Welp, that sucked. I didn’t feel good all week about this game, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine Notre Dame would lay an egg like the one they laid last night. Michigan flat out embarrassed Notre Dame on a national stage in prime time and now has bragging rights for the next 14 years. In the process, they ended Notre Dame’s hopes for a playoff run and left Brian Kelly and the Irish with some burning questions they aren’t equipped to answer, it seems.
This was one of the most embarrassing performances of the Brian Kelly Era
There have been some really embarrassing performances during the Brian Kelly Era, but last night’s was, in my opinion, the worst of them all. Notre Dame went into Ann Arbor ranked in the top-10 with two weeks to prepare and no classes last week to give them even more time and laid another egg on the national stage. We thought that 2017 Miami was an aberration with Brian Kelly 2.0. We were wrong.
The morning after, I am still in utter amazement that this coaching staff had the team this ill-prepared for a huge road night game. Michigan’s players wanted this game so much more than Notre Dame’s, and it was clear from the first whistle. You will be hard-pressed to find anything that Notre Dame can hang its hat on from this game.
Bad penalties, poor tackling, blown assignments, dropped passes, huge mental errors. This game had it all in one supper sized crap sandwich. Given what was at stake, the talent on the roster, and the conditions in terms of prep time, there just isn’t a worse performance from a Brian Kelly coached Notre Dame team.
In year 10, we still can’t get great QB play from a Brian Kelly offense
Here we are in year 10 of the Brian Kelly Era, and we still can’t get elite play from the quarterback position. Ian Book is just the latest in a long line of quarterbacks who have regressed in the last ten years. In a game in which Notre Dame needed its senior captain to lead them, he had the following stat line: 8 of 25 for 73 yards with one touchdown and one interception that was negated by a terrible pass interference penalty.
Looking back on Notre Dame’s other loss this year and Book wasn’t great in that game either. Against Georgia, he had the ball in his hands with a chance to win the game in the final two minutes but couldn’t move the ball. His numbers on the season look fine thanks to those blowouts of New Mexico and Bowling Green, but by almost every measure, Book has regressed.
This isn’t something unique to Book, though. Malik Zaire, Everett Golson, Deshone Kizer, and Brandon Wimbush all regressed during Kelly’s tenure at Notre Dame. Book is just the latest to join the club. Whether it’s missing out on top recruiting targets, poor development, or not putting quarterbacks in a position to succeed, Kelly has to take a serious look at how he has mishandled this position.
For as awful as the game turned out, there was an opportunity to get back in this game in the 3rd quarter. Notre Dame’s defense set up Book and the offense with great field position twice to start the half with back to back three and outs. The offense did nothing with those opportunities.
Notre Dame’s other stars are regressing and didn’t make plays last night
Ian Book isn’t the only player who was expected to lead this team to regress this year.
- Outside of his outburst against Virginia, Julian Okwara has been quiet and was again last night.
- The same could be said of Khalid Kareem
- Troy Pride has taken a step back instead of forward to become the elite corner everyone was hoping for. He had a costly pass interference on a 3rd down that he earned.
- Alohi Gilman was always around the football in 2018, this year, he’s not had an impact, and last night he committed a costly pass interference penalty on a pass he could have potentially intercepted.
- Chris Finke has been invisible in the passing game all season, and last night was not even targeted.
All of those players have NFL potential, but this year their level of play has at best remained steady from 2018.
Another disaster, another game turned on a special teams play
Notre Dame’s defense forced a three and out to start the game, and then Bo Bauer delivered what should have been a game-turning play for the Irish with a blocked punt. Instead of getting the ball inside the Michigan 30 though, 5th year senior Jonathan Jones tried to recover the punt only to muff it and give Michigan the ball right back with better field position.
Considering how this game went, it’s safe to say Notre Dame still loses this game even if the Irish did get the ball there, but it would have given the Irish all the momentum, and then who knows.
It was very reminiscent of how Notre Dame nearly made huge special teams plays in the BCS Championship game against Alabama and then the Cotton Bowl last year against Clemson where special teams almost made huge swing plays on to have referees take them away in those cases.
That play was also reminiscent of Brandon Wimbush missing a wide-open Equanimeous St. Brown on that fateful November night in Miami two years ago too. I still wonder how that game plays out if Wimbush hits ESB there, and Notre Dame jumps out to an early lead. In both cases, huge plays were there to be made and left on the table only for a route to ensure.
Notre Dame’s inability to stop the run on D was mind-boggling
Michigan scored 45 points and threw the ball just 14 times. They didn’t have to. In a game played mostly in driving rain, Michigan ran the ball 57 times for 303 yards. This is a team that was mostly ineffective running the ball this year before last night. With everyone in the stadium knowing that the Wolverines wanted to run the ball, Notre Dame had no answer whatsoever. This is the same defense that, for the most part, stuffed the Georgia rushing attack in Athens a month ago.
Michigan had four different players rip off a 20+ yard run last night. Notre Dame’s longest run of the night was nine yards. Nine.
This wasn’t just a case of bad tackling either – although there was plenty of that. Michigan was creating massive holes for their backs to run through all night long. Notre Dame, on the other hand, had trouble getting back to the line of scrimmage. The Irish averaged 1.5 yards per carry last night.
Michigan’s dominance in the run game was one of the most disappointing aspects of one of the most disappointing performances from any Notre Dame team in the last 20 years. The way the Wolverines ran the ball showed just how much more they wanted this game, and the Irish defense had almost no answer for it other than a brief stint to start the 3rd quarter when the defense did do its part to try and get back in the game.
Notre Dame should be playing for the future over the final five games
With the Playoffs officially no longer even a remote possibility for Notre Dame, Brian Kelly and his staff need to be playing for the future the final five games. Younger players who can help this team in 2020 need to be getting more reps, even in tight games. A lot of talent returns next year, but there are some key areas where Notre Dame needs to start working in younger players to see what they have.
The biggest one of them all might just be Phil Jurkovec. The sophomore quarterback has the raw talents for the position that Ian Book doesn’t – namely a huge arm. We don’t know if he’s got the other skills though. He ended up having almost as many yards as Book last night after Kelly pulled his starter. I don’t think we’ll see Kelly do what he did last year when it was clear Brandon Wimbush was too limited in the passing game to keep him as the starter, but I do hope we start to see Jurkovec get some drives here and there for more experience.
Yeah but just look at our:
A) graduation rate
B) TV revenue
C) academic achievement/reputation
D) endowment
E) girls basketball team
(Feeling better yet?)
The one thing that has me so upset this year is …Why in the heck do our defensive back not turn and look for the ball?? Every time a team makes a long pass either for huge yards for a 1st down or 7-8 yards also for a 1st down our D-back have their backs to the ball.
Many of these passes they could pick off or deflect, instead we run into the receiver, pass interference, or the other team makes the catch on what should have been an interception.
Why oh why are our backs not taught to LOOK FOR THE BALL???
ND IS HIGHLY OVER-RATED ON AN ANNUAL BASIS. ONE OF THEIR MAJOR PROBLEMS IS COACHING.
KELLY IS HIGHLY OVER-RATED , JUST LIKE THE TEAM ALWAYS IS.
When is Kelly actually going to start being held accountable? The collapses of Brian Kelly teams have become epic and every year it’s amazing to see what and who get blamed for it. At some point you gotta realize the one constant in all of them, and that is Brian Kelly. It’s the same problems year after year and then people will blame the oc or the qb, when the same problems existed before whoever else was here. There are some quality coaches out there and it is time for ND to get moving. Until that happens, you can count on ND embarrassing themselves at some point each and every year.
Other than the haters most of your comments are in the ballpark. But I have to agree with the few of you who state that Notre Dames admin are satisfied with what they’ve got and where they’re at. Father Jenkins has the last word in all things Notre Dame and no one has the power to out rule him. He will not pay for a better coach/staff and I’m sure there are several rules he could relax on but refuses to be flexible. Notre Dame will not see a national championship until they get rid of Jenkins and BK. Once that happens then you can start thinking about winning the big one’s and a natty!
I watched the ND 150 years on ESPN this weekend. This is par for the course at ND on standards, when Father Hesburgh I believe cut Leahy’s scholarships because he found he was abusing the number of scholarships offered. This led to Leahy having a nervous breakdown and the Irish being irrelevant for most of the 50’s and 60’s until Ara.
ND will never change, they will always worry about their image over winning. I like that about ND, but sometimes they go to far and shoot themselves in the foot. They had to make a change in the 80’s when Holtz arrived because they were scared that ND would become irrelevant and lose revenue. After the 1988 NC, they again reclamped down in the 90’s which led to Lou leaving the program. ND also had to upgrade the facilities because they were falling behind in the early 2000’s. If they want to be competitive and really make a run they need to evaluate their situation and think outside the box instead of being to scared to take risks.
Yeah, I think there are areas ND can work on without giving up who they are. Even in the 80’s when they relaxed things a bit, ND never stopped being a school. ND can do that now.
What’s the problem for ND is nowadays you have to pay your elite coaches oodles of cash (not to mention the assistants–which I’d argue are almost as important as the HC). That’s something I don’t see them doing.
So there only hope of getting an elite coach is someone with a big ego. What I mean is someone out there willing to take a pay cut just so they could say they were the one that brought ND back.
But ND didn’t lose on Saturday because of any of that. We should have been able to beat Michigan. There was no excuse for that kind of loss certainly. Michigan is NOT elite.
Notre Dame has always placed academics above athletics, it is much harder to recur and retain players that can’t do the classwork. That is one of the items that make ND special along with a few other notable schools such as Stanford, Northwestern, Duke and more. None of the schools will ever rise to the prominence ND once had and ND is the only one of that class that continues to win9-12 games per year. Kelly needs to sit Book, Finke, Okwara and Kareem until they can prove they are willing to give the effort necessary to keep playing. ND has been lacking in the speed department but they continue to sit Lenzy and Keys, 2 highly ranked sophomores.
What is going on behind the scenes? Have the coaches lost the team? For the most part, the team did not show up to play.
ND is more interested in pushing
Karl Marx than opposing defences around
Only Christ’s suffering on the cross exceeds
that of ND fans. Up untill Holtz leaving I never
missed a game. Well I now see that Notre Dame
some how believes there is litterary value in the
writings of Karl Marx. This is not the ND I used to
love and and admire. I find myself enjoying every
loss ND now suffers.
All football games are won up front. Our vaunted offensive line was embarrassed, our vaunted defensive line was equally embarrassed.
This was pathetic, and the guys on the team should be ashamed of themselves.
Kelly of course will find a way around it, but we all saw it.
What the hell makes everyone think that they know how to “fix” the team? As a further what the hell, what the hell makes people think that the coaches already ought to know what the hell went wrong last night? What the hell makes anyone think that this result was worse than Miami, other than bias? We hated Miami 30 years ago worse than we hate Michigan now. And Michigan is a better team than Miami was in 2017.
So what the hell? Pick ourselves up off the floor and move on. I’m sure that’s what our team is doing.
And if the team keeps progressing the way it has been, all this whingeing is going to be embarrassing when we win a NC in the next few years. Or, at least it would be, if the whingers were putting their names to their whingeing. (Roger, not directed at you. I have my concerns with special teams as well.)
Dangitall Bruce, I called you your brother’s name. Senior moment I guess. 🙂
Dangitall Bruce, I called you by your brother’s name. Senior moment.
Notre Dame sucks. I don’t know why this program always thinks they are worthy of a national championship or even playoff birth. ND barely beat a not-so-good USC at home by three points with luck because of a faltering USC defense that couldn’t stop even a QB run and a true freshman QB calling the shots. I’m glad Michigan exposed how unworthy ND is, and better them then make the playoffs and get blown out by 50 points by Alabama like that national championship beat down 42-12 back in 2013 or last year’s Cotton Bowl embarrassment to Clemson 30-3. I see Notre Dame playing in the Quick Lane Bowl against Indiana who will beat the Fighting Irish for in-state bragging rights!
Recruits? People are saying if we had better recruits last night’s result might be better? Really???
Now maybe not as many 4+ star recruits as Alabama.
But people we weren’t playing Alabama last night…or any other elite team. We were playing Michigan. MICHIGAN! And not the Michigan of times past. This version of Michigan is being coached by their own version of Charlie Weis basically—Michigan man, came in with all kinds of promise, and can’t win the big games like Weis.
We didn’t lose because of recruits. We lost because our team was woefully unprepared yet again. Based on personnel we should have won this game…pretty handily to be honest. We got out coached…by someone who’s likely to be unemployed soon, or at least working elsewhere.
We did not lose to an elite team at all. Right now they are riding high. But at the end of the season they are going to get smacked around by OSU, a true elite team. And ND has the players that while maybe it wouldn’t have been a blowout, they should have won.
Too funny! Charlie Weiss averaged 9.5 wins a season?? Who hurt you? By Weiss’s 5th (and last) year,
he had one 1 over .500 season and 2 under .500 seasons. Do you even follow sports? Are you saying
Charlie Weiss just shellacked you???
Very embarrassing to lose to a Jim Harbaugh coached team.
Get rid of BK and hire someone who can mentally prepare our teams for big games
The worst part of last night and the overall problems with Notre Dame is the offensive line. The blocking assignments seem to produce one-on-one straight ahead blocking that leaves gaps for linebackers to fill. Or in many cases, the interior linemen just get beat. When Irish runners get little more than a yard a carry, there is something radically wrong with the blocking assignments and the lack of an adequate run scheme. Notre Dame’s running backs are good enough to produce yardage if given somewhat of a hole. Every problem Notre Dame experienced last night starts with the complete failure of the offensive line on running plays and ends with players who, sadly, just quit playing. Offensive line coaching has been a bust this year.
What we saw last night was not result of poor coaching, lack of preparation or bad scheming. It was a lack of toughness. This has been a systemic issue during the BK era. My guess is that academic requirements prevent Kelly from recruiting the type of guys he could get at Cinncinati. But our guys are just soft. We don’t have kids who are determined that the guy on the other side of the ball is not going to beat them. Michigan does. Until we get kids who play with a chip on there shoulder, we won’t be able to win big games, or win them convincingly.
I agree and to add to that it seems like ND players are always getting hurt, constantly. I know its a ruff and redi contact sport but geez almighty it seems like the same guys go down every season for the same problems. Crawford plays the first game of the season and then is out for the remainder, they need to get rid of those cherries and give that scholarship to a lumberjack type.
I don’t see it that ND quit. The Michigan team that struggled vs. a very mediocre Army team has progressed. The ND team that played head-to-head vs. Georgia has gotten worse. This is a long standing pattern these last 10 years, explaining late season critical and often embarrassing losses and mid-season fiascos like last night. ND doesn’t seem to force the action on the field as the season progresses. They seem to reflect the tentative let’s play not to lose attitude of their QBs and their coach. Explain why ND’s teams seem to regress every season, especially in prime time or rain.
Notre Dame losing another high profile game has become common practice over the BK era. It’s time to find a better
Solution. He has had a good run over the last 10 yrs.
It’s time to find a better coach. The program has grown stagnant under his leadership.
We need to stop being out coached in prime time games.
What I watched Saturday night in Ann Arbor was disgraceful.
Please try to upgrade this football program by getting us a coach that gets his team prepared
to play in big games. Kelly hasn’t been able to do this in 10 yrs.
It’s time to thank him for being able to beat over matched
Programs and find someone who can keep us competitive
against top programs.
68Domer…It would have been 19 before noon, but I had to take my wife’s 5th grade religious ed class this morning.You are all talking about getting rid of BK, Reese, and Long. Why is Polian immune from all this? If I had my way, he’d be the first to go, and BK would be the last. At least BK knows the rules! People think I’m joking when I say “offer Frank Beamer $1,000,000 dollars per year to do no coaching at all (including no recruiting, unless he wants to do some) except for coaching our Special Teams. And throw in a house for him and his family. And if he won’t (or can’t) do it, for God’s sakes hire whoever he recommends for the job (though maybe not at a million year). Then you will see what REAL Special Teams can do, not just random individuals like Doerner and Bo Bauer.
This was a team loss…like MIAMI two years ago. And Jurkovec went in too late…he should have started the second half and run the option…not the RPO option…the real option. Michigan had already stopped everything else (when we did not stop ourselves first).
BGC ’77 ’82
How many of you know how many distinct squads or units make up a complete Special Team array? The answer is a maximum of 16 and not less than12. It’s not easy to coach it to begin with, and NCAA rules capping maximum practice time make it even harder. At this point, we need to ask this question: Is the standard for Special Teams at Notre Dame to be less than excellent, less than the standard for the offense and defense? (As it is for many programs, who treat Special Teams like a step child?)
Now I am pretty sure that Coach Polian is working hard to achieve that standard of excellence…but we continue to see him put guys out there who do crazy stuff…like the guy who vacated his crucial position on a kickoff a few games ago, and quite predictably got burned by a surprise onside kick (which is a DIFFERENT ANIMAL from a regular onside kick). Or last night? You could see the indecision in that guys gate as he struggled to decide if he should chase down a blocked punt that was ALREADY PAST the line to gain!!! With BOTH he and THE BALL headed toward THE WRONG ENDZONE!!! It’s a profound lack of understanding of both the rules and the game situation. How do guys get out there who don’t even know to avoid the Mortal Sins on Special Teams…let alone know what they actually OUGHT to be doing? Rhetorical question guys…you all have your pet peeves that frost you over…well so do I, and this ongoing nonsense on Special Teams is one of them.
BGC ’77 ’82
I have concerns about Polian’s coaching ability too, but they are outweighed by his recruiting accomplishments. If he were moved to “just a recruiter,” I think it might negatively impact his recruiting chops.
You were told.
You have consistently chosen to shout down the messenger.
Now you can look forward to “Kelly 3.0”, or whatever other BS jargon you want to put on this loser.
Really David? And what can we look forward to after BK leaves? The answer is: even more of the same endless repetitive criticism from the whole lot of you…the minute our new coach loses a game. For those who don’t believe that, just wait for 2022, and remember this prediction.
BGC ’77 ’82
Pure speculation while ignoring facts from many other points of view in this comment section. Remember this, there wouldbe no criticism if BK was capable.
And what can we look forward to after BK leaves?
Well, Einstein….Here’s an answer. Something. You’d have something to look forward to. A chance of better.
Here;s what you have to look forward to if Numbnuts stays: More of this. Garbage. Failure. Embarrassment.
You’re just now a hopeless, cowardly masochist.
Golly David (or whoever you are behind that cyber mask of yours) you really told me off there. FYI: I’ve been called a lot worse things by men wearing masks…you should sharpen your personal attack skills. You do have it right about my being a masochist though…but that could be said of all of us who read your posts!
BGC ’77 ’82
Cyber mask?! From the fool who posts his resume with every sentence.
Your post boils down to “I have always said Brian Kelly is a loser, and you all out there have shouted me down. And now this game proves me right. I told you so. Nah, nah, nah-nah, nah. Now suffer the consequences of your ignorance.”
Just so you know, s**t happens. And any idea of whose fault it is is nothing more than a projection of that idea from the mind of whichever creative soul has it.
So, you have your projected fantasies, and I have mine. My fantasy is that this team will continue to progress.
That was Dysentery, fool.
You live in what you spew.
oh….I’m David 2.0 now.
Brian Kelly will make ND great!
Urban Myer is currently available. Just saying.
This is for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rvEWG3zz4w
You can tell how disgusting this whole performance was by your getting 17 (now 18) fan comments to your analysis before Noon!
And you know we’re all pining for Jurkovec now. But why does anyone believe that will turn out any different–another promising QB ruined by BK.
And if our QB’s first year is so dominant, maybe we want to wait until next year to start him. After all, if BK starts him this year won’t that mean next year Jurkovec will become the next dud?
Just sayin
Great, spot on article.
First, I wish Frank luck in trying to find 5 things he liked this week. I suppose you could find a few individual players that did some good things, but I can’t think of any.
This game was a disaster. We lost badly, and not even to an elite, or an above average team really. Let’s face it. Michigan is riding high today but we all know Ohio State is going to crush them for everything they’re worth. And Georgia is looking less elite every week it seems.
Our offense was just poor. After Michigan went up 17-0 the defense tried to keep ND in the game with a couple stops but the offense just wasn’t having it. And I think the defense finally quit. Yet another freakin QB swoon under BK. EG, Zaire, Kizer and Wimbush all came to ND with a lot of fanfare. They were supposed to be elite QB’s that would work perfectly under BK. All regressed under BK (Kizer was likely the best of the bunch and even he regressed). That’s a problem. QB’s are supposed to get better. And it’s not like they even all worked with the same offensive/QB coaches—so you can’t even say it’s a certain assistant’s problem. This goes back to BK. The only thing that improves under BK is defenses but it’s telling that he doesn’t focus as much on the defense, but leaves that to his DC. I was trying to be patient with Chip Long but I think my patience is gone. 3rd season and our offense has regressed yet again. The offense has seemed poorly prepared several times (how are they not ready to deal with crowd noise twice now) and his play calling has been questionable numerous times.
And our defense is even regressing now, which is ominous. Ever since the Bowling Green game they’ve taken a step back—I can’t help wondering if being exposed to BVG during that game put some sort of hex on our defense.
But the PTB are satisfied with where ND is at. As long as the money keeps coming in and ND posts 9+ wins a season and the occasional bowl game win they’re happy. BK ain’t going nowhere. And even if he did I’m not sure where we’d turn to. Coaches like Saban, Meyer, Swinney. Don’t make me laugh. They are not coming to ND. First ND isn’t going to fork over the cash for a coach like that. And they won’t come to ND because they won’t want to deal with the extras…that being the academic requirements and discipline. I actually support ND being an academic institution first—but I think there are areas they can be flexible without sacrificing who they are. And ND also needs elite assistants—ND doesn’t want to pay for that either.
Unless ND is willing to bring in a post graduate transfer like Oklahoma, top QBs are a rare commodity. I was hoping Kelly would play Jurkovec to start. All you bandwagon fans need to look at what Kelly has accomplished, the shackles place on recruiting, and the continuing academic requirements. When is the last time Stanford, Northwestern, Duke or Boston College participated in the CFPs? You BW fans also forget the period between Lue and Kelly.
Absolutely nobody remembers Lue.
He used to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers
Over/under number of times next presser Kelly starts a sentence with “Look”. Me thinks 3.
Urban turned down the job before Kelly was hired. Too hard to recruit.
Urban turned down the job before Kelly was hired. Too hard to recruit. Answered the wrong poster.
Very well said on all fronts! I was absolutely shocked at this miserable performance. They just didn’t show up. Mind boggling. Book looked like a deer in headlights. I just don’t get it. Embarrassing loss. This one will stay with me for a while.
What about Mike Bray, his teams are irrelevant and admin seems content.
It would be nice to see if Urban Meyer would be interested ? Just a though!
PJ Fleck from Minnesota would look great on the ND sideline
Why was Jonathan Jones anywhere near that blocked punt? It was ND’s ball so long as some dummy didn’t touch it. Learn the rules, boys. In the litany of regressed QB’s don’t forget Dane Christ, a former 5 star who in my opinion was treated dreadfully and ruined by Brian Kelly.
I hate to defend BK but I don’t really blame him for Crist. First that wasn’t his guy, it was the first year. And Crist went to Kansas to play under Weis who did recruit him and he played very poor there.
Crist was just a bad QB.
Or…he WAS a good QB, as everyone in college football seemed to think when he was recruited, and his self confidence got utterly destroyed by his experience at ND, which strongly seems to have been a pattern with the next 5 guys after him.
That possible?
The only guy to be able to ignore Kelly’s belittlings and do the job the best he could was Tommy Rees…the mentally toughest but least gifted guy in the lot.
author is right on.another ill prepared ND team in a big game.
Coaching staff needs to be questioned.
Ian needs to make way for Phil and the new guys coming in.
Now.
Offensive line penalties an embarrassment.
Team regressing totally.
Lets get next years kids ready.
I think you spotlight many valid points, Frank. All this game did was to re-affirm all the ND haters out there who proclaim the program is irrelevant. After 10 years on the job, when does ND start winning games of this nature, especially on a prime time stage. At what point is it legitimate to question when a change at the top may be necessary? As a realist, I don’t believe the Admin will make a change so Kelly is here until he either decides to leave or should he leave this earth. Last night was just another piece of evidence regarding what the program has, like it or not. Kelly will win games, but, the games that are meaningful and significant, the ones that define your team as being great or even excellent, have not been won by Kelly. The record on that is clear, especially after TEN years.What makes it worse is an Administration who appears to be “Ok” with the current status. As a long standing member of the ND fan base, once again, a sledgehammer was delivered again right into the emotional heart of this fan. How I wish for the day when it can be said the Irish are truly back and relevant. Last night, they never looked so unprepared or uninspiring and very irrelevant.
Since the debacle of 2016 only 3 teams have lost fewer games than ND, ND has gone 27-6, Alabama and Clemson have lost 2 and Ohio St lost 3. Michigan has lost 10, Georgia 6, Auburn 11, LSU 7, Florida 11, Penn St 6, Wisc 8, USC 13. They beat LSU in a bowl game after the 2017 season, Lost to National Championship Clemso 2018, 2x to Georgia, once to Mich and once to Stanford. That leaves 27 wins, they all were not against the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Woopdefreaking do. None of that equals a national championship. Under Kelly, ND chokes in the big games, and they choke HARD. You conveniently leave out that those huge games, they were demolished. Even against Georgia, the game was not nearly as close as the score indicated. ND was dominated. They couldn’t move the ball at all. Their two touchdowns came off turnovers on Georgia’s side of the field. Think about this: when was the last time Kelly got a 5-star recruit? When was the last time ND had the number one recruiting class? When was the last time, outside of Oklahoma in 2012, ND showed up in a prime time game like last night? In another post, you called us band wagoners. How are we the band wagoners? Because we expect a championship and nothing else? Idk about you, but I’m sick and tired of being #5-10 and never #1. If anyone is the band wagoner here, it’s you for being content with where this program is going. Every year, you think this team of at best 4-star recruits is going to be THE team, and it never is. That will continue to be the case under Kelly. Always good. Never great.
Yep, everything is wonderful. Beating Virginia (in the second half) is good enough.
Very good analysis of a dreadful performance by ND. Book is good enough to QB the Irish to win out over
average opponents, but why keep him as the starter? As indicated above, it’s time to get ready for next
which includes a pitch to Young to stay because the ball is going deep in the future. ( I hope )
I agree Fitz. Book is not the answer. Play Phil these last 5 games and see what he can do. Also at the end of the season get rid of Long and Reese and go out and hire a great o coordinator and qb coach and give these guys full control of the offense.This is what PennState and TCU did in 2017 and they both with new coordinators averaged over 45 points a game. This is also what LSU and Ohio State did this year and their offenses are machines averaging almost 50 points a game. True Notredame just can’t go pluck a Joe Burrow or a Justin Fields like Ohio State and LSU can but Joe Burrow was there last year and Mcsorley and TCU qb were there in 2016 and they had 2 of the worse offenses in the nation.
TCU is doing it with a true freshman QB from Council Bluffs, IA for heaven’s sake. Look at what that weird names USC true Frisch is doing.
There has to be a way for the Irish to find the right QB. PJ deserves a shot for now but the early returns on him are shaky at best.
10-2 is still a good year. However, the long term issue of these types of games are now the norm. Urban or bust baby! No more reaching down for coaches. I would Be willing to look the other way on that snake because he will win rings. I’m just there. Happy we are out of the muck due to BK but time to hire someone who can go to the next level – especially with all the alleged talent coming in the next 2 years.
-First, Michael Young is looking like a genius
-Matt Rhule signed with Baylor through 2027, so missed the boat on a great young coach there (too bad Jack)
-Been saying for 4 weeks that Phil should be starting, even though he’s not a finished product
-Still don’t understand why we continued to run horizontal against that defense. And Armstrong got far too few opportunities
-10 years is enough. He rebuilt the program and we should be thankful for that, but it’s now time to move on
I know none of us fans have any control or say in Notredames football team or program. I am 63 years old and watched Notredame since 1964. I saw them win 4 national championships and be in the hunt a few other years. I would like to see them get rid of Brian Kelly and go after a Matt Campbell Dave Clausen Kyle Wittingham Etc.That performance last night was one of the worst performances I ever saw.The offense looked like Gerry Fausts offense.
name 1 currently active coach, not named dabo or saban, that has had better success with overall wins and trips to college football playoff than kelly?
You do realize Kelly has made it once right and got killed in the first game? There have been two others who have made it and been more successful than Kelly. Kirby Smart. Mark Helfrich. Pretty dumb post. Whoopdefreakingdo. He made it. Great. How about he actually win it? It’s not like the Playoffs have been around for long but even then, your point is invalid.
Kirby Smart