Just a terrible plan from Parker
- Thread starter theskibro
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And that is why there is an ignore button. For those that don't want to hear it, you are more than welcome to use the ignore feature and never have to see one of my posts again.
I feel almost an obligation to point out the obvious issue at ND because despite ALL of the evidence out there that supports what the obvious issues are, the narrative around ND Nation speaks around them like they don't exist.
How do you expect to compete with the modern powers in college football when they have a 7:1 ratio of top 100 players? and a 10:1 ratio of 5 star players?
Would anybody expect their favorite NBA/MLB/NFL team to compete with the rest of the league if they never drafted top prospects in the first round? and wouldn't fans be extremely frustrated if they go to their favorite website to discuss the team, or listen to their favorite person on the beat, and those websites/people/fans/analysts NEVER speak about the OBVIOUS lack of first round selections that is inhibiting the team's upside, but instead attack the coach's sideline demeaner and/or a bad play call?
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You just don't understand football. Going on the road against a quality opponent and winning isn't easy, especially the week after another huge game. People like Joel Klatt, who actually understands the game, gave us props for that.
"It's funny because I basically post about this and provide a laundry list of evidence on the daily, yet people refuse to accept this very simple explanation for NDs CONSISTENT issues. It's a simple problem but not an easy one to fix without serious changes at the highest level of the institution."
You will NEVER convince certain people of ND's "CONSISTENT ISSUES" -- or what I call STRUCTURAL DISADVANTAGE -- as it's simply ANATHEMA to them. They simply don't want to hear it.
They'd rather WISH ON A STAR for something largely UNATTAINABLE, get FRUSTRATED, plug in either IMPOSSIBLE or LESS THAN OPTIMAL "solutions," get frustrated again and then WISH ON A STAR again as though it's now a CLEAN SLATE -- when in fact ZERO has changed fundamentally.
Has this not been a YEARLY OCCURENCE since, say, 1993?
Nor do they wish to acknowledge ND's self-imposed CEILING despite ND's unequivocal AUTHORSHIP of such a policy, SIDESTEPPING the issue instead by retreating behind the "ND DOESN'T DO CERTAIN SORTS OF THINGS/WE'RE NOT THAT KIND OF PLACE" defense. Which while totally backing the university on MISSION GROUNDS offers NO CRITIQUE as to how that does NOTHING to help the football program.
In other words, the argument initially asserts -- USUALLY VIA SOME MAGICAL RECRUITING FORMULA -- that things can be changed enough so that an NC can be won, but then when it doesn't happen and OUTSIDE SOLUTIONS are suggested, those are immediately DISQUALIFIED on the grounds of their being NON-ND-LIKE.
It's similar to what's been happening in politcal discourse where if you argue with one side or the other's ideology, you can be disqualified SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF YOUR MAKING YOUR KIND OF ARGUMENT. In other words, you're guilty by association WITH YOUR OWN IDEA.
So, someone like YOU -- or ME for that matter -- can NEVER win this argument because when the ND WAY is shown to be fruitless THE GOAL POSTS ARE MOVED so that anything too UN-ND-LIKE is looked upon as heretical and anyone who promotes it as some sort of SELF-EVIDENT DOPE from outside the lines.
When you have this umatched ONE-TIME-ONLY pre-1956 football legacy colliding with post-1952 IVY LEAGUE WANNABE ASPIRATIONS -- SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE and it winds up being LOGIC, allowing in all sorts of excuses and RATIONALIZATIONS by which those WISHING ON A STAR continue to DELUDE THEMSELVES.
I don't mean to be HARSH, but I've been watching this KABUKI DANCE since Holtz's last years and, frankly, you're simply PISSING UP A ROPE trying to persuade people of what's going on if they simply refuse to see it. Tritely put, THEY WANT THEIR CAKE AND EAT IT. Harvard in the classroom. Alabama on the gridiron.
Talk about the ultimate LOW PERCENTAGE SHOT.
No, what ND seems to be about is PERPETUALLY MENDING its own self-inflicted gunshot wound, while a) never working out some sort of compromise solution to the ACADEMICS vs. ATHLETICS STALEMATE and b) denying that ND could ever be accused of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the first place as it simply operates on a HIGHER PLANE where such things as respects ITSELF are simply UNTHINKABLE.
Listen, if the last THIRTY YEARS have taught us anything, it's that WE AIN'T GOING BACK TO 1946 to 1949.
Not NOW. Not EVER.
ND is not going to yield on the issue of forgoing academics. But ND can do things to bridge the gap in talent, more so with the emergent NIL, transfer, and branding dynamics that distribute talent more evenly. For the 1st time in a while, semipro factories aren't stacking skill players in depth on benches to wait their turn...as more lucrative opportunities can be had.
The likes of Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio State at their peaks won't be as strong relative to the rest. Including a ND that might attract more heavily the smaller pool of athletes who can study with NIL and transfers. If ND does this correctly, well, this could be a mend if not care to the intact of self inflicted standards.
Lastly, I'll always repeat: ND might offer a remedial and progressive degree for academically challenged athletes. It would serve an important social as well as academic and branding mission. It won't be a BS degree and it won't compromise the academic brand of the general school.
Freeman to me might be a path to all this. He can recruit and inspire as a former player like Sanders. These men have a great opportunity in their respective milieus. Freeman might make ND strong enough to sneak a NC, getting a few decisive skill positions to augment an otherwise strong if not elite roster...which would be an elite roster if having a progressive degree path.
The likes of Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio State at their peaks won't be as strong relative to the rest. Including a ND that might attract more heavily the smaller pool of athletes who can study with NIL and transfers. If ND does this correctly, well, this could be a mend if not care to the intact of self inflicted standards.
Lastly, I'll always repeat: ND might offer a remedial and progressive degree for academically challenged athletes. It would serve an important social as well as academic and branding mission. It won't be a BS degree and it won't compromise the academic brand of the general school.
Freeman to me might be a path to all this. He can recruit and inspire as a former player like Sanders. These men have a great opportunity in their respective milieus. Freeman might make ND strong enough to sneak a NC, getting a few decisive skill positions to augment an otherwise strong if not elite roster...which would be an elite roster if having a progressive degree path.
ALL GOOD THOUGHTS FOR SURE.
But, to be honest, IF, IF, IF and MAYBE, MAYBE, MAYBE for thirty years and counting.
I honestly don't worry about it much anymore even though I periodically post on the issue. I do it as mainly a REALITY CHECK or for FEVER DREAM BREAKING purposes.
When you've been a supporter as long as I have, you've seen the best, the worst and everything
IN BETWEEN.
To me, the sheer IRONY of it all is like some kind of LIFE LESSON. And it goes like this:
If ND brought in the smartest nuclear scientists in the world, they couldn't DEVISE A HARDER ROAD to a football NC than what ND has DESIGNED FOR ITSELF.
WHAT THOUGH THE ODDS?
INDEED.
All I know is they're stacked PRETTY HIGH.
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True overall. But I think the odds are now getting better. I'm pleasantly surprised at how things are going so far in college football.
ND no doubt screwed itself since Holtz. Yeah, by applying the highest standards, as once upon a time the school looked the other way with academics. The Catholic Church has started to reckon being true to ideals in many areas, not to throw us off on a tangent.
I've no idea what these odds are. Not the highest, but not a pipe dream either. I don't think Freeman will lay an egg like CBK used to in so many high profile games...the singular example of a transfer like Hartman giving me hope.
I can see ND finding another QB just in time. Or key lineman. Or running back. Skill players disproportionately influential when they're good. You know as well as I do ND can get the OL around which to do this.
Defense as a whole is a wild card. ND must prove it can build an elite defense. That's not as easy for whatever reason in terms of challenging academics.
I'm in my late 50s. I get you. We know how it once was, when ND had THE PLAYERS and was often enough THE TEAM. Just not there since Holtz...but hope springs eternal.
BTW: auto correct changes my submissions sometimes. Hence my occasional strange grammar.
🤔
Freeman is 5-4 against ranked teams. That's almost AS GOOD AS Ara's final percentage. Ara was, I think, 13-11-3.True overall. But I think the odds are now getting better. I'm pleasantly surprised at how things are going so far in college football.
ND no doubt screwed itself since Holtz. Yeah, by applying the highest standards, as once upon a time the school looked the other way with academics. The Catholic Church has started to reckon being true to ideals in many areas, not to throw us off on a tangent.
I've no idea what these odds are. Not the highest, but not a pipe dream either. I don't think Freeman will lay an egg like CBK used to in so many high profile games...the singular example of a transfer like Hartman giving me hope.
I can see ND finding another QB just in time. Or key lineman. Or running back. Skill players disproportionately influential when they're good. You know as well as I do ND can get the OL around which to do this.
Defense as a whole is a wild card. ND must prove it can build an elite defense. That's not as easy for whatever reason in terms of challenging academics.
I'm in my late 50s. I get you. We know how it once was, when ND had THE PLAYERS and was often enough THE TEAM. Just not there since Holtz...but hope springs eternal.
If ND loses the next two games, Freeman will be 5-6. If ND wins, he will be 7-4 which would be EXCELLENT.
If Clemson makes it back into the top 25, that's another opportunity against a ranked team which, frankly, could go EITHER WAY. And then there's the bowl game which most likely would feature another RANKED OPPONENT.
So, there are plenty of IMMEDIATE OPPORTUNITIES to see whether or not Freeman does as DISMALLY as Kelly against top teams, breaks even or DOMINATES.
ND played SIX ranked teams LAST YEAR and beat FOUR of them. Of course, the two it lost two were the TWO THAT MATTERED: OSU and USC.
And then, of course, there's a difference between games against ranked opponents and games that are TRULY HIGH PROFILE. As for the latter, Freeman is by my count, 2-4, with one of those victories the "borderline high profile win" against South Carolina -- which I'm crediting as high profile merely because it was a bowl game -- leaving the Clemson victory as Freeman's one truly marquee win.
But there's no question that the opportunities for WINS of this type are out there, and we'll soon enough see whether your belief that he MAY do better than Kelly in THESE KINDS OF GAMES OVER TIME is WELL-FOUNDED.
Or not.
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It strikes me as being very similar to the system that Tommy Rees used.
I don't know what games you are watching to say that Rees's 3 yard curl routes are the same basic framework of Estime into the A gap.
The same games YOU are watching.
But, obviously, we see it DIFFERENTLY.
For me, it isn't just a choice between TWO PLAYS.
No but it is for Parker. Tonight it is the choice between Estime to the A gap or a failed sweep to the sideline.
Estime is gimping...everybody can see that...So what does Parker call? Sam in the shotgun....hand the ball to Estime when we need only 3 yards for a first down. Result? Loss of yards. Fire the OC. He is committing malpractice.
I think many of us were happy with Parker initially, but it seems the first 3-4 opponents hid all of his warts.
The past few weeks he’s been downright awful IMO. He has been horrible on short yardage situations, he is also so predictable when he is is going to run it. Every time he runs in short yard situation’s, he bunches the offense. The defense stacks 9-10 guys in the box.
He’s also gotten a little Ryan Dayesque, getting cute with slow developing WR jet sweeps a few times for losses as well. It’s dreadfully obvious, just really poor.
The past few weeks he’s been downright awful IMO. He has been horrible on short yardage situations, he is also so predictable when he is is going to run it. Every time he runs in short yard situation’s, he bunches the offense. The defense stacks 9-10 guys in the box.
He’s also gotten a little Ryan Dayesque, getting cute with slow developing WR jet sweeps a few times for losses as well. It’s dreadfully obvious, just really poor.
And that's HIS problem.
For me, it's still the same BASIC OFFENSE. But is it a REGRESSED version of it?
Certainly looks like that tonight.
But I've also noticed that both of ND's lines are getting MANHANDLED.
ND can't run because it can't stretch the field, and it can't stretch the field as it doesn't have PRIMO WR's OR, tonight, ADEQUATE PASS BLOCKING.
HARTMAN'S BEEN SACKED FIVE TIMES.
It's ND's usual WING & A PRAYER STAB at an NC shot, gone DOWN IN FLAMES for another season.
WHAT'S NEW?
Well, per my recent flurry of posts, I'm resigning myself to the odds...where my hopes of defying the odds of a man with no head coaching experience undone in seemingly one game. It indeed does take many games, heck, still a whole season. But at this point, the body of work is not encouraging, too volatile...this being in and of itself a negative sign.
I thought Freeman and Parker would clean up the lapses. That the talent was there. They've clearly gotten worse, as have the OL, running game, receivers, with progressively worse play calling. Ultimately limiting Hartman.
So we come full circle once again to the core structural impediments hiding ND back. I thought with NIL, transfers, and a growing distribution of talent, this would soften. And that Freeman would make ND greater than the sum of the parts.
Freeman and Parker have less than the sum of the parts at this point. Maybe they turn it around? Even so, they've missed the goal of being a NC title chaser, even a decent bowl game. Things are not right.
I'm 57. Same old same old of not being elite. And a danger of being less than peak BK. At least I have some years to wait this out and see a 1988. Probably not.
I'll repeat: BK got ND to being a top 10 and top 5 at times, but was well short of elite top 3 that could really win a NC. Partly for structural reasons, partly for mixed recruiting, mixed player development, and less than optimal game day play calling, albeit a great program manager...kind of what I see at LSU with him, where he is under intense pressure in a very different football culture, although that is neither here nor there.
What is here is that Freeman might now be a step down from BK. I feel bad for Freeman and for ND and for all ND fans. I even feel sorry for myself, which I don't normally do!
Suffice it to say, Freeman is dealing with the same stacked deck as was BK. Although I still believe there are opportunities to lighten the deck as I discussed with transfers, NIL, and more distributed talent...but this assumes the coaching is top notch. To beat the dead horse again, it seems Freeman is not providing top notch coaching.
13-7 out of the gate after 44-6 the previous 50 games and two CFB playoff berths in that time is a tough transition.I'll repeat: BK got ND to being a top 10 and top 5 at times, but was well short of elite top 3 that could really win a NC. Partly for structural reasons, partly for mixed recruiting, mixed player development, and less than optimal game day play calling, albeit a great program manager...kind of what I see at LSU with him, where he is under intense pressure in a very different football culture, although that is neither here nor there.
What is here is that Freeman might now be a step down from BK. I feel bad for Freeman and for ND and for all ND fans. I even feel sorry for myself, which I don't normally do!
Suffice it to say, Freeman is dealing with the same stacked deck as was BK. Although I still believe there are opportunities to lighten the deck as I discussed with transfers, NIL, and more distributed talent...but this assumes the coaching is top notch. To beat the dead horse again, it seems Freeman is not providing top notch coaching.
Yes it is...and why I now am more skeptical.
The sun is rising here on my vacation in Croatia, and I'm going to enjoy my day...and still cheer cheer for old Notre Dame.
On the 12th Croatia plays Turkey in soccer Euro qualifying...at least the Croatia NT punches hard!
I'll say it again: Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, and Bill Belichick are of Croatian heritage. Most of us are Catholics. Those 2 need to come up with an ND rescue package!
IT IS WHAT IT IS.
Hell, ND could come back and beat USC, but that wouldn't mean that it wouldn't lose BIG to Clemson or get nipped by Wake which today gave Clemson a game.
So much of this reminds me of GERRY FAUST. It's not a question so much of SHEER INCOMPETENCE as one of INCONSISTENCY. Same as happened with Brennan, Davie and Weis. UNFORESEEABLE TRIMUMPHS and UNPREDICTABLE COLLAPSES.
The FOURTH AND LONG call, deep in ND territory but with plenty of time left, looked to me like PURE PANIC. And what prompted it, I would argue, is that it had WORKED against Duke the week before when ND had ABSOLUTELY NO CHOICE BUT TO GO FOR IT. But that was not the situation tonight. ND could -- and should have -- punted.
But having seen the play work the week before Freeman apparently thought it might work again as though it were a LEGITIMATE OPTION.
Where was his sense of JUDGEMENT?
MIA.
Instead we saw:
INADEQUATE EXPERIENCED-BASED JUDGEMENT BASED ON NEAR-ZERO EXPERIENCE.
I suppose if one is happy with a FIVE-YEAR-PROJECT head coaching adventure, this may be acceptable. Yet, honestly, WHO WANTS THAT?
Next year should provide us with some answers.
Just don't be surprised if they're PAINFUL.
Not working!!!!!!! I need to be more realistic in my view of this team and the coaching staff! This game was absurd! I still hope they succeed.. I like Freeman and the staff... but NO KILLER INSTINCT...
Right, it can't and WON'T work at the highest levels.
This is a PROJECT.
Yes, Freeman is likeable, but I'd rather have a KILLER INSTINCT. It's not really his JOB to be likeable. He's supposed to win games.
Brennan and Faust were extremely likeable.
Didn't matter.
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