Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND Comment Count

Seth

IMG_6420

Nix. [Upchurch]

An old tradition around here was to team up with a blog that covered the team we're about to play, ask each other some burning questions about what they see in themselves, and wait for the respective message boards to blow up about how tinted that guy's glasses must be. This week I meant to bring it back by interviewing ND's puppet quarterback depth chart, however when we got there we learned they had all been poisoned  by Blazing Sea Nuggets. So, second choice: we now bring it back with founder of the very large blog/message board for ND fans (the ones who aren't psychopaths, or at least the good kind), Frank Vitovich of UHND. Part 1, where I answer his queries, is here.

Let's peel this right away, (CUCK-CUH-CAW!): Where does Michigan stand in the pantheon of Notre Dame rivalries and how do the fans feel about [CUH-CHEE-CHAW!] pulling out of the series? Was this really necessitated by the [COO-COO-CA-CHAH!] ACC or was that an excuse? [A COODLE DOODLE DOO]

That depends on who you ask. Some Notre Dame fans will down play the rivalry because of all of the gaps in the series and some of the early history and controversy. I am not one of those fans. I am going to miss the series because of the genuine dislike fanbases of the two schools have for each other.

IMG_6605
If we're not rivals then why is your band
clearly worshipping our former punter /
space emperor? [Upchurch]

I am not saying that as a bad thing either. Quite the contrary. Part of what has made Michigan and Notre Dame games so much fun over the years is the fact that each teams fans really don't care much for the other institution. That might actually be putting it mildly.

Yes, it is true that Notre Dame has played schools like Michigan State and Purdue more times, but those games rarely, if ever bring with them the hype, excitement, and intensity of a Notre Dame - Michigan game.

USC still have to be considered Notre Dame's top rival given the deep history of that series just as Ohio State would be considered Michigan's top rivals, but after the Trojans, it's hard for me to thing of a rivalry I've enjoyed watching more over the years. Part of that could be because I grew up in the 80's and haven't lived through the large gaps that a lot of older Notre Dame fans have, but all I know is that the Michigan game is one of the games I circle every year and there isn't a single opponent I have seen Notre Dame play more times in Notre Dame Stadium than Michigan.

I do see the rivalry coming to an end because of Notre Dame's new ACC commitments and not simply wanting to get out of the series. Hopefully something gets worked out and the two are back on each others schedules in the near future.

[Rest after the jump]

So last year: what percent was luck of the Irish, crazy Kelly genius, or that good? [ed: I meant the season but he went into the game]

Last year's game was one of the weirder contests I can remember between Michigan and Notre Dame. I don't think it was luck on Notre Dame's part at all though. It was just a combination of heck of a defensive performance and Kelly playing things very, very conservative because he was a little gun shy from the 2011 game. Kelly saw his defense playing lights out football and went ultra-conservative offensively so as to not risk any turnovers such as the ones that made their trip to Ann Arbor a year earlier so ill-fated.

1V - IMG_2068
"A good battle plan lasts until the
first shot is fired," –every general
in every Robert Jordan novel.
[Upchurch]

If anything, call it Kelly genius since he managed to guide his team to a victory despite having to pull his redshirt freshman quarterback who looked lost after a couple of turnovers and essentially scrape his entire offensive game plan.

With Manti Te'o gone this year, Kelly won't be able to play things as conservatively so if the Irish are to make it two in a row, it'll have to be more Kelly genius. Notre Dame has the playmakers on offense to allow Kelly to loosen the reigns: TJ Jones looked as good as we've seen him in the open field and DaVaris Daniels scored two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the season after not scoring a single one last year. Amir Carlisle finally got to see the field after injuries kept him off of it last year and his first carry for Notre Dame went 45 yards. Notre Dame can't count on another turnover fest this year so Kelly and Chuck Martin are going to have to find a way to manufacture more than 13 points of offense.

Speaking of that defensive line of yours. Do they really eat people? Which one is the eat peopleiest? Other than "play with five Barrett Joneses" is there a strategy you've seen work against those guys?

Louis Nix would be the "eat peopleist" of the bunch. He is a massive human being in the middle of the Notre Dame defense and should require the most attention from offensive line because he can collapse a pocket at any time. He and Stephon Tuitt were first or second team All Americans on just about every pre-season watch list for a reason. They are a couple of bad dudes.

When it comes to the Notre Dame defensive line, the strategy Temple used last week was actually pretty sound. Double Tuitt and Nix and use a lot of three step drops and have your quarterback get ride of the ball quickly. You can negate their ability to collapse the pocket with the double team and you can negate open lanes to quarterback double teaming them creates with the short drops. Doing so requires a quarterback with good accuracy and patience as such an approach means a lot of dinking and dunking.

IMG_7941
Sadly, Keivarae Russell isn't Gary
Gray. [Upchurch]

Temple pulled it off pretty well last week, but Notre Dame also kept things pretty vanilla on defense against the Owls.

In the 2012 preview book I said Notre Dame's defensive backfield was a mess of nobodies and last minute position switchers, but that Michigan lacked the passing firepower to take advantage. Now considering Te'o isn't there to cover three zones and Gardner is a savant at extending plays, can the defensive backs hold out, or is pass defense still mostly a matter of generating pressure from the front 7?

The Notre Dame defensive backs should be able to more than hold their own. Bennett Jackson and Keivarae Russell are probably the best starting cornerback tandem since Shane Walton and Vontez Duff in 2002 and Matthias Farley is a pretty athletic safety. The fourth spot in the secondary is still a bit of question mark after sophomore Elijah Shumate had a rough opener in coverage. Austin Collinsworth plays a lot as well, but Shumate was on the field in a lot of obvious passing downs and was taken advantage of at times.

The secondary, however, is not what worries me in the coverage for Notre Dame this year at all though. It's the linebackers. Dan Fox and Carlo Calabrese started next to each on the inside at linebacker and looked lost in coverage at times. Jarrett Grace played more in the second half on the inside and looked better but it's a three man rotation for two spots right now and that is an area that Michigan and other offense are going to be able to exploit unless the Irish improve in a hurry.

IMG_6678
After one game it's hard to tell if
Calabrese and Fox are lost or just
"Not Te'o." [Upchurch]

I wouldn't be worried about Gardner hurting the Irish down field when he extends plays either. Notre Dame's contain defense was non-existent last week and a Temple quarterback making his first career start was able to pick up multiple first downs on them when he avoided the rush and found in himself in wide open space without a linebacker in sight. If Notre Dame rushes Gardner and doesn't get him, it'll be his legs that burn the Irish, not his arm.

From the last two games we saw Tommy Rees, he seems like a guy who could put the ball just about anywhere (including on the ground directly behind him), or win the game with his legs. How does Kelly plan to use Multi-Threat Rees from the pistol formation, and was his performance last week more a sign of him being good(?) at quarterback, or Temple being awful at football?

The only time Rees did much with his legs last year was against Michigan. Other than that, Rees isn't going to be winning any foot races and isn't going to escape much pressure. He's gotten better at moving around the pocket and finding lanes to throw in the face of pressure, but if the pass rush is barreling down on him, he isn't going to escape it. Notre Dame isn't going to call many - maybe any - designed runs for Rees either.

Last week we saw an improved Tommy Rees because he was really accurate and had time to pass. His performance last week was probably a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B. He looked accurate and sharp because Temple couldn't generate any pressure on him and he was able to hit his receivers in stride and let them make plays after the catch.

tommy-rees-top25
Yes, in fact, Rees does seem to turn
the ball over for random reasons,
and not just against us. [Robin
Alam/Icon SMI via UHND]

That is going to be make how Michigan decides to defend him really interesting. Do they drop 8 into coverage like defenses have in the past or do they bring some pressure. Brian Kelly has had all summer long to work on ways to combat that exact defense since it was used time and time again against Rees previously.

The real key for Notre Dame and Rees though is going to be ball protection. Rees will never live down that fateful rumble in the Big House in 2011 barring another miracle season this year, and last week was one of the few times Rees made it from start to finish without turning the ball over a single time. I'm hopeful that's a sign of improvement from Rees, but at the same time it was at the end of the day Temple. On a positive note, Rees didn't have any of those plays that we saw all too often in 2011 where you just starred at the TV and yelled, "whyyyyyyyyy?!?"

What is so special about Notre Dame that so many great recruits from all over the country want to commit there, then commit somewhere else?

Notre Dame has really elevated its recruiting over the last few years and unfortunately, that comes with territory. A lot of elite recruits these days simply change their minds and while Notre Dame has been on the short end of the stick recently with Eddie Vanderdoes, they have been on the opposite side as well. In fact the current roster would look much different if Notre Dame didn't pick up a number of decommitments from other schools.

IMG_7239
Sometimes the defections re-defect,
as Tuitt did when he learned GT
only used fake gold in their helmets.
[Upchurch]

Stephon Tuitt committed to Georgia Tech briefly before recommitting to Notre Dame. TJ Jones originally committed to Stanford - so was injured freshman linebacker Doug Randolph. Greg Bryant and Max Redfield, two 5-star recruits from last year, were at one time committed to Oklahoma and USC respectively. Starting center Nick Martin was a Kentucky commitment. Amir Carlisle transferred to Notre Dame from USC.

Most of the decommitments and transfers were for programs closer to the players homes too. Eddie Vanderoes went back to his home state, Hood recently committed to his home-state UNC, and Davonte Neal transferred to Arizona in the spring to be closer to home and his infant son. As long as Notre Dame continues to recruit nationally as it has been this will likely continue to be an issue.

Prediction?

I think the Notre Dame defense will look better this weekend than they did last week against Temple, but Gardner is going to create a couple big plays when he eludes pressure.  I see Notre Dame scoring enough points and protecting the football well enough to sneak out of Ann Arbor with a 31-27 victory.

Comments

GoBlueNorth

September 5th, 2013 at 12:21 AM ^

Aside from praising "Kelly Genius" for last years win his points are well thought out and valid from a homer persepctive.   He doesn't sound any different than we do.   Bragging rights will be earned Saturday night.  I have the good guys winning 24-21.  We didn't see enough of either team last week to make an in depth analysis.  I was at the game two tears ago.....it was an amazing game but we needed the luck of the Irish to pull it off.  Last year they needed us to play one of our worst games of the season to win by seven (that and Kelly Genuis).  Already packed for my tailgate......can't wait for Saturday. Go Blue

Maizenblueball

September 5th, 2013 at 12:27 AM ^

I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, because I thought it was nice of him to answer these questions, but then his answers were just SO RIDICULOUSLY HOMERISH, that I had to stop reading.  I expected him to be more objective.  Silly me.

Seth

September 5th, 2013 at 12:51 AM ^

To those who stopped reading at "genius" (a word I fed him but, yeah) keep reading because I thought his answers got better as he went. Yeah, surprise, another blogger isn't Brian and is kinda overhyped about his team that just went to the NC game. Read the parts about Temple's strategy with the DL and defensive backs.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 8:44 AM ^

They were answering each other's questions, so there are a lot of gaps simply because a lot of discussion was left on the table.  He was explicitly asked about the pass defense and he didn't think the back four are a weakness.  Um. . . so?  I have no idea what he's basing that on, but I have nothing to strike back with and he's entitled to an opinion.  Obviously he's not going to think the D-line is a weakness.  On the offensive side, both sides curiously focused largely on the passing game, where he was pretty blunt about Rees being an immobile artillery piece prone to the occasional misfire.  I didn't see any glowing comparisons to Andrew Luck.

What was NOT covered in EITHER blog were BOTH running games, ND's O-line and both special teams (except Seth's hilarious quip that Hoke "fixed the kicker").  I don't know what he thinks about ND's running game though it is curious he didn't ask about Michigan's either, considering post-Denard that's still the pressing question going into next game.  In a way the guy wasn't given a chance to be completely objective, and why is that so important anyway?  I took this as trash-talking between analytical bloggers more than an attempt at analysis by trash-talking bloggers.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 7:29 AM ^

This is the Internet; what is posted here will get read there and being bullish on one's own team is hardly a crime.  I don't expect perfection and for a guest behind enemy lines I think he did OK.  Analytically the guy may be overly optimistic, but emotionally I have no idea why no one here can grasp the plausibility of it -- FFS Notre Dame's coming off a season in the NC game!  I remember how optimistic Michigan fans were in 1998.  Ended the year pretty well but two ugly losses sure woke everyone up.  In the meantime, I think everyone here is being absolutely awful hosts.  (Reading the comments over there so are they, but I don't measure Michigan by "what other people do".  I actually take the "Leaders and Best" thing seriously, thankyouverymuch and you guys are NOT leading.)

ca_prophet

September 5th, 2013 at 1:25 AM ^

... would be better than the comments on Part I there, but there's not much to choose from.  We appear to have better spelling and grammar but that's about it.

Both fanbases are concerned (rightfully) with the ball security at the QB spot.  It does seem like whichever QB puts the ball on the ground (or in the other team's arms) last will lose the game.

Maizenblueball

September 5th, 2013 at 4:24 AM ^

Apparently one of the commenters from that Golden Homers website thinks you need to lay off the drugs.  I think your answers were much more insightful and entertaining...so I guess what I'm saying is, even if it's drug induced, keep it up!  Who knew Meth would be considered a performance enhancing drug.  :/

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 8:43 AM ^

They were entertaining to me, but I read this blog daily.  Seth definitely wrote like he's used to preaching to his own choir -- in other words, us -- and while I sensed a deliberate effort to replace references only MGoReaders would understand with tidbits ND fans can related to, putting myself in the shoes of a UHND reader I can imagine getting lost at times.  He did great by taking time to explain Kovacs and Gallon; they're beloved here but ND fans have no reason to remember them.  On the flip side, his reference to JMFR's injury was so vague I imagine anyone who doesn't follow UM's roster news regularly would scratch his/her head.  College football being what it is, his absence from the lineup wouldn't cause an ND fan to even raise an eyebrow.  Mentioning that he might return in October gives them enough info to figure out he's injured in some way but for the basic point -- Michigan's pass rush is suspect -- it was unnecessarily confusing.  From an ND fan's POV, as far as this Saturday is concerned, JMFR is a non sequitur.

There isn't any stretch where his writing would make a UHND reader hopelessly lost, but considering how well he writes in general I can't see why Seth wouldn't have room for improvement.  Just a little more experience at guest blogging might be all that's needed.

And FWIW, if anyone thinks I'm being harsh, I'm only like this when I think there's something worth being critical about.  If Seth didn't write at least reasonably well I wouldn't bother giving feedback at all.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^

I don't think it's good for mental health to read up on your own killers.  If I was an ND fan I might be referring to Gallon as "THAT GUY" and the wheel route as "THAT PLAY".  Not to mention it was a defensive bust, which changes the perspective of things somewhat.

Don

September 5th, 2013 at 4:58 AM ^

'sneaking out of town' does not normally accompany the prediction of a typical "delusional homer." Do you expect him to predict a Michigan victory?

The repetition of the "genius" tag for Kelly is a bit much, but what is the common and prevailing opinion about Greg Mattison around these parts?

MichFan1997

September 5th, 2013 at 8:01 AM ^

One, yes ND dialed it down against Temple. So did our team against CMU, yet we still scored 59 compared to 28. Second, they get lots of defections because they recruit at a high level. We recruit at a high level with very few defections. Explain that.

UMgradMSUdad

September 5th, 2013 at 8:27 AM ^

 Where does that guy get off?  Anybody who knows anything about college football knows ND has a douchey coach and sux donkey balls.  He's supposed to be some expert on ND, so why doesn't he know even the basics?

ClearEyesFullHart

September 5th, 2013 at 8:37 AM ^

" I have zero respect for your administration, whom I find to be spectacularly arrogant, extraordinarily petty, and cowards of the first degree.   "

I doubt they expected this level of honesty.  That's gotta sting a little.

 

grumbler

September 5th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^

This thread delivered!  Thanks, guys.

The reason why ND didn't have as many asshat comments on their site is probably because they don't have as many readers, but the MGoBlog readership can sleep soundly knowing that, had asshat comments been worth 1 point apiece in the game Saturday, we would have started the game with a 31-8 lead.

MCalibur

September 5th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^

I thought both entries were pretty fun to read and Seth did a hell of a job. I dont understand why its such a big deal to people that fans are gonna fan. Whatevs, man. Lighten up a touch and things get WAY more fun. Instead of whining that you got smoked in the face by a snowball, pick one up and return fire. You'll have a blast. Oh well, to each their own.

Go Blue.

PasadenaFan

September 5th, 2013 at 11:35 AM ^

To Hell with ND!  That's it.   Who cares about these losers   WE ARE MICHIGAN.

Let's turn up the lights and BURY these guys on Saturday.  Then give THEM a letter that says "THAT's IT"  No game next year.  Sue me.

Like Bo said. THE TEAM

Chi-City Wolverine

September 5th, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^

Genius of Brian Kelly?  Last year?  They won the game 13-6, and we turned the ball over 6 times.  They should have stomped us given that turnover margin, but their offense couldn't get out of its own way.  I'm not afraid of ND this year, and as long as we can handle the DTs up the middle and maintain a decent running game.

The Geek

September 5th, 2013 at 12:32 PM ^

Let's look back on this in five years and see how things pan out... Michigan was not in a position to talk much smack since ~2008, yet still consistently beat the Irish.

They chose to end the rivalry, and don't even start with that Fielding Yost bullshit. It's 2013, get over it.

 

triguy616

September 5th, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^

Seth's writing was probably a bit heavy on the references, but that's the style of this blog and the style of his own writing. Since this is more of a "poke the enemy" feature than a serious back and forth about the two teams, I don't see the issue.

Both sides are going to jab at the other, but half of the comments over there were that one guy saying "your dumb ND 31 - 9". At least he's consistant.