Sep 15 | at Michigan State

[greyhammer90]

After Arkansas's loss. There's actually a decent chance we get College Gameday next week. Bama/Arkansas is no longer interesting and the only other good games that I can see are an unranked Tennessee taking on a overrated Florida, and USC getting ready to kick the **** out of a Luckless Stanford.

Thoughts?

 

[yankeeND]

Well this game certainly got more interesting after today! Would be a huge win if we can pull it off! Cierre and whoever starts as our place kicker is the key to the game IMO. Of coarse you gotta throw the turnover battle in there as well as ridickulous said. Get iced down fellas this ones gonna be a battle!

 

[yankeeND]

After Arkansas's loss. There's actually a decent chance we get College Gameday next week. Bama/Arkansas is no longer interesting and the only other good games that I can see are an unranked Tennessee taking on a overrated Florida, and USC getting ready to kick the **** out of a Luckless Stanford.

Thoughts?

Well since the game is on ESPN and it's at MSU, I could see it happening.

 

[arrowryan]

Is Golson still the starter for this game?

 

[greyhammer90]

Is Golson still the starter for this game?

For the first 58 minutes.

 

[NDhoosier]

I know Golston is a beast for Mich St. but I am hoping the tag team of Gaston and Short are tougher than what we will face next week. If we are able to get a run game going against Mich State, we will have a balanced attack and should be able to win because we now know that Golson can do very well! Purdue has a couple of very good corners.

Low scoring game, but we wont be able to win if we cant run like we did tonight. We dont have to have a 300 yard ground game like we did at Navy, but if we can get 100-150 yards, we have a good shot. If we get 150+yards on the ground, we win, plain and simple.

 

[irishknight35]

I see Golson having an even better game against Mich St. He played well enough to win against purdue and made key plays with his arm and legs but the lights seemed to be just a bit too bright for him in his first start at ND Stadium. He put up solid stats and I was impressed with his abilities despite his seemingly nervousness, which is understandable considering he is a RS freshman, at the end of the game. If he has more of an in-charge demeanor about him/air of confidence during that second half then Rees never sees the field in my opinion. A "good enough" showing while getting the W at home I think gives this kid confidence to kick it up a notch next week. I would however like to hear Golson's thoughts on being taken out and whether or not his hand was truly banged up enough to keep him out during crunch time. I would hope he at least tried to make his case to stay in but only those on or near the sidelines could answer that.

 

[Buster Bluth]

You guys should start to accept that teams will put eight in the box and force Kelly to throw the ball. There are no more Navy games.

I stated in the run up to Purdue, the Irish will simply not be able to overpower teams like they're playing a high school squad. If you're facing a loaded box of FBS-caliber players and run zone plays with no serious receiving threat on both sides of the field, it's not going to be pretty. It wasn't.

Golson has handled this all pretty terrifically. Notre Dame desperately needs another receiver to step up. Kelly needs a competent burner badly.

It's going to help a lot having Wood back. I hope you all see now that he's clearly the best back. Purdue brought all kinds of pressure at Golic and Theo, and it worked for them.

Here are the Spartans:

DE: 6'7 275 JR (1st team Big Ten)
DT: 6'2 320 SR
NG: 6'5 320 JR
DE: 6'2 250 SO

LB: 6'1 230 SR
LB: 5'11 232 JR
LB: 6'3 252 JR

They are BIG in the middle. Golic better eat his Wheaties.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Scout rated their ten best players:

1. CB Johnny Adams, Sr.
2. DE William Gholston, Jr.
3. RB Le’Veon Bell, Jr.
4. LB Max Bullough, Jr.
5. LB Denicos Allen, Jr.
6. OG Chris McDonald, Sr.
7. LB Chris Norman, Sr.
8. DE Marcus Rush, Soph.
9. S Isaiah Lewis, Jr.
10. CB Darqueze Dennard, Jr.

That's a lot of defense. And with two 320lb DTs, I don't take solace in the DL inexperience.

 

[tko]

You guys should start to accept that teams will put eight in the box and force Kelly to throw the ball. There are no more Navy games.

I stated in the run up to Purdue, the Irish will simply not be able to overpower teams like they're playing a high school squad. If you're facing a loaded box of FBS-caliber players and run zone plays with no serious receiving threat on both sides of the field, it's not going to be pretty. It wasn't.

Golson has handled this all pretty terrifically. Notre Dame desperately needs another receiver to step up. Kelly needs a competent burner badly.

It's going to help a lot having Wood back. I hope you all see now that he's clearly the best back. Purdue brought all kinds of pressure at Golic and Theo, and it worked for them.

Here are the Spartans:

DE: 6'7 275 JR (1st team Big Ten)
DT: 6'2 320 SR
NG: 6'5 320 JR
DE: 6'2 250 SO

LB: 6'1 230 SR
LB: 5'11 232 JR
LB: 6'3 252 JR

They are BIG in the middle. Golic better eat his Wheaties.

Anyone know the status of Chris Brown?

 

[FLDomer]

You guys should start to accept that teams will put eight in the box and force Kelly to throw the ball. There are no more Navy games.

I stated in the run up to Purdue, the Irish will simply not be able to overpower teams like they're playing a high school squad. If you're facing a loaded box of FBS-caliber players and run zone plays with no serious receiving threat on both sides of the field, it's not going to be pretty. It wasn't.

Golson has handled this all pretty terrifically. Notre Dame desperately needs another receiver to step up. Kelly needs a competent burner badly.

It's going to help a lot having Wood back. I hope you all see now that he's clearly the best back. Purdue brought all kinds of pressure at Golic and Theo, and it worked for them.

Here are the Spartans:

DE: 6'7 275 JR (1st team Big Ten)
DT: 6'2 320 SR
NG: 6'5 320 JR
DE: 6'2 250 SO

LB: 6'1 230 SR
LB: 5'11 232 JR
LB: 6'3 252 JR

They are BIG in the middle. Golic better eat his Wheaties.

I don't entirely agree with this. I see Golson with eyes only for Eifert. There were several plays in both games now where Eifert was covered but EG failed to to check to his next progression. I think ND is fine at WR and it will show as EG continues to learn. Jones, Daniels and Toma are very good receivers.

 

[irishff1014]

I agree with Buster Bluth that they are going to load the box. Hopefully Eifert can play he is a differnce maker. This is going to be a week of adjustments. They have tape of a better defense and Mich State defense is going to look like Purdues alot. Lets see how this team does adjusment wise.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I don't entirely agree with this. I see Golson with eyes only for Eifert. There were several plays in both games now where Eifert was covered but EG failed to to check to his next progression. I think ND is fine at WR and it will show as EG continues to learn. Jones, Daniels and Toma are very good receivers.

It's not so much about where Golson is throwing it, but the spacing of the defense.

 

[Junkhead]

After Arkansas's loss. There's actually a decent chance we get College Gameday next week. Bama/Arkansas is no longer interesting and the only other good games that I can see are an unranked Tennessee taking on a overrated Florida, and USC getting ready to kick the **** out of a Luckless Stanford.

Thoughts?

Isn't gameday supposedly here for ND/Michigan the following week? If so, I can't see ND/MSU happening.

 

[IrishLax]

Was hopeful we'd see Lombard at RG and Nichols at RT this season to give us serious size up front. Clearly that's not happening... with or without the injury to Nichols. Who can step up at RG? Hanratty? Nick Martin? Hegarty? Someone needs to now.

 

[NYIrish14]

I hope Golson starts to let it loose a little more this game. He seems really worried about turning the ball over but he's still doing a great job for a sophomore. Mayock talked about this during the game as well. I think he still needs to get more comfortable.

 

[Grimm]

Just watched the first half again. I know many are saying that having Cierre back as a blocker will be key next week. What is curious to me is I only saw two instances on pass plays where the RB was called to try to help in the blocking. I also saw very little play action. Is this because you don't do this when they are loading the box? They don't think Theo can block? Will be curious to watch the second half again.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

It's going to be a tough, low-scoring game that I think will come down to field position. It won't be pretty.

 

[tommyIRISH23]

It will be a slugfest, I hope our Oline takes this weeks beating personally and comes out ready to kill. We need our defense to play angry and punch MSU in the mouth.

Hopefully we have eveyrone back healthy.

ND 24
MSU 13

 

[jimmymac]

Ill be there! Lets get to 3-0 baby! GO IRISH

 

[gkIrish]

Ill be there! Lets get to 3-0 baby! GO IRISH

I'll be there too! Go Irish

 

[magogian]

Game is won by a less than a touchdown. Likely a field goal.

 

[RallySonsOfND]

Best wishes to all the IE members going to Spartan Stadium for the game. Just warning you though that they are typically some of THE worst fans. I've had better experiences at UM than MSU.

 

[FLDomer]

It's not so much about where Golson is throwing it, but the spacing of the defense.

Explain. (not tryen to be a jerk, just wanna see your point of view) IMO and mind you I only played football from pee wee through college and coached for 3 yrs for a HS. Eifert is covered heavily (thankfully he is a monster) but others have been open on some of he passes forced into Eifert. Now don't get me wrong I believe Golson is good, just needs to learn. The spacing of the defense in both games has left others open. Golson just needs to learn because as seen in the drive where he threw his TD he distributed the ball a little (if my memory serves).

 

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

I'm glad Cierre will be back for Sparty. Big game for our Irish.

 

[NDhoosier]

Being optimistic and a ND fan... ill say 14-10 (ND). If we can hold Le'Veon Bell under 100 yards, we win this game.

 

[Chicago Irish Fan]

Notre Dame desperately needs another receiver to step up.

I was pretty encourage by Daniels before he went down. I believe he had something like 4 receptions for 70 yards in about a half of football.

 

[MPClinton22]

I'm going to be at this game too with a bunch of my roommates and other friends from ND. Has anyone been to a game up at MSU before? Any information on the tailgating scene there? Any tips or info would be awesome!

And I think we are able to win this game, but it will be very low scoring like everyone else has said. I mean Boise State, whom we are considerably more talented then, took MSU to the brink. From what I've seen Bell seems like a power, between the tackles kind of runner (correct me if this is wrong), and our defensive line is fantastic against these sorts of runners. I'm gonna say we win 17-10.

 

[tdbaum1]

I'm glad Cierre will be back for Sparty. Big game for our Irish.

From Notre Dame's blog on ESPN. "Asked if he has a No. 1 running back with Cierre Wood back in the fold, Kelly said: "Yes, Theo Riddick."

Notre Dame Football Blog - ESPN

I guess we'll see how it pans out. I just can't imagine Cierre doesn't get the start. Not only do I think he is a better running back at this point in their careers, but then we add Theo as another weapon on the field. I don't know if Kelly is trying to light a fire under Cierre or what.

 

[Cali_domer]

Odds are out.

College Football Line Movements for Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Michigan State Spartans by Las Vegas Sportsbooks at VegasInsider.com.