Member for

14 years 6 months
Points
23.00

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
Thoughts from a ND fan.

Given the changes in offensive and defensive schemes, I expect to see UM in the 6-6 to 8-4 range.  It's going to take a year or so for everyone to learn where they are supposed to be and work as a unit.  I think UM will look better at the end of the season than they do at the beginning.  I believe UM will struggle to put away teams that on paper they are much better than through the first half of the season.  It wouldn't surprise me to see SDSU or WMU hang around a lot longer than they should.  MSU and ND are the most likely losses in the first seven games, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them drop one or two that they shouldn't.  Changing schemes on both sides of the ball isn't an overnight process and I expect that there will be a clunker or two from one side of the ball or the other.  By the eighth game they should be starting to show signs that they know what they are doing and looking a little more cohesive.  I think UM will roll over Purdue, Iowa and Illinois before losing the last two in close games.  I'll go 7-5 with a bowl win and momentum towards 2012.

ND is looking for bigger OLBs

They offered Nance, but he is a ILB for ND.  Given how many ILB they have on the roster now, I just don't think they are going to take one unless he's a T'eo type talent.  Bolden isn't anywhere near the size of the players ND took for OLB last year.  I just don't think he fits the 3-4.  That doesn't mean that Kelly can't evaluate defensive talent.  Look at the class they brought in last year.

The team right below OSU was brought down as well.

ND is higher in average ranking by two of the services, but they remain behind OSU even though they have their own special teams player bringing down the average. 

Were you impressed with them against Utah?

The ND vs Navy score is thrown around an awful lot.  Nobody seems to remember that ND beat a Utah team by four scores.  That team went on to beat SDSU the very next week.  ND losing to Navy had more to do with a bad game plan from ND than Navy being some sort of mythical team that SDSU should get tons of credit for beating.  ND seemed to figure out the veer the next time they played against it.  SDSU also had a month to prepare for the triple option instead of a week.

I was worried about the SEC refs

Being a ND fan I was worried if they would know how to officiate the really slow ND players given they are used to SEC speed.

That doesn't surprise me.

Even though a victim may claim that there was no penetration, they likely still administer the kit because of the victim's possible frame of mind.  They may not remember or may being lying because they are afraid or ashamed.  I think it's probably standard procedure that is done anytime there is an assault or rape allegation.  It's possible that the police were actually being thorough, and it doesn't prove any theories that are out there.

Where is there any lack of seriousness?

If she gave a DNA test on Sept 1st, then it's not unreasonable to assume that they didn't have results back before talking to the player on Sept 15th.  By that point she had already overdosed, but that doesn't have anything to do with the case against the player.  I'm just not sure why everyone thinks ND was screwing around.  It's not CSI, everything takes time.  If they they sent DNA evidence to the state police they probably didn't have anything back for two weeks.  It takes a a very long time to subpeona phone records and get them back.  I'm guessing the police wanted to gather as much evidence as possible before talking to the player.  Just because they aren't tweeting what they are doing doesn't mean they aren't doing anything. 

Not an issue for ND.

Sounds like they're getting Texas instead.  Not too bad of a trade.

Only three starters on the OL

Chris Stewart has a 5th year available and Trevor Robinson will be a JR. They are probably the two best OL that ND has though. I assume Robinson will be the RT next year. Wenger will move back to the starting center spot that he had the previous two years. Watt will be the RG and Romine the LT.

I think they are full of crap.

During the last two searches the people on the list were common knowledge around town in South Bend. Right now there is nothing, and I've heard from more than one person that the only people who know something for sure are Father Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick. I think everything being "reported" out of SB right now is nothing more than a guess. Jack and Jack alone is making the decision. There are no committees like the last two searches.

No

I was far more worried about Les Miles than RR.

My mistake

They're the same guy. Terror off the edge and can still defend the run. He's going to need help from Roh on the other side or ND will just put the second TE over him on passing downs. Duncan did ok against Nevada's smaller DEs last week. I doubt Roh will be in there on first and second down. He just isn't big enough to take on the 315 pound guys on running plays yet.

Disagree

I think you underestimate two things. One is Clausen's arm, and the other is the ND secondary. Clausen does have problems with the pass rush, but he looked improved in the pocket in the first game. I've yet to see a QB that doesn't have issues when they are sacked 50 times in a season. However, arm strength has never been an issue. I've yet to see a pass that he cannot make. His problem has been his overconfidence in his arm. He has a tendency to force the ball into coverage when he should just throw it away.

The ND secondary is most likely the best one UM will see all year. They are four or five deep at corner and all of them are very good. The safeties are very reliable. McCarthy doesn't look like much but all he does is make plays. Meanwhile Smith is back to his natural position of FS after ND dropped the 3-4.

Woodley against Sam Young will be fun to watch. I'm sure they'll both win a few battles over the course of the game. It will be interesting to see how much Roh plays against ND. ND is more likely to run right at him than WMU was. It should be a good game. Both teams look much improved over last year.

Floyd was out

The ND OL was manhandled like usual last year against SU. With Floyd out, SU simply double covered Tate. With both Tate and Floyd on the field the defense couldn't cheat. When one of them is off the field, ND couldn't move the ball. ND's offense was very reliant on those two guys being healthy last year.

I don't think they really ran at will.

ND had a pretty interesting defense to their pistol option. They essentially brought an additional linebacker from the outside on every play to force the read to the RB between the tackles. They basically conceded a 4 yard run up the middle on every play to keep Kaepernik from running outside the DEs. I think they did a decent job stopping an offense that returned three 1,000 yard rushers from last year. When they didn't run they had someone in Kaepernick's face almost immediately because of bringing the LB.