I’m not sure about you guys, but I’m enjoying a weekend away from the Irish before the big match-up next weekend against the Trojans. I’ll be getting to South Bend late Thursday and will deliver as much as I can from campus for those that aren’t lucky enough to be there.
I’ve got a few fun things planned that I’m hoping you’ll enjoy, but until we get there, let’s celebrate a Saturday afternoon with a few notes:
Michigan just lost by two touchdowns to Michigan State. Somehow, the Wolverines were ranked No. 11 while the Spartans, who lost to an “unranked” Notre Dame team by 18 points, were ranked No. 23, but still a field goal favorite over the No. 11 team in the country.
In other words? Early season rankings are a joke, especially with teams like Michigan and Illinois, now losing by 17 points to a three-loss Ohio State, playing next to nobody early with schedules that feature nothing but home games to kickoff the year.
But that’s a rant for another day. Here are a few weekend Irish links for a Saturday or Sunday read:
Brian Kelly was spotted at the high school of North Carolina running back Keith Marshall this week, so if you’re looking for a sign that the blue-chip back (that might be a slight Georgia lean) is a high priority target for the Irish, well — there’s your signal. Kelly also swung down to Tampa to visit Nelson Agholor‘s school, so if you’re looking for two important skill position players on the Irish board, put those two at the top of the list.
Kelly was far from the only coach on the road this week, with reports of Tony Alford in Florida and Kerry Cooks in Texas. Multiple websites have confirmed Mike Elston in North Carolina, targeting Bulter High’s Uriah LeMay, a high profile 2013 prospect. They’ll all likely be doing double-duty this upcoming weekend with the Irish welcoming a massive influx of talent to South Bend for the year’s premiere recruiting weekend.
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With the Irish off this weekend, Kelly also took his talents to Bristol, Connecticut, where he made multiple appearances on ESPN. Thursday night, Kelly joined Lou Holtz and Mark May on set during the USC-Cal game, and Friday, he spent some time with ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd.
It was a pretty interesting interview, and while nothing was particularly news-breaking, here are some thoughts I found interesting:
Kelly spoke of the importance of next weekend, especially in recruiting.
“Look at the list of recruits that we have up for this game,” Kelly said. “Let’s be honest, at the end of the day, we want to create an atmosphere where all eyes are on us. That includes not only the national audience, but the national recruits.”
You’ve got to love the moxie of a coach that acknowledges and embraces the spotlight. The Irish are certainly pushing their 2012 recruiting chips to the middle of the table next weekend. If it works, the results will mean a recruiting class that helps reload a team that should be very good in 2012 as well.
Kelly’s presence on ESPN was also interesting considering the shots he was taking just a few weeks ago by the broadcasters in Bristol (Desmond Howard, for one). It shows just how proactive Kelly has been, when dealing with the media. In the past, when Notre Dame took offense to ESPN speaking critically of the Irish, they stayed away. Kelly’s shrugged it any criticism, understanding what Notre Dame needs to do to stay relevant not just in the football world, but in the eyes of recruits.
“We can’t sit behind the desk, we have to be out in front of it,” Kelly said. “We haven’t done anything in over 20 years. We have to be out front. We have to promote our program. We can’t live on what happened in the past. We have to create that.”
Cowherd also mentioned the Irish’s recent success recruiting California. Kelly had a great — although far from fresh — take on national recruiting, especially important as a football team clinging to its independence.
“I really think that the California area is something we need to continue to develop. We’ve got some very good football players from the West Coast,” Kelly said. “If you’re going to be independent you can’t just say the Midwest and the East, or just go be in a conference. We need coast to coast and California is big for us and we need to cultivate that.”
Lastly, Kelly talked about rallying the football team for four-straight wins after losing the opening two game.
“If you’re worried about the confidence of your football team after the second game, what did you do the last sixteen months?” Kelly said. “We weren’t concerned about losing confidence as much as we just have to play the game better. This wasn’t a lack of confidence where guys hadn’t bought in, we had already crossed that bridge when we got her last year and built that foundation last year. For me, I was not in a panic alert — our entire fanbase was — at 0-2, but I was confident that if we just played halfway normal, we would be fine, and that’s starting to show itself.”
Yep. He’s talking about you guys.
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There’s little margin for error for the Irish and next Saturday will tell us if the idea of running the table is silly or not, but Football Outsiders’ Brian Fremeau gives the Irish a 18.9 percent chance of running the table.
Fremeau’s rationale:
Like Arkansas, Notre Dame will be favored frequently down the stretch until a Thanksgiving weekend showdown with Stanford. If so, the Irish will be riding a nine-game win streak and will likely be playing for an at-large BCS bowl bid. The turnaround from an 0-2 start has been less about improved performance and more about limiting mistakes.
Notre Dame’s turnover issues were catastrophic early in the year, but things are swinging back in its favor in the past few weeks. And as costly as the five turnovers against both the South Florida Bulls and Michigan Wolverines were, the Irish have been able to move the ball exceptionally well against pretty much everyone they’ve faced. Notre Dame is tied for 14th nationally in yards per play and is ranked 11th in generating value drive opportunities (57.1 percent of drives reach the opponent’s 30-yard line).
The defense is doing its part too, giving up just 1.5 points per opponent drive on non-garbage possessions. In addition to turnovers, the Achilles’ heel for Notre Dame has been special-teams play, particularly in the punting game. The Irish are costing themselves an average of two points per game on special teams.
Fremeau ranks the Irish’s remaining schedule as 50th in the nation, with the toughest games coming this week and in the finale. But those marking Ws and Ls next to the Saturdays on the calendar only need to look back at last season to understand that’s an exercise in futility.
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- txbeej - Oct 15, 2011 at 7:04 PM
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I very much enjoyed the Michigan – State game. I think Hoke and his staff choked pretty badly. They have one good player, who has one good quality, and they seemed to go out of their way not to exploit it. The slow developing 4th and inches play deep in Michigan State territory was positively Weis-ian in its arrogance, cuteness, and utter hopelessness.
Meanwhile State played like they were getting paid by the cheap shot. Good defense, but they probably should’ve won the game comfortably yet managed not to, just like at Ohio State.
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- 9irish - Oct 16, 2011 at 10:50 AM
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Man, I could NOT agree more! Keith mentioned it in the story….there is no way in hell that I thought Michigan was the No. 6 team in the country. Same way with Illinois, OSU stinks but I knew that they would go up there and beat them. They need to get rid of these preseason polls.
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- 9irish - Oct 16, 2011 at 10:57 AM
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I think they were 11th…or something. Over rated nonetheless!
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- 1notredamefan - Oct 15, 2011 at 8:25 PM
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http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff171/NDFan4Life/Wallpaper/wall23.jpg
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- 1notredamefan - Oct 15, 2011 at 8:42 PM
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O MY, see for yourself… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMgTptzhkPA&feature=player_embedded#!
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- ndgiants11 - Oct 15, 2011 at 9:13 PM
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I’m from Rochester, and this kid is in the backfield on nearly every play – he’s just so much bigger than everybody on the field, it’s almost not fair. He’s an absolute animal.
Going from playing for the Lil’ Irish to the real Irish.
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- tradertrik - Oct 16, 2011 at 8:16 PM
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Man, that’s not even close to fair. I really hope that he signs on………can you imagine.
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- 1notredamefan - Oct 16, 2011 at 9:05 PM
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He’s a verbal rite now
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- gtizzo - Oct 15, 2011 at 9:55 PM
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Wow Keith,
There were two interviews with Brain Kelly, one was a clip on the ESPN website. I also listened to Coach Kelly on Mike and Mike. I had no idea he was also on The Herd…he really made the rounds this weekend. I watched the USC versus Cal game and wasn’t impressed with either team. USC left a bunch of points on the field missing on two big pass and Cal also turned the ball over 5 times. USC also lost 2 key players on offense in Tyler and Lee. Just things to pass along…
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- tradertrik - Oct 16, 2011 at 8:14 PM
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During the U$C game I thought to myself that if we just keep turnovers to somewhere around “zero” we’ll pretty much be able to score at will. I really hope that the team will look at this as just another game and take care of business rather than the way I, for one, am looking at it and that it’s a pretty big deal. With the continuing sanctions and recruiting cap that they have that team is only going to get more mediocre as the next several years go by. As well, I don’t recall that Kiffin did anything remotely remarkable at his one year stint in Knoxville so I don’t see our guys being outcoached at any level, although his Dad is an above average OC. Now, I hope I don’t have to eat any of these words and Go Irish!!!!!!!!!
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- notredamegrad - Oct 15, 2011 at 10:17 PM
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Is there reason to be concerned that Ethan Johnson is still (as of yesterday) in a boot? I can’t wait to see ND dominate USC next Saturday, and would love to have our defense at full-force, with #90 right there in the midst of things. Go Irish!
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- bernhtp - Oct 16, 2011 at 5:57 PM
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Is Ethan still in the boot? He was supposed to come out of it last week before the game and see how it was. Was it put back on?
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- notredamegrad - Oct 16, 2011 at 7:26 PM
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They must have checked it out enough to decide he couldn’t play against Air Force. The way Kelly talked, I thought it would have been off at least some days ago, if not a week ago. But I saw it with my own eyes Friday evening.
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- nddc21 - Oct 16, 2011 at 12:47 AM
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Keith-
I’d like to take this bye weekend to thank you for your hard work in covering my favorite team/minor obsession. You write regularly, you give praise without going over the edge, you use fair judgment and are critical on the Irish when appropriate, and you seem to have a knack for getting a good feel for the team and relaying that to us diehard fans who want a source for their news & opinion on everything Irish. Basically, you’re a very good sportswriter, something that is harder to come by than one would think.
I’m sure you get tired of some of the trolling/infighting on the message boards that’s been popping up recently, as do we all (seriously, leave that for the retirement home/graveyard known as NDNation guys, c’mon). But I for one appreciate the work you put in. Great effort all around.
Best wishes, and Go Irish.
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- Keith Arnold - Oct 16, 2011 at 11:32 PM
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Thanks for the nice note. It’s officially time to start talking about USC.
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- Jennifer - Oct 18, 2011 at 1:40 AM
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nddc21 ~ Great post! How did you do that? You managed to roam around “Inside the Heads” of the rest of us who regularly follow Keith. You succinctly stated what the rest of us feel. To further drive home your point, isn’t it interesting that Keith’s reply to you and 68 “thumbs-up” responders took up just five words. That’s it. And then straight back to ND Football. Your post should be titled “Five things we learned about KA.”
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- ndtod - Oct 16, 2011 at 4:36 PM
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I know the players earned their week off and it’s great the coaches can get on the road to haul in some blue chippers, but I can’t say I am “enjoying” the bye week. Did not know what to do with myself yesterday afternoon. Also heading out to campus for USC and cannot wait. Go Irish.
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- ndgiants11 - Oct 16, 2011 at 5:00 PM
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This was the worst weekend I’ve had since August. Ready to see this team get back to work.
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- bernhtp - Oct 16, 2011 at 5:06 PM
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I make the USC game ever year, both in South Bend and in LA. Last year ended a long streak of disappointment. I stood out in the rain at the end of the game to relish every moment.
The low point was the 2005 game with the “Bush Push.” Besides losing a heart breaker and feeling cheated, there were a few completely drunk USC fans in back of me that were completely foul and obnoxious during the game and then jumped up and down together until their broke the bench.
I watched the USC-Cal game a couple of days ago and still have the odious “Tribute to Troy” riff in my head, tuba lines and all. The Irish need to come through next week so that if it stays, it becomes associated with a great time. We need to crush those bastards. I will be there in the stands cheering the Irish on.
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- kaf39 - Oct 18, 2011 at 10:38 AM
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I’m feeling a big ND win
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- leftcoastirishfan - Oct 18, 2011 at 10:22 PM
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USC we win by 17 if gary gray plays like he did against Utah last year and no turnovers.
Navy we win big
Wake we win
Maryland they’re good and explosive I hope we don’t look past these guys
BC we win big
Stanford is over rated. They’ll have 2 loses when we head to Palo Alto. I’ll be at the game to see them get their 3rdWe’re good guys. We need it impress these young recruits so WE can reload
