As much as I like Kelly and believe he's the right man for the job in the long run (12-1 last season, not a bad record at all) after seeing this game I believe it emphasizes what I see as a typical Kelly type of offense. Typical in that he relies upon the one QB who has no real ability to move and really cannot throw well or can be relied upon to throw well in difficult situations. This stubbornness has been seen since his arrival at ND (Tulsa). (meaning he relies upon TR to be something he's not - a thrower)
Cam McDaniel runs well so, it must be GAIII's turn to run the ball. Theo Riddick is gone but fleet-footed and light RB Carlisle is Theo incarnate if you watch the UM game - where clearly he's not Riddick (at least not yet and likely never will be - look up injury prone). Just bad decisions made on his personnel. Fitting a round peg in a square hole. He did this to Riddick making him a slot man. Good athlete, not a great idea. Carlisle, very good athlete and good slot man, but mister pound it up the middle RB, maybe not a great idea.
He has Troy Niklas - the clearest mismatch offensive mismatch on the field - sparingly used (I can't think but one play in the first half where he was used.)
These are just examples not good game plan coaching.
Take Hoke's coaching - Gallon (sp) and Gardner were complete mismatches for ND and he abused ND with them, beginning to end.
I guess what I'm saying is, this isn't Grand Valley where coaching a player giving him some technique can turn an average player into an effective player regardless of position. He's now in a league where you teach technique to turn very good players at a position into great players at a position, not turn them into good players who fit and idea and hope they pan out. (with that said, some players don't know where their best or natural position is ie. Niklas, Russell and now Carlisle. We see Carlisle might very well be a slot receiver where Riddick really wasn't.)
Back to Tommy. He's not a great QB so stop trying to make him into one. He's the only QB at ND (seeing Hendrix isn't going to get a shot at it - Kelly sees him for what he is;) so treat Rees like the QB he really is. Get a running game with RB's who can do the job of running it - Cam McDaniel and get the other three (Mahone, Folston and Bryant) up to speed quick as you can. In other words, ND needs to be a running team first with Passing second on the list.
It seemed like just a couple which surprised me. If Rees has to throw 40 or more times we are in trouble. Less is more with Tommy. He is very average and his accuracy is scary at times.
You're a schmuck!
Rudy was a walk-on who played about 2 snaps.
McDaniel is a full scholarship RB with 203 yards on 39 carries (and he damn sure could've caught the ball better out of the backfield than Atkinson - so could every other RB on the roster for that matter).
If I'm the coach, Atkinson is done. I don't care if he has home run ability. He's can't run the football. Either move him to WR and see if he can grow a pair of hands or move him to #3 or 4 at RB so the actual RB can get some practice reps.
The best you can come up with is bad game planning by the head coach, and this quarterback stinks. Come on man. What the hell do you know about game planning--no more than I do I am sure--and besides, your argument doesn't hold any water. Explain to me what offense they should be running?
I think the defense may have been a little bit more of a problem than our offense that put up 23 points. The only silver lining is that they didn't quit and were opportunistic enough to get a cheap turnover/score.
You do realize that your advice to Kelly is to stop trying to make the QB better??? That sounds like a great idea. And I am sure he will stay tuned for more sage advice about developing a running game. He will easily have time to focus on that with his attention off of Tommy.
Maybe you and Brady can do a clinic together.
Your best running back is Cam McDaniel. Who should you use - GAIII or Carlisle?
Your best TE receiver is 6'7" 270lbs and a complete mismatch for every college team in the country; when should you use him as an offensive threat?
Your QB has a poor arm and is wild in the strike zone, how often should he be throwing the ball? and what will his completion and effectiveness be by games end?
Your slot receiver is like lightning in a bottle and he's elusive in space - which position should you use him in - RB, DB, ILB, punter?
Do I need to go on?
McDaniel isn't our best runner, more like 4th best.
The tight end and slot receiver both had career high receptions.
What is the strike zone?
You don't need to go on making baseless, brainless comments.
Thank you sir.
Explain.
Wild in the strike zone. Okay, it's difficult for you to transfer idioms, fine. Take a look at his passes and look where they are as opposed to where they should be. Second INT also many others - (in two games he has been better than any time in his past, but that's not saying much.)
The rest, well, you're a bit of an idiot.
Carlisle, Atkinson, Bryant...
Look, I like Cam, he is a tough running back who should/will play a part. Hell, I hope he plays great and earns more carries. But he isn't our #1 back.
Atkinson obviously had a tough night, he couldn't catch a cold. And like Cam, he too has a role and unless he cleans that up, it will be diminished.
Fact is no matter what you would blame the coach and the quarterback. Not only is it old, it is wrong.
Zero cred right there.
GAIII - is lost and makes terrible reads when running. Right now, he's well behind McDaniel - Carlisle is not an all purpose RB. If Kelly tries to make him one he'll be lost for the season. Carlisle is what Kelly tried to make Riddick when he arrived in South Bend - a hybrid slot receiver.
McDaniel is ND's best or most effective RB. It may be that it's by lack of others being so, but he's still the best RB ND has.
The coach called a poor game and he uses his offensive personnel poorly. TR is not a good QB. It may sound old to you but it's a fact a cold fact but one none the less.
Ha - Bryant one of ND's best backs - How about let him get a few games under his belt first or even a few plays under his belt first before you anoint him top three.
You need to take off your Pollyanna glasses and see the Lay of the Land.
What was wrong with how Carlisle and Atkinson ran last night? Other that maybe we didn't run enough.
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Nothing was terribly wrong other than, why would you sit your best or most effective RB? Because he doesn't provide that breakaway (once in a game maybe) threat?
I find Kelly to be arbitrary when using his players, maybe even capricious/whimsical not thinking or knowing. Robert Hughes and Jonas Gray come to mind, especially Robert Hughes.
GAIII doesn't run well and appears to not be able to handle the bulk of the running load - Cam appears to be able to. Carlisle - three words - injury prone, smallish. or Not a power RB.
I think Cam can play, he's just not as good as those two.
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Maybe he uses a mini magic 8-ball that he keeps in his pocket to choose who plays.
He shakes between each play....that would be whimsical.
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Mainly the Grand Valley and Cincinnati days.
Then he runs empty set backfields with stone feet Rees how many times? Uses GAIII has a receiving back and Amir run inside?
The game was ass-backwards in every way offensively.
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I could use a grape soda right friggin' now. Don't know why but that's the case right there. And I still want to punch Bovzo in the face right now.
It was a closer game than you thought.
my over-and-under on stadium ejections was right on the money. I said 72.5. MLive.com reported that there were 72. So there's that.
and knowing how ND has no RedZone offense, I didn't think they would muster 2 TD's worth of points - especially after seeing Kelly&Co. hold back the O with Temple. Obviously he wasn't holding them back.
While our offense isn't perfect and I think Kelly gets too pass heavy, particularly in the red zone, our D was undisciplined and sloppy. It gave me Weis flashbacks. This is particularly disappointing because the one thing that clearly distinguished defense under Kelly vs defense under Weis is that Kelly's D's seemed much better coached. They tackled better, contained the edges better, etc.
Last night it was like we were back in 2009.
but I'm still not sold on his style of defense.
had Kelly run the ball up and down the field with RB's and used Jones Carlisle and Niklas as relief points for the RB's, the D wouldn't have been on the field all that long and would have forced UM into another game plan.
And yes, there was no Secondary last night for ND. It was as though all Gardner had to do was put the ball in the air and his receivers were in position. Just awful. Not to mention the poor tackling in the secondary. Also true, UM was holding the ND Linemen all night and were rarely called.
PS: time of possession. Kelly may think his D is great, but teams like UM have had a full 8 months to figure it out. Kelly should have known this. Still, the O needed to control the game and they didn't. Time of Possession.
I don't think Borges would have gave two shits if ND had run the ball on them. He could call what ever he wanted and we couldn't stop them. Not because we were tired from being on the field, but because we couldn't stop them because of scheme. To me, the biggest mistake was thinking we could be an attacking/blitzing defense without the personnel on the back end of our D. Bend but don't break isn't pretty, but it is who we are. We did not look comfortable playing D the way we did last night. So I would argue that because of our choice to play D that way, we put our offense at a disadvantage, not the other way around.
I have no problem with Kelly's offense between the 20's. I'm fine with it being pass heavy in that area of the field. We've shown we can move the ball. I don't think we punted after the 1st quarter. But in the redzone, you have to be able to run and we just didn't try to run enough in that area.
effective and they are pretty much just bull rushes. I see few stunts or overload blitzes. Gardner just had too much time to find a receiver; a blitz needs to make the QB uncomfortable.
But they appeared to be completely uncomfortable with that style. They didn't take good angles on Gardner and they were out of position all night, not knowing where their help was coming from. I haven't seen them this confused since we lost to Navy in Kelly's first year.
The good thing is that BK and Diaco have shown the ability to correct their issues in the past, so I expect them to take a long hard look at what they were doing and make the adjustments going forward.
Clean up the contain on Gardener, and there would have been a whole lot better outcome.
The loss is on Diaco.
Also Jim Basil is snorting Basil thinking Cam is our #1 RB, clearly he/she knows nothing about football. Then he has the audacity to call others stupid...lmao...what a schmuck.
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