UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

Coming into the season, the schedule screamed Playoffs though the roster and coaching learning curve still had question marks. The first five to six weeks were both painful and euphoric. Often times bordering on maddening. Eventually, offensive playcalling came to understand it's limiitations and things we could do well and the defense steadily got younger, more athletic and more talented, through attrition.

Mid-to-late season you could tell the team began buying in and coaches gained confidence. The tone changed for the good. My hope is that getting a taste, coming up just short while learning to win important games against "better" schools (teams consistently in the top 5 and 10), will pave a path forward for the program to finally turn the corner for a long stretch. Maybe five or 10 years of real, consistent competitiveness and interest from top talent. Weis turned the rutter. Kelly got the ship going in the right direction and hopefully Freeman can add all the bells and whistles to get Notre Dame Football back cruising.

Reflecting on the season and where Notre Dame Football has been mired... in mediocracy for 30+ years -- makes it hard to look down on a "crushing defeat" in last night's National Championship game. Realisticaly, no one thought we'd be there in the first place. No one other than the absurd, unrealistic homer. The one's that believed Davey and Willingham could take us to the promise land. The one's that believe we'll always go 13-0; in their minds only. Realistically, OSU was a better football team. OSU crushed teams in the playoffs and started to do the same to ND. However, we stood our ground, fought back and gave them a game. Realistically, we had a chance to tie and possibly win in an almost improbable scenario given the time.

I personally can hang my hat on the latter part, as we did something no one expected and we performed better than teams who were "better"; against OSU. That's a good foundation to build on.

So, in years to come I hope to see:

- The continuation of a strong and wrecklessly opportunistic D
- A massive upgrade along the Defensive line - specifically the interior. We are still short on depth and overall talent.
- Continued improment at LB and CB
- Find or develop a fearsome pass rusher or two.
- We need to find a second & third solid corner. I hope the rough road for Gray is enough education to propell him forward next year. I believe it will be.

- Stay out of the portal for QBs.

We need one that can both run and pass. It's 2025, that's just how the game is played. You can't just do one or the other and expect to win it all. It was obvious before our last two QB acqusitions that at some point, we'd run into a situation where the defense couldn't carry the team. The game would turn into a shootout and we'd have to be able to pass and score at will. This typically never happens with a QBs feet and bruising runs. It's 2025, that's just how the game is played.

It can work, but only so many times before you run into opponents that know how to stymie the simplicity of a one-dimensional offense. See: UGA, PSU, OSU games for reference. Had the D and special teams not opportunitistically won those games; we never would have come close to the Natty. However, they did and we were. So learn from it and do a better job of evaluating QB talent. If you go to the portal at some point in the future, do a phenomenal job of portal talent evaluation regardless. No excuses.

- When you have great backs, use them. The game has changed. It is harder to run, but figure out ways to use two or more RBs on the field at the same time when you have the stable we do. It's 2025, not having a RB running game still doesn't work.
- Scrap the bubble screen, like kicking... ND may be the worst bubble screen team in the country. If you are adamant. Go learn how to teach and call it successfully.

There is not a lot to be mad about with how this year's IRISH team turned out. There are a lot of good lessons that can help set the tone for years to come.

Awesome year! I hope we see many more playoff wins and Natty shots in the future. Here's to a filling game and to getting the monkey of ND's back.