MGoApology: My 2nd Notre Dame thread
Somebody help me believe why Michigan is going to win this game. I think Michigan can win, and I certainly do not expect ND to win. I just want some reasons to have more confidence in Michigan leaving South Bend with a win.
http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1101139
There is a pretty good breakdown of ND on rivals. Their offensive skill players look pretty tough compared to our secondary.
WR/TE: 5* Michael Floyd /4* Shaquelle Evans / 4* Duvall Kumaara / 4* Deion Walker / 5* Kyle Rudolph
Backs: 4* Armando Allen / 4* Robert Hughes / 4* Jonas Gray / 5* Cierre Wood / 4* Theo Reddick
Conversely, I think the Michigan front 7 will be very good themselves and will give ND's younger OL similar troubles that their specialty players will give our young secondary.
I'm getting a little anxious as we get close to the season for more than just excitement. Rich Rodriguez' future at Michigan is largely based on his success this year. I think that 3 games are key to winning 7 to 8 games this year, UConn, Notre Dame, and Michigan State. I think Michigan will be too much for UConn in the first game. Dantonio beat Michigan for the last time in a long time last season. I'm just unsure about Notre Dame.
Crist doesn't need to be as good as Clausen was last year for the offense to be successful. Clasuen carried ND's offense last year, Crist does not have to carry it this year, he just needs to take care of the ball.
Crist has more things going for him physically that Clausen did as well, his arm is much stronger and he is bigger
he just needs to take care of the ball
That sums it up. The immediate problem with inexperienced QBs is turnovers. I'd say "good luck with that," but I wouldn't really mean it...
Crist didn't miss spring practice. He played in the spring game and I even heard recently that he might not wear a brace this year on his knee.
Kelly doesn't really use RBs. There was some stat like his RBs rarely get over 10 carries a game. ND has a really good receiving corps, so I am worried about our secondary and LBs getting burned by TEs. But I don't think ND's defense is that good, and Crist is no Clausen, at least yet.
RBs get the ball out of the backfield but I would expect the 10 carries per game to go up based on all the running in the spring game
Irish, help us out here. I know it's far too early to tell, but based off of what you know thus far, what aspects of this match up do you like and dislike?
I like the potential of ND's passing game vs UM's secondary, but I liked it last year as well. ND could not get out of their own way last year the execution was horrible and UM took advantage of it and got a great win.
I don't see enough difference in the ND passing game to think it wont be effective this year, and I haven't seen enough with the UM secondary to think ND wont be able to throw on them all day. That matchup trumps anything that I would be worried about with UM's offense vs. ND's defense. But its still really early
Can't say I disagree with you much there. I think this game will turn into a shoot out, similar to last year, except I still believe Michigan pulls out an 'upset'. I was looking film of Cinci's offense vs Pitt and noticed a couple of "running" plays that could be considered as you described above. They even use the pitch to the Tight End (which could go for a big gain.)
At around 2:47, you start to see how they pitch/shovel pass. At around 3:11 you'll see how they run their fake toss to the RB and then pitch to TE:
there was a lot of deception in the spring game and it is something i am very excited about for the coming season
WOW they needed a lot of special teams "luck" to squeak this one out. I really like that TE shovel pass, that is pretty good. However, I think a lot of "deception" plays will actually be a negative for ND this upcoming year. Those things need to become second nature to the players in order to execute them, if they aren't then I can see a lot of turnovers amassing.
Hey Irish I think it's time for you to start a website. You say Kelly doesn't have any depth charts after spring. That may be true, but RR doesn't either and I have access to depth charts with class and star rating thru 2016 with 50 different versions of each. Don't you guys have a decent blog that all gets summarized.
probably is somewhere, there are so many ND message boards that I am sure one of them probably does, I am happy with what use right now though.
...when I read this:
Even after three years building up the Michigan roster, Rodriguez would probably exchange skill players with Notre Dame in a heartbeat.
Yeah, Spath, if he's as concerned about star ratings as you are and ignores scheme when considering personnel like you are. I would never trade skill guys with ND at this point. Who would run the zone read? A dropback QB coming of ACL surgery? Who would be slots? All those outside WR/Michael Floyd types? Very poor analysis and comment by Spath.
That lack of a dropback QB coming off ACL surgery is all that stands in the way of Michigan and football glory.
or is Armando Allen in his ~ 14th year of eligibility? It seems like he's been around forever.
than anyone running a different offense at MI would have been. ND's offense requires very similar talent to the W. Coast offense run under Weis. Their qb doesn't have to be as mobile as does the run oriented spread teams.
I do agree, no matter which offense you run, any qb needs experience to be exceptional. The need here can be mitigated greatly if surrounded by talented,experienced players, i.e., Leach, Henson, but as pointed out, ND is infusing a lot of new players into its offense this season. I'd expect a lot of 3 step drops much like USC ran against us in the '04 RB, but I think their running game will be made up largely of quick draws and counter action.
I also think the Irish players will play to a much higher level, because they're now playing under a coach who, more than likely, they have much greater faith in than Weis. This is almost the exact opposite scenario than UM faced in RR' s first season, when even our veteran DL didn't play to expectations.
I don't really feel the paragraph immediately above is relevant to the UM/ND contest this season because UM's roster is now made up of players who definitely believe in RR, most specifically the offensive side of the ball. I just pointed out the above because I think it will serve ND well over the entire season.
As one who has been around for a number of years, I think Dark Blue's post could be true in any given season. Strange things happen in that stadium and they almost often benefit the Irish.