4thand1

I believe more and more coaches are steering clear of the college game due to the transfer portal and NIL. I hope ND doesn't allow themselves to be a stepping stone for coaches that prefer to be in the NFL. If it were my choice I would likely favor career college coaches in their 50s that have done their job exploring already. Someone that age might just want a little stability and nice compensation till they retire.

According to sources Leftwich wants to stay in the NFL but Freeman picked his brain about other candidates. Johnson is interviewing for NFL OC jobs and also not likely to choose a college opportunity.

I would be really skeptical about Leftwich. Is an Arians prodigy and by most accounts runs a complex offensive system. If I were Freeman I would have to ask him does he honestly prefer to be in CFB and why? Will you fully embrace recruiting and can you scale down your offense enough to allow the occasional 1st or 2nd year player to grasp it? This move would be too much like Rees for me. Rees has had his eye on the NFL and couldn't get young players on the field if talent warranted it. I would think the Golden/NFL talk would cause Freeman to steer clear of that path.

Younger means more likely to be short term. Older might stick around longer.

Hearing and reading a lot of good things about Moore. Mickens is doing a nice job.

Just listened to an OC candidate podcast. My ranking of interest would be; 1. Ludwig. Not going to list all of the positives but they are clear if you look into his career. 2. Moorehead. Same as above. 3. J. Brady. I'm not convinced he wants to be in CFB. Even if he was interested in the job, I would have to be convinced that he is going to recruit. Can he have success when he doesn't have a Burrow, Jefferson and Chase on his team???

I would be very careful about hiring a candidate from the pros or with clear NFL aspirations. That would put ND right back to where they were having an OC that doesn't get after recruiting and has one eye on getting back to the NFL. Wouldn't necessarily rule them out but they would have to convince me that they want to recruit. Speaking of recruiting, I would ask the OC to only be responsible for recruiting QBs. By limiting the scope of recruiting responsibilities I will in turn be demanding that he gets a top 10 (that is subjective) QB recruit every year and top 5 every few years. All I need from the new OC is a good system and ability to recruit top QBs. The rest will take care of itself or by Freeman and the positional coaches.

My read on Rees is that he wants to be on the fast track to the NFL. Saying that because it seemed like he begrudgingly recruited and Ala has a very good track record of OCs that get promoted. I just don't think he would leave ND if his goal was to be a college HC. He could have accomplished that here.

I would have been fine with either outcome of the Rees situation. Frankly, he was going to be gone in the next 1 to 3 years regardless. Might as well be now when ND isn't a legit championship contender for next season. Might be some debate on that but I view best possible outcome for ND in '23 as a playoff berth and not anything more. On the other hand, it continuously stings for ND to lose recruits and coaches anytime one of the top 3 or 4 programs comes calling.

He is highly thought of in coaching circles. I think he can be great. Kind of depends on how flexible he can be with his system when he doesn't have the ideal players on offense or if he does have elite talent. He has the knowledge but a little stubborn in my non-expert opinion.

Bertrand was the leading tackler and I think the other guys can be better. Or, at least I would give them 1st team reps in practice to find out. I would sub in Cross for Rubio on passing downs.

My projected depth chart QB - Hart RB - Estime/Diggs 1A/1B WR - Assuming 3 - Thomas, Merriweather, K. Smith TE - Evans OL - Alt, Kristofic, Correll, Schrauth, Fisher DL - Baptiste, Mills, Rubio, Botelho LB - Assuming 2 - Sneed, Kollie (I'm giving these 2 the first shot till they prove they can't handle it.) CB + NB - Hart, Morrison, Harper S - Watts, Henderson(would split practice reps between Henderson & Lewis)

I feel like I'm hijacking the Laurinaitis thread but I always hear that systems matter more in pro football. Pros have more time to study complex systems and because the talent is more equal than it is in CFB, system matter more. I have never coached football but stands to reason that a CFB coordinator would want to make their system as simple as it can be while being effective. I would want my players to understand it so they are reacting when the play is in motion and not thinking as much. For example, I see Sneed's athleticism combined with a simpler system producing more results than Bertrand/Kiser understanding a more complex system. I could possibly see a Georgia or Alabama using a more complex system because their rosters don't have a Bertrand or Kiser for the most part. Not as much talent gap from a positional standpoint as ND has right now. Maybe that changes as Freeman continues to bring in top 5 classes.

Laurinaitis wasn't the problem. I didn't think Golden did a very good job last season. I would be curious to know more about why he Laurinaitis decided to leave for OSU. Guessing that would have been his preference all along. I have the same complaint for both ND coordinators. Too often they put their system 1st before being willing to adjust to the abilities of their most talented players. I think they believe it's their system that puts the team in position to win when it's really finding a way to let your most talented and physically gifted players to maximize their abilities.

If ND lands Scott it won't be due to Coach Washington's efforts. Scott himself said that basically, he hears from Washington occasionally. Nothing like what you would expect for a 5 star that's likely to be in the top 5 rated '24 recruits. Seems as though Scott and his family value education 1st but still want to feel good about the fit, staff and a fair NIL arrangement. If I were Freeman, I would take over this recruitment immediately. Bowden should have been monitoring Scott's recruitment and realized that it was falling short. I hope it isn't too late. I believe if ND paid the appropriate amount of attention to Scott and his recruitment, he would have been a lock.

From what I know, ND chose Baptiste over Vaughns. ND wanted to fill the bid DE spot and not the Vyper and they viewed Vaughns as a vyper only. I believe ND feels that they will get their vyper from the current roster.

Great news! This will go a long way towards an outstanding season next year.

Time will tell whether or not Freeman has been able to convince ND to be more accepting of undergrad transfers. The fact that it has occasionally happened in the past doesn't change the fact that ND still has a major disadvantage in this regard. With the portal being what it now is, I would think it will be very hard for ND to compete for a NC unless the university is more accepting of undergrad transfers.

Thank you for that information. Obviously more AAs matters but it's also very important to limit the amount of holes in your projected starting lineup. The fact that ND has only 1 solid AA candidate combined with several problematic holes in the starting lineup doesn't line up with a top 4 finish next year. Again, if ND lands Hartman and he has a heisman type season, that goes a long way for making up for those problems. It does look like ND is gaining ground on limiting the lineup holes in the future as they stack the depth chart with solid players. Time will tell.

The more question marks you have for your projected starting lineup, the more all american level players you need to make up for it. I don't have any analysis to back up my thoughts. Ideally, I would think those #s should be fairly equal or of course, favor the side of the all american level players on your team. I see far more question marks than all american level players for next year's projected lineup. As far as I can see, the only way to overcome that is to have a few transcendent type players on the team that produce enough to influence wins almost on their own. For instance, if NDs QB has a heisman type season, that would go a long way towards making up for that gap. From my perspective I see ND competing for a New Year's six bowl next year vs a CFP spot.

What do we not know about Styles? If there's nothing wrong (physically/mentally) with him, I can't start him ahead of Thomas. Otherwise, I think the decisions on offense might be more clear cut. Defense has far more questions. Mills definitely belongs at the 3tech and I said that before this season started. I would make an effort to get Keanaaina in at the 5tech unless Rubio is clearly better. I sub in Cross on passing downs. Botello is my vyper and I move Liufau here as a backup. Liufau needs a position that requires less thinking/choices. I really disagree with Golden on his LB choices. ND started Kiser and Bertrand all year. Does anyone think ND's LBs did well this year? I don't. I think Golden should go with the players that offer more athleticism. You can coach up the mental side of the game but Kiser and Bertrand will never be as athletic as Sneed and Tuihalamaka. Safety is a worry for me. You have Watts and not much else. CBs are good to great.

If I am Rees, I create 2 different play books in advance and they are at the ready. 1 of them is conservative and used when ND doesn't have a trustworthy QB and/or a big play passing game at their disposal. The focus of this offensive plan is to utilize a strong OL, running game and TEs. All of which ND has shown the ability to consistently recruit. You can still have a high degree of success with this plan and it would certainly be helped by a strong defense. The other plan is if you feel you have the players to diversify the offensive game plan to include an aggressive passing attack as much as is needed. This seems like common sense to me. I don't see why Rees should ever have to scramble to come up with a solid playbook if players don't develop or leave the program for whatever reason. Have multiple playbooks that cover any contingency. Maybe he already does but it honestly doesn't look like it from my fan perspective.

I am pretty sure he can be at least pretty good. To be really good he's going to need to be more accurate and make better decisions. The lack of prior game experience explains the decision making but I'm concerned the accuracy might not improve. Seemingly the team isn't beholden to Buchner being their starter with a transfer coming in and Minchey/Carr lined up down the road. Buchner has to earn it.

I would say the staff is doing a good job. However, closing the gap between them and the top 3 to 5 programs in the county is going to be an incredibly difficult task. This probably doesn't belong in this post but I heard sometime interesting on an ND podcast. Thinking it would be really interesting for the business school to put together a financial plan devised to give the football program the best path to success. That would include all financial aspects associated with the football program. Something like that might already be happening and either way, it could only help.

I just don't see ND reaching the level of Ala, Ohio St or Georgia anytime soon. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. Yes, ND is offering competitive NIL deals but not willing to bend the rules like others are reportedly doing. FWIW, I prefer college football to put in place and enforce strict NIL rules vs ND having to bend them but in the short term, it hurts NDs recruiting results slimy as the situation is. NDs undergrad transfer situation is also a major disadvantage. Seemingly everything must ideally fall into place for ND to have a shot at a national championship. It's just not a sustainable situation or realistic expectation for the Irish to be a top 5 program annually.