Welcome to the Irish Blogger Gathering here at Subway Domer. Friends, this week we have a new member of the IBG hosting our little ND Football Roundtable, and they are the main reason the IBG has such a shitty name. We’re talking about one of the oldest Irish blogs out there… Irish Round Table. So, this week the IBG is hosted by the IRT.
The Pitt Panthers are coming to South Bend, and there is less of a somber tone amongst Irish fans after a decidedly easy victory over Boston College this past Saturday night. Oh Wannstache… how we love you so…
On to the IBG:
1. Grade Brian Kelly’s performance to date. We’re not interested in how you think he will perform going forward. How has he done through the first five games? Grade scale is A+ to F-.
I think you have to give Kelly a solid C at first glance. Notre Dame is 2-3, so grading him any higher than that, would be questionable. The reason you don’t go much lower, is that this is the first season of a new regime, and the schedule was not front-loaded with cupcakes. Kelly has made some questionable decisions regarding playcalls, and has been unable to get more consistency out of either the offense or defense. But, at the same time, he has repaired the bridges that were burnt to the ground by Charlie Weis, and he has proven himself to be a good recruiter with the #3 recruiting class in the country for 2011 according to Rivals.com so far (still need those signatures on signing day).
Because being the Head Coach of Notre Dame means more than the tangible evidence on the field, but is still judged solely on National Titles, I am going to give Kelly a C+, with a chance to move into the B- range if the irish beat PITT on Saturday.
2. Much has been made of Brian Kelly’s sideline rants. Some fans like the excitement and energy; others are worried that they [rants] are excessive and will wear thin on the players. Where do you stand?
I just wrote a fairly long-winded opinion of this in my recent Hangover post. Here is that excerpt in it’s entirety:
Brian Kelly is going to chew your ass into little bits and spit them down your throat. For those of you that have paid attention to Kelly during his stints at Central Michigan and at Cincinnati, none of this should come as any surprise. He is a demanding, fiery, emotional head coach. Jack Swarbrick knew this when he hired him, and you should have known better.
Who am I specifically talking to? Any of you out there that are bitching about the way Kelly lit into basically everyone during the Boston College game. This includes the media, and fans alike. Did you really think that Kelly was going to drastically change the way he coached once he got under the Golden Dome? How naive you are. How utterly naive.
Notre Dame has been a soft, soft, pushover of a team for over 5 years now. That is no secret to anyone that has gone through the painstaking task of following and cheering for the Irish. When Kelly took over the HC job, he made it a major point to talk about bringing the “Fight” back to the Fighting Irish. You can’t do that with soft pleas to your players to do their job. This isn’t the real world, this is the world of major college football.
And to be honest with you, I thought that his “over-the-top” reactions against Boston College was a brilliant move. Boston College was not going to win this game. Kelly was more than confident that his team was going to come out on top, but at the same time, he probably knew that this Notre Dame team was still very sloppy in all phases of the game. Why pat guys on the back for being mediocre? This game should have been 51-0 instead of 31-13.
Too many times in the past decade, has a Notre Dame team played like shit against an inferior opponent. Some of those times they won the ball game by a slim margin and were lauded as “fighters” for not giving up- blah, blah, blah. They accepted mediocrity. Kelly will not, and I think he was using this game as a teaching tool. You may not like his tactics, but so what?Look at his results throughout his career. The ND media is jumping all over this, because they are unable to come down hard on ND’s 1-3 start, due to a new QB, and a new coach. They were waiting like sharks in water to spew some bullshit about class. Real classy.
3. What is the best storyline for Notre Dame Football this year? The best storyline in college football?
That’s a really tough question, mainly because it’s been such a rough start to the season. But, seeing as I have to answer this somehow, I will go with a player: Carlo Calabrese.
In many peoples eyes, and my own to be perfectly honest, Calabrese was to be primarily a “role” player. Meaning: he would backup Anthony McDonald, play on all the special teams, and be used in short yardage and goaline fronts for the defense. Instead, he stepped up into not just a starter- but a key member of the defense and the team. He’s a fucking animal, and he has a bright future ahead for himself with 3 more years of eligibility left after this year.
The best story in college football this year was the conference realignment, that wasn’t. The biggest topic during the offseason was about conference realignment and the formation of super-conferences and blah, blah, blah. It gobbled up 95% of the newswire for college football, and it had Irish fans on edge as many wondered if Notre Dame was going to end its status as an independent and join a conference. In the end, the whole thing was a lot like the month of March- in like a lion, out like a lamb. No one in the media would talk about their failed “prophetic verses” on what would happen, and they grudgingly moved on towards the season.
4. We are going to test your prognostication skills with a little IBG prediction contest. Predict the following for this week’s PITT game:
- Kyle Rudolph receptions… 4
- Points scored by Notre Dame’s defense… 0 The streak continues
- Carries by Robert Hughes… 3
- Points Notre Dame wins by… 12
- Tackles Manti Te’o registers… 14
- Pass attempts by Tommy Rees… 0
- Taylor Swift in attendance? (for 2 points at 5:1 odds; a correct “Yes” equals 10 points. A correct “No” equals 2)… No
Winner will receive a prominent post on the Irish Round Table extolling their website and awesomeness.
5. What would you like to see in place of the yellow mums on the Notre Dame sidelines?
Skulls. Lots and lots of human skulls. Real ones, from dead people. Lot’s of dead people. It would freak out the opposing teams, and bring a new mystique to the stadium. Notre Dame is a Catholic school, and many Catholic churches have skulls inside their walls- especially in France and Latin America. Just pile them up; the bones of those before them…
