Notre Dame is back in action tomorrow with a tuneup game against Bowling Green coming off a big win last week over then #18 Virginia. Notre Dame also has an opportunity for a little payback towards former defensive coordinator Brian Vangorder’s who has “wasting a generational talent like Jaylon Smith” on his resume during his stint as DC for Notre Dame.
Things I’m Worried About this Week
A Trick Play or Two from Bowling Green. They are going to run a trick play or two – probably early. Clark Lea will have his team ready, but if Bowling Green does hit one or two, it could give them some confidence and make this one last longer than it has to. Other than that, Notre Dame should be able too completely shut down the Bowling Green offense.
Notre Dame Not Forcing the Passing Game. Notre Dame doesn’t to get tricky this week to beat Bowling Green, but they should use this opportunity to work on the vertical passing game. Greg outline this week that there are plays to be had for Ian Book, but he’s either not seeing them or not taking them. Chip Long and Brian Kelly could be tempted to keep it vanilla against a team like Bowling Green, but that would be a wasted opportunity.
Injuries. Any time you play a team that should blow out, the biggest concern is usually injuries. Let’s get out of this one clean and injury-free while putting up another 50 or 60 burger on the board.
Things I’m Not Worried About This Week
BrianVangorder’s Return. I jokingly tweeted this week that I was worried that after all, the BVG jokes that the ultimate kick in the nuts would be him coming in with a gameplan that shuts down the ND offense. To do that, his players would have to understand his system, though. And we know there is no chance of that happening right now. Notre Dame should be able to put up 40 by half time in this one if they execute as they can.
Bowling Green Scoring Too Many Point. Not going to lie, I will take satisfaction in Brian VanGorder having to look across the field and see Notre Dame’s defense being run by such a capable defensive coordinator. The Bowling Green offense should have a hell of a time moving the ball on Notre Dame – at least until the end when Notre Dame fully empties its bench. The first three games we saw a good Notre Dame defense. Last week saw a ball-hawking, havoc causing
Players I’m Watching This Week
- Phil Jurkovec – If Notre Dame does what it’s supposed to do this weekend, Jurkovec should play a lot in the second half of the game.
- C’bo Flemister – He has flashed a couple of times this year but hasn’t gotten a ton of carries just yet. He should get plenty of opportunities for carries this weekend.
- Michael Young – He didn’t see many targets last week in his first game back from his shoulder injury. Notre Dame needs to get him more involved.
- Julian Okwara – After his monster performance last week, it’ll be interesting to see how he plays this weekend and if he can keep playing near that level.
- Kyle Hamilton – He has an interception in 100% of the games he has played in Notre Dame Stadium. Keep the streak alive.
- Ian Book – Notre Dame needs Ian Book to elevate his game if they want to force their way back into the Playoffs discussion by the end of the year. He needs to put up a 300+ yard, 4 TD type stat line – and not one that is inflated with little toss passes.
Prediction
In a game like this the hardest part of predicting the outcome is figuring out if Notre Dame will cover or not. The line is around 45 right now, which is crazy high. I think Notre Dame comes out firing in this one after last week’s big win over Virginia. They will ride that momentum to a fast start and won’t slow down until the very end – just like we saw against New Mexico when they out up 66 points.
Notre Dame 56, Bowling Green 10
Some of you guys just seem to be blind or oblivious of reality. That was a damn near HELPLESS team. Kansas would have blown them out! THEY JUST DON’T HAVE THE BODIES. Period. It’s a credit to their coaches on offense that they were able to burn as much clock as they did on several “drives.”
Paraphrasing Oppenheimer: “We have become Shiva, the destroyer of Division 2 teams. (We have become the SEC.)
GET MSU or Purdue back on our schedule…hopefully in their traditional roles as Senior Alumni games.
PS: BK plays a team like this close for a half: you criticize him. He annihilates them: you criticize him.
They score against us, you criticize him. We shut them out (as I predicted): you criticize him.
Strap on your straps and criticize the real problem here: Jack Swarbrick’s scheduling. Yes, we’ve played Mac teams before, but not much AND not three years in a row! End this disgrace now.
BGC ’77 ’82
I’m not sure I have the stomach to watch this slaughter.
I was expecting a blow out but this could be a historic rout.
I guess the difference between ND fans and those of the Bamas of the world is we have pity and shame.
GO IRISH!
How do any of the players for Notre Dame get fired up listening to Brian Kelly’s pregame speech I wanted to throw up listening to it. I think David is right the guy is heavily medicated
I think you and dopey are heavily medicated, you two should hug if ND drops another game this year!! 26-5 in the last 31 games, just stupid posts you 2 guys should coach the team with all your pathetic knowledge
A quick note for next season. ESPN College Gameday will begin the year in Ireland for Notre Dame vs Navy. It will be the first time Gameday has traveled outside the continent.
No way in hell bowling Green will score 10 points final score Notre Dame 65 bowling Green 0
This garbage game should be over with by halftime but it is a Brian Kelly coached team and it will probably be closer than expected which means we will only see jurkovic for one unmeaningful series. 55 to 27 Irish in a sleeper. Good day to work on your plan B if you’re on the West Coast you can always play golf
A plan B indeed.
No reason to DVR this one.
Boo.
Jeff, Where in the name of all that is Holy do you (or anybody) think that team will get 27 points from?! Are you kidding us?
BGC ’77 ’82
Poised is an odd word choice.
ND could be expected blow out Bowling Green, but it is hardly ‘poised’ to do so. ND too often doesn’t mentally show up for games like this one. And when they do, after getting a 2+ TD lead, they typically let up and coast….no killer instinct.
And lastly, over-matched teams that come to ND no longer experience serious intimidation or nervousness. They usually come in completely fearless, prepared to compete, and emboldened by previous visitors like Tulsa.
Really? Tulsa? I can see Coach Loeffler in the locker room before the game now: “You have nothing to fear, boys. As you know, since we’ve watched the tape 100 times, Tulsa beat Notre Dame back in 2010. If they can do it then so can you. So be prepared to compete and let “Remember Tulsa” be your battle cry.”
…meanwhile, those tired old Gipper videos from a previous lifetime are on continuous loop here.
Pathetic hypocrite.
Excellent rebuttal. Really. Excellent.
There is absolutely no chance that this team can match our physicality or speed. We should not be scheduling teams like this when we could be playing Purdue or Michigan State. First possessions are choreographed, which is why they mean nothing. If these guys don’t score early, they will not scorer at all. Barring bad weather, Notre Dame scores in the sixties. ARA would run a continuous clock in the second half for a game like this. Of course WNDU allowed that back then. From NBC, we can expect a long protracted commercial saturated game. I will be in South Bend, but not at this abomination. I mean who are we…the SEC?
BGC ’77 ’82
Aw c’mon Bruce, don’t you want to see the backups play? I do remember the 64-0 beatdown we put on Duke back in ’66, and it was as you say. Ara ran the clock down and we still couldn’t help scoring.
Bob, I’d rather be somewhere with my brother Dave smoking and drinking freely than witnessing that slaughter live. But I do love the backups playing.
BGC ’77 ’82
The only thing that concerns me just a little is everyone is predicting this should be a blow out. If it’s anything less then that it will look like a failure. I can’t imagine BG is able to pull out a shocker upset. They haven’t looked good at all and while ND has some things to work on, they’re not incompetent. They’d probably have to work to lose this game.
I hope they do as Frank says. Work on the areas of weakness, use this opportunity to improve. But there is a tendency to go conservative in games like this. I wouldn’t long passes and short yardage situations have been an issue. Take advantage of the opportunity to work on those areas.
EDIT: I meant in my last two sentences to say “I wouldn’t go conservative. Long passes and short yardage situations…..