that it took its' toll on them. Only so many quality next men in. Not making excuses , but the fact is talent withstanding the team could only take so many blows. The losses of a potential nickel in Crawford, D-line of Jarron Jones, Cage's injury. Avery Sebastian,Tranquill, Russell[ needs to comeback] plus others decimated the d. Granted, many players stepped up this year and Tillery was pleasant surprise. The d definitaly needs improvement. The losses of Zaire,Folston,Procise,Smythe and Bars hurt the o. Kudos to Kizer,Adams and even Alize for stepping up. I know the defense needs some drastic overhaul in backfield and maybe a top d coordinator but the o has a lot of work in redzone play and 3rd down conversions. We will see how recruiting plays out and the development of our younger players but ND is moving in the right direction. I am looking forward to receiving corps. Backfield running and quarterback play. The d is my angst. Major improvement needs to happen to be in upper echelon of CFB. Quit playing down to the competition. Let them know when ND in on the field,they can expect a great defense facing them. ND being 10-2 is a huge improvement and can get better with fine tuning in areas of weakness. I am proud of the young men who call themselves Irish.
ND had to restructure O & D so much this year....
- Thread starter Tru2Irish
- Start date
If we don't get the recruits on defense what are you expecting from any coordinator? I agree with you though about the injuries and I think we would have been much better if Crawford and Avery weren't injured, though we still have no pass rushers and unfortunately Joe wasn't the same after getting hurt last season. I hope some guys come back but I think Russell goes pro and probably Jaylon leaves as well. Basically we could lose our top 3 players on defense in Russell, Jaylon, and Day which would be a major setback for 2016.
Russell is a fool if he doesn't come back. Day's loss could be mitigated by return of j. Jones and ND has some great young linebacker prospects.
