Win or lose it sure felt good to be back. In light of the results, it’s really good to be back!
Game Hype- I never really got all the love for Michigan coming into South Bend and taking this game from the Irish. I thought ND had the better team, by far. It was really strange to see all of these predictions for Michigan. @chamgel said it best below…
Pre-game Post of the Game (broken into two parts)-
It was a heavy dose of chamgel sarcasm, but it was spot on. You would have thought that we were playing Alabama in 2012 NC game the way the media was playing it up. The “bigger, faster, stronger” comment resonated with me however, because I wrote that about our team last year and I think it’s even more relevant now. The S&C improvements in Year 2 are even more obvious.
The second part of chamgel’s gem was a spot on analysis of how the game actually played out in my opinion. Michigan’s O-line was completely overwhelmed by the ND front 7.
Jim Harbaugh- What happened to this guy. He built Stanford (STANFORD!) into a national football power before doing a great job coaching in the NFL. He had the wins. He had the swag. He had the street cred. I was sure he was going to dominate college football and dominate mid-West recruiting. I didn’t care too much because ND didn’t play Michigan anymore. And then… Jack Swarbrick signs up for a two game series with Michigan… in Harbaugh’s 4th and 5th years… when he’d have his program as a Program. I honestly thought it was a stupid decision and one that would haunt Swarbrick, but that’s the ND way; avoid the path of least resistance, the harder the better. Well the joke’s on me. This Michigan is not nearly as tough and disciplined as Harbaugh’s Stanford teams. He looks like a guy who has lost his fastball. The David Shaw Stanford teams are much better than Harbaugh’s, BTW (I’m off @athenaniko 's Christmas card list). Consider the following on Harbaugh’s future: https://sports.yahoo.com/michigans-opening-dud-feels-like-beginning-end-jim-harbaugh-051509925.html Michigan has a brutal 6 game stretch that has them playing Nebraska (new look with Scott Frost), Northwestern, Maryland (beat Texas in the opener), Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State, before ending the season at OSU. I could see them losing all of those games.
Brian Kelly- He was different last year and I thought, “Is this gonna last?” and I don’t mean that as an insult. I liked fiery Brian Kelly, but the new BK is much better. He has his team more disciplined, but he’s far more disciplined and clear headed. It doesn’t look like his blood pressure would go up in a plane crash. I likened the crossroads that BK found himself in two years ago to the one he faced at Grand Valley State in 2000. He faced that adversity by going on a tear that ended up bringing him to ND. Get ready… it’s happening again.
Shea Patterson- Meh. I heard the announcers mention how much they liked how he rolled out and passed. I liked it too, but that was about the only thing. IIRC, ND was a player in his recruitment. I’m not familiar with @bwensits as a poster, but this guy deserves a “like” for a spot on scouting report. Here it is:
And now for the really good stuff…
Defense- So this is what it feels like to have a good defense. Sure we had one last year, but I always had that nagging feeling, you know, another thing I didn’t think would last. Now they’ve won me over. Way too many top performers (Tillery, Kareem, Bilal, Coney, on and on) to mention but the front 7 absolutely dominated this game. Clark Lea had a great gameplan and every aspect of the defense functioned as an effective unit. What a difference Alohi Gilman could have made last year if he was eligible. He was awesome. Too bad he couldn’t have been immediately eligible like Shea Patterson. Moving forward, the future is really looking bright on defense.
Defense of the Future- I wrote in the past about BK’s first defensive recruiting haul with Lynch and Tuitt and asked why he couldn’t keep that up. This week, he addressed that and said something to the effect that he likely couldn’t get players like that in future (https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/coach-d-dl-recruiting.127979/#post-2418753) but look at some of the quality players that he’s developed over the past 2 years who buy into what this team is doing. Keep that up and that may well be all we need. The future of the D is very bright.
Post of the Game:
O-Line and Jeff Quinn- I still would have hired a different O-line coach, but I think Quinn had his guys prepared for what is a very good defense. Overall, the performance was good and steady, but aided somewhat by Wimbush’s elusiveness. I saw Hainsey get beat up in several posts, but he was often paired up against Rashan Gary (whose name I didn’t really hear much and wasn’t overly impressed with). There was one play where ND was backed up on their own goal line and Wimbush threw to Mack, resulting in a completion and the targeting ejection. Right before the throw, the announcers were talking about how a tight end couldn’t block Gary so they needed a bigger body. Right then, you see Hainsey stonewalling Gary in the end zone, allowing the pass to be completed. Hainsey is a young kid. Gary is widely touted as a Top 10 pick. I like the upside. Too technical and involved to get into here, but @Rich Starkey has a great thread on Eichenberg and it’s well worth reading: https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/grades-for-eichenberg.127975/#post-2418719
Wimbush- I liked his confidence and I loved his first half. At one point he was 9-12 passing, but his final stat line was 12-22, meaning he was 3 for his last 10. I think he’s got some crazy mechanics and some throws just don’t look right o me, [particularly the side-arm slings. Then he throws a 40 yard frozen rope to Chris Finke. The thing I didn’t like about that was throwing into double coverage. He threaded the needle a few times where I thought the coverage was too tight, but the confidence on the kid is amazing. While I liked his poise and game management throughout, I wasn’t crazy about the final analysis, that is until chamgel stepped in again with the ultimate bottom line:
Geek Stat: I had to steal this one from @Bryan Driskell I never would have found this on my own:
Indeed, Coach. Indeed.
Receivers- There are some tough characters catching the ball for us, and these guys go up and get it. Interesting to see Claypool perform because he’s really just learning the game and to play at a high level. He’s one to watch in the future. Finke, walk-on to significant, clutch, performer. Great story.
Special Teams- Another mixed bags of broken tackles and poor punts. The kickoff return was a disaster of too many men on the wrong side of the field while Michigan put a perfect wedge together and drove the center. It happens sometimes, but this was just poor execution. Newsome redeemed himself with later kicks, but that first punt was one of the worst that I’ve seen at ND. Ever. I do believe ST have improved greatly over 2 years ago (see the Claypool tackle inside the 5) but it always seems like a work in progress.
Post-game Post of the Game-
Game Hype- I never really got all the love for Michigan coming into South Bend and taking this game from the Irish. I thought ND had the better team, by far. It was really strange to see all of these predictions for Michigan. @chamgel said it best below…
Pre-game Post of the Game (broken into two parts)-
It was a heavy dose of chamgel sarcasm, but it was spot on. You would have thought that we were playing Alabama in 2012 NC game the way the media was playing it up. The “bigger, faster, stronger” comment resonated with me however, because I wrote that about our team last year and I think it’s even more relevant now. The S&C improvements in Year 2 are even more obvious.
The second part of chamgel’s gem was a spot on analysis of how the game actually played out in my opinion. Michigan’s O-line was completely overwhelmed by the ND front 7.
Jim Harbaugh- What happened to this guy. He built Stanford (STANFORD!) into a national football power before doing a great job coaching in the NFL. He had the wins. He had the swag. He had the street cred. I was sure he was going to dominate college football and dominate mid-West recruiting. I didn’t care too much because ND didn’t play Michigan anymore. And then… Jack Swarbrick signs up for a two game series with Michigan… in Harbaugh’s 4th and 5th years… when he’d have his program as a Program. I honestly thought it was a stupid decision and one that would haunt Swarbrick, but that’s the ND way; avoid the path of least resistance, the harder the better. Well the joke’s on me. This Michigan is not nearly as tough and disciplined as Harbaugh’s Stanford teams. He looks like a guy who has lost his fastball. The David Shaw Stanford teams are much better than Harbaugh’s, BTW (I’m off @athenaniko 's Christmas card list). Consider the following on Harbaugh’s future: https://sports.yahoo.com/michigans-opening-dud-feels-like-beginning-end-jim-harbaugh-051509925.html Michigan has a brutal 6 game stretch that has them playing Nebraska (new look with Scott Frost), Northwestern, Maryland (beat Texas in the opener), Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State, before ending the season at OSU. I could see them losing all of those games.
Brian Kelly- He was different last year and I thought, “Is this gonna last?” and I don’t mean that as an insult. I liked fiery Brian Kelly, but the new BK is much better. He has his team more disciplined, but he’s far more disciplined and clear headed. It doesn’t look like his blood pressure would go up in a plane crash. I likened the crossroads that BK found himself in two years ago to the one he faced at Grand Valley State in 2000. He faced that adversity by going on a tear that ended up bringing him to ND. Get ready… it’s happening again.
Shea Patterson- Meh. I heard the announcers mention how much they liked how he rolled out and passed. I liked it too, but that was about the only thing. IIRC, ND was a player in his recruitment. I’m not familiar with @bwensits as a poster, but this guy deserves a “like” for a spot on scouting report. Here it is:
And now for the really good stuff…
Defense- So this is what it feels like to have a good defense. Sure we had one last year, but I always had that nagging feeling, you know, another thing I didn’t think would last. Now they’ve won me over. Way too many top performers (Tillery, Kareem, Bilal, Coney, on and on) to mention but the front 7 absolutely dominated this game. Clark Lea had a great gameplan and every aspect of the defense functioned as an effective unit. What a difference Alohi Gilman could have made last year if he was eligible. He was awesome. Too bad he couldn’t have been immediately eligible like Shea Patterson. Moving forward, the future is really looking bright on defense.
Defense of the Future- I wrote in the past about BK’s first defensive recruiting haul with Lynch and Tuitt and asked why he couldn’t keep that up. This week, he addressed that and said something to the effect that he likely couldn’t get players like that in future (https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/coach-d-dl-recruiting.127979/#post-2418753) but look at some of the quality players that he’s developed over the past 2 years who buy into what this team is doing. Keep that up and that may well be all we need. The future of the D is very bright.
Post of the Game:
O-Line and Jeff Quinn- I still would have hired a different O-line coach, but I think Quinn had his guys prepared for what is a very good defense. Overall, the performance was good and steady, but aided somewhat by Wimbush’s elusiveness. I saw Hainsey get beat up in several posts, but he was often paired up against Rashan Gary (whose name I didn’t really hear much and wasn’t overly impressed with). There was one play where ND was backed up on their own goal line and Wimbush threw to Mack, resulting in a completion and the targeting ejection. Right before the throw, the announcers were talking about how a tight end couldn’t block Gary so they needed a bigger body. Right then, you see Hainsey stonewalling Gary in the end zone, allowing the pass to be completed. Hainsey is a young kid. Gary is widely touted as a Top 10 pick. I like the upside. Too technical and involved to get into here, but @Rich Starkey has a great thread on Eichenberg and it’s well worth reading: https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/grades-for-eichenberg.127975/#post-2418719
Wimbush- I liked his confidence and I loved his first half. At one point he was 9-12 passing, but his final stat line was 12-22, meaning he was 3 for his last 10. I think he’s got some crazy mechanics and some throws just don’t look right o me, [particularly the side-arm slings. Then he throws a 40 yard frozen rope to Chris Finke. The thing I didn’t like about that was throwing into double coverage. He threaded the needle a few times where I thought the coverage was too tight, but the confidence on the kid is amazing. While I liked his poise and game management throughout, I wasn’t crazy about the final analysis, that is until chamgel stepped in again with the ultimate bottom line:
Geek Stat: I had to steal this one from @Bryan Driskell I never would have found this on my own:
Indeed, Coach. Indeed.
Receivers- There are some tough characters catching the ball for us, and these guys go up and get it. Interesting to see Claypool perform because he’s really just learning the game and to play at a high level. He’s one to watch in the future. Finke, walk-on to significant, clutch, performer. Great story.
Special Teams- Another mixed bags of broken tackles and poor punts. The kickoff return was a disaster of too many men on the wrong side of the field while Michigan put a perfect wedge together and drove the center. It happens sometimes, but this was just poor execution. Newsome redeemed himself with later kicks, but that first punt was one of the worst that I’ve seen at ND. Ever. I do believe ST have improved greatly over 2 years ago (see the Claypool tackle inside the 5) but it always seems like a work in progress.
Post-game Post of the Game-
