Know thine Enemy: Notre Dame spring game on Versus

Submitted by willywill9 on

I've only caught a little bit, and I don't know much about ND's roster, but they seem  to have pulled most of their starters for the drives I've seen.  They seem to have a more game-like scrimmage set up than we did...blasting their qbs, although it looks like it's their backup and backup's backup.

Some things I've noticed:

  • They've had their STs on the field for punts.  Interesting how coaches run this scrimmage differently. 
  • They're playing just as physical as we seemed to have played.
  • Kicking unit looks competent; no one's scored a TD, but they've hit 3 FGs.
  • One thing that's reassuring is that they haven't looked spectacular in the spring, which reinforces the notion that with 15 practices, these teams simply are not "game-ready" yet.
  • Their early enrollee FR QB  (Everett Golson) looks pretty good, Mobile QB that's been on the button with his passes.  Looks like potential trouble in the future.
  • Versus coverage so far hasn't cut out, so I give Versus the edge over BTN.

Sorry this isn't about the M spring game, just figured i'd let you all know one of our enemies is on Versus.  They're at half, and will be showing highlights around the nation of other spring games.

 

Michigan248

April 16th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^

I dont believe our D our theirs turned into all americans over night lol.. Im watching it cause i enjoy football I watched the G game earlier then the Arkansas game later maybe a lil of the Augurn game two.

Rockne

April 16th, 2011 at 5:02 PM ^

It isn't just some anonymous 3rd string QB being compared to Robinson, its our frosh early enrollee Everett Golson who was heavily recruited.  There's a tendency to provide comparisons to established players for younger frosh and recruits who have yet to see game action so the less informed viewer can have a better understanding of what they're watching.

Fwiw, Golson is a passer first and runner second.  He is a much more accomplished passer than Robinson out of HS and is a good athlete but not the freak Denard is.

Cam57

April 16th, 2011 at 7:13 PM ^

Yea, I am aware of Golson,his skills and his recruitment. I opted to leave his name out due to the fact that I felt it was irrelevant to my point. That point being that most ND broadcasts (NBC or otherwise) are extremey bias. It's annoying that they feel the need to mention last year or Michigan. (Which they did to the tune of something like "Denard Robinson, not a name people are too fond of around here") Let alone, comparing a freshman to Denard.

Anyways, thanks for some background on the kid. I meant no offense to him, only to the broadcast, for the most part.

Cam57

April 16th, 2011 at 4:13 PM ^

If anything, their game is yet another example as to why spring games are not good reads. They usually are pretty sketchy.

willywill9

April 16th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^

the matchup against USF is interesting for a season opener, but think they win this game.  Probably beat Pitt, Purdue, Air Force, Navy, WF, Maryland, BC.  Would anyone trade in Michigan's schedule this year with ND's?

Date Opponent / Event Location Time / Result
09/03/11 vs. USF TV Notre Dame, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET
09/10/11 at Michigan TV Ann Arbor, Mich. 8:00 p.m. ET
09/17/11 vs. Michigan State TV Notre Dame, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET
09/24/11 at Pittsburgh TV Pittsburgh, Pa. TBA
10/01/11 at Purdue TV West Lafayette, Ind. TBA
10/08/11 vs. Air Force TV Notre Dame, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET
10/22/11 vs. USC TV Notre Dame, Ind. 7:30 p.m. ET
10/29/11 vs. Navy TV Notre Dame, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET
11/05/11 at Wake Forest TV Winston-Salem, N.C. TBA
11/12/11 vs. Maryland TV Washington, D.C. 7:30 p.m. ET
11/19/11 vs. Boston College TV Notre Dame, Ind. 4:00 p.m. ET
11/26/11 at Stanford TV Stanford, Calif. TBA

 

WolvinLA2

April 18th, 2011 at 12:36 AM ^

Yeah, but that's pretty much been the case every year.  ND used to get a lot of pub for how tough their schedule was, but that was when they had teams like Tennessee or other very tough teams on there, and when teams like Purdue were a lot better.  For the last 5 years, they've had an easier schedule than just about any BCS conference team.

MGoRob

April 16th, 2011 at 4:56 PM ^

And in other news DirecTV no longer carries Versus in my area.  Whaaa?

When did this happen.  Granted I haven't watched Versus since playoff hockey last year, but that's quite surprising for me.  Hopefully I don't have to watch any games on it this year or I'll be ticked for the price I pay for service.

blue note

April 16th, 2011 at 5:41 PM ^

Towards the end I saw them do a highlight package for the early enrollee DE Aaron Lynch  - that kid is a freak of an athlete, he was running down ball carriers from all over the field.

Interesting to see if this is the year their D actually turns it around.

Irish

April 17th, 2011 at 1:05 AM ^

I expect the D to play this season like they played out the remaining 4 games last year.  The line has actually kept their weights up from last season and looks like a 3-4 should.  Talent wise the team has seen a big increase with the in coming freshman class.  And the few snaps that they played mostly 1s on defense just strengthened those expectations today, though the weather was on their side.  

The offense still has questions to answer with the QB and little with the RB as well.  The defense knows what they will be running, its all about finding out who's a #1 and who's a #2, they all get it.  The offense will depend on who gets the starting QB job without knowing who that is right now its hard to set the same expectations on the offense.

Coach Kyle

April 16th, 2011 at 10:10 PM ^

So... I've been watching some more BTNW coverage of spring games and observed these observations:

Iowa: Lost their starting QB due to graduation, but despite that the announcers said the offense was better than the defense. I find that interesting... They're probably a fringe team we have a chance of beating now.

Northwestern's QB was actually injured... and reports said he would be out all this season, but he's been cleared for summer practices. That sucks because the handbag can throw the ball, but changes are that has an effect on their performance.

 

So best case scenario in my mind:

Minnesota: Win (sucked last year)

Northwestern: Win (possible QB problems)

Michigan State: Loss... maybe if we're really lucky

Purdue: Win (sucked last year)

Iowa: Win (QB problem)

Illinois: Win (beat them last year)

Nebraska: Loss

Ohio State: Loss (unless there is some big happening)

ND: win (beat them last year)

 

So that'd give us a 9-3 record, assuming we win the other 3 games.

Eye of the Tiger

April 17th, 2011 at 9:40 PM ^

You don't win because you did the year before: lots of other stuff comes in to play.  We're almost certainly going to lose against someone we beat last year, and beat someone we lost to last year.   

*ND is at home, but they are likely to be better than last year.  This will be tough, again

*Illinois is away this year, and we barely beat them last year.  This is a trap game.

On the other hand, there are games we lost but have a chance to win this year:

*MSU, might be away, but they've lost some big guys on the OL and our DL looks like it's going to step up.  Plus the losses at LB should open up a lot for our running game.  

*OSU, might be a powerhouse we've failed to beat in what seems like decades, but with all the scandals and problems hanging over the program, and with a team I think (or more accurately, hope) will improve as the year goes on, rather than fall apart, we've got a change to do what Tressel did to us in his early years, and what Lloyd did to them in his early years--upset the higher ranked and more dominant team.  

I figure, looking at those four, we win at least 1 of the last two and lose at least 1 of the top two.    My guess is we lose to Illinois and beat MSU.  

 

 

Lancer

April 16th, 2011 at 10:18 PM ^

programs is further than ours as of right now, they had a monster recruiting class last year. Even in last years game if their QB didn't injuried I think they would have won. Denard was legit the entire team that game. Lots of time untill then, but michigan has some work to do.

Eye of the Tiger

April 18th, 2011 at 12:13 AM ^

Why we'll win:

*We beat them in their cursed stadium last year, now they have to come to ours, where they historically don't do very well

*We're returning basically the entire offense, including all of our playmakers from last year.

*We're returning most of our, admittedly terrible, defense from last year.  But we're adding one big playmaker who missed last year (T-Woolf), and the rest of the secondary will go from "clueless 1st year starters" to "semi-clueless 2nd year starters."  Plus it's already abundantly clear that we've got a much better defensive staff in place, and we are poised to go from worst to, er, somewhere in the middle of the pack.  As depressing as that sounds, considering some of our historical defenses, it's still likely to translate into very significant improvement.

*No way the kicking game is as abominable as it was last year.  We'll actually be able to make some FGs here and there.  Plus Hagerup should be in better form than he was that early in the season.  Field position FTW.  

*They lost Rudolph, who torched us last year.  They lost Allen, who torched us last year.  They may lose Floyd, who torched us last year.

*Denard.

Why they'll win:

*When we played them last year, they were a young team with a new coach and a new system.  As the year progressed, they got appreciably better, especially on defense.  Some of their young guys who were mediocre or even bad against us last year will undoubtedly be players when we meet this Fall.

*We won a tight game, in part, because of a freak injury.  It didn't look so good before that, and unfortunately, it's unlikely for lightning to strike twice.  

*They've recruited MUCH better than we have over the past 3 years, so it's more likely that they've got someone in reserve that can come out of nowhere to make an impact on the game than it is for us.  

*We're transitioning to a new offensive style and philosophy.  While I think this will pay dividends over time, and across the physical, oversized and bruising Big 10 schedule, I imagine there will still be some growing pains early on.  By contrast, last year we seemed to benefit early, and slowly fell apart as defenses adjusted to us.  So whereas in 2010 there was an advantage to playing good teams early, I think in 2011 the advantage will come a bit later in the season.  This is sort of like the pattern under Lloyd, except I think it may be more pronounced, since we're transitioning and he wasn't.  

Conclusion:

Taking all that into account, I expect another tight game.  I think we'll win, but I won't be surprised if we lose this one, nor if we lose but then end up beating a better team, or two, later on...