Even Terry Bradshaw commented "if youre down 41-14 and throw a 1 yard pass, you might as well get the young guys in"
Of course on defense - same old story - get a reciever down field and air it out and youre sure to get yourself 2-3 50+ yard TDs against the ND defense.
The fake punt was as dumb a call as Ive seen. ....."you cant win a game in the first half but you can sure lose a game in the first half."
In 4 weeks prep, with an opponent everybody knew was better, there was NOTHING new in the ND arsenal. We ran on them in the first half at will - 2nd half Walker gets 3 yards after a 125 first half.
I would say, at this point, the only saving grace is the incoming recruit class, other than that, ND is far behind the elite teams, and Id even say far behind the boise's and Arkansas' and even maybe a BYU and any other passing team in the fringe top 20.
My comments on the original post and the general comments around Weis after 2 years:
-WB, quoting Bradshaw for his expertise??? the guys not the most erudite color guy on TV: screw that, Bradshaw is an idiot (if they had the Wonderlic when he was drafted, he would have probably beaten Vince's record)
-same old story for the defense: you're right, but WTF were you expecting??? Not like much was going to change in the secondary or pass rush in the last month (no free agent market in CFB)
-fake punt was too risky for my taste as well....but I do agree that it is definitely one of those things that is looked at in posterity (Carroll looked like an idiot going for it last year in the RB; if they get that yard they win the NC. Air Force and DeBerry were criticized for going for two against Tenn this year....because they lost. Boise St were 'gutsy' to go for two in OT in the Fiesta; but if they were stopped, Peterson looks like an IDIOT)
-What 'NEW' things were you looking for in a month's preparation that would have made a difference??? Water to wine?? Many of the people on here were predicting a BIG loss as soon as LSU were announced as the opponent.
-Your comment that ND is behind the elite teams.....I agree, but more importantly so does Weis.
I think that this last point is what is really instrumental. 2-3 years ago this team was losing to the likes of Pitt, Purdue, BC (2 years in a row), Syracuse, Oregon State, and MSU. In the last two years the only game of that 'mid' caliber that has resulted in a loss was MSU last year; granted there have been some close calls, but the 2004 team was a couple of plays away from being 5-6 or 4-7.
Also, the 2005 recruiting class was almost non-existent (ranked #40 per Rivals), the 2004 class was ranked #32 according to Rivals (and as noted many times much of that class is largely
GONE), and the 2003 class was a respectable 12th. Now over the same time period the LSU classes have been (reverse chronology from 2005->2003) 22nd, 2nd, and 1st. Obviously looking at recruiting classes is an imperfect science (FSU have some good classes in that time period), but it is indicative of a talent gap.
This team has definitely moved forward, but other than the 'guy' on the wall near the stadium, there aren't enough miracles right now to make this team elite. This is going to take work, there are no quick fixes unfortunately. The big losses are unfortunate, but are more indicative of where this team is than last years close loss to SC due to HUGE positive energy (oh, and the long GRASS helped to).......
