Saturday can’t come soon enough for the Irish, who’ll be looking to get rid of a very bad taste in their mouths after last week’s collapse against Michigan. Brian Kelly had the Irish going full tilt in practice yesterday, getting physical in its preparation for a smash-mouth Spartans team coming to town this Saturday.
Before we get heavy into Michigan State, let’s tackle this week’s questions in the Irish Blogger Gathering, hosted by one of the new ND blogs in town, NDTex.com.
Let’s go ahead and talk about the big pink elephant in the room. After two absolutely horrid, heart-breaking, and downright mind-boggling performances, how do you feel about this team moving forward? Are we simply a bad team or a team that just hasn’t put it together yet? This is your chance to talk Irish fans of the ledge…or push them over.
I’m more than ready to take the approach the Irish are taking, which is “let’s just stop talking about it.” I’ve talked to a ton of Notre Dame fans, and Saturday night was one of the toughest losses they’ve ever had. It certainly was worse than the 2005 USC game, which for my money was rock bottom as a sports fan.
That said, it’s hard to feel terrible about this football team. I mean, Brian Kelly said the same thing, they’re actually pretty good. I hit on this subject earlier in the week and in movie terms, this is hopefully the end of Act Two. For those of you not up on your screenwriting lingo, last week was (hopefully) the part of the movie where our hero almost gets what he wants but is trampled once again, and things feel their most bleak.
Since this is real life, I can’t tell you there’s going to be a happy ending, but there’s still every reason to believe the Irish can win every game they play. They’ll probably be favored in all of them until Stanford. Not to say the Irish are this team, but Pete Carroll’s 2002 Trojans started with two losses before mid-October. They ended up 11-2 and blew out Ty Willingham’s best Notre Dame team and dismantled Iowa in the Orange Bowl. Say what you want about Trojans fans, but they weren’t throwing in the towel after a tough few weeks.
It’s time to put on the headset and step into the shoes of Brian Kelly. In the first quarter, it seemed like your message and plan to recover from the USF disaster worked, and then the rest of the game happened. How do approach this week? What message do you give your players?
The plan Kelly and his staff instituted worked fine well into the fourth quarter, although you wouldn’t know it if you were following along on the internet last weekend. A few thousand of you were around for the live-blog last Saturday night and I was shocked at just how quickly panic set in amongst some of the fans following along. It must be hard to watch a football game if you’re constantly flinching every time something bad happens. I checked in over at MGoBlog last weekend, and they were still in “Keep the Faith” mode well into the 3rd quarter. That’s the difference between the fan bases, and really one of the most disheartening things about the current state of ND Nation.
I’m not trying to beat a dead horse, but here’s a newsflash to you all: this current team isn’t the group that broke your heart these last 20 years. Most of the guys on the roster were barely alive and were more concerned with things like nap time, Power Rangers or what was in their lunch box. They know Lou Holtz not from his time on the Irish sidelines, but from his time in the TV studio. Most of them aren’t even old enough to remember the Bob Davie era, he’s just another TV announcer with really good hair. And while it’s hard to remember that sometimes, Irish fans have done a great job of creating self-fulfilling prophesies in the past. Here’s hoping they don’t do it again with the Brian Kelly era.
Just like he did last year, Kelly is going to approach this game the same way he does every game. It’s that consistency in approach that led the Irish out of some pretty dark hollows last year and will ultimately serve the team better than any about-face. (That said, if you’re looking for a small tweak, like I mentioned above, BK and company had the teams going live yesterday, getting what’s left of the spread concepts out of their system as they prepare for a downhill physical football team.)
Keep that headset on, you are still playing Kelly. Based upon what you’ve seen these last two games, do you see players that need to start riding the pine or are you still confident in your depth chart?
Kelly said it best earlier in the week. It’s not as if there are any All-Americans on the bench right now. If there’s been anything baffling this year, it’s that a guy like Gary Gray has taken a step backwards. This early in the Kelly regime, there isn’t the depth at positions needed to have twos that are almost as good as ones. In a year or two, maybe Gray gets the hook after the coverage breakdown. But if I’m Kelly, I’m doing exactly what he’s doing with Gray, Ben Turk, and Theo Riddick. They’re the best ND has. They’ve got to be the ones to get it done.
Overall, how do you feel about Rees’ performance against Michigan?
It was good enough to win. Obviously the goal line fumble was one of those things that only seem to happen to Notre Dame and was something I didn’t think Rees had in his arsenal, but he got the Irish out of the gate quickly, then drove them for the win with thirty seconds left. It’s not like he can play in a Cover-4 defense. Do you want those two throws into Michael Floyd back? Sure, especially the second one. But we’ve got to remember Tommy Rees is very early in his football career and he played good enough to win last week.
Let’s talk about something happy: the Irish running game. After a 198 yard performance by the Irish do you feel that this rushing attack led by Cierre Wood (134 yards) is for real or have we not run into a tough enough defensive test yet?
I think they’re for real, but we’ll find out more Saturday against a Spartans defense that could be really stout. (Don’t forget about The USF defense. They’ll end up a highly ranked unit.) Wood’s performance this year has been great. Jonas Gray has done his job, too. Both guys would like back those fumbles, but all they can do is look forward.
If you’re looking at a key match-up on Saturday, the Irish run game versus the Spartans front-seven could be one of the most important.
Looking ahead to Michigan State, how do you gauge them? Is this the best team that we’ve faced off against yet or is this just an untested team that beat up on two cupcakes in Youngstown State and Florida Atlantic?
Color me skeptical. It’d be silly to dismiss a Spartans team that’s dominated the series with the Irish over the last decade-and-a-half, but I don’t think we’ll have any idea how good these guys are until they get into their conference schedule. That said, I have them as the fourth toughest game on our schedule behind Stanford, USC, and Michigan.
Is the key to winning simply not turning the ball over or do you see other crucial keys to beating Sparty?
Yep. Don’t turn the ball over. With the runner up being: Don’t give up big plays on defense.
Obviously every week should be a must win, but I think there is definitely more of an urgency this week. How crucial is this game for the rest of our season?
Who knows? I don’t think there’s any more urgency this week than last week, but starting 0-3 sounds awfully scary. I think it’s important for the Irish to go out there and handle every Saturday as its own season. Notre Dame can’t go 10-2 if they don’t go 1-2 first. (Color me a philosopher today, right?)
The Irish are too talented to keep losing. For everyone but Michigan State’s sake, let’s hope that trend stops Saturday.