Frankus

I really can’t evaluate Heistand because we’re still playing Kelly ball. Lots of 3rd and 10’s where it’s all about schematic trickery that substitutes for lining up and dominating.

I’ve watched Notre Dame football since 1965. My Dad started as an offensive guard on the 1949 National Championship team. There’s one thing I know. Great Notre Dame teams line up and run the football. They don’t kittenfoot with alignment. They commit to the run and wear teams down. As they do that, they get 3rd and short and/or get single coverage and exploit that. Rees had a chance to do that tonight. He had a long 1st half drive running effectively with Estime as the running back. He could have committed to that. What do we get? A lot of kittenfooting Brian Kelly ball that resulted in a lot of 3rd and 10’s. I just hope Freeman has enough strength and love for what used to be Notre Dame football to go to Swarbrick at the end of this season and tell him that Rees has to go. Rees is a legacy Kelly guy. We deserve better. We can get a proven, experienced Offensive Coordinator to replace novice Rees. Hopefully, Marcus will make the move and remove the last stench of the Kelly era.

I really don’t know what to expect, but I think that against the best teams on our schedule, aside from Mayer, their secondary’s are going to be better than our wide receivers. So, to keep the games close, or win, we’re going to have to stay out of a lot of 3rd and 10 situations that were the hallmark of the Kelly era. So, it’s as much a matter of Rees’s play calling as it is Buchner’s execution. To win the big games, I think we’ll need an efficient ball control offense that scores TD’s in the Red Zone. We’ll have to run effectively and execute the short passing game. Buchner’s running threat will help the running game. He must have a very high completion percentage on short 3rd down pass plays, or run for first downs and move the chains. With Buchner being a dual threat QB, Rees has got to put him in these situations. If he puts him in a lot of 3rd and 10 situations, he -and ND- will fail.

The networks are going to dictate who plays who. Since both ND and the B1G took money from NBC, it’s a certainty there will be games.

From what I’ve seen, the only skill position guys with NFL potential are Mayer and Tyree. With Davis now out, Rees is going to have to figure out how to score points.

Buchner has got to stay healthy and not turn the ball over. With our lack of depth at WR, I expect to see Tyree a lot in the slot as well as RB. Opening at Ohio State is a huge challenge for Buchner. You can try to prepare, but it’s going to be a major learning experience.

What made it sweeter was how cocky and chippy Tennessee was. This is a dangerous team.

Perhaps it was poor technique and fundamentals based on poor coaching, but Correl was consistently overmatched last year. I was interested to see this. If true, hopefully Hiestand has fixed his problems.

My family has had season tickets since 1968. This basketball program is going nowhere. The fact that Brey still has a job says all you need to know about how much ND cares about basketball. They are just fine with mediocrity.

I was at the Duke game. Beyond the fact that Duke has taller and quicker athletes, the physical development between Duke and us was mind boggling. Nate L has hardly developed in 5 years. I hope if/when Brey leaves the new coach brings in a S&C coach. If we’re going to be a program that relies on players staying four years, they must get stronger and more explosive physically. I couldn’t help thinking during the game that if I was Blake Wesley’s advisor, I’d have him transfer somewhere that will develop him physically better than Brey will.

It is impressive, but after watching a lot of games live-after watching Duke at home - there’s a huge gap between Duke and everyone else. This is a relatively down year for the ACC. We may make the tourney, but we’re not going anywhere. It’s time for Brey to go, but unfortunately I suspect it will be on his timeframe and terms.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the style of QB Freeman picks. I would prefer Ohio State-like QB’s who are athletic, but also have big arms.

My biggest concern if I was Freeman is USC every year. Kelly benefited from a historically bad USC. If Riley bring them back and beats Freeman every year, despite the watered down schedules Swarbrick will try to manage, he’s not going to have the leeway Kelly got

You’re forgetting who Smart, Day and Riley added to their coaching staff to help them in areas where they didn’t have experience. I saw this (below) on NDnation and think it’s relevant to this discussion. I’ll be watching Freeman’s hires closely. He needs to bring in some really qualified and experienced coaches. Kirby Smart, UGA (DC background, 2016) - Hired Jim Chaney (21 years running offenses in college and NFL) and James Coley (7 years running offenses at 3 stops, including 6 at Miami and FSU) as co-OCs Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma (OC background, 2017) - Kept Mike Stoops (8 years running defenses + 8 years as P5 head coach) as DC Ryan Day, Ohio State (OC background, 2019) - Hired Greg Mattison (18 years running defenses in college and NFL) as DC Dave Aranda, Baylor (DC background, 2020) - Hired Larry Fedora (7 years running offenses + 11 years as college head coach) as OC ….and that doesn’t even include the plethora of talented coaches that Saban has.

I don’t think one data point (Iowa State) can override the fact that Kelly’s system- and Rees with Coan this year-often used a slow developing read option running attack where the QB never keeps. Rees either needs to change the run game, or all his QB’s need to be able to run.

In fairness to Freeman, he’s never had to assess what’s happening on both sides of the ball. We can only hope that his work ethic overcomes his experience limitations. My belief is that Swarbrick made this move to the inexperienced Freeman because he gambled that recruiting was the missing piece to taking the next step. Everything hinges on Freeman navigating a steep learning curve, because recruits will ultimately gauge him on results. Being a players coach won’t help him if he gets tactically out coached like he did yesterday.

Even when Rees was QB, that slow developing read option, where the QB never keeps, never worked against good teams. I’m no fan of Quinn, but the run scheme is also a big problem. Unfortunately, it’s all Rees knows. Looking forward, the run scheme-and QB recruiting- is something to watch.

I’m not calling for Freeman or Rees’ job. If the offensive line is soft, it is in the realm of the OC to fix it. My concern is that Kelly’s offense is all that Rees really knows. Like when Rees was QB, Coan was never going to pull and keep on the slow developing read option run play that has always been stuffed by good defenses. Rees either needs to have a true threat QB, or scrap the only running game he knows. Freeman said in his PC that there’s a QB competition, if Pyne wins and ND is still running the read option that yields no QB runs, we’ll have our answer. If Buchner wins, he better be able to also pass consistently.

Oklahoma, a comparable team talent wise, rushed for 189 yards. Still couldn’t stop us? They completely shut down our passing game, as we stubbornly and stupidly chucked and chucked at a fast tempo no less, hanging our D out to dry. Gundy didn’t panic, stuck with his O when it didn’t initially work, and schooled our rookie coaches. Hopefully Rees/Freeman will learn from this.

Sadly, Tommy thought Coan could be the mad bomber, even though this wasn’t his role all season long. Did you notice how Gundy didn’t panic even though his offense was stymied for most of the first half. He stayed with what got him there like a guy whose been to the rodeo before.

Who cares if it worked for one half? Coan was not physically capable to throwing the ball accurately 68 times.

Nonsense. Rees didn’t give it a chance. He made a rookie mistake and got burned. Somehow, incredibly, he expected Coan to carry the entire load. It was a stupid, short cited rookie mistake

Freeman better get control of Rees. Today was proof positive that putting the entire game on the shoulders of a QB - and chucking it 60+ times- may feed a young, inexperienced offensive coordinators ego, but it’s disastrous for your football team. Abandoning the run so easy was a huge rookie mistake.

Cool isn’t going to make us Alabama, who may have great facilities, but has an old school uniform that they never -unlike the cool teams-deviate from. Putting players in the NFL is what matters. If Freeman can overcome the academic filtering and school oriented ND student athlete model to bring in loads of NFL bound talent, he’ll be a miracle worker.

The reason there’s an SEC bias is because every year they have 2-3 teams that are so much more physically dominant than any other team. Watching Alabama and Georgia vs Cincinnati and Michigan was watching men dominate boys. That happens when you have no academic restrictions, or academic requirements. They are semi pro teams and exist because NFL money is so big that the best players are taking the gamble that going to Alabama/Georgia/LSU and being a de facto semi pro player will pan out. Their state (and regional) pride rests on their football success and they will spare no expense to keep it going.