i find this extremely interesting
football
Refgate = Free Pass for uncle Charlie?
Filed under:
Developing a "refgate" is ND's way of illegitimating Michigan's win, which is intended to soften another uncle Charlie loss to Big Blue.
To the ND alumni, however, a loss to Michigan is a loss to Michigan, especially knowing that they blew their chance in their second to last possession when they had the lead with the opportunity to run out the clock.
[Edit: Perhaps uncle Charlie is ND's version of John Cooper. I love the smell of a 10 year winning streak in the morning.]
Cam Gordon moved to LB?
Filed under:
Was at the ND game this weekend and my dad ran into a guy purporting to be Cam Gordon's dad (I have no reason to doubt it was him). The guy told my dad he was a father of a player on the team etc, and my dad asked him who he said his name which my dad forgot but remembered the guy said #84 a linebacker. A quick search of the program and mgoblue.com shows Gordon as the only #84 so sounds like Gordon.
So I did a quick search and couldn't find anything on here about this, but I do apologize if this is a repost. Also not talking to the guy directly sucks but take the info for what it is...
Forcier compared to DR, compared to Gardner
Obviously, Forcier was brilliant today. And he will only improve. It obviously isn't his size, or his speed. He is underwhelming in appearance. I wonder if he could make it in the NFL. But he appears to have such strong field sense, make such good judgements, never panicking, that Forcier looks to be the starter, imhe, for four years.
I am most amazed at his ability to hold the ball, scramble, approach the line of scrimmage, get the opposing secondary to bite, and then dart a pass off for a sizable completion. This happened with Hemingway last week, with Stonum this week. But two passes that stand out to me today were made to Odoms and to Koger. The Odoms pass was down near the ground, with the defender hanging on him. The pass was placed where only Odoms could complete it. The Koger pass was actually a miss, where Forcier should have passed to the inside (or Koger should have been looking to the outside.) Regardless, in these kind of situations, Forcier's presence, his calm, cool, in-control demeanor, allows a completion that brings a first down, saves Forcier from being hit, and totally demoralizes the other secondary.
Even though Forcier isn't the burner that DR is, his foot speed seems puts him in a different class then Griese, Brady, Navarre, et. al.
Speaking of foot speed, however, brings DR to mind. I think that DR will need to continue to play as a QB. I think that he is extremely talented. But, I have severe doubts that DR could close out a game as well as Forcier. I am not going to go searching through Forum threads. However, iirc, there have been some in the last few weeks who have said that DR or Gardner are "the man." As gifted as they are, I just don't see that happening. I don't see them supplanting and replacing Forcier, with all three at full health. The only way either DR or DG will start is if Forcier goes down with an injury
Thoughts?
42,000 recruits commit
Filed under:
....not really, but I was wondering if anything new has come about for our visitors today? Tom VH do you have any news? I'm sure if I missed the updates someone will graciously provide me with a link.
Here's to hoping we snag some ND recruits...
Halftime Adjustments
Filed under:
Best halftime adjustment I've seen in a long time came after halftime. I'm sure Brian will picture page this and hit on it in the UFR (sometime- probably middle of next week). Quick preview tho:
on the zone reads where the weakside DE crashes automatically to the RB, M countered by having the TE (Koger) come back from the strong side to block that weakside DE. It freed up Minor for several big runs in the 3rd QTR: a huge reason for the win today.
UM vs. ND: Notre Dame & Opponent PED
Filed under:
I was curious to see what kind of teams (statistically) beat Jimmy Clausen's Irish generation, so I went to the NCAA Football Statistics database to find out. Since Notre Dame's offense is essentially one-dimensional, it was obvious which statistic would be extremely telling: the opponent's Pass Efficiency Defense (PED). I wanted to see how the Irish had performed against teams with a minimal level of ability in defending the pass. I defined this as teams in the top 2/3 of PED at the end of the year (top 78 of 119 teams). "Club Decent": if you're not incompetent at PED, you're in.
In 2007 and 2008, Notre Dame played 15 of such teams and went 2-13 (13%) against them: 1-8 and 1-5 in each respective year. Contrast this with an 8-2 (80%) record against teams in the bottom third of PED. Free advice, ND: you might consider scheduling less "Club Decent" teams in the future.
Almost no victories come against "Club Decent" teams.
The Irish had 10 wins combined the last 2 seasons. In 2007, 2/3 of those wins were against bad PED teams (#32, #101, and #84), and 6/7 were last year (#112, #79, #33, #83, #115, #103, and #87). This means opponents in Irish wins in the past 2 years average out to #83 in PED -- worse than 70% of all teams.
What do you call an exception that's not really an exception?
The only wins against decent pass defenses (#32, #33) in the past two years came against two below average teams: UCLA (6-7) in 2007 and Purdue (4-8) in 2008. Due to injury, UCLA had to play a third-string freshman walk-on qb, and were also without their starting RB. The turnover differential ended up +7 for the Irish. This sounds familiar for Michigan fans. The victory against a very poor, 4-8 Purdue team was in South Bend, where the Boilermakers rarely win (1-15 in their last 16 games). The turnover differential was +1 for the Irish, with the only turnover coming as a pick 6.
What did we learn from Nevada? We don't yet know where Nevada will stack up in PED for 2009, but we do know that last year they were #85, and an oft-cited #119/119 in pass defense, crushing #118 by 25 yards/game. I wouldn't expect that unit sans 1 free safety to be much better. Statistically, even the 3-9 2007 team would very likely have beaten Nevada.
So trendy.
Will Notre Dame break the trend this year and be able to beat "Club Decent" teams? I'm not sure how optimistic I would be as an Irish fan. While 2008 seemed to be an improvement over 2007, how much of that was the schedule? Their record was no better against the "Club"; they simply played fewer teams. 3 wins (2007) - 4 "Club Decent" opponents = 7 wins (2008). Yes, they have another year of experience, and Jon Tenuta is calling the shots on D now, but is that enough to significantly buck a trend that went seemingly unchanged from year 1 to year 2?
Is Michigan a "Club Decent" team this year?
Michigan was a poor PED team (#79) last year, suggesting that ND would beat them -- and they did. Is there reason to believe the Wolverines will change that this year, thus suggesting a different result? There are many positive signs. New DC Greg Robinson has brought a new, attacking defensive scheme, which is designed to put constant pressure on the QB. This was very effective against a large (very similar in size to ND), veteran line for WMU. Stevie Brown's move to SLB should also help, bringing his speed and athleticism up in pass coverage instead of a larger, slower LB attempting to guard receivers in space.
In 2007 and 2008, Notre Dame played 15 of such teams and went 2-13 (13%) against them: 1-8 and 1-5 in each respective year. Contrast this with an 8-2 (80%) record against teams in the bottom third of PED. Free advice, ND: you might consider scheduling less "Club Decent" teams in the future.
Almost no victories come against "Club Decent" teams.
The Irish had 10 wins combined the last 2 seasons. In 2007, 2/3 of those wins were against bad PED teams (#32, #101, and #84), and 6/7 were last year (#112, #79, #33, #83, #115, #103, and #87). This means opponents in Irish wins in the past 2 years average out to #83 in PED -- worse than 70% of all teams.
What do you call an exception that's not really an exception?
The only wins against decent pass defenses (#32, #33) in the past two years came against two below average teams: UCLA (6-7) in 2007 and Purdue (4-8) in 2008. Due to injury, UCLA had to play a third-string freshman walk-on qb, and were also without their starting RB. The turnover differential ended up +7 for the Irish. This sounds familiar for Michigan fans. The victory against a very poor, 4-8 Purdue team was in South Bend, where the Boilermakers rarely win (1-15 in their last 16 games). The turnover differential was +1 for the Irish, with the only turnover coming as a pick 6.
What did we learn from Nevada? We don't yet know where Nevada will stack up in PED for 2009, but we do know that last year they were #85, and an oft-cited #119/119 in pass defense, crushing #118 by 25 yards/game. I wouldn't expect that unit sans 1 free safety to be much better. Statistically, even the 3-9 2007 team would very likely have beaten Nevada.
So trendy.
Will Notre Dame break the trend this year and be able to beat "Club Decent" teams? I'm not sure how optimistic I would be as an Irish fan. While 2008 seemed to be an improvement over 2007, how much of that was the schedule? Their record was no better against the "Club"; they simply played fewer teams. 3 wins (2007) - 4 "Club Decent" opponents = 7 wins (2008). Yes, they have another year of experience, and Jon Tenuta is calling the shots on D now, but is that enough to significantly buck a trend that went seemingly unchanged from year 1 to year 2?
Is Michigan a "Club Decent" team this year?
Michigan was a poor PED team (#79) last year, suggesting that ND would beat them -- and they did. Is there reason to believe the Wolverines will change that this year, thus suggesting a different result? There are many positive signs. New DC Greg Robinson has brought a new, attacking defensive scheme, which is designed to put constant pressure on the QB. This was very effective against a large (very similar in size to ND), veteran line for WMU. Stevie Brown's move to SLB should also help, bringing his speed and athleticism up in pass coverage instead of a larger, slower LB attempting to guard receivers in space.
