Many coaches do not go full contact during the season the risk of injury is too great. Another reason that Coach Weis would be hesitant to do more full contact drills is the fact that the depth is not there. If a front-line player goes down with a serious injury, ND does not have the personnel to bounce back from this injury like a Michigan or USC. One of the most important variables in having a good season this year was staying healthy. If there is any reason practice is scaled back, I would think that this is it.
Amen!
This isn't the Rockne, Leahy, or Parshegian era. They don't play the best 11 for 60 minutes (Rockne and Leahy) nor are there unlimited scholarship. Take a look at the '72 Championship there's a 140 players in the photo. The game has changed since then in Div 1. There are only 85 scholarships today and ND doesn't even have that many. Now deduct the maimed and walking wounded (most we don't even know about).
Lou Holtz wasn't a fan of a red jersey for QBs until his 93 starting QB was knocked out for the season in practice the week before the season opened. Davie took crap from fans for the point scoring system in the B&G game. I went to that game specifically to see Getherall run back punts. No Kick Returns - too high a potential for injury we were told. During the '97 season Davie had to limit practice intensity due to the huge number of injuries (I used to track them from daily reports). ND had something like 52 scholarship players available to play. Remember the game where Stanford ran all over ND? There were 4 LBs out with injuries. ND started a walkon and played another in that game with the obvious effect, Stanford had a pair of 100 yd rushers and a win.
ND has played the #1 toughest schedule in the nation. Five tough opponents with no breather, no week off to mend. Starting FB - out, Starting LB - out, Starting CB - out, Starting Kickoff Returner - out, #3 WR - Out (before the season started), even Renkes is out. Morton went down in the PU game. Harris missed preseason camp without injuries and I suspect is still feeling the effects. Ferrine missed the 1st 4 games due to injury. I've seen Gordon on the sideline on crutches. There are others. And there is NO DEPTH behind most of these guys. The dropoff isn't between #1 and #2 in reality it's #1 to a #3 or #4.
Let's go back to smashmouth fooball! Yeah, Line 'em 1st team against 1st team!Testosterone! Last man standing! Hit 'em, hit'em, hit'em.
Do you wanna lose Crum to a practice injury? Despite the lamentations about Abiamiri, Laws, Landri, or Fromme do you want their replacements playing 30 mintues a game? A lot of guys screamed for Walls to play and there are those screaming for Toryan to start at MLB("Start The Freshman!") . Get real.
Walls played and got torched. Not once, not twice, routinely. And not against the Boilers #1 receiver, nor against their #2 WR. ND shut those two down. Walls lined up against their least productive WR. Walls may be an All-America some day (I hope so) but I didn't get visions of Bobby Taylor as a freshman watching Darrin against PU, and neither did any of you. He's the answer in the future. Not today. Young is the answer in the future, not today, otherwise Duncan wouldn't be spelling him.
Which RB should ND use for the live tackling drill we do have an abundance of healthy bodies back there, do we? Oh that's right there's another position due to recruiting and injury that's hurting. Should we sacrifice Aldridge's knees for live tackling or give Prince 40 carries in practice as the tackling dummy? Walker balked at going through the gauntlet machine last week. Perhaps 25 full contact tackles on Walker or Rhema this midweek will provide fresh legs for Stanford. It'd be great to see Anastasio start wouldn't it?
The numbers aren't there for full bore practice today. Tackling can be worked on otherwise.
But let's be realistic. If the score of the PU game was 35-14 most of these kind of posts wouldn't have materialized, would they? If it was for the 88 yard TD everybody's throwing back a beer and enjoying the day, like scooper. If Walls had made the INT or knocked it away, or - made the tackle, no thread. Or if Zibby had made the tackle. Was Zibby, the boxer, the mauler, really trying to make an arm tackle? Was he trying to blow up the receiver ala a Ndukwe hit to get the Selwyn Lymon to drop the ball by only using one arm? Was Zibby gambling on a strip and missed?
I've played back that play several times. If you watch the sequence, Walls has his hand on the WR's right shoulder. Lymon spins counterclockwise and goes upfield, either intentionally to slip Walls grab, or because Walls spun him. Meanwhile Zibby runs right through the space Lymon would have occupied had he not spun counterclockwise. Half a step different and Lymon would have been run over by a truck.
The announcer said two ND defenders ran into each other. They didn't make contact with each other. One's behind Lymon; the other in front. I'd like to give Lymon credit for a Bushlike move. We'd all be praising a great catch and elusive move if Rhema or Jeff had done so, wouldn't we? But I think the move was serendipitous. Lymon didn't know he was about to get clocked by Zibby. But as he turned counterclockwise reducing his profile ZIbby whiffs on the smaller profile.
Lambert gets praise for his aggressive tackle, forced fumble, and fumble recovery. I keep reading about wrapping on the tackle and driving through. But I'm apparently the only one who didn't see Lambert get his arms on the ball carrier. Watch the replay. Lambert dives at his feet. He looks like a kid playing leapfrog as the ball carrier goes over the top of him and fumbles.
Yes, there's room for improvement. But when our ball carrier eludes a tackler it's a great run or great YAC. When the other guys do it, it's only because of very, very bad tackling. The worse ever. Sometimes the other guys can play as well, particularly when they play for decent teams with mulitple weapons.
