Ok damnit, I just got back from N.O

[irishtexan]

I just got back from the Bowl. First and foremost let me say that the LSU fans were very classy and respectable. I only had to deal with one a-hole the whole night. It was awesome.......until the second half. Here are my observations:

Ndukwe is not a good safety. I have stood by this guy long enough but now after seeing him play in person he is very flawed in reading the defenses and he has tremendous coverage problems. Sure he likes to hit, but he BITES HARDER THAN A SHANGHAI HOOKER ON EVERY PLAYACTION PASS.


Rhema Mcknight did not come to play football. I dont know what this guy was doing all night, but he did not appear enthusiastic the whole night.

Samardzija finally got flagged for running his mouth. He does it in every game and it finally caught up to him and it cost the team a huge penalty.

Darius Walker is scared to make contact. He will not hit anyone to fight for extra yards. He is also slower than I thought. Everyone can say "I am a hater". I dont care. Hit someone for extra yards Darius. Thats why you are wearing pads.


Marcus Freeman. Good drop on the crucial first drive butthead.

David Grimes. Good things to come from this young man next year.

Tom Zbikowski. I could tell he is sick and tired of getting huge points put up on the defense. He just looked at the defense like he was disgusted with them.


Brady Quinn. Good luck in the pros. You are still overthrowing receivers though.

Rick Minter. His scheme does not work. There were holes all over the secondary all night. Bend dont break style is not going to win a game against some one like LSU. I am not saying fire him just yet, but if he does not get his crap together next year (with better players) and show some improvement, I am sure he will be canned.

Charlie Weis. I still stand by you Chuck. You are going to bring us bigger wins and many bowls when your classes start playing.

The only highlight of the night was really the band. They were outstanding. But we have spring to look forward to and some new fresh faces to be playmakers. This loss sucks hard, but I am already anticipating next season. 10-3 is an awesome record to me, and its alot better than 5-7 or 6-6.

 

[SBDomer]

Just got back also......and I totally agree with your observations, although there is no next year for Minter IMO. Different players,same scheme. And BTW where is that "nasty football team" we were promised?

 

[kjones]

I just don't see the D-Walk criticism this game. He ran for over 100 yards and had some impressive outside runs where his speed got him extra yards. If anyone did his job on offense, I'd have to say it was D-Walk. Our recievers couldn't seem to get open, and Brady didn't have a great day throwing the ball, too many high passes IMO. Defense, well, I'm just tired of talking about it... we're just not good enough.

 

[irishN1]

Hey! Irishtexan good post!! I couldn't agree with you more it's a whole lot different when you see a game live! my friend took me to Troy's Bowl this year,you see alot more,you can watch the play develop,all night I kept wondering when Minter was going to come out of cover 2? I'm with you lets see what happens this year with new players,I only hope it's better than what we've seen lately!

 

[irishtexan]

Exactly. That cover 2 scheme was getting slaughtered all night.

 

[sonomairishfan]

great post irishtexan.

i agree with almost everything. i don't agree with DW. he never has been a physical back, but he is the key to our offense. remember when we were feeding him the rock, we scored ALL of our points.

otherwise nice post!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm glad you had a good experience with the LSU fans, i have heard they are a good bunch.

 

[irish_10]

I just got back from the Bowl. First and foremost let me say that the LSU fans were very classy and respectable. I only had to deal with one a-hole the whole night. It was awesome.......until the second half. Here are my observations:

Ndukwe is not a good safety. I have stood by this guy long enough but now after seeing him play in person he is very flawed in reading the defenses and he has tremendous coverage problems. Sure he likes to hit, but he BITES HARDER THAN A SHANGHAI HOOKER ON EVERY PLAYACTION PASS.


Rhema Mcknight did not come to play football. I dont know what this guy was doing all night, but he did not appear enthusiastic the whole night.

Samardzija finally got flagged for running his mouth. He does it in every game and it finally caught up to him and it cost the team a huge penalty.

Darius Walker is scared to make contact. He will not hit anyone to fight for extra yards. He is also slower than I thought. Everyone can say "I am a hater". I dont care. Hit someone for extra yards Darius. Thats why you are wearing pads.


Marcus Freeman. Good drop on the crucial first drive butthead.

David Grimes. Good things to come from this young man next year.

Tom Zbikowski. I could tell he is sick and tired of getting huge points put up on the defense. He just looked at the defense like he was disgusted with them.


Brady Quinn. Good luck in the pros. You are still overthrowing receivers though.

Rick Minter. His scheme does not work. There were holes all over the secondary all night. Bend dont break style is not going to win a game against some one like LSU. I am not saying fire him just yet, but if he does not get his crap together next year (with better players) and show some improvement, I am sure he will be canned.

Charlie Weis. I still stand by you Chuck. You are going to bring us bigger wins and many bowls when your classes start playing.

The only highlight of the night was really the band. They were outstanding. But we have spring to look forward to and some new fresh faces to be playmakers. This loss sucks hard, but I am already anticipating next season. 10-3 is an awesome record to me, and its alot better than 5-7 or 6-6.

That was a good read. Thanks for the perspective.

 

[ND Lifer]

I just got back from NO, also. There is a lot of blame to throw around.

1, Charlie's dumb call on the fake kick deep in ND territory early in the 1st Q????? Gave the impression he didn't have any confidence in his team. Wrong time and place for that call.

2. Quinn looked terrible all night.

3. The defense looked confused all night. LSU had wide open receivers. The long pass plays had LSU recivers running totally free... and I mean more than 1 reciever was wide open.

4. LB's are so bad that Zibby & Duke have to back them up on run plays.

This was another 600 yard game against our defense (just like last year against OSU). I'm sick and tired of getting blown out in big games. We haven't won one yet under Charlie!!! Let's forget all this talk about NC's. Let's first play the good teams at least close and quit getting blown out. Once we accomplish that, then talk NC's. Charlie's honeymoon period is over as far as I'm concerned!!

The first order of business is get rid of Minter and Lewis, the secondary coach. When you give up 600 yards in a game, you don't give your offense much of a chance. It's happened too often.

The second order of business is to ACTUALLY put the NASTY aspect into our football team. It isn't there. The team always seems flat and is never reved up for a game. This is one of the area's that Charlie needs to change. College kids need a little RAH! RAH!, not just a "going about business attitude".

Third, keep improving the offense and the total team talent. DEPTH!

Then, and only then, will we be able to compete like a ND team should compete.

 

[noel fighting irish hall]

I really enjoyed the comments from the guys who were actually there at the game. It is true, you get a better understanding of what is really going on when you can see the entire play unfold. Sometimes there are guys on the bench who should be starting, or guys playing the wrong position. A good caoch recognizes these things. Parsegian made stars out of boys who the year before were bench warmers. We will never know if one of our benchwarmers wouldn't be better than a guy who sees a lot of action.

 

[NDAlumSon]

Here are my observations:

Ndukwe is not a good safety. I have stood by this guy long enough but now after seeing him play in person he is very flawed in reading the defenses and he has tremendous coverage problems. Sure he likes to hit, but he BITES HARDER THAN A SHANGHAI HOOKER ON EVERY PLAYACTION PASS.

Agreed.

Rhema Mcknight did not come to play football. I dont know what this guy was doing all night, but he did not appear enthusiastic the whole night.

Looked like he didn't give a f**k!

Samardzija finally got flagged for running his mouth. He does it in every game and it finally caught up to him and it cost the team a huge penalty.

This is true. But he was the only one who showed any fire all night.

Darius Walker is scared to make contact. He will not hit anyone to fight for extra yards. He is also slower than I thought.

We've always known that. Had a good game nonetheless.

Marcus Freeman. Good drop on the crucial first drive butthead.

Sign of the night to come. Easy catch too. So much for starting fast.

David Grimes. Good things to come from this young man next year.

His size will be his limitation going forward.

Tom Zbikowski. I could tell he is sick and tired of getting huge points put up on the defense. He just looked at the defense like he was disgusted with them.

Zibby has shitty recognizition skills.

Brady Quinn. Good luck in the pros. You are still overthrowing receivers though.

No he isn't ! He consistently UNDER throws them.
I've been down this road before here.

Rick Minter. His scheme does not work. There were holes all over the secondary all night. Bend dont break style is not going to win a game against some one like LSU. I am not saying fire him just yet, but if he does not get his crap together next year (with better players) and show some improvement, I am sure he will be canned.

He's gone.

Charlie Weis. I still stand by you Chuck. You are going to bring us bigger wins and many bowls when your classes start playing.

True.

The only highlight of the night was really the band.

That was an outstanding National Anthem on the horn. Superb.

 

[BestBIrish47]

Arrived back in Texas from the Big Easy

Arrived back in Texas from the Big Easy

For the most part the LSU fans were pretty cool, except in the 2nd half, then they became normal SEC fans. I am so damn sick of Rhema underacheiving........ he had so much promise...........hope greg little stays.......I heard he is taking another visit........ bourbon street was crazy fun!!! GO irish!!!

 

[solo]

I just got back from NO, also. There is a lot of blame to throw around.

1, Charlie's dumb call on the fake kick deep in ND territory early in the 1st Q????? Gave the impression he didn't have any confidence in his team. Wrong time and place for that call.

2. Quinn looked terrible all night.

3. The defense looked confused all night. LSU had wide open receivers. The long pass plays had LSU recivers running totally free... and I mean more than 1 reciever was wide open.

4. LB's are so bad that Zibby & Duke have to back them up on run plays.

This was another 600 yard game against our defense (just like last year against OSU). I'm sick and tired of getting blown out in big games. We haven't won one yet under Charlie!!! Let's forget all this talk about NC's. Let's first play the good teams at least close and quit getting blown out. Once we accomplish that, then talk NC's. Charlie's honeymoon period is over as far as I'm concerned!!

The first order of business is get rid of Minter and Lewis, the secondary coach. When you give up 600 yards in a game, you don't give your offense much of a chance. It's happened too often.

The second order of business is to ACTUALLY put the NASTY aspect into our football team. It isn't there. The team always seems flat and is never reved up for a game. This is one of the area's that Charlie needs to change. College kids need a little RAH! RAH!, not just a "going about business attitude".

Third, keep improving the offense and the total team talent. DEPTH!

Then, and only then, will we be able to compete like a ND team should compete.

I don't think it is possible to inject "nasty" into this team. The team still sonmewhat has Willingham's demeanor. They simply aren't nasty.

I think we won't see NASTY until Weis' guys get in place. Until then, we will have a "nice team".