All Things Notre Dame - The Clashmore Mike Memorial Thread

[UMStan White]

People said the same thing about Weiss even though his greatest success came with Willingham's players.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Kelley still getting his players, he's still using Weis' recruits and he loses quite a bit of seniors from this squad. By '13 he'll about have his team and I think they'll be quite good.

I've got my doubts ....... little things are amiss on this team: players dogging it (several not including Teo who plays hard on every play), Reese routinely throwing the ball to opposing LBs, an OL that should be a lot more effective than they are given their size advantage.

If you use the Rodriguez example at M as a measure, I see the same kind of game day performances for the ND team overall under BK as Michigan under RR. Early in the season you got a glimpse of how BK interacts with his players. He appears to be very demeaning (from Bacon I got that picture of Rodriguez as well). I suspect he's like that with his coaching staff. That kind of leadership can work or wreak havoc and it looks like the later to me given ND's poor on field body of work in 2011.

[Jamie H]

When ND was up 14-0 I thought they were going to win in a rout. Then their offense just stopped working.

[SeanB]

I agree about the little things. These players just don't seem to want to play for Kelly, especially after his comments around mid-season basically disparaging all of Weis's players. Remember Teo's tweet? He may not dog it on the field, but he's certainly not "playing for" Brian Kelly. He said as much.

Some guys are shouters and can intimidate, and you want to run through a wall for them. Others do it and you turn your back, turn off your ears, and say "the hell with you". I think that is happening with a lot of the upperclassmen at ND. Sounds very familiar to the M transition (under Rodriguez, of course, not Hoke.)

We'll see if Kelly's "guys" do any better, but right now, ND is a mess and I love it. Kelly is an asshat by most accounts and I think that sort of stuff wears thin with many players these days. Why would you ever want to be a QB for that guy?

[lineygoblue]

I agree, Sean. I like how you can see the difference between Kelly and Hoke on the field. Kids will notice this, and I hope it helps us when we go head to head with recruits with ND.

[Jamie H]

re: the Kelly vs Meyer comparison--Meyer has had just a bit more success than Brian Kelly.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Agree with that .... meyer has his hissy fits but he always impressed me as calm and controlled on the sidelines. I suspect he is a real hard ass with his staff and his players. I can live with that kind of thing personally as long as you have respect for the guy dishing it out and you're being treated fairly (means you're not getting singled out) and respectfully.

Like Sean says, there are both effective and ineffective ways of jawing someone you are trying to get from point A to point B. Probably two pretty good examples of both in BK and uf.

[Tony G]

Send the irish crapweasels out into the desert (WAC) to wander for 40 football seasons. Just my opinion. :-) The annual Catholics vs Mormons game with BYU would have interest.

[SeanB]

Did I see yesterday on the ticker that ND promoted their secondary coach to OC? Or was it the DC to OC? It was strange, whatever it was. Anyone else notice that or have a link?

EDIT: found one. They did, but it's not as strange as it seemed at first. He used to be an OC (and HC) at Grand Valley:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/ncaa/wires/01/02/2060.ap.fbc.notre.dame.coaches.0135/index.html

[Clashmore Mike]

No comments on Notre Dame loss to FSU? Most ND fans are blaming BK Broiler (on the net anyway) with the way he has handled the QB situation. I haven't followed it that closely, maybe Mike can shed some light on it.


Im glad Kelly didn't end up at Michigan, the spread doesn't seem to work in big games or vs good defenses. ND only scored one TD tonight, Its always a good day when ND lose. Seeing that it was their Bowl game is even better.

ND fans blaming Kelly on the net have the benefit of hindsight amplified by emotion. Certainly Kelly deserves blame for not having any direction at QB after his 2nd year as HC. But that is a problem that became apparent over the course of the season?too late for Kelly to fix the QB situation specifically for the bowl game?though he coulda/shoulda handled it better than he did.



I fully supported starting Rees in Sept., based on what he had shown to date and based on the very reasonable expectation that we would see progressive improvement over the course of the season. That didn?t happen?for whatever reason?but ultimate responsibility is on Kelly.



As far as the offense only scoring one TD?you?re correct. But that?s what makes this season so disappointing. We threw two red-zone picks in the end-zone?both on 1st down. No excuse for that. I will say that we ran the ball on FSU as well as anyone has this season. Sans stupidity, our offense showed enough potential to win. The defense was spectacular, particularly in the 1st half before they were thrown to the wolves.


No matter how you look at it, we ended the season the way we started it?pissing away opportunities with devastating turnovers at critical moments. Nonetheless, Kelly has my support in ?12. We beat ourselves with correctable mistakes in three of the losses. We were at least competitive in the other two?and the blow-out losses have certainly stopped. Line play on both sides of the ball is vastly improved. We?ve got a running game and can at least check, if not stop the run. He?s recruiting decent enough. All signs of a fundamentally good football program.

[Clashmore Mike]

Interesting how many posters were quaking in their boots over Kelley going to ND. Much like the fear shown over Oscar Meyer going to OSU.

Interesting how many posters were gnashing their teeth over Hoke going to UM. Much like the jubilation over RichGod going to UM.

[iam416]

Clash:

I hope Hinton and Warinner are good. And Taylor Decker, too.

[Clashmore Mike]

Don't really consider Hinton much of a loss...am furious that we are losing Warriner.


Do you have any insider info on Decker? Word around ND is that he is shaken, but that he has not de-commited. Apparently his family is entirely pro-ND...but nobody really knows where Decker himself stands.

I do know that Meyer made a run at Decker a couple weeks ago when he was courting Pittman / Dunn / Spence / etc, and got nowhere with him.

[Clashmore Mike]

Also...any hints on Odenigbo?

[iam416]

Decker was, apparently, tight with Warriner. I know the OSU staff really botched his recruitment (along with several othes in Ohio), and that if it were still that staff, OSU would have zero chance.

Odenigbo -- I have no clue. I've known two things about him for a long time: (1) he's a bit of a project with astonishing upside; and (2) he's not coming to OSU. Seems like a really, really good kid, though. He'll do really well wherever he ends up.

Also, yes, I really liked the Warinner hire. I also like the Hinton hire, but Warinner was a great get, IMO. We'll see.