Unlike Bryan and some others, I think Vanderbilt is a pretty good football team. I'm not going to say they are as good as Stanford or Va Tech coming up, but they are a good football team.
Bryan puts together these OUTSTANDING breakdowns that pretty much read exactly how I would have prepped opponent prep in my coaching days. If you wanted to know what it's like being on staff and prepping everything and what the coaching staff would pass out to players on a Monday starting prep week - this is as close as you will get.
If you read the report on the Vanderbilt defense HERE you will see that Bryan was right on the money in how we were going to attack Vanderbilt and how Vandy would try and stop us offensively.
Thoughts on offense:
I knew what to expect from the running game by reading Bryan's film room breakdown HERE. And in his keys to the game (HERE) pretty much nailed everything we were expecting. Before I go into our guys, a few quick thoughts on Vandy.
For us, our season will be defined by how we fare against Stanford and Virginia Tech, both really good football teams. If we beat both of those teams it's entirely possible we could be undefeated going into the Syracuse/USC finales.
Bryan puts together these OUTSTANDING breakdowns that pretty much read exactly how I would have prepped opponent prep in my coaching days. If you wanted to know what it's like being on staff and prepping everything and what the coaching staff would pass out to players on a Monday starting prep week - this is as close as you will get.
If you read the report on the Vanderbilt defense HERE you will see that Bryan was right on the money in how we were going to attack Vanderbilt and how Vandy would try and stop us offensively.
Thoughts on offense:
- I put this in the post game observations thread but Brandon Wimbush had a pretty good day for us. He wasn't perfect and he's not a perfect QB, but he definitely played winning football. He only had one really bad judgment throw but that's it. He was let down by the offensive line and receivers pretty consistently in this game. At the end of the day, the starting QB at Notre Dame is like being the Yankees shortstop or the Cowboys QB, and he's always going to be graded on a curve.
- Tony Jones should be our bell cow moving forward. I was very surprised that Armstrong started the first few weeks, but even more so moving forward he's shown that he (Armstrong) has talent but he has a lot of work to do as he learns the position. Jones is the best compliment to this offense - I'm eagerly anticipating the return of Dexter Williams though.
- The offensive line did show improvement. They played VERY HARD for four quarters but are still letting fundamental mistakes lead to blown assignments - there were many less assignment fails than last week, but these mistakes will get us beat by Stanford and/or Va Tech if we don't clean them up. I love Alex Bars and think he's a bonafide All-American.
- I'm ready for Alize Mack to take a back seat to Nic Weishar and/or Brock Wright - Wright in particular. Weishar isn't nearly as talented as Mack but he's more consistent in his effort and makes fewer mistakes. Brock Wright, who I have been a major fan of since he was a recruit, has shown me enough and has enough potential that he needs to be lead at the position moving forward. He can provide enough of an intermediate threat and isn't nearly as timid as Mack is as a blocker. If Wright needs to mature more (you can only tell that from working with him daily) then play Weishar more and get Wright up to speed. I'm over Mack short arming things and being a liability in the run game.
- I'm also ready for some new blood at the third WR position. Boykin and Finke have earned their spots, but Claypool is out of chances to not loaf around. He excels on special teams but he's currently a liability in the passing game. I'm ready to see Young, Austin, Lenzy, etc get some reps with the starters and prove they deserve reps. I'm not saying they will be better, but they will provide a more dynamic threat to this offense.
- Chip Long had a bad game. I love Long and think he's really talented, but either we have another cook in the kitchen or he's lost himself a little bit. This happens with OC's and I'm guilty of it in my past. You get so caught up in being unpredictable that you lose sight of what you're successful doing. I think with Nelson/McGlinchey last year Long had more of a "try to stop it, I don't care if you know exactly where it's coming from" mindset, and now he's just overthinking things. We have a tremendous amount of talent and we need to call plays like that. There is just a really delicate balance between being too predictable and outscheming your players. This has to get corrected and I have faith that Long will.
I knew what to expect from the running game by reading Bryan's film room breakdown HERE. And in his keys to the game (HERE) pretty much nailed everything we were expecting. Before I go into our guys, a few quick thoughts on Vandy.
- Kyle Shurmur is going to be an NFL QB for a very long time. He doesn't have the rocket arm but he will not make a lot of mistakes and will always be a cerebral player. He's going to be a Case Keenum/Dan Orlovsky/Matt Cassell type of guy who sticks around for 15 years and always seems to be on a roster - and when they get a chance they will make the most of it, just don't ask them to be a full time starter.
- Jared Pinkney is a freaking dude. I wish we had him on our team. I also think he's going to be an NFL player who will have a role. He was targeted five times, had five catches for 111 and a TD. He's a matchup nightmare for LB's.
- Kalija Lipscomb is also a badass football player. He's just a tough, tough kid who competed on every single snap and wanted the ball and ran really good routes. He's another kid I would to have at ND.
- Our defensive line really attacks well, but we are just on the field for too long which led to our pass rush dying as the game went along. Subsequently that's when Vandy's offense picked up steam, in particular their passing game. Losing MTA is going to hurt us a lot more than I had initially thought. I really expected more of Hinish, I'm not saying he's playing poorly, I just thought he'd be in more reps and make more of a difference.
- Our LB's played a pretty good game in run D but pretty poor in coverage. Some of that were the matchups (Pinkney) and others were poor footwork and not looking comfortable. Tranquill is still surprisingly athletic given his injury history. He played a very good game Saturday. Coney got caught up a few times but I'd have to go re-watch to determine how well he played overall.
- Our DB's, Pride in particular, struggled. I would really like to see more Vaughn at corner, as I think he's got a presence about him with physicality.
- We have to get better in 3rd down situations, 3rd and medium in particular. We are giving up too many 6 yard passes on 3rd and 5. This is part coaching and part execution.
For us, our season will be defined by how we fare against Stanford and Virginia Tech, both really good football teams. If we beat both of those teams it's entirely possible we could be undefeated going into the Syracuse/USC finales.
