New Years Bowl games
Since 1998 the Irish have been outscored by 144 points in playoff and New Years 6 bowls. It is easy to point the finger at coaching but there has to be more underlying problems.
That is 22 years. Outside of pointing the finger at coaching, what are things that need to change with the school or football program where we will be more competitive in these games.
Replies to: New Years Bowl games
Johnny manziel...will fuller
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Eliminate any pretext of football players as student athletes ...
and pay Swinney $20 million a year with an unlimited staff budget. Hire 2 and out five star players. Stash other players who are too stupid to even get by in Jucos and pay their parents. That is only a start.
Finally someone stating the truth about the NCAA and what ND will never do.
We are a 2nd Tier program like it or not and I for one am extremely proud of it. My degree and my school mean something which all the NC Trophies can’t buy. ND cannot judge itself simply by others standards.
It is what it is. Complaining about it goes nowhere. Either play with the mostly corrupt big boys
while trying to maintain a modicum of academics and decency like ND does, or don’t.
Re: New Years Bowl games
Yes we need a 5 star QB with 5 star Wide receivers and 5 star Defensive backs. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State has all of that.
Except that Alabama doesn't have a 5 star QB throwing to 5 star WRs.
Mac Jones was a 3 star and with Waddle out none of the WRs are 5 stars. While over at tOSU Fields is throwing to Chris Olave who also isn't a 5 star.
Just sayin'.
Seems to me that we have recruited very well at WR. It's QB where we are lacking. And some of our QBs have been ranked reasonably high. Unfortunately, outside of Kizer they have underperformed. Poor evaluation, poor development or a little of both.
Kizer is the one who has underperformed unless you don't count 3-8.
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Kizer kept us in those games
He had a very good season in 2016. Scoring TD's while he was leading the team wasn't a problem. Defense and special teams were.
If you want to point the finger of blame at any part of the offense, that finger of blame gets squarely pointed at Malik Zaire.
Malik Zaire shit the bed in two games where he was given significant playing time (Texas, USC), where his ineptitude cost us those games. We were scoring at will with Kizer at the helm against a porous Texas defense, but when Zaire was playing QB, every drive stalled.
Then at the last moment against USC, he had a chance to heave it into the end zone to at least try a Hail Mary. Instead, he simply gave up, or didn't have the courage, and threw an 8 yard pass to St. Brown, which had zero chance of any kind of scoring. You have to at least *want* to give your team a chance, even if it's not very good.
The fact that he couldn't beat out a true freshman, Felipe Franks, at Florida, even though Franks was vastly inferior to Kizer, shows that he simply wasn't QB material.
They regularly get 5 stars and players they evaluate as roster worthy, Book would be a walk on at
Bama or OSU
Book and Mac Jones were fairly comparable as recruits, at least according to rating services.
Both were 3* recruits at 247. 247 had Jones's composite score a little higher, but 247 internally rated a Book a little higher (88 - 87).
Book was never going to walk on any place. He is a damn fine
QB that most major colleges would love to have. 2.5 yr starter at ND is no hamburger
That wasn't my point. Fact is that Bama isn't playing 5 star WRs and QBs this year.
And I'd put NDs player evaluation up there with anyone (with the glaring exception of QB). The point is that "lack of 5 star recruits" isn't why our offense doesn't compare to Alabama's.
Fast receivers is the reason. Ours are solid but have to perform well within their ability. Alabama'
s have the ability to turn a 10 yard pass into an 80 yard TD.
To be fair...
Smith was pretty darn close to being a 5 star WR recruit, as was Waddle. Both, according to their 247 ratings, were around 0.97 or so, where 0.98 is usually around the cutoff.
A lot of their 4 star players on their rosters are high 4 star players, whereas we don't quite have that luxury.
Except that Waddle essentially hasn't played this season.
We have Jordon Johnson and Michael Mayer who are both 5 star receivers.
It would be hard to argue that Devonta Smith hasn't turned out better than most 5 star receivers in the country. My only point is that ND isn't lagging Bama on offense because we haven't recruited highly ranked receivers.
I'm convinced that it comes down to QB play. Will Fuller wouldn't have been Will Fuller with Book throwing to him.
Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting.
5 and 4 stars matter, along with coaching. This celebration of signing three star players then spending the next couple of years debating their development doesn't cut it against the elite programs. BK needs to take a cold hard look at his RKG recruiting philosophy.
I would also add a "5-Star Coach & Staff" - both of which have been lacking since 1995
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