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"They play a lot of ... stuff where we can throw the ball, so if they’re going to play it, we’re going to throw it," he said. "It don’t matter. I don’t care how we score. Do you get points for running more than passing?"

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If you say me then you are a flat out liar, as I've never been on that board.

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Sorry not me, must be that one other Chris guy out there.

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..so who can blame a guy for stealing it from me.

Now then, how long have you and KW been plugging each other? Also was it yours that he tried to choke on, or one of his other bff's??

you sneaky sissy boy.

You seem pretty slow, but I'm sure by year 15 or 16 even you will catch on...

cbiebel is a pretty well respected poster an NDN, and has been there forever.

chrisb is a pretty well respected poster here, and if I recall correctly, an ex-Marine or something. Chrisb thinks he is way smarter than any coach ND has ever had, but is basically a good guy. My sense is that chrisb is much younger than cbiebel, and has never posted on NDN (or at least in any recognizable way).

I don't know who a cbiebel is so I can't speak to that and I don't do the NDN thing...this is the only place I post other than (some time back) I was on Irish Hammer's board for a little bit.

I retired from the Corps a couple years back now and I don't really feel much younger than anyone (anymore).

I definitely don't think I'm way smarter than any coach we've ever had, [lol, good one] but I do think that would be a funny ass sig... however I do believe really smart people overall, can be real dumbasses in certain areas and people of slightly above average intelligence can be really strong in some areas.

I'm a little rough around the edges (24yrs USMC) but I guess I'm a decent enough guy and I try to be nice and reasonable to most posters, unless I think they're just a troll or they rub me the wrong way...then it's well, like I said, I'm rough around the edges.

Oh, one last thing...I always pull for the Irish, but I don't believe loyalty to a team is to be confused with loyalty to a coach. I'm not afraid to be honest and say I think a team will beat us, if that's what I think, but I'll still be there watching and pulling for the W hoping I get the joy to come back and say I was wrong. I've never rooted against us (even if I thought it would get the coach out quicker) and if I was a betting man I would never bet against the Irish regardless of the line. Oh and I like pizza..








"Chrisb thinks he is way smarter than any coach ND has ever had"

Maybe even in the Weis-era. That's probably why I remember you being young. Congrats on your retirement.

Well thanks, and my apologies if I was ever too harsh when we went at it, been some rough times since Holtz left. Just to be clear, I'm not retired retired, just retired from the military...but I landed on my feet nicely, so all good.

I might still be a youngster to you though, who knows...there's only been three NCs during my lifetime (plus the stolen one in '93 and the one I think we woulda won in '98 if Holtz was still here. lol), so you can probably judge from there.

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Really no need to create a new post just to highlight what a retard you are, it's already painfully obvious.

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...and some have the nerve to wonder why I call him Air Kelly..??

Laughable!

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"Air Kelly" has 30.7 pass attempts per game, good enough for 70th in the country. We pass less than the average team.

"Air Kelly" has 43 rushing attempts per game, good enough for 25th in the country. We run way more than the average team.

And here is the kicker. We have more rushing attempts per game than Alabama.

Or pet theories.

the ball, the higher the risk of bad things happening is, regardless of who the QB is.

Exactly....and the 4th and 1 at the end of the game you run the ball for the first down.....ND was fortunate to say the least.....Books TD pass to Boykins to go ahead was encouraging... Defense loads the box you go double tight end.....

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He just sucks really bad as a game day coach and I don't let misleading stats blind me to the truth..like when Book drops back to pass on a designed pass play, but gets sacked or tucks it because no one is open and gets back to LOS or gains a yard and that goes in the stat line as a rush attempt.

For instance we ran way more designed pass plays against Pitt than designed run plays (and it's not even close, somewhere in the neighborhood of 42 pass to 24 run) but if you look at the final stats it's shows 38 rush attempts to only 32 pass attempts, which is completely misleading and has dummies say 'what do you mean pass happy?'.

Just because I acknowledge Kelly's well displayed weaknesses, does not mean I hate the man...I just recognize him for what he is and about year 13 or 15 when he still has no NCs, you'll be saying the same thing.

So you'll believe Bamas rushing and passing stats, but NDs are "misleading stats"?

1) When did I say anything about "believing" Bamas rushing and passing stats over ours? This isn't about us vs them in regards to stats being accurate...it's about not all stats being created equal. Some stats (like rush attempts) can have other things (like kneeling to run out the clock or QB sacks) skew them to make it look like you attempted to run more than you did, or reduce the appearance of the amount of times you tried to throw it (ie a QB drops back to throw 40 times but gets sacked 20 times and only gets the pass off 20 times, it will look like you only attempted 20 passes in the stat line, and also tried to run it 20 times, thus a balanced offense, but that just isn't accurate).

However, with pass attempts there is no other offensive action that feeds into them, to boost them up so when comparing Book (103-of-137) vs Tagovailoa (88-of-123) those are cold hard individual stats. The only room for amplifying those would be to look at how many times each QB was sacked while attempting a pass and reflect that towards their attempts and look at how many good passes they had dropped and reflect that towards their completions. When putting this into the context of who is trying to throw more, Book having that many more attempt in 3 less games (especially when considering Book has been sacked more which masks some of the times we tried to have him throw) is a pretty good indicator that we are probably attempting to throw the ball at a much higher rate than Bama is.

2) I haven't watched enough of Bama ball to know if they are trying to throw a lot or a little, or if they are using a lot of true running plays with backs and receivers, or if they are using a lot of QB runs to offset what they aren't doing with those guys, or if they are taking a lot of sacks which is masking some of their pass attempts, so I can't speak definitively on what they are doing. But I've watched all of our games in entirety and I can say without a doubt we are trying to throw the ball too much.

3) While I haven't watched much Bama ball, a comparison of some key areas paints a pretty good picture of whats going on in my opinion.

-Bama's 3 QBs combined are credited with 53 rush attempts, with an average per attempt of 4.7, 4.3, and -3.0. The QB with -3.0 has two attempts for -6 yds, so its fair to assume those were likely sacks on pass attempts. Based on this, the other two QBs averages per attempt, and the fact Bama has only given up 5 sacks on the season I would say its a good bet that a large portion of those 53 combined attempts were designed QB runs (which I'm good with if done smartly), but since I haven't watched them and don't plan to just to see how many designed QB runs they attempted, I'm going to pull those 53 out so we can see how many true running plays they attempted with backs and receivers. That leaves them with 237 rushing attempts from their backs and receivers out of 470 total offensive plays run (or in other words, 50% of their total offensive plays on the season were true running plays using their backs or receivers)

-ND's 3 QBs combined are credited with 101 rush attempts, with an average per attempt of 2.8, 2.3, and 7. The QB with 7 was the freshman on only one rush attempt, so it is the anomaly much like the -3.0 for the one Bama QB, so its fair to assume this was a designed rush attempt not a designed pass play. Based on this, having actually watched us play, the other two QBs averages per attempt, and the fact ND has given up 14 sacks on the season I would say its better than a good bet that a large portion of those 101 combined attempts were designed pass plays where the QB was either sacked or tucked it because no one was open to avoid the sack (I would still be a little displeased even if these were mostly designed QB runs, because with that high of a number you are just exposing your QB too much and adding to the risk of injury..but that would be better than what we are dealing with where a large number of attempted passing plays are being hidden in the stats because the ball isn't released which makes it look like we are running a nice balanced offense, which you'll see we aren't). When you remove these 101 QB attempts from the total, it leaves you with only 200 rush attempts by backs or receivers out of 516 total offensive plays run (or in other words, 38% of our total offensive plays on the season were true running plays using backs or receivers).

4) When you put the previous information into the following context, it really paints a clear picture of just how differently ND and Bama are approaching the offensive side of the ball, almost exact opposites actually.

Bama's Off. balance breaks down like this (470 total plays):
Pass attempts (ball thrown) = 38% / Rush attempts (backs/WRs) = 50% / QB rush attempts (sacked/designed) = 12%

ND's Off. balance breaks down like this.... (516 total plays):
Pass attempts (ball thrown) = 42% / Rush attempts (backs/WRs) = 38% / QB rush attempts (sacked/designed) = 20%

***reminder, they've given up 5 sacks and we've given up 14 sacks

Stating that Alabama approaches its running game differently than ND is certainly more defensible than your initial post. I don't disagree.

When you consider how many more sacks ND gives up, Book having that many more attempts (knowing that many of his attempts are hidden in sacks or tuck n runs because no one is open) my initial post says exactly what I was trying to say and it is accurate...we are 'trying' to throw the ball too much, which is nothing new for Kelly.

Its actually pretty easy to track his pattern if you go back and really think about it...when he doesn't have a QB he fully trusts, he leans on the run more heavily and those teams ('10 [with Rees after Crist got injured] '12 [Golson first year], '15 [with Kizer after Zaire got injured], '17 [Wimbush first year after Kizer left for the draft) typically perform better on the field. When he has a guy that he likes their raw talent, or he's has em a couple years and has confidence in them, he always has them throw too much and to this point it has almost always led to bad results on the field. Its just who he is, he likes to air it out and has said as much in the past...some people like that style and he is probably the perfect head coach for those people, but to my recollection there hasn't been a whole lot of teams in history that have won NCs with pass heavy offenses. Defense and a steady run game are the best indicators of a championship winning team and to this point those indicators have stood the test of time with only a few exceptions every now and then.

Tua's usually done playing by the end of the first half. While we're a darn good team, we're not that good, and especially not so on a consistent basis.

He's actually played in the second half in all of their games except for Ole Miss and Louisiana, though not the entire second half I'll give you that.

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