The Irish Blog Gathering has been posted here at Subway Domer and we have gotten some great responses. It looks like everyone is eagerly awaiting this teams rise to greatness, and the excitement seems palpable. Subway posted his responses a couple days ago but I realized I didn’t share some of the same sentiments so I wanted to weigh in.
Here is my take on the questions posed in this weeks IBG…
1. Notre Dame is looking at vast changes on both sides of the ball. Kelly will implement his version of the “Spread,” which is run at an excruciating pace, and the Irish defense will, once again, make the transition from the 4-3 to the 3-4. Asking to pick one side of the ball that intrigues you the most would be a disservice to us all. Instead, list your biggest hope and your biggest fear for both the offense and the defense.
Offense. My biggest hope is that the spread at ND works. This spread offense has been swiffering the nation as of late and I am glad it has come to South Bend. The ability to put up points for the Irish was not a problem last year but this offense should be fun. The spread is fast, quick, and entertaining to watch. I believe the Irish have the talent to thrive in this style of offense and compete again at a higher level running this system. This offense maximizes mismatches and Kelly will be looking to do that this year. Look at the starting talent that will be on the field. Floyd 6’3″, Kamara 6’5″, Goodman 6’3″, Rudolph 6’6″ on the outside hauling in passes. Throw in Armando Allen’s quickness from the backfield along with the likes of Cierre Wood and Theo Riddick getting carries and screens. Dayne Crist as already shown he can tuck the ball and run and should be a more than capable starter with his newly repaired knee. The talent is there and they Irish offense could be scary.
Biggest fear on offense is that the spread works. Installing a new system is never easy. New schemes, new terminology, new formation and new positions. Everything is changing. Charley Molnar recently said the team has learned 1% of the playbook so far. By the end of spring he anticipates them knowing 60%. By the bowl game 90%. It wont be until this time next year that Molnar believes the team will be capable of handling 100% of the playbook. That scares me. Having all the plays available in the book last year propelled the offense to the next level. The other thing that worries me is the players. This current crop of guys was recruited to play under the prostyle offense and there has to be an adjustment both mentally and physically.
Defense: My biggest hope is for the young talent to emerge. There are a lot of guys that are going to line up on the defensive side of the ball that need a change. We all know the issues the defense struggled with last year and don’t need to get into that. With a new coordinator and more importantly a new system that most of these players signed up for, they should thrive. Guys like Brian Smith, Darius Fleming and even Harrison Smith should benefit from the switch back to this more natural scheme. The defense also has some young playmakers, Zeke Motta, Anthony McDonald and Kapron Lewis-Moore have me excited about them getting on the field this fall.
My biggest fear with this defense sounds like a beating drum, a dead horse, and the proverbial broken record all wrapped into one. The entire defense scares me. My father raised me to look at trends. He would say, “KGG, I noticed that your grades are getting worse and that is not a TREND we should continue seeing.” He reminded me that we always wanted the trends pointing up, our bank account, our stock quotes, our beer supply. He may have taught me some other things about trends but this is all I can remember right now. Trends should get better with time, like a fine wine and thats exactly what the Irish defense didn’t do last year. In fact they were more like a beer left out in the sun to long. Spoiled, sour and not palatable. (Don’t worry I still drank the beer). We all remember the way the Irish started. Holding Colin Kaepernick and the vaunted Wolfpack offense to 153 yards rushing and 154 yards passing and 0 points. The trend was peaked at this point in the season and only went down from there. I remember sitting in Stanford stadium listening to their stupid band try and act like they didn’t care about life, watching Toby Gerhart and CO. rush for 280 yards and throw for 216 more for a brisk 45 points. That was the spike in the downward trends coffin. The Irish got worse all year on defense and I’m afraid of this trend continuing this year. Lets hope the defense listens to my dad and starts improving.
2. The mainstream media, and ESPN in particular, have been riding Brian Kelly’s jock for about a year now, and were collectively praying for Notre Dame to fire Weis and hire Kelly. Do you agree, or disagree with this statement? What changes in media coverage do you think we will see in 2010 and beyond?
Let the media be the media. They can think what they want about ND and the boys club in Bristol hates the Irish. They had it out for Weis like many ND fans did and they didn’t appreciate his style of media relations. They wanted Weis gone but it did seem to be a bit over the top on Brian Kelly. This years coaching search was weird. How many speculations and rumors were out there about which coach was coming to ND? The media treated it like paparazzi to a stars newborn, who ever gets the scoop on the new coach first is the winner. Back when Ty was fired it seemed like Urban was a shoe in. Then they lost their prodigal son story when Urban left Utah for Florida. Charlie comes in as a semi relatively unknown, does well the first couple years, gets the extension and shuts out the media. This year it was a given that the Catholic kid from Massachusetts would go turn up the tempo in South Bend and it came true. The media gets more access to Notre Dame and has an easily likable character on the sidelines. I think the media treats Kelly well as long as he treats them well. I’m pretty sure the media outlets applauded this hiring and wont be quick to point out the error of their ways if this doesn’t work out. The media will support Brian Kelly at Notre Dame… As long as he is winning.
3. With new regime changes, players that were once lost in the muck sometimes find themselves in a situation to become key members of the team- or even starters. Identify one of those players that will be that “sleeper.” Explain, in brief detail, why your guy will rise above and become the proverbial; CREAM. Oh yeah… it must be a junior or older to qualify.
Duval Kamara. He has to step up. He just has too. This could have gone to a number of players, Christ, H. Smith, Armando, but I think Kamara needs to support Michael Floyd at receiver. As tough as it is to roll coverage’s one way or the other to cover someone in the spread, teams will try and double Michael Floyd. With Kamara’s size, he needs to be lined up on the outside spread wide. If he can get back to the player he was his freshman year, this receiving corps could be extremely dangerous. I think he can get back to that form this year especially with a new coaching staff in there; he is starting at square one. No drops, no missed routes, no falling down against USC. He is starting fresh and needs to get his confidence back and I think we see him breakout this year.
4. If you could change the Blue-Gold Game experience in any way- what would it be? Some years, the game can be quite boring and offer no real insight for the upcoming season. Are we all doomed to be underwhelmed every year, or can you make the change that makes spring ball slick like Rick on a pogo stick?
This is a tricky one. The conventional wisdom here is to have your team play a scrimmage against an opposing team. This will simulate live plays against a different opponent than the first team defense but I don’t think it will solve much. Would a coach risk playing their QB against a live rush and full contact? I doubt it. If you limit the contact against “red” players, then all you have is a glorified intrasquad game. There really is no way around it. Think of this year, what would we learn from playing a real opponent? Coach wouldn’t want to risk any major injuries so players like Christ, Rudolph, Wood and Riddick would likely not participate. That’s just on the offensive side of the ball. It would be a shell of a game with limited offenses used as to not reveal what the team is actually playing with. I think the spring game is a trap. We fans have turned it into a spectacle, another game but it truly is for the players. Its their real chance to show the coaches what they have heading into the season. We are just fortunate enough to be able to watch their practice, that’s how I look at. Plus, it’s the only game we are guaranteed to win every year this way.
5. EVERY coach talks about the importance of special teams, and says that they are a major priority for the team. Is there anything that Coach Kelly has done to back him up on his own statements? What phase of special teams would you like to see more improvement from?
Kelly is backing this statement up with his spring practice time. The Irish digressed on kick coverage last season and he now has his players working on this first thing of spring practice. There is only limited time allowed in spring practice and Kelly is installing a new defense and a new offense. So he starts with special teams. This seems important to me. Just today he was having auditions it seems like at practice for punt returner. H. Smith, Goodman, Motta, Boyd, Walls, G. Gray, Blanton and C. Wood all got a crack at returning kicks. Kelly is placing an emphasis on special teams this spring, lets hope it translates into better performance this fall. The phase I’m looking forward to seeing a drastic improvement from is the kicking game. Turk and Taush had uneven years so signs of greatness and signs of immaturity last year. Lets get the kicking game ironed out. When was the last time we had a kicker who was lining up for a field goal that you had complete confidence in? Nick Setta maybe, but he still scared me.
6. Last topics are a bit, off topic… A)With the arrival of Spring Football, comes a lot of “color” discussion. “The Shirt,” is always a favorite subject of debate for Irish fans. What is your opinion of “The Shirt,” and if you were in charge of it all- what would it look like? B) There is a lot of talk about the Notre Dame uniforms possibly being altered. What would you like to see, even if they aren’t changed?
The shirt is a great tradition. As a marketer myself, I have to applaud their ability to get me to shell out $20 bucks every year no matter what it looks like. The lines of the fight song made me look forward to the shirt every year. I loved those shirts and like many other ND fans, still know exactly where those shirts are located in my closet. This year you have to go with a Kelly Green shirt. Maybe a picture of the new boss on the front, and the helmet on the back. C’mon, who wouldn’t want a shirt with Brian Kelly’s mug on it?
This is a new era and a return to greatness that should be celebrated with drastic changes. New coaches, new systems and slightly altered uniforms. I say we go all Dan Devine on their asses. This season I would like to see the Kelly Green Jerseys. Much like the ones that were worn against USC, but with Gold instead of yellow. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a marketer not a designer, so I’m not sure if Kelly Green and Gold go together (I obviously think they do, thats why I started KellyGreenandGold.com). There it is, Kelly Green jerseys with gold numbers and Gold pants. Rock these at home all season as a tribute to the man that is going to take us to the next level.
IBG Responses
One Foot Down bolts off the starting line.
Domer Law litigates his points.
Her Loyal Sons gets prepared as domer.mq goes all “Biscuit” on everyone.
Charlie’s Nasties still rocks the name and answers the call.
