Hyundai Sun Bowl Open Thread

Draft picks and recruiting stars mean absolutely nothing when the players can't execute on the field.  You talk like it was easy for ND to get where they are at the end of the year but you have no idea. So I will help you out

Lets start with a list of reasons for ND not to have had a good year: Entirely new coaching staff New offensive system New defensive system The hardest schedule in the damn country 2 first year starters at QB, 1 a true freshman who is now 4-0 as a starter, he doesn't even look like he has to shave yet. Then there's the injuries: #1 TE Rudolph gone for 7 games #1 RB Allen gone for 5 games #2 WR Riddick gone for 4 games #3 WR Jones gone for 3 games #1 QB Crist gone for 5 games #1 DT gone for 4 games #1 ILB gone for 3 games By the way every one of them missed the last 3 games of the regular season which just happened to be the 3 games ND needed to become bowl eligible and qualify for the sun bowl. Oh and the UM secondary isn't the only one short on bodies and high on injuries this year -Yes floyd is a beast, but he can't throw the ball to himself and when he is double and triple covered its a bit harder to get him the ball. -Kelly lost the tulsa game? pretty sure it was rees throwing the ball, rees throwing the ball when kelly told him moments before that he should throw the ball away unless someone is wide open, floyd wasn't wide open. Kelly can't throw the ball himself so no, he didn't lose the game, he had to put the ball in the hands of a true freshman who made a mistake, it happens. -Stanford ran ND out of their own stadium, they played like the #3 team in the country which holy crap thats what they're ranked. Clock management isn't what lost ND that game, Stanford won it with a better team, a much better team -The flea-flicker play gave montana one read to make on the defense, one place for him to throw the ball, and he threw it to the exact opposite receiver, and the correct receiver was wide open down the other sideline. I don't have huge expectations for the 3rd string QB even if his last name is montana, but I am pretty sure the whole "freshman" mistake is pretty applicable in this case as well. And since you're so concerned about Montana he now runs the zone-read nearly exclusively. -Navy was an awful game plan by Diaco and he admitted to it. Maybe he was over confident, didn't respect navy, or just didn't know how to defend navy. He did a better job the second time against the option, so whatever it was i'd say he learned a thing or two. and you know what, despite all that ND is still 8-5. There are 2 teams which absolutely drubbed ND this year, thats 7 points from being a 2 loss team, 3 plays from a 2 loss team. Not a bad place to be at the end of Kelly's first season.