...In this case that would be Swarbrick for giving Kelly a long-term guaranteed contract extension too soon and for Kelly not winning national championships. I can go down the line of not winning big games and being embarrassed, etc., but the sole purpose of the head FBall coach at ND is to win national championships and the head athletic director at ND is to make sure this is done!
I realize everyone is disappointed, myself included. But I asked in another thread, so I will ask here? Assuming you have been a fan for awhile, what have you seen from ND in the last 25 years, especially in big time games, that suggested this type of result wasn't likely? Name the last game where ND went in as a big dog on the big stage, and came out with anything other than a beatdown, let alone a win. And by big stage, I mean late in the season or a bowl/playoff game against a powerhouse team, not something like Michigan in game 1 this year.
ND hasn't won a major bowl game in 25 years. Since then, they have lost by 17, 5, 32, 14, 27, 28, 16, and now 27. No one should be shocked by this.
(no message)
looked better than them early and had them flustered. One example, Williams rushes for 11 yards on the first play then false starts on the next play. This is followed by Booke throwing perfectly to Claypool at first down marker but it was dropped, followed by a kickoff after our field goal that we recovered that in no way should have been overturned, that was preceded by another false start that prevented us from getting a touchdown and settling for a field goal.
(no message)
How so? Go look at the prediction score thread...and then tell me why nearly everyone was so confident 2-3 days ago, and now the fucking world has ended and we are questioning everyone from Swarbrick to the junior fucking towel boy. Once you piece together all the bowl beatdowns, plus the Miami debacle last year, the USC shitshows during Petey's reign, sorry this results slides right in with all of the rest and becomes virtually indistinguishable. Different opponent, different venue, different college football postseason era, same fucking shitshow.
(no message)
We've seen it before, right? Was this any different than 2012? Hell I think you could argue it was far better because at least ND was competitive for a quarter and then some. In 2012, that game was 28-0 at half and 35-0 in the 3rdQ before ND scored. Just because they scored 14 pts to outdo the 3 tonight is meaningless. Oregon St was 41-3 until a late score made it 41-9. Hell skip bowl games and go to regular season games. 2002 and 2006 vs USC, 2006 vs Michigan, 2017 vs Miami.
My point in all of this is...why was this fan base so confident in an ND victory, at least based on the prediction score thread, when the history of meltdowns was staring them right in the face? I certainly wanted them to win tonight, regardless of whether I thought they could win the championship game, but I certainly don't think anyone should debate every aspect of the program when they should not be that shocked about the outcome, nor all that confident it will ever change. It has been 25 years and counting, and I think there are only a handful of coaches that can turn this around and deliver this fan base the championship it so craves and deserves. But as i asked elsewhere, who are the coaches, and I think we all know the likely names, and what will it cost the program, not referring to money, to bring in one of those few coaches?
Weak schedules led fan base to think we were invincible
Florida showed us the one decent team we beat (Michigan) was a fraud.
Alabama and Clemson in another stratosphere; but I don’t think we represented the #3 slot very well. Both Georgia and OSU would have beaten us yday. Handily.
Agree. The toughest teams on are schedule this year sucked, USC, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Florida St. We caught Michigan early with a good first half then held on in second half for win. Syracuse Qb getting hurt in first quarter helped us. Survived games against weaker teams, Vanderbilt, Pitt, Northwestern gave everybody false hope. 12-0 record was nice but not really impressive against that competition. Just don’t have the talent that Clemson and Alabama has. Need to recruit 5 star athletes. Until that happens expect 2-3 losses a year.
Different in that it was worse than 2012 and first time in CFP... vaunted Defense yielded 550 yards... allowed Clemson to convert 50 percent of 3rd downs..
In the 2013 BCS Championship game, Alabama had 529 total yards, was 8-13 on 3rd down conversions, 1-1 on 4th down conversions, and was led by AJ fucking McCarron, a perfect game manager QB if there ever was one. Oh and as mentioned earlier, ND was down 35-0 at one time in the game, and statistically, ND had a better defense that year than this year. Oh and one more thing, ND was a near unanimous #1 and needed only a win in that game to be the champion. Sorry, not worse than 2012.
(no message)
(no message)
a very good coach who has run into better teams and if we don't execute our game plan and today we did not execute it because of false start penalties, dropped passes and one dumb late hit.
Also against a better team which Clemson was we needed that kickoff overturn call not to go that way. IMO we could have gained a lot of momentum and belief at that point. Our talent is finally the best it has been since the Holtz days though certainly not up to the number one ranked talent Holtz got for 5 straight years.
Stick to your technology bullshit. Obviously a first time visitor who knows nothing.
And you sit here making excuses. Stay true to yourself TC!
His shortcomings are numerous and obvious and there are many better coaches out there...the only question is which of them we could get. Neither of us knows the answer to that, but don't pretend that translates to he gives us the best chance...nine years is enough and 10 is more than enough, I'm not calling for his head right now as that would be nuts after 12-1, but I'm also not foolish enough to think there's no one better out there or that keeping the wrong guy for 10, 13, 15... years, out of fear is the right answer.
The next time Kelly doesn't win 10+ games he should be out on his ass (unless he has already "won" a NC prior to that.
Georgia and Ohio State. We are not quite there but it has gotten closer. And we finished the job in the regular season which is not easy to do.
If ND went to the playoff say 6 of the next 10 years, but got pounded in the ass like tonight every time, would you still be satisfied? Because while it is a great achievement to go undefeated and make the playoffs, it feels fairly meaningless when you don't validate it with a competitive performance on the big stage. ND did not have to win tonight to validate their season and prove they belonged, but after 3 pts and another 20+ point beatdown against the big boys of college football in 2018, to say they even remotely closed the gap with Alabama and Clemson is comical.
but I am curious who you think the coaches are that we could bring in and change what has seemingly become commonplace for ND football. I believe there are a few coaches out there, but at what cost would it be to bring them in, and I am not talking the money aspect.
(no message)