Its being widely reported that CW will be returning for the 2009 season, I don't necessarily agree, but I will support the universities decision and cheer for ND like I always have......

 

So now what.....

 

Ove the past few days, I've talked to alot of ND fans about the CW situation and came to realize the following. ND is not a good football team for one of, or and number of these three reasons...

 

1) CW is not a good college football coach.

2) ND doesn't have the talent to compete at the level we all believe they should.

3) ND doesn't execute

 

1) I don't necessarily believe that CW is a good college football head coach at this time. With that said, I do think that he is a good offensive mind, and he did not forget how to run an offense in his time away from the Patriots. Which leads to.....

 

2) ND does have the talent to compete at a level we think they should, we recruit th esame kids as USC, OSU, UM, LSU, UF....... Now granted ND is thin at some very important positions, but I don't think it keeps us from being good - but it does keep us from being great.

 

3) ND doesn't execute - bingo. Now there are several reasons this happens. First we do not have the position coaches on staff to develop that talent that they have brought in. I think most of, if no all of us agree, that QB, OL, DL and special teams are positions that we are not executing to their talent levels. In my opinion, the most import of this group is OL. Our OL stinks, plain and simple, and its not a talent problem. I think their talent and strength are not being developed, and there are two people responsible for this, we all know who they are, and until this area is addressed, the rest of the offense cannot be fairly evaluated.

 

I don't believe that there can be any doubt that there needs to be a major shake-up to the coaching staff, or next year at this time CW will be without a job. The problem with the team right now is a combination of numbers #1 & #3 leaning more towards #3, and hopefull CW can recognize this and address it ASAP...

I think part of the execution problem is experience. I also think that Charlie is still learning to manage a college team. Growing pains... They suck.

I agree. The talent is not developed. That is either due to poor coaching or youth. The ND O-line has stunk for years. Even during the Brady years the were not good so I tend to think it's poor position coaching.

I thought the same thing for a while too wave, but then I remembered the JC has 22 games under his belt, most of the OL has 18+ games....the young/inexperience stuff isn't holding water anymore. They have more game time then some NFL players ever got in college.....

now does our attention turn to him bringing in a new OL coach? I don't know if that's the automatic fix but it can't hurt. I also can't imagine our Strength and Conditioning program is very good. We constantly have freshman playing but i haven't seen growth in any of them (Mo Richardson, K Neal last year, Ian Williams, i hope the same doesn't happen with Fleming)

I thought the same thing for a while too wave, but then I remembered the JC has 22 games under his belt, most of the OL has 18+ games....the young/inexperience stuff isn't holding water anymore. They have more game time then some NFL players ever got in college.....

 

 

Bingo. The experience this team has is in not executing and losing. It's a question of leadership and the leader knows there is a problem but is not doing anything about it. Had he done something Mendoza and Latina would not be here.

I watched this exact thing happen at the University of Memphis. It takes more than two years to get going. Next year, you'll see a 180 degree improvement. Brady had a lot of time to throw the ball, btw.

I agree that we should be progressing, but we dont have as much experience "together" as everyone thinks.

 

RT - Sam Young has 37 starts (26 at right tackle, 10 at left tackle)

--- played in 37 games

RG - Chris Stewart has 9 starts (9 at right guard)

--- played in 13 games

RG - Trevor Robinson has 4 starts (3 at RG, 1 at TE)

--- played in 11 games

C - Dan Wenger has 17 starts (14 at center, 3 at guard)

--- played in 20 games

LG - Eric Olsen has 18 starts (18 at guard)

--- played in 31 games

LT - Mike Turkovich has 24 starts (12 at LT, 12 at guard)

--- played in 39 games

TE - Kyle Rudolph has 12 starts (12 at TE)

--- played in 12 games

 

So coming into this year, we didnt have any one guy that started in his current position for more than half of the games last season.

 

Young started 12 games, but 10 of them were at LT

 

Turko started 12 games at guard before moving to tackle this year.

 

Wenger started 3 games at guard and 2 games at Center last season

 

Olsen started 6 games at guard

 

Stewart didnt start any games last season

 

Trevor Robinson didnt start any games last season (frosh)

 

Kyle Rudolph didnt start any games last season (frosh)

Edited December 3, 200816 yr by irishziggy

Anyone's who played the OL before knows that playing together is a big deal. Sometimes you can have 1 or 2 guys get plugged in, but playing together as a unit means a lot. The problem here is they've mostly played together this season and we were still having problems by the 12th game. Next year we get everyone back, but Turko, so we should continue to see improvement, but this is really the 1st year these guys are all playing together.

Don't forget, we did that stupid experiment to get them to learn everyone's position, too. That set us back, as well.

I watched this exact thing happen at the University of Memphis. It takes more than two years to get going. Next year, you'll see a 180 degree improvement. Brady had a lot of time to throw the ball, btw.

Brady had to leave the pocket a lot & I remember seeing him on his A$$ a good bit.

I think JC came in here,and with good reason, with everyone blowin' smoke uphis butt, thinking he's better than he really is.I think Ron needs to be more realistic with Jimmy, and tell him he has potential to be good, but right now he needs help.If we're gonna keep Charlie, let's get behind him

Brady had to leave the pocket a lot & I remember seeing him on his A$$ a good bit.

 

you're right, Quinn's senior yr vs. good teams he ran for his life quite a bit. I remember second guessing the OL that year a lil' bit and it was mostly a veteran squad.

Bingo. The experience this team has is in not executing and losing. It's a question of leadership and the leader knows there is a problem but is not doing anything about it. Had he done something Mendoza and Latina would not be here.

Bingo, Ditto. Hopefully this Charlie expirement will pay off. Im not holding my breath.

YES LETS GE THE LINE FIXED WITH SOMEONE THAT CAN TEACH HOW TO BLOCK AND A COACH THAT CAN GET THESE FELLAS INTO SOME SHAPE AND GIVE RON THE BOOT WE CAN GET A STUDENT TO CATCH THE BALL AND HAND OFF TO JC , WHAT A WASTE IMO, YES CHARLIE IS NOT THE RAH RAH GUY SO THESE OTHER COACHES NEED TO PICK UP THE SLACK AND MOTOVATE THESE GUYS , IAM SURE THAT SUBJECT WILL BE STRESSED DURING Practice nest year , i think changes should be made soon on the staff ? what say you ?

OK...I was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG...

ND didn't fire CW and,

it looks like ND will be accepting any bowl bids coming their way...

Man, I really hate to be wrong!

Anyway I hope I'm wrong about the next prediction for ND fans...

in the immortal words of Clubber Lang, "prediction? pain...."