OKelleyIrish

Really hope we see Tosh get some time Saturday. I'm just not comfortable with Carmody at this point.

BK, in the early days, hired way too many of his previous assistants, but all coaches do. Molnar was someone BK probably shouldn't have kept around. Martin had a very good run at GVS, and was highly thought of for a time. 5 straight conference titles can't be ignored. Denbrock has had varied success, but I don't see him as an awful hire at all. Cinci sure has done well lately. Sanford had a lot of success and was seen an in-demand up and comer, so no shame on that one either. I was never really a fan of Long. Rees is still early stages. Book under him played above his ceiling IMO. It's early for Coan, but Coan certainly looked better in game 1 than he did at Wiscy. If ND's O continues to look good the next couple years, Rees will likely get a HC job opportunity at mid major or lower P5. And that's impressive for his age.

Yup. Anyone that knows Clemson's history, and Dabo's, knows he's had an impressive climb. I live in the SE now, and have a lot of Clemson fans as friends. I was at the hurricane game between ND and Clemson. We lost, but still was one of the best games I've ever been too. Definitely the wettest one lol...

I think I did a great job tempering my own expectations for the year lol. I pretty much expected struggles on D the first 3-5 games with the new scheme. With the hope we'd get things fine tuned before we played Wisconsin and the following 4 teams. The havoc is great, and I think a lot of us expected that. Just need to fine tune things over the next 2.5 weeks. I do believe BK when he said most of it was execution. Just by my eye, lots of gap confusion. Like @FaithInIrishForever has pointed out, also concerned a bit with LBs. I think we need to shuffle a bit, especially with the injuries. I did not think Coan would come out on fire like that lol.... I was almost certain that Kelly would bring him along slowly. I know we had to throw late to win, but I did not expect us to begin the game with some many back to back passes. Not sure it's sustainable, but it looked great game 1. And I really enjoyed the play calling at times pushing the ball down field with purposeful deep calls. I think Toledo might hang 1H. I don't see them hanging much longer. Our size and speed will at some point put things out of reach.

Brunelle and Jones weren't big deals, and KAR was a bit of a multi position guy/athlete. The only loss that IMO hurt was JJ. This must have just happened, as ND's depth chart for Toledo still had him listed as #2 slot. Wonder if there's more to the story and the school is just keeping things quiet. His lack of snaps has been a bit of a head scratcher.

IDK. When a lot of people think about BK, they think about his Os at Cinci. They don't realize BK himself played D, and his coaching rise was on the D side prior to being a HC. I think he's a good "blend" type HC, who is best as the CEO. I don't think he's an elite O or D mind, and I don't think he's an elite recruiter. I thinks he's a great combo of all things who has learned to be the CEO type. Dabo grew up Bama.... lol. Saying he didn't start hitting until he had 5 stars really isn't fair. He won the Atlantic side of the ACC in his second year, and was only a few points shy of winning the ACC. He had never been a HC before. By year 4 he hit the 10 win mark, and has won 10 or more games every year since. He's got a great O mind, and he's a great recruiter. He's got probably the best DC in the nation on the other side of the ball who is happy not being a HC... My 2 cents ?

I would say there is Saban clearly at #1, Dabo clearly at #2, then it drops off a bit and you have several guys you could still say are great coaches. Saban is a genius in a so many ways, but he gets the best of everything. Coaches, players, facilities, boosters, bagmen, etc.. Dabo has a lot of that too, and Vanables being happy/content to stay is a huge plus for Dabo. He's done a lot with his talent, although it was less than Bama's talent especially in the early going. I think overall, ND requires a certain kind of coach. Saban and Dabo have zero desire to be handcuffed like Kelly with admission and other standards. Like I said above, I think BK is likely the best fit we can hope for. We just need to keep hitting on coordinators, and land the best talent we can. While I know Freeman is taking a kick in the jewels over last game, he was the most in-demand DC last year, and he's killed it recruiting on the D side. ND just needs some planets to align. Need to hit on an elite QB and skill players on the O side, and have a top 10 D.....

I don't really see him as a dick, just a typical late 50s guy from Massachusetts lol He was a lot lighter hearted before ND. Being a HC at ND, especially these days, changes you. The comments IMO were a huge nothingburger.

BK is easily top 10, maybe top 5. He's the CEO type of HC, and plays that role very well. His record is very impressive given our admissions standards. IMO, he's the best we can hope for given our culture. That is unless we hit the jackpot on a young up and comer and all the planets align....

Every time I think it won't happen.... something happens lol... I really don't see us taking a dump though. Not after the FSU scare. But I can see us going uber conservative early, and it being closer than it should be. We've just got too many horses, and too much size/speed advantage not to break through. One of my biggest hopes, is that we take a step forward on the OL. The only one that played well last week IMO was the freshman, and he looks to be out. Haven't seen anything official but he's not on the depth chart, and saw one report it might be 5-6 weeks. Carmody scares me a bit, but I'll give him more slack than the 4 starters who all looked pretty bad. Not as worried about the run D. FSU had/has one of the best running games in the nation going back to last season. I have a feeling the front 7 will look a lot better in that area. If not, we'll need to make so LB shuffles.

Yup. One of the favorites to win the MAC. Still, ND should win handily, but I agree the 1H might be uncomfortable. Skimmed their recruiting classes on 247 the last 5 periods, and they have zero 4 star guys. Mostly 3 star guys with some lower ranked mixed in. 21 returning starters provides the cohesion though, and seems as though they've developed well. My fear to an extent is us going super conservative/vanilla.

Not an abundance of info on Toledo, but found a few nuggets. While they are not P5, pretty decent small conference team on paper. Regardless, we absolutely should beat them handily, but they're not an FCS type tune up team. Last season Shortened Covid season Toledo was one of a few favorites to win the MAC Two losses. Both by 3pts, and to good MAC teams (including MAC champion Ball State). So far this year Beat FCS MEAC Norfolk State 49-10 236 yards passing and 205 yards rushing General 21 returning starters Most MAC predictions have either Toledo or Ball State as favorites to win the conference Offense: Averaged 35 points a game last season 2nd in MAC in total offense, and first in passing offense Starting experience at every position except QB 3 QBs played, with Bradley getting the most snaps. Wouldn't be surprised to see multiple QBs play this weekend The OL returns all 5 starters including 2 All-MAC Center Bryce Harris 1st Team RT Nick Rossi (AM when Fresh) Junior RB Brant Koback is a 2 year starter who has career stats of 2626 yards and 30 TDs. Two of their starting WRs were 2nd and 3rd team All MAC Defense: Defense assumed to be improving under Jason Candle Returns 5 (4 current, 1 previous) All Conference players Two time All MAC edge Jamal Hines DT Desjuan Johnson LB Dyontae Johnson SAF Tycen Anderson SAF Nate Bauer Senior CB Samuel Womack has led the MAC in PDUs for the last two seasons and a favorite for All MAC honors this year. Special Teams Punter Bailey Flint led the MAC in 2019 for yards per punt

I was there in 2002. Fun place to win a game in ?

Rochell IMO had a good preseason with Indy. I think he'll get rotational minutes later in games at the DE/3T tweener spot. Would love to see him do well with a fresh start.

yup. would like to see both Austin and Wilkins running go routes down each sideline in the weeks to come.

Start practicing your Frack for F substitutions now. ?

He definitely wasn't perfect. But nobody is. The bounce pass was bad, probably his worst moment. I actually wonder if the guy was covered up and he just wanted to throw it away. He had 2 other underthrown or just bad tosses. But he also had two drops that should have been catches. His high completion % makes it pretty clear the mistakes were limited. He'll get credit for the INT on the stats page, but we all know hail marys don't really count. We've got 3 weeks / two games to tune things up before our 5 game "gautlet" begins. I'm not so worried about Wiscy now, but our Offense has to be on point vs Cinci and VT. Those are two tough Ds that will make you pay if sloppy on O... Not sure Cinci's O is legit, and I'm not sure we'll face a tough and well rounded offensive team until USC/UNC weeks. Regardless, we need to get our run D in order before Wiscy.

Personally I want to start Bo at Mike, Drew at WILL, and Kiser at Rover.

This thread is some end of world bazaro type over reaction..... it's week 1 we have a new DC we have a new scheme only 1 DL starter (Hinish) returned to the same position. MTA moved outside only 1 LB starter (White) returned. only 1 DB that started game 1 last season is starting this season (Hamilton). Lewis didn't start to late season So.... only 3 returning full time starters at the same positions they played last year on this year's D who here forgot we gave up 20 first half points to FSU at home last year?.... So we did better in the first half this year than last... FSU was a top 20 P5 rushing team last year... ND's YPG was just a bit ahead. we had 5 sacks. Only two teams (P5 on P5) have more sacks/game, and they are UGA and VT... only 2 teams (P5 on P5) have more INTs/game than we do... So we're top 3 in the nation (P5 vs P5) in Sacks, INTs, and turnovers.... Yes the run D was bad... but.... Take a breath... give it some time

Just a thread to post routine injury updates throughout the season. Not trying to replace any specific weekly injury reports for ND and our opponent... Feel free to post and add if I miss anything. I'll try and update weekly, likely after BKs presser. If there is already a thread like this please merge, or if someone does a weakly, let me know and we can delete this. Paul Moala (1C at Rover) Injury - Tore his other Achilles tendon. Status - Out for the year Next up - Kiser and Pryor were 1A and 1B MIsc - BK acted emotional. Said it was a raw sad moment IIRC Blake Fisher (Starting LT) Injury - Knee Status - MRI Today Next up - Carmody #2 LT, or Baker #2 RT who also practiced at LT earlier MIsc - BK said he didn't think he severely injured his ACL or MCL (so perhaps just a strain) Shayne Simon (#2 WILL) Injury - Shoulder Status - MRI Today Next up - WILL was already thin with Marist LIufau out. If Simon's injury is significant, might see some reshuffling and guys like Kolie getting a look. The lack of LBs in the 2020 class may come back to bite us. MIsc - Hoping it's not to serious. With scheme changes though, I could see some chaos at LB for a portion of the season. Kevin Bauman (2B TE) Injury - leg fracture Status - surgery and plate, 6 weeks likely Next up - As long as Mayer is healthy, we're OK, but need someone to spell snaps at times. Takacs at 2A can do that. MIsc - This likely opens the door up a bit for one other. My bet is Mitchell Evans who some say has been a freak, and possible the next great ND TE after Mayer. Note - Jordan Botelho, CBo Flemister, and Logan Diggs have unknown situations, but most assume Covid related. BK was asked, didn't say much, but said we'd get an update later in the week (Tuesday or Wednesday).

lol