WatchND highlights:
Up early against
Oh, never mind. That was my draft that I have lined up from pretty much every reaction post this season. I forgot to update it with the current information.
Nevertheless, it’s accurate today as Notre Dame assured itself of a losing season with another loss to another meh team, albeit probably the best one it has played thus far. This time it was Virginia Tech on the winning end.
The Irish started quick, as they have in many games this season, taking a 24-7 lead. They got a big play out of Josh Adams in the second half that briefly stemmed the tide of momentum the Hokies inevitably set off. They got some nice catches at points. They even got some good defense early in the game.
And then they stopped playing well. The season seems to have largely consisted of Brian Kelly coming up with good game plans to start things off, then when the other team adjusts, shrugging and saying, “Well, that’s all I’ve got. Let’s keep doing it and see what happens.”
Twice DeShone Kizer got hit on plays that would (and have) been called targeting against Notre Dame. I thought it was stupid that neither play was reviewed, especially when the second such play saw Kizer get up woozy and possibly concussed. But I guess we have to hold on to the distinction of being the only team to ever have a targeting call go against us only after the review.
This team is just bad. When Adams dropped a pass on the final drive that would’ve been an easy first down, it pretty much encapsulated the season. Bad teams find ways to lose. Bad teams make dumb mistakes. Bad teams commit false starts by the half-dozen. Bad teams lose to teams that lose to Kansas. Bad teams lose to teams that go 3-9 (hi, Furman and Rutgers. Honored to share this space with you). Bad teams lose despite having a guy who is supposedly a first-round draft pick at quarterback – even if I find myself asking what the hell those draftniks are watching every week.
Notre Dame is going to go 4-8 against the worst schedule in school history. I feel like this is probably the 3rd or 4th time I have said this, but it bears repeating. This is an absolute train wreck. And I really don’t care that every loss has been close. Every loss was close in 2009 too, and no one was using it as an excuse to call ND good that season.
If you’re looking for silver linings: ND rushed for 5.6 yards per carry, and especially in the first half did well to control the line of scrimmage outside of those false starts. Kizer was good in the first half (should I just assume ‘in the first half’ at the end of all these sentences?). Most of the key pieces of this team will be back next year, so hopefully they will improve. There are probably more, but I’m too bummed out to think of them at the moment.
Someone call up the Irish and tell them to be better next year – I bet that would drive more traffic to 18 Stripes than these funereal pieces I have been writing every week.
See you folks next time.
Good news Andy! We’re going to lose by 20 next week so you’ll get to flex those writing creativity muscles a bit.
Looking forward to the creativity!
Fire everyone. I don’t care anymore. This team is leaderless, sloppy, and unfocused. Once something like the team culture cratering like this happens, there’s no recovering. We might as well fire Kelly now and rip off the bandaid instead of slogging through another bad season or two.
@Yes, but all the players tweet their pride at being at ND after every game! Good thing it helps them to play well too.@
For years alot of great coaches and players worked to build such a great tradition. But over the last two decades four coaches and many of the teams they have led have managed to slowly but surely wittle away at it all. There used to be just a handful of teams that could say they have a winning record against the Irish. Now such famed powerhouses like NC State.Oregon St,Tulsa, and Virgina Tech ( at least they have been a solid program) can all claim to be winners against ND. Hard to believe there isnt anyone out there that could do better then 4-8. Time for another off season of hearing that tired old refrain ” we had a bad year .but we graduate more players then anyone else”. Andy’s game report was right on the money again. Home team takes lead,goes in tank from 2nd qt until mid late 4th qt. Visiting team takes lead. Home team gets ball in desperation mode,1st down incomplete pass, 2nd down slow developing run play 5 yd loss.3rd down qb under pressure throws incomplete, 4th down,punt.
It’s happened again
It’s happened agaaaaaiiiin
2016 ND football
It’s happened again…
BK got absolutely schooled by Bud Foster in the second half. Had absolutely no answers to Va Techs halftime adjustments on defense. Even in his presser he didn’t seem to have a clue of what happened.
The optimist in me says we haven’t actually been blown out this year (though I would bet that changes next Saturday), so 2017 has at least some hope with almost everyone returning. Still, the psyche of this team is way off, and it’s hard imagining that changing with BK still around next year.
Onwards into the abyss
I’d have to watch the game again, (will probably tomorrow) but did they even really do that much different on defense? it looks like it was just our execution, we ran basically the same plan the second half but didn’t get keep reads as often. Thats about it. We just didn’t run well, and had alot of poor success on first down (drops n stuff). Neither of which are probably a scheme thing, or at least this is what I think now.
I don’t understand how they can game plan so well but not be able to make ingame adjustments. It’s like two different teams from one half to another.
But heres the thing (talking purely from an offensive stand point). ND’s offense is built on certain concepts and certain base plays within those concepts and other plays as constraints to them. Thats what you practice (and maybe occasionally a wrinkle or two) if the defense does x should i check to y, or the defense is playing alot of cover 2 better call smash.
All of that is within the base offense. you don’t adjust from your base offense, if its your base offense it was chosen because together with constraints it is inherently sound: there is nothing the defense can adjust that isn’t inherently answered, now a defensive adjustment might emphasize one player or not, and the defense can adjust to that to try to get more touches to their player.
What happened the second half is that ND’s base offense did not execute. It wasn’t that VT took it all away magically (like I said I still need to rewatch the game to see if they really did do something special) but simply put, inside zone rb runs that were going for 4+ were now going for 2 or so, and quick passes for 5-6 yards were being dropped. This throws the offense competently off schedule and lets everyone in the stadium know that it is a passing down.
I guess what I’m saying is that with a sound offense half-time adjustments are massively overrated, because your base offense should already be sound and have a built in practiced and run constraint.
Well, coaching is an issue, but gosh, these players just don’t seem to have the mental toughness and any “refuse to lose” in them. Too soft. Period.
You know who’s responsible for setting the tone of the program? The coaches. We can’t be the unluckiest/dumbest team in college football, composed solely of overrated, soft recruits. Rot starts from the top.
I am ready for a change at HC because as you say the tone of the program is off. But I also wonder when the players have to take accountability. A couple examples that really irk me are the simple fundamentals such as not jumping offside for the 8th time and realizing that watching the ball is better; going out of bounds to stop the clock, not falsestarting.
Amen to the false starts. Let’s stop doing that, K? Unless a false start negates a bad snap/fumble. In that special case, it is OK.
Interesting question for consideration – taking the roster as a given, is this the worst ND coaching job in recent memory? Not a question of which team is better, but a question of which team performed worst given the roster and schedule. For example, I think this year is clearly, unambiguously worse coaching-wise than 2007 (even though this year’s team would beat 2007 ND 9 times out of 10) – that roster was garbage, thanks to Ty and his general IDGAF attitude towards recruiting. But 3-9 with that roster against the 2007 schedule is a whole lot better than 4-7 with this roster against this garbage schedule, even if the games weren’t all that close in 2007.
With respect (and by now I am surely a very small minority voice) — I disagree. The unexpectedly severe loss of senior leadership has proven to be deeply catastrophic. OK, yes, BK should have pulled the plug on BVG before, but it’s also clear that the younger defensive players are trying hard and are at times very fun to watch.
In 2007 we were BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER so many different times, and that has not been the case this year. Nor am I giving up on beating the Trojans.
I am counting on the good manners and civility of this board to avoid the kind of crotchety bitter grumpy calling out that occurs on that other board.
By the way, Eric – I know you have said you wish you’d picked a better year to start a new site – but what better year to benefit from your acute perceptions and help us all keep a little balance?
I don’t know. The schedule isn’t as weak as many think, for one thing. Another is that its players, not coaches, who drop balls, false start, snap the ball poorly, throw inaccurate passes, miss blocks etc.
if I were Kelly I’d leave for greener pastures and let the next coach in try to contend with Notre Dame’s specialness.
i thought it an interesting contrast to see VaTech symbolizing themselves with an old lunchpail, with a real never quit work ethic on the field. Can’t say I’ve seen the same out of our guys this year. In every game we’ve lost the offense has had the ball for the final drive of the game and flat out fizzled.
I am pretty much with you, Kiwifan. Some years stuff just… happens. I really like the way the players talk in public, and I do think they are all doing what they say thay are doing, namely, fighting hard. I have not seen anybody doing lots of lollygagging around, taking off plays, pouting, screaming at each other, making obviously seditious or sarcastic digs on social media, etc. They strike me as what BK has been billing them as: smart, high character (for the most part), athletic kinds.
But they have been doing some “bad” stuff: Mustipher’s snapping (which actually has got fixed); the left tackle’s much publicized false starts (I think that has gotten into his head and he is in one of those vicious circle cycles), De Shone’s inaccuracies (and I really do think he has an arm issue). I know, I’m making excuses. But as the most senior member of this board (I assume) I have seen bad down cycles (Kuharich, what a waste of great talent, Faust ditto, and we all know the Ty and CW travesties) and this one is not like those. I submit BK is a good “program” coach with potential to take us to the final four when it all goes well, and this year he has been snakebit.
Your wise perspective is always appreciated MN
Of course it’s the players who are not making plays; that’s not really in dispute. But they’re consistently put in bad positions by the guys on the sideline and in the booth.
The point is, with this talent level (which, according to the blue-chip ratio should more or less be a CFP contender, or something close to it), 4-7 against this schedule – which is a very bad schedule; certainly seems to be the weakest since I started at ND as a freshman in 2005 – is a much worse result than 3-9 against a 2007 schedule with that year’s roster, which had basically zero talent in the junior and senior classes.
But we’ll finish higher in S&P+ because we kept a lot of losses close this year, so we got that going for us!
Though I’m having trouble finding S&P+ SOS rankings, so if somebody wants to bring facts to my feelings fight, I’d be happy to hear if we’ve had a worse recent schedule.
FWIW, according to F+, before the game yesterday (so versus a schedule against which we were 4-6), our SOP (strength of schedule against teams played) was 90th. I think our schedule is actually as bad as people think it is, and our record against that schedule is really inexcusably bad.
In the game chat, you made the comment that because you didn’t think we’d win 10 games next year with Kelly, and that should be the bar for retaining him, then we might as well fire him now. So I looked at next year–the thing is, it could be a worse schedule than this year’s, in terms of strength. So it’s entirely conceivable (to me, anyways) that with some reasonable upgrades at DC and ST coach, and expected hypothetical growth from players, we could very likely win 10 games next year.
BUT…the weakness of the schedule calls in to question whether or not “win 10 games” is actually an indicator of getting better. If we scrape by the very pedestrian teams on the schedule, lose to 2 of Georgia, USC, and Stanford (because who knows how up or down they’ll be), and finish 10-2, then it’s cosmetically much better, but fundamentally may not be very different. I’m not saying I wouldn’t take 10 wins (absolutely I would)–I’m saying though that wins (and for that matter, losses) need to be looked at in context. That’s what makes this season so bad–the losses are mostly to teams we should, had we simply played to the level we know this team to be capable of, beat.
I guess I’m feeling myself at a crossroads–what’s more important, wins/losses or program progression? Because I think we could be a very average team and win 9-10 games next year (as we could have been very average and done that this year). But where my faith in BK has really started to crumble is the sense that we can break past that. 12-0 was wonderful and I wouldn’t trade that season at all, but we clearly weren’t ready to compete at the BCS/playoff level, despite our wins. Every team, even elite ones (hi there, tOSU) scrape by on occasion, so it’s not even a “must pound every inferior team” thing, but at some point I would like to see hope that we can not only win against inferior teams, but compete with the best. Even if I look at this year as a random fluke aberration, the best that gets me to is “well, in normal years we’ll beat these average teams we are losing to.” Is that enough reason to keep Kelly? I don’t think it is. So for me, the only concern is if next year can show us I’m wrong–and if we can’t pound most of next year’s schedule and beat at least 2 of UGA, Stanford, and USC, then we never will get there under Kelly.
This rambled way more than I intended, and I’m still not sure I came to an actual point. But whatever.
But a nicely done and very thought provoking ramble, KG. A few random thoughts from rainy Paris after midnight…
– BK has many positives that endear him to Jack and the administration: a very good overall top executive, a good recruiter in spite of the many handicaps of recruiting at ND, a coach who buys in to the need to educate our players in all the fundamental ways that are important to Our Lady’s university;
– and per my post of a couple weeks ago, he could still do a turnaround to another magical season (see below).
– but BK has shown enough negatives, especially being slow to auto-correct, both in his overall coaching (hanging on to BVG etc.) and in his game day management, to make that a doubtful proposition.
Last year was a good year; remember all the damn injuries? And getting to know the team on Showtime, and what a great bunch of players they seem to be? Those ten wins and those great kids did not come by accident. So yes, we can accept 2016 as an outlier.
So BK will not be fired nor should he be. If anything, we the informed and give a damn fan base should be focused on rooting to help in some small way the team get better as opposed to wringing our hands at every step.
I doubt we have ever had as talented a team play so poorly. The schedule is very weak.
I am not sure what the reasons are, but we don’t seem to make a play when we need it, whether on offense or defense. It almost seems as if it is a different reason each game. Sometimes multiple reasons.
I think Kelly is a good coach, but I think he has worn thin here. That which must be done should be done sooner rather than later. It may not be fair, but as the saying goes you can’t fire all the players.
Is there really no chance Kelly gets fired after a blow out USC loss and a 4-7 season? I know there are big picture reasons not to and no guarantee we could get any one better, but the question is what WILL Swarbrick do (not what should he do)? If there’s a chance, I’d love to see a breakdown of possible candidates but I get the sense that there isn’t really a chance Kelly will get fired.
I think the main problem is the contract extension. Swarbrick firing Kelly after this year means he is saying “I made a terrible decision not less than a year ago in the most important part of my job.” Of course, that would be an accurate description of what happened, but he can’t possibly admit it and still save face.
So, basically, I see no realistic situation where Kelly gets fired this offseason for football-only reasons but Swarbrick keeps his job. The hope for Kelly not being the coach next year is that he’s sick of the ND pressure and there is a mutually beneficial separation.
Sometimes it seems silly to me that Swarbrick would get criticized for giving him an extension and then firing him a year later. Sure it turned out to be the wrong decision but you don’t make the decision knowing exactly what will happen in the future but only on the evidence given to you. Did anyone think at the time given what Kelly had done that it was a bad extension? Of course not. Then no matter what happens it should never be viewed as Swarbrick’s fault in giving it to him. If we could replay these seasons they may have turned out better 7 out of 10 times and then Swarbrick still looks good.
I agree with your assessment that probably won’t be fired. I just wish people were more reasonable and wouldn’t blame people for not being perfect prognosticators. Sometimes the evidence tells you one thing and something different happens. It isn’t a perfect science.
Did it seem like after Kizer took that first targeting hit that he didn’t play as well? to me it seemed like he became a lot more tentative and wasn’t as accurate as he was earlier in the game up till that point I thought we were playing one of the better games we played this year… Any word on how he is doing?
He cleared concussion protocol right away. Seems like he’s fine.
As BK said, sometimes you get a head impact and it’s not a concussion. I agree he did not seem in top form, but he did have those receiver drops…