Kelly Gruene

Help me understand your answer. Here’s what I see. Haskins completed his career with the team that recruited him. Over the time he was there, OSU had 7 five star players on offense and 8 on defense. He certainly had a good career at OSU. ND is ND in terms of recruiting. More like Michigan than OSU. You could argue, I suppose, that if Haskins had played at ND, more 5 star recruits would have followed. I doubt that’s true, but I suppose maybe one or two.. which leads me to... Shea Patterson. Recruited to Ole Miss, transferred to Michigan. During his time there Michigan recruited one 5 star player, other than him, on offense and 4 on defense. It doesn’t look to me like 5 star players followed Patterson to Michigan. If Patterson had been ND’s QB over the last 3 years, you think he would have (a) won more games than Book, (b) taken ND to more than 2 playoffs, and/or © won a championship? Playing in the playoffs against OSU, Clemson, and Alabama, each of which had 12-15 five star players? Does ND have that much better coaching than those teams? Jacob Eason. Not even good enough to complete his career at Georgia. A better QB forced his hand and he transferred to Washington. Didn’t win a championship there either. Malik Henry was recruited by Florida State. Finished his career at the University of West Georgia. I doubt he would have done more at ND than book did. But we’ll never know. No matter who ND had at QB over the last few years, given the landscape of where 5 star recruits actually go to play football, I don’t think any of the other QB’s ND was recruiting during Book’s recruiting year would have accomplished more than Book did. Help me understand why you think otherwise.

Here were the other QB’s that ND was recruiting in 2016, Book’s year: Shea Patterson, Jacob Eason, Malik Henry, and Dwayne Haskins. 2 of these are backups in the NFL, one plays wide receiver in the CFL, and one isn’t playing anywhere I think. Would one of those QB’s have won more games than Book over the same time? Would one of those have taken ND to the playoffs more than twice? Would one of those QB’s have won a national championship over the same time? I think the answer is no to each of those questions. Of course we will never know.

Thank you. All I can think is, lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Because, I'm thinkin' that's a lion, not a tiger. But I'm bearish on this anyway. Oh my.

I'm clearly not emoji-proficient. Reading from left to right, it looks like Alabama, Oregon, then ?? is that an anchor or is that Arizona State, Texas?, Georgia, a lion?, a rocket?

24/7 had Hayes listed as a 4 star outside linebacker with a .9409 rating. Other services may have had him listed differently. I’m just looking at how 24/7 listed players during their respective recruiting cycles. What position they may have ended up playing at ND may have varied from how they were listed during their recruiting.

Adding some perspective, the last defensive lineman who enrolled and played for ND who was ranked as highly on 24/7 was Sheldon Day. He was in the 2012 recruiting class. Tuitt was more highly rated and was in the 2011 class. Lynch was in that class too, but obviously didn’t stick at ND. An entire decade between D-lineman ranked that high. Wow. And that’s IF it happens.

According to CBS sports, 8 of the last 12 semifinal games have been decided by at least 17 points. Since the playoffs began, the average margin of victory in semifinal and final games is almost 19 points. And that was as of December 29th; stats in the article don't include last night's game. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/is-the-college-football-playoff-delivering-on-its-promise-blowouts-lack-of-upsets-suggest-otherwise/

ND has finished the season ranked #5 in two of the last three seasons. Seems pretty great to me.

True. I wonder how those who do the rankings interpret the results over the last two weeks. Oklahoma beat up a Florida team that had I think 9 starters out of the game. Texas A&M beat North Carolina by the same margin as ND but lost to Alabama by more than ND. ‘Bama blows out ND and OSU, yet ND held ‘Bama to its lowest point total in two years. OSU beats up on Clemson, which had beaten up ND the week before. I’m guessing ND ends up 5 or 6, but could see them staying at 4.

I’m not positive they did. To my eye it appeared that way. No argument on my end. But there’s no doubt that Saban isn’t known for doing that. So, either way, ND surely looks better. Maybe the people who do the final rankings should ask the ‘Bama players which team they thought was harder to play, OSU or ND? I wonder what the answer would be and how that might affect the final rankings.

Until tomorrow, when Sarkisian leaves.

Truly an unfrickingbelievable performance. And the design of the plays. Spectacular. And Jones’ perfect delivery of the ball. I hate Alabama. But this is really a masterpiece offensively.

This ‘Bama performance makes ND look more respectable. Even if ‘Bama took their foot off the pedal in the second half against the Irish, they were full throttle in the first half. ND didn’t allow 28 points in that half, and ultimately only allowed 31. OSU is loaded with 5 star talent. ND is not. I’m digging this first half on so many levels. Just hope OSU does not win.

Purdue is apparently interested in Elston for DC and D-line coach.

Per 24/7 he is committed but has not yet signed.

I had forgotten that ND plays Cincinnati next year, and that Denbrock is their OC. Adds a little to that game.

That’s crazy! There’s a good story buried in there somewhere.

Probably the most important recruit of the cycle. I wonder what the pay differential will be between the OC and the DC next year. Tommy will be a hot commodity soon enough...

And that's the season with our easiest schedule for a few years to come. The 2022 and 2023 schedules are a bit more daunting. 2021: https://fbschedules.com/ncaa-2021/team/notre-dame 2022: https://fbschedules.com/ncaa-2022/team/notre-dame 2023: https://fbschedules.com/ncaa-2023/team/notre-dame That 2018 recruiting class has completely fallen apart. Austin seems to be the last man standing. With Lewis seeming to have passed Bracy on the depth chart, I wonder if Bracy will leave too.

Nice post. I agree. Been through the coaching search and misery before. No guarantees of finding someone better. Texas just fired another coach and would probably love to have Mack Brown back now. Maybe Kelly doesn’t work as hard on recruiting as he could. None of us can tell. We’re not in the rooms or on the phones. I’d love to win a big game, just like every passionate ND fan including each person posting in this thread. I’m sad but happy at the same time. Proud of what ND accomplished this year and looking forward to what comes next.

https://apple.news/AeWswM6kzNdW_6meE8mfWnQ Apparently there is some thought at Texas about potentially looking at Kelly. Seems completely unlikely, of course. But Texas has been stumbling blindly in the night for years, much like ND had been before Kelly.

Ceyair Wright: Did you watch the Rose Bowl? You can start for ND next year, or you can sit on the bench for two at USC. ND has been in the playoffs twice; USC has never been there. How big of a stage do you want?

I’ve loved Book. In the end, players gotta make plays. He didn’t. The result doesn’t fall on him alone. But he just made too many bad throws today. Unforced errors. Every play matters. This team started the last two games as of there were do-overs allowed. On to next year.

Saban would be in the room next to you...

Continuing my wildly irrational prediction... Halftime ND 17, Alabama 14. End of 3: Alabama 28, ND 17. Final: ND 31, Alabama 28. Turnovers play a key role. I’m an absolute homer, no doubt.