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The "Bold Experiment Part II"

SouthFloridaIrish88

Shakes Down The Thunder
Aug 16, 2022
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145
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Those of us old enough to remember Gerry Faust, know that is how the newspapers described his hiring in 1981. I Remember listening to his first game on transistor radio and hearing ND beat LSU 27-9 in the season opener. Then by virtue of Michigan & Alabama getting upset Week 1. ND vaulted to #1 in the nation.

Well, one-week later ND went to Michigan, got dragged 25-7, fast forward 5 years later, ND never won more than 7 games in a season, lost to Air Force 4 years in a row, and the "Bold Experiment" ended with a 58-7 loss in the Orange Bowl to Miami & Jimmy Johnson.

Gerry Faust like Marcus Freeman took over a program on very solid footing. ND in 1980 at one point was 9-0-1, ranked #2 in the nation, and accepted a bid to play #1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for the National Championship. All ND had to do, was go to the Coliseum and beat USC. Well, let's just say Marcus Allen and Ronnie Lott had other ideas, ND lost to USC, and then lost 17-10 to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. None the less Faust took over a strong program.

Of all the inexperienced coach failures (Faust, Davie, Weis) this start is most reminiscent of Faust.

A. MF took over a strong team with a #5 ranking and a program that had won 10+ 5 years in a row and was 59-0 vs unranked opponents.

B. Because this felt like a unicorn hire, complete with that locker room hype video and all the social media fanfare and accolades. And also, the outgoing coach, like Dan Devine, was not well liked.

We have some Pollyanna's who think this season is about taking a step back to take a step forward. Losses to UNC, BYU and Ohio State would have been a step back, losses to Marshall and Stanford at home? Is unmitigated disaster especially coming off the last 5 years.

After the 1981 5-6 record, Gerry Faust hired Ron Hudson a highly accomplished offensive coach, and Bill Snyders OC for years at K-State to revamp the offense, and ND already had the great Jim Johnson, the Eagles legendary DC under Andy Reid running the defensive side of the ball. Yet it never could come together, because the guy at the top (Faust) was not equipped to lead a program of ND's magnitude and stature.

I truly hope this does not turn out to be Faust 2.0, because those who remember those days, will tell you, one week ND could beat #1 Pitt, Michigan and blow out Penn State 37-7, Then the next week get whipped by Arizona, Purdue or Air Force. Every time you felt Faust had things figured out, you got a frying pan in your face.

We are 6 games into this regime, and we have already had 2 frying pans in the face.

-Feeling good despite the loss to OSU-Frying pan in the face and an inexplicable loss to Marshall @ home

-Feeling good after a 3-game winning streak-frying pan in the face and an inexplicable loss to Stanford at home,

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.
 
SouthFlorida,

i was at the LSU game and I was stunned by the ill preparedness and the plays that took two days to develop.

I commented that those plays would get eaten alive by the better teams, which is what happened, but what really bothered me was how he handcuffed his players and let them get humiliated in the Miami game.

How the administration could hire a high school coach baffles me to this day
 
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This way wrong...
While the gap between teams has narrowed a great deal...

Faust played brutal schedules.

If I was forced to bet if Brian Kelly had the Faust schedules his tenure is probably over in similar fashion.

Kelly had a much easier go of it schedule wise which makes this Freeman siruation very alarming.

The defense hasn't been scorched yet and Golden while doing dumb things( playing Marist and playing press coverage against UNC's late score ) he has the defense doing "ok"

If you hold any college team today to 16 points you're doing ok.

Hold to 16 points and lose you've got massive offensive issues.

Rees will be Freeman's downfall.

They're close in age so perhaps they're chummy...but Rees is sinking this ship and Freeman will go down with it


This also makes what Holtz did ridiculously amazing. The run he had playing those insanely tough schedules was never duplicated prior nor in the future.
 
The hype around Faust was ridiculous and the 60 minutes piece on Moellers football program amped up his cred hugely. They both know how to tell the recruiting pitch. Hopefully this time is different
 
Those of us old enough to remember Gerry Faust, know that is how the newspapers described his hiring in 1981. I Remember listening to his first game on transistor radio and hearing ND beat LSU 27-9 in the season opener. Then by virtue of Michigan & Alabama getting upset Week 1. ND vaulted to #1 in the nation.

Well, one-week later ND went to Michigan, got dragged 25-7, fast forward 5 years later, ND never won more than 7 games in a season, lost to Air Force 4 years in a row, and the "Bold Experiment" ended with a 58-7 loss in the Orange Bowl to Miami & Jimmy Johnson.

Gerry Faust like Marcus Freeman took over a program on very solid footing. ND in 1980 at one point was 9-0-1, ranked #2 in the nation, and accepted a bid to play #1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for the National Championship. All ND had to do, was go to the Coliseum and beat USC. Well, let's just say Marcus Allen and Ronnie Lott had other ideas, ND lost to USC, and then lost 17-10 to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. None the less Faust took over a strong program.

Of all the inexperienced coach failures (Faust, Davie, Weis) this start is most reminiscent of Faust.

A. MF took over a strong team with a #5 ranking and a program that had won 10+ 5 years in a row and was 59-0 vs unranked opponents.

B. Because this felt like a unicorn hire, complete with that locker room hype video and all the social media fanfare and accolades. And also, the outgoing coach, like Dan Devine, was not well liked.

We have some Pollyanna's who think this season is about taking a step back to take a step forward. Losses to UNC, BYU and Ohio State would have been a step back, losses to Marshall and Stanford at home? Is unmitigated disaster especially coming off the last 5 years.

After the 1981 5-6 record, Gerry Faust hired Ron Hudson a highly accomplished offensive coach, and Bill Snyders OC for years at K-State to revamp the offense, and ND already had the great Jim Johnson, the Eagles legendary DC under Andy Reid running the defensive side of the ball. Yet it never could come together, because the guy at the top (Faust) was not equipped to lead a program of ND's magnitude and stature.

I truly hope this does not turn out to be Faust 2.0, because those who remember those days, will tell you, one week ND could beat #1 Pitt, Michigan and blow out Penn State 37-7, Then the next week get whipped by Arizona, Purdue or Air Force. Every time you felt Faust had things figured out, you got a frying pan in your face.

We are 6 games into this regime, and we have already had 2 frying pans in the face.

-Feeling good despite the loss to OSU-Frying pan in the face and an inexplicable loss to Marshall @ home

-Feeling good after a 3-game winning streak-frying pan in the face and an inexplicable loss to Stanford at home,

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.
If only George O'Leary didn't fudge his resume. Things may have turned around after Davie.
 
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