Post GT musings

[sullytipp]

Tho I'm generally positive about the Irish, I admit I had some misgivings about VanGorder and the D,going into GT. Against Virginia,the kid's eyes were all over the place,biting on misdirection etc. They obviously were coached up ,and played their assignments against GT. Sometimes,you can tell an eighteen-year old something over and over,and they really don't listen. Van Gorder I think had a come-to-jesus meeting with his players,and they bought in. Sheldon Day,Tillery,and Cage, Tranquil,Jalen and the corners showed up bigtime. Schimdt was all over the place. The safeties looked much better. Kelly always harps on attention to detail,and VanGorder got that message home. Kudos to Uncle Rico and co. For those half-empty types, we did fall asleep the last couple of minutes,but overall, our D played really well. Nobody,including Gameday guys,gave our d a chance against the option! They showed up bigtime. With U-Mass next, coaches this week can concentrate on fundamentals for Kizer,including cleaning up his cadence,and footwork etc. Go Irish

 

[IRISH_FRIAR]

I know every team suffer season-ending injuries but can you imagine how good we would be if we were at full strength. What might have been.

 

[Toby Smart]

Count me as one of those "half empty" types. The defensive effort against GT was no accident. It has now come out that this was a staff effort starting with Bob Elliot who did the year long research on the GT offense, talked to other coaches with knowledge of the offense, and then passed the info on to BK and BVG. Then you had the SWAG team which is a combo of schollie and walk on players who do nothing but run the option in practice all year long for our defense. Then, BVG decided to get aggressive against the Cut Block so that weapon was virtually neutralized. Then, just for good measure, BVG and staff developed a game plan and used the players that would give them the best chance to win. Not too shabby?

 

[TDIrish1]

Defensive effort was excellent

Kizer still shows some warts but hopefully he continues to get better with reps. Overall he was solid. Glad to see the ball being spread around amongst the WR group a little more.

Would really like the OL to be more consistent-------and cut down the penalties. Pass Protecction was very good.

Our Kicking Game is still below average------PK is awful and don't understand why Sanders isn't running back KO's. Carlisle actually stops when he sees a pile. Newsome punted well Saturday which is a good sign. If Sanders stayed inside on a return I think he could have busted one but he makes guys miss.