97domer

I am really hoping to see improvement this week, more than anything (well, second to winning the game.) I think you make some great points; here are my thoughts on the same... 1. Secondary. If I'm being honest, I think our secondary takes a small step back. Fortunately, MSU has some new WRs and a new QB which should help. My concern is that, if MSU shows success in the run game, how well will our your secondary be at staying home and not giving up the big play? 2. Golson. I agree that Golson looks strong for only having 2 games under his belt. I think we'll see just as much pressure from MSU and this is my biggest concern - I think MSU will have a field day with our O-line. Kelly is likely going to have a moving pocket for Golson, rolling him out, which isn't always a good thing. 3. Cierre Wood. I'm most excited to see if Cierre Wood can make a difference in our running game. We couldn't do ANYTHING with our running game against Purdue. I think our ability to run against MSU is a key to the game. We can't win this game if we have the same running game against Purdue. 4. Tuitt, Nix and KLM. No where to run!! AMEN Brother!!! 5. Return of Danny Spond. I'm hoping that he has an impact; no real opinion on this topic though. 6. Eifert is healthy This will be huge - our offense was a shell of itself with hiim out. He makes all of our WRs better. I would add that we need to stay healthy in this game. 7. Offensive line. As mentioned before, one of my keys to the game. 8. Time for some wrinkles. Here's where I disagree. I don't see too many wrinkles. I highly doubt that Kelly was purposefully holding back for the reason of 'saving' plays for MSU and future games. In fact, I would be really disappointed in him if this is the case - we needed a last-minute drive to beat them (combined with some luck), so there's no reason to hold anything back. I think he was holding back because Golson needs somewhat of a vanilla offense right now. I think we'll see a few small things added but nothing substantial until after the Michigan game when we have a bye week. Also, I don't expect to see much of Atkinson unless he passed someone up on the depth chart in practice (unlikely.) MSU has a dominant D-line so things likely won't be much different than the Purdue game. Plus, we add Cierre which makes it even less likely Atkinson gets any significant number of carries. 9. We are healthy. Love that we are building depth and love that everyone is coming back. Will be important to stay health. 10. You guys add why we will be much better. I agree with you - we should see improvement in most facets of the game every week because of our youth. I hope we see an improvement in our special teams (inparticular punt returns and field goals.) I think (or maybe it's hope) that our O-line will improve. It's going to be a tough game to improve on with Gholston out there requiring double-teams. Lastly, I wanted to share my opinion on Golson. I, for one, would be thrilled to see a similar game by Golson. I thought he couldn't have played better last week, minus the fumble (which was equal-parts bad play-call.) What he did last week that I was most impressed with and what I hope he continues to do: - nice and conservative plays where he's throwing it out of bounds when in doubt - not getting happy feet and relying on his legs too-early; rather, using his legs to avoid the sack and make a throw - high-percentage throws = high percentage completions I am amazed at what he was able to do last week with 0 running game. Saturday should be fun - in the meantime, Go Bears, Beat Packers!!!

Ha! Dan Patrick show described this relationship of "ND just got engaged to the ACC..." I thought that was a great analogy. Dan is talking up the move as a good one. I didn't like the move at all (at first.) After digging through my mind, I think I've not only come to terms with it, but like the idea. I'd prefer we keep UofM and MSU (being a resident of Michigan), but I have a feeling we lose the UofM rivalry on a regular basis.

I'm not convinced that we'll see GA3, but I hope so. I think MSU is going to load the box and, with Cierre coming back, it's just going to be more difficult to get him the touches. If we have early success with the run, then maybe?

Interestingly enough, I pulled out an old ND Magazine a couple of days ago and read about some research being done on mice where they were able to identify the jet lag gene and greatly reduce the effects of jet lag symptoms. Maybe we'll have some Irishaide jet lag syrup developed before we make a trip to China

I don't expect to see too many wrinkles in the offense. I think Golson is still learning the offense and Kelly is not prepared to add too much. I would love to see more up-tempo, but again, I'm not confident that Golson is ready to move at that pace. I'm guessing we'll see Golson rolling out a bit more often with a little more of a moving pocket-approach. I do expect MSU to take the same approach a Purdue and load up the box. Hopefully C Wood will make a difference in our running game. If I'm being honest with myself, I think our running game is largely dependant on our O-line improving from last week. I also know that our chance of winning is going to be greatly increased with an effective running game. It should be fun to watch. I'll be at an Irish Festival in Michigan with the game up on a big screen. Last year it was evenly divided between MSU and ND fans; a real fun atmosphere to watch the game. Go Irish

I've been getting frustrated with the continual burn of time outs on offense. I, personally, don't blame Golson on this. It seems to be a problem consistant with all QBs during Kelly's tenure. I have a couple of sincere questions... 1) It seems counter-intuitive that Notre Dame runs an offense that is supposed to be no-huddle / hurry-up, yet they continue to flirt with the play clock. 2) What is the root cause of this? Is the problem solely the coaches getting the plays in ontime? I find that hard to believe as they've had years to correct it. Possibly, it is a result of having 3 straight years with a QB new to starting in this system? I'd be interested in thoughts...

My experience has been similar - the MSU fans are terrible for night games. They can not control themselves. My cousin was wearing an ND jersey and had a number of drunk fans trying to pick fights with him while he was just keeping to himself. On the other hand, I've been to numerous UofM/ND games and their fans have been very pleasant, even for the night game last year. This comes from a fan (me) who has numerous family members that went to MSU and they are probably my 2nd favorite team while I absolutely despise the Skunk Bears...

Short is a preseason All American and one of the top tackles in the country. He's projected as a top round pick in the draft. That being said, calling our offensive line mediocre tonight might be an exaggeration. Ghouls ton is going to have a field day with us next week. That being said, the O-line picked it up enough during Tommy's 2 minute drill.

To think that Arkansas was being touted as a BCS Title contender this week.

I thought the corners played well - was very pleasantly surprised considering the number of freshman minutes played in our secondary. Though their coverage was a nice surprise, their tackling was very freshman-esque.

Speedster - you may be last in the standings, but you'll always be first in my book thanks to your signature.

Ha! The thread showed that I had read all of the responses, so I assumed it wasn't posted. Shame on me. Later today, maybe I'll post it a 3rd time just for good measure

For anyone too lazy to login to college football pick-em, here are the standings. Some really attractive guy named 97domer is currently standing atop the leaderboard. RK ENTRY, OWNER TOTAL 1 97domer, binghre 52 2 Win One for The Gipper, RAS10449 51 3 Cincy Irish, JoeGilmore13 49 4 bubbadulac, bubbadulac 48 5 Jimbo, jimjah 47 6 IrishPolock, NDIrishBaseball 46 7 liarsenal, liarsenal 44 7 Beersavage, Beersavage 44 9 VCDonkey, VCDonkey 43 9 drewgoose1, drewgoose1 43 9 El Senor Domer, DominguezNate 43 9 NotreDameHoosier, NotreDameHoosier 43 13 IrishMike 69, IrishMike 69 42 14 TheGipperSB, mzimmer_5 41 14 uscHATER24, uscHATER24 41 14 van9920, van9920 41 17 MyFightingIrish_1, Go_Irish_CB 40 17 sdirishfan, keltic25 40 17 Racer_x_670, Racer_x_670 40 17 goirish83, zc727 40 21 irishrocket88, irishrocket88 39 21 Ital-Irish, Paul3Costanzo 39 23 NYSligo, NYSligo 38 23 cyranofbergerac, cyranofbergerac 38 25 Irish_Max, Irish_Max 37 25 DomerDad95, sjvolland 37 27 Piratey, Piratey 36 28 OntarioIrish, KenM1954 35 28 goirish201212, goirish201212 35 30 phi488, phi488 34 31 bharker24, bharker24 33 31 SanDiegoIrish, mwiley1138 33 31 RPS_ND, RPS_ND 33 34 Prestige Worldwide, tom3408 31 35 Paul704, Paul704 24 35 UncleJoeND, UncleJoeND 24 37 SpeedsterDD, SpeedsterDD 23 38 gipper2nd, gipper2nd 0 38 PhiR08, PhiR08 0 38 GoIrish1980x, GoIrish1980x 0 38 jarious, jarious05 0

I am heading to Adoration Chapel tonight at midnight for an hour and will include you, your family, and your brother-in-law in my prayers.

Wow, great article. Despite this, we continue to have sufficient recruiting classes, retention, etc. I'm fairly happy with the situation and balance between academics and football talent. If I'm honest, I've also lowered my expectations on the team over the past 20 years.

Tenacious - are you a fellow Michigander? Founders Breakfast Stout is one of my favorites. My brother and I will be going the Corned-Beef and Hash with eggs route for food. Drinks will start out with coffee and baileys followed by some drink with Irish Whiskey.

ND - 27 Navy - 10

Because of this alone, I am signing up. I only need one more John Goodman wave to have the complete collection!

I want to clarify my vote - I actually like the uniforms but can't stand the helmet. It reminds me of a less-offensive puke-enducing disaster that Maryland had...

I love Surly (Minnesota beer, right? - at least that's where I drink it when I travel there) and Big Sky. I had my first Moose Drool in Montana after being on the trail backpacking for 7 days - a favorite ever since. Big Sky's other beers are great too (especially Trout Slayer.) Our local store has the sample pack (case) and I'd recommend all of their beers. We have similar tastes in beer so I'll make some other suggestions. Being from Michigan, Bells Brewery is one of my favorites (most of you probably know Oberon.) Another favorite of mine is Sundog (from the New Holland Brewery, also here in Michigan.) My last go-to-beer is Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold from Great Lakes Brewing Company in Ohio. Lastly, I would suggest taking Oberon, Dortmunder, or Blue Moon and doing a half/half with Guinness - all of them are delicious. Enjoy and drink responsibly. If you choose not to drink responsibly, please don't knee any cops in the gut

Ask Mark Edwards if he remembers making out with Katie my ex-girlfriend (girlfriend at the time.) :laugh:

Thanks DJ for sharing - I've watched the stream for the past 15 minutes and it's a quality, worthwhile show!

Thanks IrishMax for the feedback. It appears as though I might have offended you with my response to BadaBing. I was really just trying to clarify my post in a somewhat joking way. I wasn't trying to lambast BadaBing and it didn't appear as though he took offense. After reading my post I can see how it could have been misunderstood. Again, my apologies if it offended you. I know how Rees and Kiel's names are spelled but was typing quickly and that extra 'e' on Rees' name is just irresistable to me for some reason. I never was good at remembering the 'i before e except after c' rule either. I'll be sure to pay closer attention to the spelling of their names. I'm not sure if my misunderstood intent in the response to BadaBing was what bothered you or if it is in-fact the mispelling of the names that got under your skin. I wasn't trying to 'pull a number' here; just a simple mistake... Either way, my apologies. Good day!

NDBadaBing - I think he may be one of the few guys in Alabama that does read. He read my response which stated that Reese was who I felt was most likely to start with Keil being the guy I picked as least likely to start. I believe he was responding to my comment...

My money is on Keil (being most likely to sit out.) I still think he's given a year and a half to learn the system. The starter comes from the trio of Hendrix/Reese/Golson. Here's my guess, in order, on the most likely starter for game 1 (Note, this is NOT the order on who I want to start, but what I think will happen): 1) Reese (I think he'll mature as a Junior and come in above the rest. Kelly will feel obliged to start a more seasoned QB considering the early schedule; call me crazy and I won't disagree.) 2) Golson (I'm betting/hoping he was redshirted because he is really good; not because he wasn't ready. If it's the latter (not ready/good enough), he moves down the depth chart and either transfers or gets shifted to another position) 3) Keil (redshirted - gives him a year to learn the ropes. questions about the level of his HS competition mean that he is given some extra time to slow the game down.) 4) Hendrix (I wasn't impressed with him this year, though his body of work is limited. I am not sure if we see another snap from him. Either transfers or shifts positions.) Go ahead and rip it apart...