probably take more time to install, leaving less precious practice time to work on basic competence.
More Noise, I hear what you’re saying but at what point does avoiding full contact hurt the team more than it helps? You can have a fully healthy roster but if the team is soft, then what’s the point?
I’m think back to the Holtz/Joe Moore years when Aaron Taylor said games were so much easier than practices. Those teams were physically dominant because that’s what they worked on in practice
Avoiding injuries isn’t just an ND thing–plenty of teams have reduced their in-practice contact because that’s just the overall climate around football right now, and I can’t say I disagree with it. The issue is, does it affect ND more than it does other teams? I lean towards yes, because I don’t watch other teams and think “they couldn’t tackle my 10 year old” like I do when I watch ND. But then again, I don’t watch other teams nearly as critically. So it would be interesting to compare missed tackles across FBS to teams which hit less and see where things stand.
it’s also possible that other teams have found a way to teach and practice tackling better than BVG even with less contact in practice.
Typically good thoughtful points from this site. Some thoughts of my own:
1, From his own mouth, it’s clear that BK sees his team is not tackling well (hard to miss).
2, Also, he admits they are not doing much tackling in practice; at least in part because of the injury concerns (where it is clear he has put in a LOT of time and effort). As he pointed out himself, tackling against a tackling dummy albeit a modern high tech dummy is different than tackling real live players. (Also remember, one of the reasons he put forth for the shoddy line play including tackling in the Game Never to be Mentioned at the end of the 2012 season was that we only had 5 healthy O-linemen.)
3, Probably the key variable is whether BVG’s complex schemes reduce even the non-actual live tackling part of practice below that of many other teams. Based on many hints we have seen, the educated guess would be yes. This was even true for BVG’s time with Rex Ryan in the pros, if you recall.
There should be a way to square the circle and practice better without increasing injury risk. But that would come back to the increased focus on fundamentals that you mention above.
On y va (let’s go there!)
From today’s presser (ND Insider):
“A defense that ranks no higher than 89th nationally out of 128 in any significant category heading into Saturday’s first dip of the season into ND’s annual ACC commitment, against Duke (1-2), was scheduled for more contact, more work against the No. 1 offense and more reps at full speed in Tuesday’s practice.
‘I’m just looking to coach better,’ Kelly said. ‘So we’re going to thud everybody up.’
The desired byproduct of ‘thudding’ is supposed to be surer tackling and sounder fundamentals from a team that surrendered more than 200 yards rushing Saturday night in a 36-28 home loss to Michigan State and more than 500 yards of total offense, both for the second time this season.”