Marcus Freeman named Dick Corbett Head Football Coach

[Crazy Balki]

What does giving up 220 yds rushing and have a mediocre run game have to do with the FACT we had 14 points until 5 seconds left in the game. Read that again. 14 points until 5 seconds left in the game against Marshall. Thats not on the QB? Its. Ot possible our run game suffered just like it did all season because our QBs were awful and opponents knew it? Its not on Buchner that he missed a wife open Lemzy for 7 pts that was visibly deflating at the time it happened? Its not on Buchner he threw one of his many career pick 6’s in what was a 1 score game at the time?

You keep referencing Marshalls 220 yds rushing. Navy runs for that or similar every year against us and we put up more than 14 pts and win the game. Not to mention a large portion of that total came very late in the game and of that portion, most on one drive. You reference it like Marshall just controlled the game all game amd our offense didnt have a chance. The offense didnt have a chance because our QB play sucked.

I love your enthusiasm and eternal optimism about the team, and willingness to argue and defend your stance right or wrong until the end of eternity but in this case you’re just wrong. We win that game with the quality of starting QB play that probably 75% of Power 5 teams had last year. Hell we probably win had Pyne played the whole game. Its tough to win when your starting QB is a turnover machine with a knack for throwing pick 6’s. Would love to know where Buchner falls historically in % of career pass attempts
Being intercepted for touchdowns actually.

I have had Irishdrunk on ignore for the last 6 months and couldn’t care less about putup, you’re just ignoring reality for whatever reason.

I'm ignoring reality? You continue to ignore facts and distort narratives in order to support your claim.

You ask what does giving 22 yards rushing and a mediocre run game have to do with the fact we had 14 points until the end of the game. Is this serious? You're asking what our OL getting abused and pushed around constantly had to do with us struggling to put up points? Turns out, when you have a brand new QB, it's kind of important to run the football effectively. Going for 3.5 yards per carry is the opposite of effective. It's downright putrid.

And giving up 220 yards rushing means that Marshall is owning ND's defensive front as well, and there were many times that Marshall would go on long, momentum killing drives right after ND finally did something positive on offense. Doesn't help that your offense struggles all game, finally gets some positive momentum and then has to watch as the defense gets worked for the next 10 minutes.

If you don't think any of this factored heavily into ND's loss, then you are the one ignoring reality.

I mean, for crying out loud dude. You said that we probably win if Pyne played the whole game? How is that realistic based on what we saw. Pyne literally went in and immediately THREW A PICK! And we saw Pyne against a far worse defense look absolutely awful when he played at home against a garbage Stanford team.

Here's the problem. You are just assuming that any but the bottom quarter of Power 5 QB's. But you seem to be gauging what a Power 5 QB is on average vs. Buchner at his worst. Let's take a look at a few of Slovis and Daniels' worst games.

Slovis:
vs. North Carolina (14/31 236 yards 0 TDs)
vs. Duke (15/32 190 yards 1 TD 2 INTs)
vs. Louisville (16/29 158 yards 0 TDs 2 INTs)

Daniels:
vs. Iowa St (8/22 81 yards 1 TD 1 INT)
vs. Oklahoma (7/12 65 yards 0 TD 1 INT) Got pulled in the 2nd quarter
vs. Texas Tech (23/36 194 yards 1 TD 3 INT)

I'm not an eternal optimist. I just am not bogged down with bad logic. You want to say that Buchner would've never improved or that he was the primary reason ND lost, be my guest. It's absolute nonsense, but you do you.

None of this has anything to do with Buchner anyways. This has everything to do with the notion that ND played a tougher slate in 2021 vs. 2022, which is not well supported at all when you put together the sheer number of winning teams last year vs. '21, which ND played far more last year. I don't know how you can come to the conclusion that ND played a tougher schedule when literally the entire back half of 2021, ND played ZERO teams with a winning record. More than half the schedule was made up of losing teams. Not to mention, putting the top portion of the schedule up, ND's 2022 best opponents trump 2021. You can look at it any which way, it's not close.

 

[PutuporShutup]

I'm ignoring reality? You continue to ignore facts and distort narratives in order to support your claim.

You ask what does giving 22 yards rushing and a mediocre run game have to do with the fact we had 14 points until the end of the game. Is this serious? You're asking what our OL getting abused and pushed around constantly had to do with us struggling to put up points? Turns out, when you have a brand new QB, it's kind of important to run the football effectively. Going for 3.5 yards per carry is the opposite of effective. It's downright putrid.

And giving up 220 yards rushing means that Marshall is owning ND's defensive front as well, and there were many times that Marshall would go on long, momentum killing drives right after ND finally did something positive on offense. Doesn't help that your offense struggles all game, finally gets some positive momentum and then has to watch as the defense gets worked for the next 10 minutes.

If you don't think any of this factored heavily into ND's loss, then you are the one ignoring reality.

I mean, for crying out loud dude. You said that we probably win if Pyne played the whole game? How is that realistic based on what we saw. Pyne literally went in and immediately THREW A PICK! And we saw Pyne against a far worse defense look absolutely awful when he played at home against a garbage Stanford team.

Here's the problem. You are just assuming that any but the bottom quarter of Power 5 QB's. But you seem to be gauging what a Power 5 QB is on average vs. Buchner at his worst. Let's take a look at a few of Slovis and Daniels' worst games.

Slovis:
vs. North Carolina (14/31 236 yards 0 TDs)
vs. Duke (15/32 190 yards 1 TD 2 INTs)
vs. Louisville (16/29 158 yards 0 TDs 2 INTs)

Daniels:
vs. Iowa St (8/22 81 yards 1 TD 1 INT)
vs. Oklahoma (7/12 65 yards 0 TD 1 INT) Got pulled in the 2nd quarter
vs. Texas Tech (23/36 194 yards 1 TD 3 INT)

I'm not an eternal optimist. I just am not bogged down with bad logic. You want to say that Buchner would've never improved or that he was the primary reason ND lost, be my guest. It's absolute nonsense, but you do you.

None of this has anything to do with Buchner anyways. This has everything to do with the notion that ND played a tougher slate in 2021 vs. 2022, which is not well supported at all when you put together the sheer number of winning teams last year vs. '21, which ND played far more last year. I don't know how you can come to the conclusion that ND played a tougher schedule when literally the entire back half of 2021, ND played ZERO teams with a winning record. More than half the schedule was made up of losing teams. Not to mention, putting the top portion of the schedule up, ND's 2022 best opponents trump 2021. You can look at it any which way, it's not close.

Pyne came in with 3 minutes left in the game down 11…. Not a good situation

Every team other than UNC stuffed the box daring ND to throw. Buchner never made the other team pay until a few times vs a depleted tired South Carolina team, and that came with 2 pick 6s. Pyne occasionally made other teams pay, but not enough.

The pass Buchner missed to lenzy vs Marshall was one pyne made to styles vs UNC and Tobias vs Stanford, I think once more in the season.

We disagree, it is what it is, I think Slovis or Daniels aren’t great but better than Buchner or pyne and would have made other teams pay more for loading box. Pittsburgh and wvu did not have much offensive talent or good lines last year. I think they play much better at nd. Either way, I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t have taken Slovis.

 

[Crazy Balki]

Pyne came in with 3 minutes left in the game down 11…. Not a good situation

Every team other than UNC stuffed the box daring ND to throw. Buchner never made the other team pay until a few times vs a depleted tired South Carolina team, and that came with 2 pick 6s. Pyne occasionally made other teams pay, but not enough.

The pass Buchner missed to lenzy vs Marshall was one pyne made to styles vs UNC and Tobias vs Stanford, I think once more in the season.

We disagree, it is what it is, I think Slovis or Daniels aren’t great but better than Buchner or pyne and would have made other teams pay more for loading box. Pittsburgh and wvu did not have much offensive talent or good lines last year. I think they play much better at nd. Either way, I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t have taken Slovis.

Not a good situation? Give me a break.

A good situation would be starting for a team that had more than 3 healthy bodies at receiver with some semblance of a #1 receiver. A good situation would be an OL not stinking up the joint against a Sun Belt team. That's the situation Buchner, a QB who hadn't started a game since 2019 was thrown into.

It's remarkable how you cherry pick like 2 plays to prove your point. 2 plays out of 10 games. Let's forget that Pyne was absolutely horrible in the Stanford game, where the Merriweather pass was literally his only significant positive play of the game. That kind of defeats the purpose of bringing that point up at all. You bring up the pick sixes against South Carolina. So the game in which Buchner was thrown into action after being injured for 3 months? Also, Buchner made that great play to Lenzy to tie the game and the go-ahead TE to Evans. There were moments of frustration, but mixed in, there were moments where Buchner put his talent on display.

You can disagree all you want. But the reality is that how 2022 unfolded, it doesn't support your stance at all.

Pitt and WVU didn't have much offensive talent? Sure, that's fair. But here's the problem. Neither did ND. Sorry to break it to you, but having 1 great TE does not a talented offense make. The OL had talent for sure, but they played like absolute crap to start the year, and against Ohio State, they were missing their best player and leader of the offense in Patterson. Who was the rest of the talent? Diggs was coming off an injury. Thomas and Colzie both got hurt in fall camp. Styles had clearly regressed and began to show why teams were recruiting him to play DB instead of receiver. Lenzy had speed, but up till that point, had showed nothing else but that. Estime was about it, and it's hard to rely on a RB to carry your offense when the OL is getting abused.

You don't see a reason why I wouldn't have taken Slovis? I didn't see a reason why you would. He was extremely mediocre at Pitt, just like he had been the year prior at USC. ND isn't going to rock the QB boat with a high potential QB that our OC recruited personally for the limited returns of Slovis. That is a high risk, low reward proposal. What does ND stand to gain from that? They get baseline QB play that is on par with what they got, without the potential of a talent like Buchner improving as the season went on. It's not a guarantee that Buchner would have improved, but we saw him play better in the bowl game compared to the first 2 starts, despite a 3 month layover and missing the offense's best target in Mayer.

Buchner was very far from perfect and if he wants to reach his potential, he has a lot of work to do. But I saw more in the South Carolina game by itself than I saw at any point during Slovis' time at Pitt. There is a reason why one is at BYU now and the other is at Alabama. If Slovis was worth the take, he'd at the very least, would still be at Pitt now.

 

[PutuporShutup]

Not a good situation? Give me a break.

A good situation would be starting for a team that had more than 3 healthy bodies at receiver with some semblance of a #1 receiver. A good situation would be an OL not stinking up the joint against a Sun Belt team. That's the situation Buchner, a QB who hadn't started a game since 2019 was thrown into.

It's remarkable how you cherry pick like 2 plays to prove your point. 2 plays out of 10 games. Let's forget that Pyne was absolutely horrible in the Stanford game, where the Merriweather pass was literally his only significant positive play of the game. That kind of defeats the purpose of bringing that point up at all. You bring up the pick sixes against South Carolina. So the game in which Buchner was thrown into action after being injured for 3 months? Also, Buchner made that great play to Lenzy to tie the game and the go-ahead TE to Evans. There were moments of frustration, but mixed in, there were moments where Buchner put his talent on display.

You can disagree all you want. But the reality is that how 2022 unfolded, it doesn't support your stance at all.

Pitt and WVU didn't have much offensive talent? Sure, that's fair. But here's the problem. Neither did ND. Sorry to break it to you, but having 1 great TE does not a talented offense make. The OL had talent for sure, but they played like absolute crap to start the year, and against Ohio State, they were missing their best player and leader of the offense in Patterson. Who was the rest of the talent? Diggs was coming off an injury. Thomas and Colzie both got hurt in fall camp. Styles had clearly regressed and began to show why teams were recruiting him to play DB instead of receiver. Lenzy had speed, but up till that point, had showed nothing else but that. Estime was about it, and it's hard to rely on a RB to carry your offense when the OL is getting abused.

You don't see a reason why I wouldn't have taken Slovis? I didn't see a reason why you would. He was extremely mediocre at Pitt, just like he had been the year prior at USC. ND isn't going to rock the QB boat with a high potential QB that our OC recruited personally for the limited returns of Slovis. That is a high risk, low reward proposal. What does ND stand to gain from that? They get baseline QB play that is on par with what they got, without the potential of a talent like Buchner improving as the season went on. It's not a guarantee that Buchner would have improved, but we saw him play better in the bowl game compared to the first 2 starts, despite a 3 month layover and missing the offense's best target in Mayer.

Buchner was very far from perfect and if he wants to reach his potential, he has a lot of work to do. But I saw more in the South Carolina game by itself than I saw at any point during Slovis' time at Pitt. There is a reason why one is at BYU now and the other is at Alabama. If Slovis was worth the take, he'd at the very least, would still be at Pitt now.

You’re wrong about our offensive talent…. We had the best te in the history of ND to throw to, we has Thomas, styles, colzie, lenzy, Tobias. Yea most young but all talented and highly recruited. Young and inexperienced yes, talent was there.

Ohio state had 4 wrs catch over 10 passes last year, and they were all young too. The difference was an elite qb. Yes osu wrs are more highly rated. My point is it’s not like teams have 10 wrs splitting time. Nd did lack depth for practice though.

I agree pyne stinks, I just think Buchner is even worse somehow.

You talk about development, where was it leading to spring game. Buchner was atrocious and threw what should have been another pick 6 to ausberry. That was buchners third spring in the program and he looked terrible.

I agree our oline didn’t play well until UNC, but I think some of that is on Buchner not getting into the right protections. First play of this spring Buchner made wrong protection call and botelho off edge was unblocked. I don’t think it gets talked about, but I really believe Buchner had nd in bad protections and run blocking/play decisions

 

[FDNYIrish1]

I wholeheartedly support MFMF. Think he’s going to do big things here. Everyone over here talking about Marshall and Stanford when I still haven’t recovered from the second half against Navy. Absolute worst half of offensive football I’ve seen. Maybe ever.

 

[Crazy Balki]

You’re wrong about our offensive talent…. We had the best te in the history of ND to throw to, we has Thomas, styles, colzie, lenzy, Tobias. Yea most young but all talented and highly recruited. Young and inexperienced yes, talent was there.

Ohio state had 4 wrs catch over 10 passes last year, and they were all young too. The difference was an elite qb. Yes osu wrs are more highly rated. My point is it’s not like teams have 10 wrs splitting time. Nd did lack depth for practice though.

I agree pyne stinks, I just think Buchner is even worse somehow.

You talk about development, where was it leading to spring game. Buchner was atrocious and threw what should have been another pick 6 to ausberry. That was buchners third spring in the program and he looked terrible.

I agree our oline didn’t play well until UNC, but I think some of that is on Buchner not getting into the right protections. First play of this spring Buchner made wrong protection call and botelho off edge was unblocked. I don’t think it gets talked about, but I really believe Buchner had nd in bad protections and blocking schemes

You did not just seriously compare our receiving corp to Ohio State's...

Bruh. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had about as many yards in ONE GAME than Jayden Thomas or Lorenzo Styles had in an ENTIRE SEASON. Marvin Harrison had more receiving yards last year than Jayden Thomas, Lorenzo Styles, Braden Lenzy and Logan Diggs had COMBINED. Yes, having Stroud throw you the ball made things a lot easier for Harrison, but he's also a far better receiver than any of those guys. Again, film don't lie. None of those guys are on JSN or Marvin Harrison or Emeka Egbuka's level. There's a reason why JSN was a first rounder and Harrison and Egbuka are seen as the two top receivers on the '24 draft board. They're not just uber talented because they had Stroud throwing them the ball.

I'm not going to entertain the whole development angle where you bring up the spring game. That means f*ck all. Especially in the format they use now, where the offense is at a major disadvantage. Hartman was the better QB and Buchner had a ways to go. It is what it is. But that's also hindsight bias. You'd have liked for him to have a full season to work on things, and not 3 games where he was effectively thrown to the wolves behind a limp OL and a non-existent receiving corp. But them's the breaks. Buchner was hurt, it without question impacted his development and the staff was able to find a high quality QB in the portal this time around.

Not to mention, Thomas and Styles were hurt. Lenzy had shown nothing in his first 4 years to validate he was a legit receiving talent. He had speed, but that was all we had seen to that point. Tobias was a true freshman, who didn't play in spring, who couldn't even go in motion properly.

When I say "talent", I mean guys who can actually produce. Hard to produce when you're either injured or don't have the experience nor the intangibles to best utilize your physical talents. That's what I mean by talent. Nobody is questioning that Tobias has immense talent, but he was nowhere near ready in week 1 or 2, as we saw vs. Cal in week 3.

Our line struggling had almost nothing to do with Buchner. It was them getting flat out worked by the fronts of Ohio State and Marshall. That's what made it frustrating. Guys like Correll, Lugg and even Fisher were constantly getting beat man to man. Like I said, it wasn't just poor protection, but they were getting manhandled in run blocking too.

 

[Crazy Balki]

I wholeheartedly support MFMF. Think he’s going to do big things here. Everyone over here talking about Marshall and Stanford when I still haven’t recovered from the second half against Navy. Absolute worst half of offensive football I’ve seen. Maybe ever.

Hard to top '08 USC, where we literally failed to cross midfield until the 4th quarter and we had a whopping TWO yards of offense at halftime.

 

[PutuporShutup]

You did not just seriously compare our receiving corp to Ohio State's...

Bruh. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had about as many yards in ONE GAME than Jayden Thomas or Lorenzo Styles had in an ENTIRE SEASON. Marvin Harrison had more receiving yards last year than Jayden Thomas, Lorenzo Styles, Braden Lenzy and Logan Diggs had COMBINED. Yes, having Stroud throw you the ball made things a lot easier for Harrison, but he's also a far better receiver than any of those guys. Again, film don't lie. None of those guys are on JSN or Marvin Harrison or Emeka Egbuka's level. There's a reason why JSN was a first rounder and Harrison and Egbuka are seen as the two top receivers on the '24 draft board. They're not just uber talented because they had Stroud throwing them the ball.

I'm not going to entertain the whole development angle where you bring up the spring game. That means f*ck all. Especially in the format they use now, where the offense is at a major disadvantage. Hartman was the better QB and Buchner had a ways to go. It is what it is. But that's also hindsight bias. You'd have liked for him to have a full season to work on things, and not 3 games where he was effectively thrown to the wolves behind a limp OL and a non-existent receiving corp. But them's the breaks. Buchner was hurt, it without question impacted his development and the staff was able to find a high quality QB in the portal this time around.

Not to mention, Thomas and Styles were hurt. Lenzy had shown nothing in his first 4 years to validate he was a legit receiving talent. He had speed, but that was all we had seen to that point. Tobias was a true freshman, who didn't play in spring, who couldn't even go in motion properly.

When I say "talent", I mean guys who can actually produce. Hard to produce when you're either injured or don't have the experience nor the intangibles to best utilize your physical talents. That's what I mean by talent. Nobody is questioning that Tobias has immense talent, but he was nowhere near ready in week 1 or 2, as we saw vs. Cal in week 3.

Our line struggling had almost nothing to do with Buchner. It was them getting flat out worked by the fronts of Ohio State and Marshall. That's what made it frustrating. Guys like Correll, Lugg and even Fisher were constantly getting beat man to man. Like I said, it wasn't just poor protection, but they were getting manhandled in run blocking too.

You do remember that JSN had like 40 yards last year and didn’t play rest of season for Ohio state after nd right?

What if the same wrs like Thomas Tobias have monster years this year? Their talent will be the same. I think they will because they are talented but will finally have a really good qb.

I don’t know, I thought the oline has looked very confused infront of Buchner than not as much with pyne. I think it’s why freeman praised pyne for getting us into the correct run plays and protection based on defensive looks va Clemson when he only threw for like 80 yards.

 

[stlnd01]

It is amazing, in retrospect, how bad our offensive line played against Ohio State. Buchner had two guys in his face within a couple of seconds on what felt like every snap. First start, on the road, in that environment, I was just impressed he didn't make more mistakes.

Marshall game was a program-wide shitshow. Of course Buchner should have played better but also we win if we stop them on third and long deep in their end in the 4th quarter and instead they marched the length of the field for the go-ahead score. That one was on everybody.

We don't beat South Carolina with Pyne, IMO. Buchner made plays Drew just couldn't.

We'll never really know what could have been with Buchner, because of injuries and circumstance. It's too bad. I wish he'd stayed and learned and been in position to take the reins next year. But here we are. I just hope Angeli or Minchey get some meaningful reps this season.

 

[stlnd01]

You do remember that JSN had like 40 yards last year and didn’t play rest of season for Ohio state after nd right?

What if the same wrs like Thomas Tobias have monster years this year? Their talent will be the same. I think they will because they are talented but will finally have a really good qb.

I don’t know, I thought the oline has looked very confused infront of Buchner than not as much with pyne. I think it’s why freeman praised pyne for getting us into the correct run plays and protection based on defensive looks va Clemson when he only threw for like 80 yards.

They will also be a year-plus more experienced than they were at the start of last season. If you think our WR corps of Thomas, Merriweather, Styles and Colzie was anything close to what Ohio State rolled out there that night I'd love some of what you're smoking.

 

[Crazy Balki]

You do remember that JSN had like 40 yards last year and didn’t play rest of season for Ohio state after nd right?

What if the same wrs like Thomas Tobias have monster years this year? Their talent will be the same. I think they will because they are talented but will finally have a really good qb.

I don’t know, I thought the oline has looked very confused infront of Buchner than not as much with pyne. I think it’s why freeman praised pyne for getting us into the correct run plays and protection based on defensive looks va Clemson when he only threw for like 80 yards.

I remember him putting up 347 yards in the Rose Bowl. And it's a testament to Ohio State's sheer depth of talent at receiver that they could brush off the loss of JSN without a hitch because they just rolled onto the next elite talent in Marvin Harrison and Emeka Egbuka.

I fully expect the insertion of Sam Hartman to significantly help the receivers. It's not just about Buchner. It's about having a talented and experienced QB who knows how to consistently get the ball to multiple receivers on a regular basis. Buchner started all of 3 games going into spring and missed considerable time both in HS and college. Hartman has been at it for 5 years. On top of that, Thomas will benefit from being healthy to start the year hopefully, and Merriweather will benefit from having a spring to develop and learn when to go in motion. Some guys are ready at the jump, some take time to develop.

The difference is that Ohio State recruits at a MUCH higher level at receiver than ND, thus they get more guys with higher ceilings, so they're more likely to end up with a guy or guys who reach their potential early. ND has to hope that the select few high level receivers they get all hit, which isn't a reliable model for success. Yes, QB play absolutely contributes, but WR talent was not as good or as readily available in week 1 of last year than you seem to think.

Go watch the first half of the Cal game. It wasn't just confusion. It was physical manhandling. It helped that Patterson returned to the line up and got healthy. He was out for Ohio State and wasn't ready against Marshall.

Meanwhile, Pyne transfers out, Buchner returns to the lineup and we finally see him with legitimate protection and a run game to support him. He still made major mental errors, but he made up for it with his sheer ability to make throws that Pyne simply could not make and taking off and making plays with his legs that Pyne simply could not make.

 

[Crazy Balki]

They will also be a year-plus more experienced than they were at the start of last season. If you think our WR corps of Thomas, Merriweather, Styles and Colzie was anything close to what Ohio State rolled out there that night I'd love some of what you're smoking.

Yep. This is coming from somebody who absolutely thinks Merriweather is going to be a stud and Thomas is going to low-key have a huge year.

I'd take Harrison and Egbuka over them in a millisecond.

 

[T-Boone]

How does anyone really know what we have in Merriweather. He caught 1 pass.

 

[ACamp1900]

How does anyone really know what we have in Merriweather. He caught 1 pass.

Randy Moss only caught one pass at a certain point too,………………..

 

[PutuporShutup]

It is amazing, in retrospect, how bad our offensive line played against Ohio State. Buchner had two guys in his face within a couple of seconds on what felt like every snap. First start, on the road, in that environment, I was just impressed he didn't make more mistakes.

Marshall game was a program-wide shitshow. Of course Buchner should have played better but also we win if we stop them on third and long deep in their end in the 4th quarter and instead they marched the length of the field for the go-ahead score. That one was on everybody.

We don't beat South Carolina with Pyne, IMO. Buchner made plays Drew just couldn't.

We'll never really know what could have been with Buchner, because of injuries and circumstance. It's too bad. I wish he'd stayed and learned and been in position to take the reins next year. But here we are. I just hope Angeli or Minchey get some meaningful reps this season.

Agree with everything other than we don’t beat South Carolina with pyne… Buchner was the only reason South Carolina was close, he threw 2 pick 6’s

 

[PutuporShutup]

How does anyone really know what we have in Merriweather. He caught 1 pass.

He showed potential… Marvin Harrison jr only had like 10 catches his frosh year then had like 80 next season… not saying he gets 80 but we need him to be really good and have at least 50

 

[Crazy Balki]

Agree with everything other than we don’t beat South Carolina with pyne… Buchner was the only reason South Carolina was close, he threw 2 pick 6’s

To be fair, the first pick six was a deflection after protection broke down. He shouldn't have thrown the ball, but that was more on Lugg allowing Smith to get his mitts up to deflect the ball.

The second, while Buchner made a poor throw, I put that one on Tommy. It was a VERY dumb and inexplicable call. You are burying Carolina on the ground and Estime is feasting and instead of just letting your bell-cow back finish them off, you put the drive in the hands of the young and inexperienced QB, who hadn't played in 3 months and barely at all since 2019, and expect him to make the right read and throw a laser through traffic.

Just, why? Why put that much on him when you have them on the ropes. They were gassed and Estime was throwing guys off him like rag dolls. You didn't have to get cute.

All in all, you can claim that Buchner's pick 6s were the only reason the game was close. Frankly, Buchner was also a big reason we won that game in the first place. He made plays, both with his arm and his feet, that Pyne simply was not capable of doing. Buchner was Jekyll and Hyde in that game. I think it's more than fair to think he'd have developed some consistency with more game experience, considering how little he had. But it wasn't meant to be at ND. We have Hartman now, who is not only a great QB, but he has the consistency and experience that Buchner lacked.

 

[T-Boone]

Randy Moss only caught one pass at a certain point too,………………..

So had Lorenzo Styles.

 

[PutuporShutup]

I remember him putting up 347 yards in the Rose Bowl. And it's a testament to Ohio State's sheer depth of talent at receiver that they could brush off the loss of JSN without a hitch because they just rolled onto the next elite talent in Marvin Harrison and Emeka Egbuka.

I fully expect the insertion of Sam Hartman to significantly help the receivers. It's not just about Buchner. It's about having a talented and experienced QB who knows how to consistently get the ball to multiple receivers on a regular basis. Buchner started all of 3 games going into spring and missed considerable time both in HS and college. Hartman has been at it for 5 years. On top of that, Thomas will benefit from being healthy to start the year hopefully, and Merriweather will benefit from having a spring to develop and learn when to go in motion. Some guys are ready at the jump, some take time to develop.

The difference is that Ohio State recruits at a MUCH higher level at receiver than ND, thus they get more guys with higher ceilings, so they're more likely to end up with a guy or guys who reach their potential early. ND has to hope that the select few high level receivers they get all hit, which isn't a reliable model for success. Yes, QB play absolutely contributes, but WR talent was not as good or as readily available in week 1 of last year than you seem to think.

Go watch the first half of the Cal game. It wasn't just confusion. It was physical manhandling. It helped that Patterson returned to the line up and got healthy. He was out for Ohio State and wasn't ready against Marshall.

Meanwhile, Pyne transfers out, Buchner returns to the lineup and we finally see him with legitimate protection and a run game to support him. He still made major mental errors, but he made up for it with his sheer ability to make throws that Pyne simply could not make and taking off and making plays with his legs that Pyne simply could not make.

Don’t disagree with anything but I do think that depleted South Carolina d might have been the worst d we faced all season. Bad decision making was in full effect spring game too. Yea just a spring game, but also another proof point. How as a coach could you trust him with confidence?

 

[indianamouse]

Don’t disagree with anything but I do think that depleted South Carolina d might have been the worst d we faced all season. Bad decision making was in full effect spring game too. Yea just a spring game, but also another proof point. How as a coach could you trust him with confidence?

Let’s see how this season plays out before calling that sc d the worst

 

[Crazy Balki]

Don’t disagree with anything but I do think that depleted South Carolina d might have been the worst d we faced all season. Bad decision making was in full effect spring game too. Yea just a spring game, but also another proof point. How as a coach could you trust him with confidence?

Very debatable.

They did lose a few key starters like Pickens, Rush and Edmond.

But on the flip side, ND was without Isaiah Foskey and Jayson Ademilola. Foskey was without question the biggest loss on either team's defense. Jayson was also up there. So while Carolina was depleted, ND didn't exactly have all hands on deck.

But this is precisely why I'm not keen on including bowl games in the SoS discussion. Nowadays, there's just too many opt outs to factor in their legitimate strength.

 

[Te'o4Heisman]

Convinced more than ever that Balki is actually Tyler Buchner.

 

[irishff1014]

I wholeheartedly support MFMF. Think he’s going to do big things here. Everyone over here talking about Marshall and Stanford when I still haven’t recovered from the second half against Navy. Absolute worst half of offensive football I’ve seen. Maybe ever.

That was pretty bad.

 

[Blazers46]

Convinced more than ever that Balki is actually Tyler Buchner.

Posting from the bench during Bama FB games

 

[Crazy Balki]

Convinced more than ever that Balki is actually Tyler Buchner.

No way. The last place I want to be right now is in Alabama.

How several high level football prospect CHOOSE to live in that state is beyond me.

Plus, it'd be pretty awkward if I was Tyler, given I just shat on my current OC.

 

[irishandy]

I couldn't make the Marshall game last year, but I followed most of the game online; and there was a night and day difference with our offense vs OSU the week before. I caught a couple of offense series' at our hotel and Buchner looked lost- his confidence, the ability to move the offense vs. the week before at OSU. Our loss at OSU was not a bad loss.

I think this year he could've played another reliever role like he did in 2021 and that would've made him ready for 2024. Angeli's gain with Buchner transferring.

I am not ready to call our receivers elite, but ND has a huge upgrade at QB with Hartman and our receivers should make him look good and vice versa. It's time for Colzie, Thomas & Merriweather to step up.

 

[irishff1014]

I couldn't make the Marshall game last year, but I followed most of the game online; and there was a night and day difference with our offense vs OSU the week before. I caught a couple of offense series' at our hotel and Buchner looked lost- his confidence, the ability to move the offense vs. the week before at OSU. Our loss at OSU was not a bad loss.

I think this year he could've played another reliever role like he did in 2021 and that would've made him ready for 2024. Angeli's gain with Buchner transferring.

I am not ready to call our receivers elite, but ND has a huge upgrade at QB with Hartman and our receivers should make him look good and vice versa. It's time for Colzie, Thomas & Merriweather to step up.

Rees didn’t help himself any either.

 

[irishandy]

Rees didn’t help himself any either.

I agree...he was too inconsistent last year.

 

[Katzenboyer]

To be fair, the first pick six was a deflection after protection broke down. He shouldn't have thrown the ball, but that was more on Lugg allowing Smith to get his mitts up to deflect the ball.

The second, while Buchner made a poor throw, I put that one on Tommy. It was a VERY dumb and inexplicable call. You are burying Carolina on the ground and Estime is feasting and instead of just letting your bell-cow back finish them off, you put the drive in the hands of the young and inexperienced QB, who hadn't played in 3 months and barely at all since 2019, and expect him to make the right read and throw a laser through traffic.

Just, why? Why put that much on him when you have them on the ropes. They were gassed and Estime was throwing guys off him like rag dolls. You didn't have to get cute.

All in all, you can claim that Buchner's pick 6s were the only reason the game was close. Frankly, Buchner was also a big reason we won that game in the first place. He made plays, both with his arm and his feet, that Pyne simply was not capable of doing. Buchner was Jekyll and Hyde in that game. I think it's more than fair to think he'd have developed some consistency with more game experience, considering how little he had. But it wasn't meant to be at ND. We have Hartman now, who is not only a great QB, but he has the consistency and experience that Buchner lacked.

The playcalling on the second Buchner INT was so, so bad.

 

[PutuporShutup]

I couldn't make the Marshall game last year, but I followed most of the game online; and there was a night and day difference with our offense vs OSU the week before. I caught a couple of offense series' at our hotel and Buchner looked lost- his confidence, the ability to move the offense vs. the week before at OSU. Our loss at OSU was not a bad loss.

I think this year he could've played another reliever role like he did in 2021 and that would've made him ready for 2024. Angeli's gain with Buchner transferring.

I am not ready to call our receivers elite, but ND has a huge upgrade at QB with Hartman and our receivers should make him look good and vice versa. It's time for Colzie, Thomas & Merriweather to step up.

Osu second half took away our easy short quick passes, Marshall just took the same approach all game as osu did second half. Sell out on run and short passes