And amazingly, this may be Freeman's floor level class.
Imagine that...this could be the floor! Realllly hope he develops and executes as well as recruits. If so...this era could be special one.
players have been used and the schemes employed. On the current roster Tyree and Styles both can stretch the field, but the use of Tyree has been head-scratching and Styles was placed in purgatory until the great one Kelly decided he could come out and play. Too many checks and variables also force a player to think rather than just being an athlete. If Freeman just lets guys be athletes, I expect we'll see a faster ND team on the field this year.
(no message)
Let the players play fast + use their natural instincts to react. Troy Paleamua was a 3 star recruit for example.
Nothing else to say...Let em play! Let athletes compete as athletes...not as philosophers contemplating every nuisance on the field. Do enough of that in class.
Dropped passes, sloppy routes, unable to block, etc. and it took them time to see game action. No Kelly fan but we are not privy to the decision process.
Let's say that's true...oh Lenzy runs a sloppy dig route AND drops the ball. So you have a world-class athlete who is dangerous with the ball in his hand but getting the ball in his hand is difficult...you just sit em? No....you give him easier routes. Smoke route, now route, slip screens, but to just shelf him is asinine. If Tyree wasn't great a pass-pro you sit him on every passing down? First off...an athlete like that should NEVER be nullified with pass protection...he should never be asked to sit in the backfield. He should be a weapon on every opportunity. The pass he caught for the TD vs Ok State was a perfect example. That should be a threat every time he's in the game. So yes, BK and staff could've saw things that made them sit players but a great coach figures out a way to use players better and adjust their strategy not pout and punish guys. If a Lenzy isn't Will Fuller, Golden Tate or TJ Jones...fine...doesn't mean he can't be used like the Rocket or Mike Miller or Joey Getheral or a Matt Shelton. Just get him the ball.
he played his best players everywhere. Have to get them influencing the game in every possible occasion.
I remember on special teams plays where we needed maximum speed, he even let Rusty Setzer play, and Setzer even managed to make some good plays.
The only time he'd make exceptions would be for "his" establishment players that he felt loyal towards.
We could easily look at the situation in 2010-2014 (not giving Hendrix even a shred of a chance, etc), but 2015 and 2016 were two of the more notable years where his choices could easily be questioned.
It's no secret that Joe Schmidt was all but crippled after that cheap chop block by Navy in 2014. Before that injury, he ran about a 4.85 on a good day. After that injury, there was no way he would run any faster than the 5.1 mark during that 2015 season.
While he was a very smart fellow on the field, and did a decent job of calling defensive audibles, not being able to keep up with even the slowest of tight ends showed a terrible weakness in the defense, and of all times, this terrible mistake couldn't be pinned on Brian Van Gorder. In all honesty, that was a veteran defense, full of NFL talent, and they were smart enough to adjust on their own without the audibles. How many times did we give up a very easy pass over the middle because Schmidt couldn't cover? How many times did a running back juke him with a very simple cut move?
2016 was where he kept playing Malik Zaire at the QB position, out of loyalty for his work in 2014, even though he kept stinking up the field. There was absolutely no question that Deshone Kizer was the best QB on the roster, yet Brian Kelly kept giving Zaire too many opportunities, which killed many a promising drive. That loss to Texas should never have occurred, since we were scoring every time Kizer led the team, and stalled out every time Zaire led the team.
open, because that's not a play ND ever ran. OSU wasn't expecting it. If they were, someone else would have had an easier time getting open. ND now has 5 guys ready to get the ball rather than 4, maybe 3 if the TE was kept in, too. That's a lot more for a defensive backfield to cover.
You're entirely correct that most of the pure speed that we have wasn't being utilized in an ideal manner.
On offense, for example, how many times were we all hollering at the screen, yelling "STOP RUNNING THAT DELAYED HANDOFF 5 YARDS DEEP IN THE BACKFIELD!" and seeing our RB's come away with a 5 yard loss? The fact that we stuck with that silly delayed draw with the poorly performing offensive line in the earlier part of the season shows that someone was unwilling to use our talent in the best way possible. Even Rocket Ismail wouldn't have been able to get much out of those plays.
Brian Kelly has had a bad habit of trying to shape the players in his mold, instead of adapting to the talent we had. Seriously, trying to turn Dayne Crist into a spread-option / dink and dunk quarterback, instead of letting him be a downfield passer? Forcing Jaylon Smith to sit back in coverage and be a read and react player?
Those 8 win seasons in 2010 and 2014 could easily have been 10+ win seasons if he would have simply played to the strengths of his players instead of trying to force square pegs into round holes.
I agree completely with your point about Kelly's poor management of ND's talent - Crist is a perfect example! As an ND fan since 1953, talent management has been the differentiator between the two successful coaches - Ara and Lou - and the rest of them. In 1964, after 10 years of dismal football under Brennan, Kuharric and Devore they hired Ara. He took 4th string QB John Huarte and a seldom used end Jack Snow and overnight they were great! Huarte won the Heisman and Snow was an All American and had a very good pro career. ND went 9-1 and lost the National Championship in the last game of the season - in the last two minutes of the USC game 20-17. I will never forget that game because I witnessed it at the LA Coliseum. Ara would have had 3 National Championships if they had won that game. Kelly and the rest of them never got close to ONE National Championship. I hope Freeman knows how to use the talent he recruits.