Kevin White continues to dumb down future schedules - Page 9 - Notre Dame Football Discussion

**CLEARWALL** · 02-13-2008, 12:38 AM

Im sick of always seeing the MSU/scUM games back to back.

**mbooch** · 02-13-2008, 12:51 AM

No, no, NO! What MADE Notre Dame, back in the Rockne Era, was going anywhere top competition was available to play. UConn just flat isn't good enough. Neither is Nevada. White is screwing with "the Brand", the Mystique, and the Tradition. He has to be reined in, or kicked out. You can bet the GD farm that neither Leahy, nor Ara, nor Lou, whe THEY were asked who to schedule, said, "Well, let's not get carried away. A top 30 Strength of Schedule is god enough". ND just isn't IN the "Good Enough" business.

**Legacy** · 02-13-2008, 12:06 PM

I won't go back to the Rockne era. But I want to compare schedules with the Ara's 1970 ND team's that went 10-1. That team finished #2, beating Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Then, teams played 10-11 regular season games and ties were allowed. ND was consistently in the top 10. I'll include records for our opponents for that year.
'70 Northwestern (6-4) '08 San Diego St '09 Nevada
*Purdue (4-6) Michigan Michigan
*Mich St (4-6) *Mich St *Mich St
Army (1-9-1) *Purdue *Purdue
Missouri (5-6) Stanford Washington
*Navy (2-9) North Carolina *USC
*Pittsburgh (5-5) Washington BC
Georgia Tech (9-3) #13 *Pittsburgh Wash St
LSU (9-3) #7 Boston College *Navy
*USC (6-4-1) #15 (only loss) *Navy *Pittsburgh
Syracuse Conn
*USC Stanford
Texas (10-1) in Cotton Bowl
SOS #22

I feel our scheduling in comparison to Ara's years is comparable. Comparing '70 schedule to '08 and '09s, we have one less academy, and there are five teams we have continued to play (asterisked). Comparing the other 5 from '70 to our future schedules, Michigan and BC are comparable to Georgia Tech and LSU from '70, and the three '70 non-yearly opponents left (Army, Missouri, and Northwestern) had a combined 12-19-1 record that year. The records of our opponents last year were much superior than '70. As pointed out, our SOS last year was 25, compared to a SOS of 22 in '70.
San Diego St and Nevada are anomalies due to commitments we made so we could play BYU in our opener in '06. We've added Stanford to balance out our games with USC, (which won't play in South Bend in the cold) and to play one game a year on the West coast. The imbalance comes with scheduling Michigan early each year. The ideal would have been to find a comparably strong opponent who would schedule opposite USC, which would have spread our strength of schedule out throughout the season.
There are pressures with sold out home games to provide more opportunities for ND fans and alumni to attend games including large venue games.
What I find is less geographical dispersion of opponents with a schedule that has 3 Big 10, 3 PAC 10 and 2 Big East teams (to be 3 later). No ACC, SEC or Big 12 teams in '08 or '09. In '70 we played Missouri, Georgia Tech and LSU. And to play Washington St in San Antonio? I imagine their fans do not travel well and that Wash St is not a big draw in Texas.

**Irish52** · 02-13-2008, 01:31 PM

Let me give you a 4th reason why we went 3 and 9 last season. First. let me preface my comments with " I love Charlie Weis and all that he stands for...ND could not have selected a better man for the job". Having said that, I suggest you read the myriad of comments during the season attesting to the poor play calling by Charlie. I think at times, he confused the Patriots team with the inexperienced team he had and did not know how to adjust. For support, I look to the changes being made during the off season. I'm confident Charlie will continue to adjust to get the best coaching staff possible and use his players with demonstrated skill more effectively and win...big...for the greatest university in the country. Go Irish!

**NDOM** · 02-13-2008, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Irish52

Let me give you a 4th reason why we went 3 and 9 last season. First. let me preface my comments with " I love Charlie Weis and all that he stands for...ND could not have selected a better man for the job". Having said that, I suggest you read the myriad of comments during the season attesting to the poor play calling by Charlie. I think at times, he confused the Patriots team with the inexperienced team he had and did not know how to adjust. For support, I look to the changes being made during the off season. I'm confident Charlie will continue to adjust to get the best coaching staff possible and use his players with demonstrated skill more effectively and win...big...for the greatest university in the country. Go Irish!

Good post.

**rattfink** · 02-13-2008, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbooch

No, no, NO! What MADE Notre Dame, back in the Rockne Era, was going anywhere top competition was available to play. UConn just flat isn't good enough. Neither is Nevada. White is screwing with "the Brand", the Mystique, and the Tradition. He has to be reined in, or kicked out. You can bet the GD farm that neither Leahy, nor Ara, nor Lou, whe THEY were asked who to schedule, said, "Well, let's not get carried away. A top 30 Strength of Schedule is god enough". ND just isn't IN the "Good Enough" business.

The program's goal is not to play a tough schedule. The program's goal is to win titles. I would not want the program's scheduling goal to achieve a SOS in the 50's but having a top 10 SOS is also not the answer to getting into title games. LSU played in the ever tough SEC and won the title and still didn't have a SOS in the top 10.

I also don't think White gets enough credit for putting more neutral site games on the schedule. This is a scheduling move that truly harkens back to Irish teams of yore.

GoshenGipper · 02-13-2008, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbooch

No, no, NO! What MADE Notre Dame, back in the Rockne Era, was going anywhere top competition was available to play. UConn just flat isn't good enough. Neither is Nevada. White is screwing with "the Brand", the Mystique, and the Tradition. He has to be reined in, or kicked out. You can bet the GD farm that neither Leahy, nor Ara, nor Lou, whe THEY were asked who to schedule, said, "Well, let's not get carried away. A top 30 Strength of Schedule is god enough". ND just isn't IN the "Good Enough" business.

If you want to win a National Championship in today's CFB world ND needs to reevaluate the way they schedule. Should they play all cupcakes? No, but that doesn't mean they should go out of their way to try to create a schedule that no one could make it through. Besides ND played plenty of cupcakes in previous eras. If you'll remember Rockne even skipped one game against Carnegie Tech, or something like that because it was considered such a gimme, so he could go scout Navy, who was the following weeks apponent. BTW, ND ended up losing that game.

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02-13-2008, 12:38 AM	#57 (permalink)
CLEARWALL Walk-On Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: San Antonio Posts: 220 Cash: 1,592.75 Bank: 0.00 Total Bankroll: 1,592.75 Donate	Im sick of always seeing the MSU/scUM games back to back.

02-13-2008, 12:51 AM	#58 (permalink)
mbooch Blue Chip Recruit Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Michigan Posts: 263 Cash: 1,557.73 Bank: 0.00 Total Bankroll: 1,557.73 Donate	No, no, NO! What MADE Notre Dame, back in the Rockne Era, was going anywhere top competition was available to play. UConn just flat isn't good enough. Neither is Nevada. White is screwing with "the Brand", the Mystique, and the Tradition. He has to be reined in, or kicked out. You can bet the GD farm that neither Leahy, nor Ara, nor Lou, whe THEY were asked who to schedule, said, "Well, let's not get carried away. A top 30 Strength of Schedule is god enough". ND just isn't IN the "Good Enough" business.

02-13-2008, 12:06 PM	#59 (permalink)
Legacy Walk-On Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 110 Cash: 6,445.43 Bank: 0.00 Total Bankroll: 6,445.43 Donate	I won't go back to the Rockne era. But I want to compare schedules with the Ara's 1970 ND team's that went 10-1. That team finished #2, beating Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Then, teams played 10-11 regular season games and ties were allowed. ND was consistently in the top 10. I'll include records for our opponents for that year. '70 Northwestern (6-4) '08 San Diego St '09 Nevada Purdue (4-6) Michigan Michigan Mich St (4-6) Mich St Mich St Army (1-9-1) Purdue Purdue Missouri (5-6) Stanford Washington Navy (2-9) North Carolina USC Pittsburgh (5-5) Washington BC Georgia Tech (9-3) #13 Pittsburgh Wash St LSU (9-3) #7 Boston College Navy USC (6-4-1) #15 (only loss) Navy Pittsburgh Syracuse Conn *USC Stanford Texas (10-1) in Cotton Bowl SOS #22 I feel our scheduling in comparison to Ara's years is comparable. Comparing '70 schedule to '08 and '09s, we have one less academy, and there are five teams we have continued to play (asterisked). Comparing the other 5 from '70 to our future schedules, Michigan and BC are comparable to Georgia Tech and LSU from '70, and the three '70 non-yearly opponents left (Army, Missouri, and Northwestern) had a combined 12-19-1 record that year. The records of our opponents last year were much superior than '70. As pointed out, our SOS last year was 25, compared to a SOS of 22 in '70. San Diego St and Nevada are anomalies due to commitments we made so we could play BYU in our opener in '06. We've added Stanford to balance out our games with USC, (which won't play in South Bend in the cold) and to play one game a year on the West coast. The imbalance comes with scheduling Michigan early each year. The ideal would have been to find a comparably strong opponent who would schedule opposite USC, which would have spread our strength of schedule out throughout the season. There are pressures with sold out home games to provide more opportunities for ND fans and alumni to attend games including large venue games. What I find is less geographical dispersion of opponents with a schedule that has 3 Big 10, 3 PAC 10 and 2 Big East teams (to be 3 later). No ACC, SEC or Big 12 teams in '08 or '09. In '70 we played Missouri, Georgia Tech and LSU. And to play Washington St in San Antonio? I imagine their fans do not travel well and that Wash St is not a big draw in Texas.

02-13-2008, 01:31 PM	#60 (permalink)
Irish52 Blue Chip Recruit Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 337 Cash: 10,761.12 Bank: 0.00 Total Bankroll: 10,761.12 Donate	Let me give you a 4th reason why we went 3 and 9 last season. First. let me preface my comments with " I love Charlie Weis and all that he stands for...ND could not have selected a better man for the job". Having said that, I suggest you read the myriad of comments during the season attesting to the poor play calling by Charlie. I think at times, he confused the Patriots team with the inexperienced team he had and did not know how to adjust. For support, I look to the changes being made during the off season. I'm confident Charlie will continue to adjust to get the best coaching staff possible and use his players with demonstrated skill more effectively and win...big...for the greatest university in the country. Go Irish!

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