Kelly sh*t the bed in major bowl games, and in season big games far too many times to remember. Yes this loss hurt, but ND was in this game to the end, unlike past Fiesta bowls.
Hmm. Well that might be true but we played the B12 loser. Not like it was Ohio State or something. Freeman looks incredibly uncomfortable on the sideline. He’s looked like that from day 1. He looked like that vs FSU when BK was giving him the look of death. The guys in way over his head. He might be the worst ever hire. IHe certainly isn’t moving any needle I can tell you that. BK made 2 playoffs. I think Freeman may win 2 games.
ND played a terribly weak schedule this year. OKS may have been the B12 loser, but they had a tougher schedule than ND. ND's only game was vs UC and they lost by 2 scores. If any year ND is to be considered overrated, it was this year.
I objected to ND hiring other than a HC, stating that we should have learned our lessons from previous non-HC hires.
Agree. But blowing off Fickell will go down as this programs biggest F up. Mark my words.
Not sure what point you are trying to make, but i would have preferred Fickell over Freeman. We have Freeman and can't judge him after 1 game.
NOT TRUE !
I wanted Fickell too. we have Freeman. You guys are in melt down mode over 1 consolation game. So quick to criticize the new coach after 1 game, but crickets over the past 12 years of embarrassing losses. The UC loss was a worse loss than the loss to OKS. UC has no where near the talent ND has, and far less talent than OKS.
They had a more experienced team, but not a more talented team. Even their QB was a 3 star. so stop with the Kelly excuses. I've heard them for 12 years and it's tiring.
“Issues with the team” ?
So being #5 means ND was below Michigan and Cincinnati, who were both slaughtered by the two SEC teams. Hence, being #5 isn’t really all that great, is it?
This team was not a top 5 team. The schedule was extremely favorable this year. The only decent team ND beat this year was Wisconsin. The other two games vs quality opponents were UC, whom we lost to by 2 scores at home, and OKS, who is more talented than UC. That's the reality.
If you call getting blown out and embarrassed in every big game successful, you need to raise that bar of success a bit.
It is not just that we lost, resulting from a miss judgement here or there as the game processed. No, it was how we were totally; 100% clueless in the second half, and made 0 adjustments to the game changes of the other team.
Maybe so. I don’t think so though. I bet money on it that Freeman will lose a lot more games than Kelly ever did. Do I want that to happen? Hell no. But this guy has no business coaching at Notre Dame. He’s a good man and probably an OK defensive coordinator but he is not a head coach.
The “reality” is that we were ranked # 5 by entities far more knowledgeable than you, including Las Vegas who had us favored over the # 6 team.
I hope you are wrong. I would have preferred they hired Fickell as well. Unfortunately none of us on this board have a say in deciding who ND hires. The decision was made and all i can do is support the new coach and hope Freeman is successful. We as fans all want Freeman to be successful. Let's see what happens in the next year.
I’ve got news for you - 99% of ALL college football head coaches should be so lucky to be BK 2.0
He’s just finding means of coping and making excuses now that he can’t blame Kelly for everything.
ND tried that back in the early 80's, it didn't turn out that well.
