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Link: Notre Dame Football's Backfield is LOADED in 2017
And given Tony Jones Jr's ability to catch the ball, he'll be a major part of every game.
Link: https://www.uhnd.com/football/notre-dame-football-spring-17-chip-long-maximize-running-talent/
Looking for major improvements over our #80 ranked rushing attack from last year
Sounds like we could be Top Ten this year?
Alabama won the national championship that year and was 32nd.
with a poorly ranked passing attack, poorly ranked defensive position, poorly ranked special teams
No wonder we were 4-8, and are no where near a Top 25 ranking this year.
Anything is possible in college sports in term of turnarounds.
But all the banter about incredible running backs, best offensive line, incredible wide-outs
It's the Kool-Aid season.....that's the only explanation.
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Of course ND was 80th in the nation in YPG but they also throw the football. Bob Davie and his Lobos lead the nation last year followed by the Service Academies. What does that tell you? It is a reflection of an offensive philosophy more so than how well a team runs the ball. Total yards rushing is a useless stat as far as I am concerned.
In my opinion, yards per carry is a better indicator of a team's rushing attack. Last year, ND averaged 4.47 per carry and were ranked 62nd. That ain't good but 4.47 a pop is not horrible either. As mentioned by Frank, 2015 was a good year. ND averaged 5.63 YPC and were ranked 8th in the country with that stat.
If ND can increase their YPC to the 5.3 range, they will have an awesome year running the football again. It is not Kool-Aid to state that the Irish have a great O-line and a stable of tip-top backs. The offensive line has four returning starters which boasts two potential first round picks. Not many schools can say that. And maybe I am not a good judge of talent, but Adams and Williams are some bad dudes running the ball. Sit back and watch the show this fall. This ain't last year.
The only thing that can f-ck things up is Kelly. If the great coach from Grand Valley decides to take over the offense, all bets are off. If he lets Long call the plays and select his personnel, the offense should click.
It improved our ranking all the way up to 62nd!!! Woohoo.
I was proving a point. We sucked last year and yet everyone on here is acting like we should win 10 games this year.
We have a long, long way to go.
You know you are in trouble when someone starts defending ND by saying it really is 62nd and not 80th.
Come on man
It is a useless stat when trying to forecast what kind of a rushing offense ND will have in 2017. In fact, it proves nothing nevertheless your point.,
The reason this team sucked last year was Kelly and his coaching staff. Everything from play calling to Van Gorder's defense was horrible. The talent that ND had last year was wasted.
I can't blame last year's fiasco on the players..
Getting back to the rushing game. You want to throw out a stat that we were 80th and shout "we sucked last year". That's fine. But if you drill down and try to make a reasonable determination on how the running game will be in 2017, you need to look at other stats as well as returning personnel. The picture is not as bleak as you make it out to be.
We were lame in every single facet of the game....the defense was poorly ranked, special teams was poorly ranked
You are 100% correct, you cannot base this strictly on the rushing game
But when people starting getting off and saying we have three incredible running backs and an incredible offensive line....the facts dont back that up either
But I just chalk it up the usual Kool-aid drinking that happens here on an annual basis
It would be fantastic for this team to win 9-10 games this year. Let's hope they can make a total turnaround cause that is what it is going to take
I mean, gun to head I think ND goes 7-5 this year but with the right adjustments this team has a chance to win 10 games. Much like last year.
If you really look back at last year with one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of football, ND easily wins Texas, Navy, Duke, and Va Tech with any sort of creditable coaching decisions.
NC St is unknown since it was a hurricane, but probably a game ND should have won.
Stanford was a toss up even as bad as we were.
So if any of these minor changes take this year, sure ND can win 10 games. I doubt Kelly sticks with this all year, but we shall see. Hoping for the best.
Possible, but not probable. If we struggle against Temple, 6-6 or worse is likely.