Brian Kelly Revisited (RIP BOZO)

[Hammer Of The Gods]

1. Re BVG: I have said it before and I will say it again. if we don't get pressure on the QB his system sucks. Too many holes. Too many skinny posts open. I am done with him. Seeing Day drop back into coverage while blitzing Schmidt is too much
2. Re Offense: There was lots of poor execution all around. I still don't know why we suck on the road so bad.
3. I just don't think BK is our guy. I was selling at the end of last year and I am sold now. I predicted 9-3 this year, that looks realistic but 8-4 is moreclikely with the defense. I hope that this was his one WTF BK game and we won instead of losing.
4. GT is going to reach inside this defense and show them their sphincters.

BVG blows my mind. It seems that as soon as a big play happens he loses his mind and just goes into straight panic mode. Calls the craziest *hit and prays to the gods there is a mishap or a turnover which rarely happens. Why this dude refuses to pump the brakes and just call a base defense for a couple of plays to let everyone regroup is beyond me. There is a reason he's had 78 jobs it's not for pay raises.

BK...do we know who exactly is calling the plays? What the **ck happened to our tight ends? What about a H back? The offensive play calling yesterday was about as bad as I've seen in BK's tenure.

All in all coaches were terrible and our players as a whole did not perform well either.

I'm ok with Kizer and we can win some balls games still and have a successful season if and only if BK calls a game that suits Kizer's abilities. I don't know if BK has that in him. He's so **cking arrongent.

 

[GATTACA!]

So what part of defense has to do with this? At what point is that on the HC? This is t difficult to understand. UCLA made them look irrelevant and we had to have a 4th and forever TD to win. Haha, justifications don't work here

It wasn't 4th down. Did you even watch the game?

 

[Luckylucci]

I'm not defending the defense at all. You made some comments about Malik and the offense. We moved the ball very well and scored as many points as UCLA, even while Malik wasn't playing that well. I also noted that we were very bad in the red zone and on 3rd down.

Well to your original point I'm glad that your bar for success is a true freshman QB and UCLA. You stick with that. I'd had higher expectations, I guess that's my fault we can't execute better. Malik was horrendous before he went down. Our OL and Prosise were gangsters last night. Probably some of the best in the country and yet we still have a dog fight with VIRGINIA, so something isn't right, but keep on keeping on.

 

[Luckylucci]

It wasn't 4th down. Did you even watch the game?

Your right was thinking of the 4 the and 2, my bad but point remains. Not a good look fellas. And no I didn't watch the game, just making shit up over here, haha.

 

[koonja]

Lucci you're right about the defense being too confusing, IMO. Nyles Morgan needs to play. I'm sorry, but he's not a true freshman anymore. Not only can he make the angles that Schmidt's getting burnt on, he can hit stick people and make plays. He's a wrecking ball and is as good as any MLB that signed in 2014.

I'm not saying Joe is holding us back - I'm saying having a defense that REQUIRES Joe to be in there is holding us back. BVG needs to get a real MLB out there. This isn't Joe hate - we own games because of him - but if he can't cut it against Virginina, USC and Clemson will embarass him. .5 tackles for loss last year from our MLB...

 

[JTLA]

Just posted this in another thread, but thought it was relevant here as well.

I'm not throwing Kelly out, but skepticism is healthy. I thought it would be valuable to re-visit Brian Kelly's results at Cincinnati; looking only at losses and games vs. ranked opponents. Which win was impressive stuff?

I'd also like to remind everyone of the coaching "bush" if you will that was the Big East during the Kelly at Cincinnati era:

West Virginia: Rich Rodriguez (2007) was a major failure at Michigan going 15-22, though he's done an ok job at Arizona since 2012, going 28-14 (15-12 in the Pac12). Bill Stewart (2008-2009) had never been a head coach before and died in 2012 after an odd ousting by Dana Holgorson.

Rutgers: Greg Schiano went on to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-2013, where he went 11-21. He is currently out of coaching.

Pittsburgh: Dave Wannstedt. As a Bears fan I really have nothing more to say about this... other than, he is currently out of coaching.

Connecticut: Randy Edsall inexplicably abandoned UConn for the likes of Maryland, where he has gone 21-31, including 10-22 in conference (ACC and B1G).

South Florida: Jim Leavitt was fired after striking a player in 2009 and attempting get fellow coaches and players to lie about what happened. He is now the defensive coordinator for Colorado. Hey, they held Umass to 14 yesterday.

Louisville: Steve Kragthorpe went 15-21 during the Kelly era, including 5-16 in the BigEast. He has been a positional coach with Texas A&M and LSU since then.

Syracuse: Greg Robinson was fired after 2008 and is currently the defensive coordinator at San Jose State. He was 5-37 as a head coach. Doug Marrone was the coach in 2009 through 2012. He is currently the Jacksonville Jaquars assistant to the head coach and OL coach.

Cincinnati during Kelly era:

2007
W 28-23 @ #21 Rutgers
L 28-24 vs. Louisville
L 24-17 @ Pittsburgh
W 38-33 @ #21 South Florida
W 27-3 vs. #15 Connecticut
L 28-33 vs. #5 West Virginia

2008
L 26-52 @ #4 Oklahoma
L 16-40 @ Connecticut
W 24-10 vs. #23 South Florida
W 26-23 @ #20 West Virginia
W 28-21 vs. #20 Pittsburgh
L 7-20 vs. #12 Virginia Tech (Orange Bowl)

2009
W 28-18 @ #24 Oregon State
W 34-17 @ #21 South Florida
W 24-21 vs. # 23 West Virginia
W 45-44 @ #15 Pittsburgh
L 24-51 vs. #5 Florida (Sugar Bowl - Kelly had left)

 

[dmort]

The hate is a spillover from NDNation

 

[TheSunIsRising]

One thing I saw repeatedly today, and I'm interested if anyone else noticed it, is that Johns threw a ton of balls balls off his back foot and completed a ridiculous amount of those throws (a dozen, maybe?). It just seems like even though we weren't getting home, we were making the QB make throws that are usually very low percentage throws. So the fact that he completed so many of these is probably partially bad luck, partially bad coverage, and partially that however good Johns is overall he seemed good at doing that specific thing which is generally suicide for a passer.

I kind of found the same thing during the game.

It reminded me of 2013 when we were getting a good rush against Gardner, and he was making some VERY bad decisions with the ball, but virtually every single time a catch was made. Gardner was being lauded as a serious Heisman contender. Then, later in the season (and the next year against ND), Gardner looked like a chump in most cases.

Oh, and for some reason Johns had the 'look' of Tate Forcier to me.

In summary, just keep FUCK-Michigan off our schedule and out of any discussions. I swear the talk earlier this week about renewing jinxed the game.

 

[koonja]

My biggest concern is the running game going forward. CJ is balling out, but he cannot be a one man show and the true freshman can only do so much. I don't think Malik being injured (assuming Kizer stays healthy) hurts as much as losing both Jarron Jones and Folston does. If you allowed me to take Malik's injury away, or both Folston/Jarron's, I'd take the latter because they impact the rush game so much on both sides. I actually feel good about Kizer, although missing the running QB will hurt on 3rd downs. But we have one legit RB right now that we're going to have to run into the ground and pray he doesn't wear down/get hurt. Also missing big Jarron in the middle is hurting our LBs more than we hoped IMO.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Well to your original point I'm glad that your bar for success is a true freshman QB and UCLA. You stick with that. I'd had higher expectations, I guess that's my fault we can't execute better. Malik was horrendous before he went down. Our OL and Prosise were gangsters last night. Probably some of the best in the country and yet we still have a dog fight with VIRGINIA, so something isn't right, but keep on keeping on.

And now you're arguing against your own initial point. You said UCLA embarrassed them. You brought up that game as a measuring stick. I pointed out that, despite Malik having a tough game and us being terrible on 3rd down and in the red zone, we actually scored as many points and gained nearly as many yards as them.

 

[ickythump1225]

We only gained 40 fewer yards than UCLA did. I know they likely called off the dogs late in the game, but we moved the ball like crazy, even with Malik missing on a lot of throws. It really came down to 3rd down and the red zone. We were very bad on those two aspects of the game. But we had 460 yards of offense.

Not to pick on you, BUT you could say that about almost every game of the BK era. "We moved the ball so well, we had 5 million yards, we just sucked on 3rd down and the redzone." It's like if we don't score a TD from at least 21 yards out we're not scoring a TD.

 

[TheSunIsRising]

Well to your original point I'm glad that your bar for success is a true freshman QB and UCLA. You stick with that. I'd had higher expectations, I guess that's my fault we can't execute better. Malik was horrendous before he went down. Our OL and Prosise were gangsters last night. Probably some of the best in the country and yet we still have a dog fight with VIRGINIA, so something isn't right, but keep on keeping on.

In my opinion, the OL did not play like gangsters overall; too much inconsistency on short yardage. Too much backfield penetration allowed against a much lighter DL. They were good in many moments, but just never seemed to be able to push the pile when needed. No one willing to 'earn that inch' (on critical 3rd or 4th downs) in the words of Coach D'Amato (Pacino)

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Not to pick on you, BUT you could say that about almost every game of the BK era. "We moved the ball so well, we had 5 million yards, we just sucked on 3rd down and the redzone." It's like if we don't score a TD from at least 21 yards out we're not scoring a TD.

Fair point. I think the OL will help clean that up this year, but we'll find out.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Well to your original point I'm glad that your bar for success is a true freshman QB and UCLA. You stick with that. I'd had higher expectations, I guess that's my fault we can't execute better. Malik was horrendous before he went down.

Rosen went out yesterday and played like dog dick too. I guess the point to take away is that it's tough for first-year starters to be consistent. And I didn't think Zaire was playing that poorly. His accuracy was off but it's not like he was throwing INTs or making bad decisions, he just wasn't as sharp as against Texas. I could have lived with that.

Our OL and Prosise were gangsters last night. Probably some of the best in the country and yet we still have a dog fight with VIRGINIA, so something isn't right, but keep on keeping on.

#6 Auburn - 27
Jacksonville State - 20

#18 Arkansas - 12
Toledo - 16

#21 Missouri - 27
Arkansas State - 20

#20 Boise State - 24
BYU - 35

Winning football games is hard, no matter how lousy we perceive the opponents to be.

 

[Bluto]

Rosen went out yesterday and played like dog dick too. I guess the point to take away is that it's tough for first-year starters to be consistent. And I didn't think Zaire was playing that poorly. His accuracy was off but it's not like he was throwing INTs or making bad decisions, he just wasn't as sharp as against Texas. I could have lived with that.



#6 Auburn - 27
Jacksonville State - 20

#18 Arkansas - 12
Toledo - 16

#21 Missouri - 27
Arkansas State - 20

#20 Boise State - 24
BYU - 35

Winning football games is hard, no matter how lousy we perceive the opponents to be.

Add Arizona State to that list. Cal Poly gave them all they could handle. The Cal Poly coach must have shown All the Right Moves followed by Madden giving the pre game speech. Lol.

 

[gkIrish]

Rosen went out yesterday and played like dog dick too. I guess the point to take away is that it's tough for first-year starters to be consistent. And I didn't think Zaire was playing that poorly. His accuracy was off but it's not like he was throwing INTs or making bad decisions, he just wasn't as sharp as against Texas. I could have lived with that.



#6 Auburn - 27
Jacksonville State - 20

#18 Arkansas - 12
Toledo - 16

#21 Missouri - 27
Arkansas State - 20

#20 Boise State - 24
BYU - 35

Winning football games is hard, no matter how lousy we perceive the opponents to be.

Do you aspire to be on the same level as Arkansas, Missouri, and Boise St.? And sure, Auburn struggled yesterday, but they don't struggle like that very often. How often do the Buckeyes, Alabama, Oregon, and the Florida Sts of the world struggle against highly inferior talent? Hardly ever.

Arizona St. playing like crap or Arkansas losing to Toledo means absolutely nothing to Notre Dame. They aren't our peers.

 

[Cackalacky]

Not to pick on you, BUT you could say that about almost every game of the BK era. "We moved the ball so well, we had 5 million yards, we just sucked on 3rd down and the redzone." It's like if we don't score a TD from at least 21 yards out we're not scoring a TD.

This. This.This. A major recurring theme in BKs tenure. Everything works well except in the red zone. It's like his offense doesn't work inside the 20. I would love to see stats on BKs offensive efficiency inside the red zone or on 3rd down situations. I am betting its average to below average.

 

[Cackalacky]

Do you aspire to be on the same level as Arkansas, Missouri, and Boise St.? And sure, Auburn struggled yesterday, but they don't struggle like that very often. How often do the Buckeyes, Alabama, Oregon, and the Florida Sts of the world struggle against highly inferior talent? Hardly ever.

Arizona St. playing like crap or Arkansas losing to Toledo means absolutely nothing to Notre Dame. They aren't our peers.

Or maybe they are our peers (at least talent and coaching wise) and we just do not like looking in that mirror...

And when I judge NDs performance, I am not looking at win or lose. I am looking at how we arrived at the end result, and without fail, it's the same ish every year. The same problems and no changes . I mean the Special teams are STILL moot six years in.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

With Malik out, can we run a more conservative offense?

I want some fucking usage our TEs.

 

[ickythump1225]

Rosen went out yesterday and played like dog dick too. I guess the point to take away is that it's tough for first-year starters to be consistent. And I didn't think Zaire was playing that poorly. His accuracy was off but it's not like he was throwing INTs or making bad decisions, he just wasn't as sharp as against Texas. I could have lived with that.



#6 Auburn - 27
Jacksonville State - 20

#18 Arkansas - 12
Toledo - 16

#21 Missouri - 27
Arkansas State - 20

#20 Boise State - 24
BYU - 35

Winning football games is hard, no matter how lousy we perceive the opponents to be.

I some day hope to surpass Missouri, Arkansas, and Boise State in terms of football prestige and power but I don't know your personal aspirations for the program. Also, we're 6 years into BK's tenure and it looks strikingly similar to to years 1-5. This was not a misnomer, but a trend with BK. Even 2012 was rife with us underperforming and playing down to teams all year long. We came within seconds of losing to a Pitt team that lost by 2 touchdowns to the Youngstown State Penguins.

Yeah sure every once in a while Alabama, Oregon, or Ohio State gets pushed by some team they shouldn't, but they can take that in stride because they consistently dominate and win 11-12 games a year and (at least in the case of OSU and Alabama) have titles to ease their minds.

Of the "lay up" portion of schedule after USC we'll be pushed by 2 or maybe 3 of those teams though we have no business winning any of them by less than 2 or 3 touchdowns. And in all honesty we might lose 1 or 2 of them.

Don't get me wrong, I want to be wrong on this because I want to see us win every game. I want BK to succeed because it means ND is winning, but nothing in BK's tenure gives me evidence that I'm wrong. Maybe he'll prove me wrong and I'll gladly eat that crow.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Do you aspire to be on the same level as Arkansas, Missouri, and Boise St.? And sure, Auburn struggled yesterday, but they don't struggle like that very often. How often do the Buckeyes, Alabama, Oregon, and the Florida Sts of the world struggle against highly inferior talent? Hardly ever.

Arizona St. playing like crap or Arkansas losing to Toledo means absolutely nothing to Notre Dame. They aren't our peers.

Did you watch Florida State last year? Heck, did you watch them yesterday?

 

[Buster Bluth]

Do you aspire to be on the same level as Arkansas, Missouri, and Boise St.? And sure, Auburn struggled yesterday, but they don't struggle like that very often.

Auburn is almost in the exact same position as Notre Dame actually. They went 8-5 last year and struggled out of the game with JACKSONVILLE STATE. Come on man.

How often do the Buckeyes, Alabama, Oregon, and the Florida Sts of the world struggle against highly inferior talent? Hardly ever.

Florida State just last year played seven games within one touchdown, including games against Miami (4), Boston College (3), Florida (5), and Oklahoma State (6).

Ohio State last year opened with Navy and was losing in the third quarter. I was there, they looked like shit. Then they went and Virginia Tech the next week and remember that overtime victory over Penn State?

Alabama and Oregon have been on some of the most impressive runs in history, so I'm not touching that. But I don't need to do that to prove my point: winning football games is hard, even against inferior opponents.

Arizona St. playing like crap or Arkansas losing to Toledo means absolutely nothing to Notre Dame. They aren't our peers.

They are ranked teams scraping by, or losing, to unranked teams. Next week it'll be the same story for other teams. It's football.

 

[BeauBenken]

Do you aspire to be on the same level as Arkansas, Missouri, and Boise St.? And sure, Auburn struggled yesterday, but they don't struggle like that very often. How often do the Buckeyes, Alabama, Oregon, and the Florida Sts of the world struggle against highly inferior talent? Hardly ever.

Arizona St. playing like crap or Arkansas losing to Toledo means absolutely nothing to Notre Dame. They aren't our peers.

Dude, Florida State almost struggles yearly against highly inferior talent.

Just last year they had 6 games won by less than a touchdown, 3 of those to unranked teams.

EDIT: Looks like Buster has it covered.

 

[Irish YJ]

Do you aspire to be on the same level as Arkansas, Missouri, and Boise St.? And sure, Auburn struggled yesterday, but they don't struggle like that very often. How often do the Buckeyes, Alabama, Oregon, and the Florida Sts of the world struggle against highly inferior talent? Hardly ever.

Arizona St. playing like crap or Arkansas losing to Toledo means absolutely nothing to Notre Dame. They aren't our peers.

I would say though that the Toledos and BGs of the world are always capable of taking down a good power 5 on a good day. Ark and Jack St are inferior programs but have been near or at the top of their divisions and are not the typical junk FCS programs. BYU is BYU and can give anyone a handful.

But to your point, they are not our peers. Neither is Virginia which we would have lost to yesterday had it not been for Luck of the Irish in the last 15 seconds. Sometimes I don't know who our real peers are. I know who I'd like them to be.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

This. This.This. A major recurring theme in BKs tenure. Everything works well except in the red zone. It's like his offense doesn't work inside the 20. I would love to see stats on BKs offensive efficiency inside the red zone or on 3rd down situations. I am betting its average to below average.

If I read this correctly, we were 12th in the country in 3rd down percentage last year.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/third-down-conversion-pct?date=2015-01-12

ETA: We were much worse in red zone percentage, which doesn't surprise me.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct/?date=2015-01-12

 

[Cackalacky]

Dude, Florida State almost struggles yearly against highly inferior talent.

Just last year they had 6 games won by less than a touchdown, 3 of those to unranked teams.

EDIT: Looks like Buster has it covered.

And they kept getting jumped by teams playing better near the end of the season only barely making it to playoffs. ND can't afford to play 7 scrappy games against inferior competition. At some point we have to dominate the lower talent teams or put them away early.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

And they kept getting jumped by teams playing better near the end of the season only barely making it to playoffs. ND can't afford to play 7 scrappy games against inferior competition. At some point we have to dominate the lower talent teams or put them away early.

And we're 1 for 2 in doing that.

ETA: I don't think we're making the playoff, by any means. I just don't understand calling for heads to roll the week after our defense finally seemed to "get it" against Texas.

 

[Cackalacky]

If I read this correctly, we were 12th in the country in 3rd down percentage last year.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/third-down-conversion-pct?date=2015-01-12

ETA: We were much worse in red zone percentage, which doesn't surprise me.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct/?date=2015-01-12

Thanks. 3rd down efficiency as low as 70 and high as 13. Inconsistent.

The highest red zone percentage.... ND was ranked 51 in 2010. The lowest is 82nd.
Unacceptable.

 

[irishandy]

If not BK, then who?

I fully agree here. The toughest head coaching position in the county is ND.

 

[Cackalacky]

And we're 1 for 2 in doing that.

ETA: I don't think we're making the playoff, by any means. I just don't understand calling for heads to roll the week after our defense finally seemed to "get it" against Texas.

We don't know what they "got". I don't put to much stock in first games. Not enough tape on some teams plus the whole off-season to game plan. Plus we don't know how bad Texas is. That being said, UVA looked like they found everything that worked against BVG last year and used all of it. I swear I was watching Fsu and UNCs game plans yesterday.

I am not calling for heads. I just am not supporting BK any more because nothing has changed even with all the talent we supposedly have. BVG can get to stepping though. We are gonna lose so many games because he insists on being cute instead of putting our guys in positions to succeed.