Why I believe in the 2017 Irish team. Seven reasons !

[Bodizephax]

1. Great Oline---Talent--Depth and experience. Best in the country.

2. Great Wide Receivers---Talent--Depth and experience. EQ St Brown is tall has great hands, runs great routes, has great long speed, a definate Secretariat.

3. Excellent tightends with the Superman Aliz'e Mack (As good or better than Alabamas great tightend from last year) Durham Smythe is a horse with good hands size and strength (under utilized years past) Experienced along with Weiser. Great young tight ends including Kmet !

4. The deepest and most talented linebacker corps the Irish have had in years. Nyles Morgan is just a bit less athletic than Jaylon Smith but hits harder !! Tevon Coney is a oldschool stud linebacker from the deep south !! Greer Martini has a great nose for the runner in the running game !! Asmir Bilal was a highly ranked recruit who is a Beast ! Athletic. Put experienced stud Drue Tranquill as a blitzer and run stopper extrordinaire !! More athletic than the 2012 linebackers !

5. Great running backs !! Experienced with power and speed and with good hands !! Josh Adams ! Dexter Williams ! Tony Jones Jr. !! Even Better than 2012 !! Depth is someone gets nicked up !!

6. Great experieced return man and big play slot receiver CJ Sanders will rocket to National fame this year !! Big plays !! Big returns !!

7. Highly ranked DUAL THREAT QUARTERBACK Brandon Wimbush !! He has a great arm and great legs !! Much faster and bigger than Ev Golson !! Golson teased us with his mobility and playmaking abilities but Wimbush will take it to a new level !! He is also a great leader !! He has been in the system for three years so you will be shocked at how smoothly he runs the offense !!
Ian Book and Avery Davis will be ready to come in if needed !! Both have much more athleticism than Tommy Rees !!

7.A--- The Dline is deep with a 5 star Daelin Hayes healthy and ready to leap to SuperStardom !! I expect 10 to 15 sacks from Hayes !! Look for Jay Hayes to play pissed the hell off with ballsy attitude !! He has been pissed off since he has been at Notre Dame and wants to show the Coaches what he can do and how they were so wrong for not playing him more !! Jerry Tillery is a Mountain now and will thwart thew run game and block a few field goals !

7. B -- Coach Elko worked wonders with Wake Forest defense and pretty much Shut down Notre Dames high powered 2015 offense !! Just think what he can do with all the talent the Irish defense have !! Coach Elko will have the defense ready when we play Alabama or Clemson in the playoffs !! He will stick it to them !! No fear !!

7.C-- Strength coach Matt Ballis !! He has the Irish players looking like they have been snorting grams of dried Moose Antler horns and Alligator piss !! The players are looking Jacked like the Alabama players !! No fear !! Supreme confidence !!

7.D Freshman Safety Isiah Robertson !! He will play like KaVAREI Russell did in 2012 !! He may not be the starter but he will get alot of playing time !! I can not say enough about Isiah ! Most important recruit from last years class !! Sean Crawford ! Tony Pride jr. ! Nick Coleman ! Nick Watkins ! Jaylon Elliot !

7E. Chip Long will have the Irish playing fast and Play Action with lots of power running !! No more short sideways passes !! The tight ends will be utilized !! Brian Polian will have the special teams ready !

7F. 4 and 8 !! Nothing keeps players focused and open to Coaching than having 4 and 8 in the back of your mind !! There will be no false confidence and looking past opponents ! The Irish are going to play like a bunch of Hornets whose nest has just been hit by a rock !! These are all young men who are competitive and want to win !! They want better looking girlfriends !! That only a National Championship can bring !!

Go Irish !!
Beat Temple !!

 

[Ara64]

The whole team appears deeply driven by a desire to prove oneself on the football field, in the weight room, in the classroom, in the community, and on the practice field.

 

[scubastevefl]

Bodi, I love your optimism but your forgetting reason number 8 that will nullify the previous 7 responses

8. Brian Kelly

 

[echowaker]

Bodi, I love your optimism but your forgetting reason number 8 that will nullify the previous 7 responses

8. Brian Kelly

Cancel the season I guess.

 

[stu4don]

Brian Kelly is very capable of winning. He did it in 2012 and again in 2015 (both times with "Freshman" QBs and in '15 with a terrible defensive coordinator and a ton of injuries -- bad s&c towards the end of the year. ) Kelly knows how to win and he has done it while undermanned.

This from a Mike Frank article: "According to what SB Nation's Bud Elliott has dubbed the Blue-Chip Ratio, Alabama had signed a ratio of 70% of recruits that were ranked as 4 or 5 star prospects in the previous four recruiting cycles in 2012.

Notre Dame's ratio was 47%.

Why is the Blue-Chip Ratio important? No team over the last decade-plus that has had a ratio of less than 50% has won a national title."

But there is good news. Kelly has us at 56% now:

Currently the Irish are at 56% Blue-Chip Ratio and if you compare each position group on the team now to the groups on the 2012 team, they have improved the talent level at most spots.

The offensive line in particular stands out. The two deep is filled with former blue chip recruits while the 2012 line had Mike Golic, a lower ranked 3 star, starting at right guard. Someone like Hunter Bivin, the sixth or seventh offensive lineman on this current team, would have more than likely played in front of Golic. Trevor Ruhland is actually the only scholarship lineman on the team that was not a blue chip recruit.

They recruited well at tight end then and they have continued to do so today. Ditto at running back.

Quarterback has two former 4 star recruits now. They only had one, Everett Golson, then.

The bad news? Alabama's Blue-Chip Ratio is now at 80%. The rich get richer. And our defense is still a bit undermanned -- but 4 and 5*s reinforcements are coming!

I think Kelly gets us to 10 wins this year. In my heart I'm hoping for another 2012

 

[scubastevefl]

Define"winning" 6-6,7-5, 8-4?

 

[stu4don]

12-1, 10-3... (I'll take that after twenty years of mediocrity, embarrassments and end of season stumbles.)

But yes, he needs to get better and this year is a real test. If we have another 8-4 or 7-5 or worse year that I will join you and the other detractors calling for his head. I believe the changes he put in are going to have results -- Kelly was willing to look in the mirror and make real changes.

And who is next? Even if we win I think Kelly is only around for another two or three years. The guy who is really impressing me on the recruiting trail -- now I know it is very very early in his coaching career, and I'm not sure he is head coaching material but I love what he is doing with his troops -- is Autry Lamont Denson.

 

[Telx1]

Bodi, the only real question mark on offense is lack of experience at QB and receivers. Tons of examples of first year starters excelling at QB, and with two years to develop, I agree that Wimbush will have an outstanding year. Our receivers beyond St Brown are exceptionally talented, albeit with limited game experience. This is the year we finally see Mack reach his potential on the field. There are so many talented wide receivers, but aside from Smith, one has to seperate himself from the field, and I think that will be Claypool. His size and athleticism and ability to get major yardage after the catch will get him on the field In the rotation, and I think he takes advantage and becomes a reliable target for Wimbush. That said, Cameron Smith is going to be hard to keep off the field with his experience and familiarity with Long's offense.

We collectively worry about our safety position, and yet last year's freshman starter Studstill, who played well, is two deep this year.

Defensive line play has received a lot of accolades from the coaches. From what I've read, Trumbetti has had an outstanding Spring and Fall, and Kareem's development has really accelerated. Having this much talent and depth at SDE provides flexibility for how J Hayes is used, and this means better depth on the inside.

I doubt we'll show much of our offense or defense against Temple unless we end up in a dog fight, but we better show significant improvement in the fundamentals, tackling and ST play most notably.

 

[Irish Duck]

Bodi, I love your optimism but your forgetting reason number 8 that will nullify the previous 7 responses

8. Brian Kelly

Ahhh, another dead horse beater!

 

[Bodizephax]

Bodi, the only real question mark on offense is lack of experience at QB and receivers. Tons of examples of first year starters excelling at QB, and with two years to develop, I agree that Wimbush will have an outstanding year. Our receivers beyond St Brown are exceptionally talented, albeit with limited game experience. This is the year we finally see Mack reach his potential on the field. There are so many talented wide receivers, but aside from Smith, one has to seperate himself from the field, and I think that will be Claypool. His size and athleticism and ability to get major yardage after the catch will get him on the field In the rotation, and I think he takes advantage and becomes a reliable target for Wimbush. That said, Cameron Smith is going to be hard to keep off the field with his experience and familiarity with Long's offense.

We collectively worry about our safety position, and yet last year's freshman starter Studstill, who played well, is two deep this year.

Defensive line play has received a lot of accolades from the coaches. From what I've read, Trumbetti has had an outstanding Spring and Fall, and Kareem's development has really accelerated. Having this much talent and depth at SDE provides flexibility for how J Hayes is used, and this means better depth on the inside.

I doubt we'll show much of our offense or defense against Temple unless we end up in a dog fight, but we better show significant improvement in the fundamentals, tackling and ST play most notably.

I think losing BVG and gaining Mike Elko set my optimism to an allTime high !! Studstill can get to learning so he can develop into a excellent safety in his junior and senior years.

I have my doubts about Trumbetti but maybe it was bad coaching. Maybe he too will up his play this year.

Is Sean Crawford healthy ? He flashed some amazing speed and athleticism last year against Texas. He could be a great one if healthy.

 

[Telx1]

I think losing BVG and gaining Mike Elko set my optimism to an allTime high !! Studstill can get to learning so he can develop into a excellent safety in his junior and senior years.

I have my doubts about Trumbetti but maybe it was bad coaching. Maybe he too will up his play this year.

Is Sean Crawford healthy ? He flashed some amazing speed and athleticism last year against Texas. He could be a great one if healthy.

Crawford is healthy, and I think he'll see a lot of playing time when we're playing five DBs as our nickel. He's coming back from two serious back to back injuries, so hope he is fully recovered and puts the injury bug in the rear view mirror. We also have very talented and exceptionally long Vaughn who has missed a lot of practice with back spasms, but he will be hard to keep off the field when healthy, but how do you take either Watkins or Love off the field? Been a while since we had more talented DBs than openings!

 

[Islero]

It's not so much that the Irish won't be vastly improved, it's that there are some daunting opponents on the schedule. Georgia has 10 of 11 starters back from what was a stalwart defense and in Eason they have a young QB who could be one for the ages. Let's see what happens after that game. If we prevail like unabashed optimism steam ahead.

 

[NDAFArly]

Bodi, I love your optimism but your forgetting reason number 8 that will nullify the previous 7 responses

8. Brian Kelly

Root for someone else. I assure you ND, it's players, coaches & fans will not miss you.

Who is the only coach in 30 seasons to lead ND to a title game appearance? (Holtz last did it in '88).

Exactly. Go away.