Ask Merckxe525 aka Dear Abby

[stlnd01]

It all looks mediocre compared to an Orange and a Sugar but there are certainly plenty of big wins in that stretch.

He rarely if ever pulled off a upset but plenty of those games were “big” in the moment

We also went undefeated in 2018. I don't care who you play (though we played three teams ranked in the Top 15 on gameday), that's very very hard to do.

 

[Kingbish01]

We also went undefeated in 2018. I don't care who you play (though we played three teams ranked in the Top 15 on gameday), that's very very hard to do.

18 might have been the year I was most disappointed in Notre Dame football. I remember the good sweats against Ball State Vanderbilt and pittsburgh. Made the playoffs, and thought they really had a chance. And the team didn't even show up against Clemson.

 

[Polish Leppy 22]

It can be hard to keep up with your questions; so, if I’ve missed any, follow-up.

Can you describe the relationship between BK and Harry Hiestand? And if Rees had stayed at ND, would Hiestand have stayed with him?

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

Tonight I finally learned that Jimmy Clausen was in fact a lightweight...no one can keep up with a real party animal like Golden Tate (I'd say Mike Floyd here but that feels a little inappropriate...)

 

[IRISHDODGER]

2017 Sparty and USC were good wins. Shoot 2013 Sparty won the Rose Bowl, people just underrated them at the time

Agreed. SC was #11 when they visited #13 ND. Sam Darnold was lighting up the stat sheet that season. Any ND fan that knew ND was gonna smoke them 49-14 is lying. That SC team won the P12 before losing to OSU in the Cotton Bowl.

The Sparty win was a great win in hindsight as it was the only loss Sparty had that year. They beat OSU in the B1G championship game before winning the Rose Bowl. I don’t know if that was the game that started the hate for ND by Narduzzi but it definitely threw gasoline on the fire. LOL

 

[IrishBoognish]

We really are in the 2nd Golden Age of IE

Mercxe525 and Bua are amazing.

Thanks for your service.

 

[TheProspector]

Agreed. SC was #11 when they visited #13 ND. Sam Darnold was lighting up the stat sheet that season. Any ND fan that knew ND was gonna smoke them 49-14 is lying. That SC team won the P12 before losing to OSU in the Cotton Bowl.

The Sparty win was a great win in hindsight as it was the only loss Sparty had that year. They beat OSU in the B1G championship game before winning the Rose Bowl. I don’t know if that was the game that started the hate for ND by Narduzzi but it definitely threw gasoline on the fire. LOL

No one knew Nd would smoke them, but many were confident because USC was severely compromised on the DL (believe they had to start a 3rd string DT) and they were going up against arguably the best interior college OLineman of the last decade in Big Q. SC had no chance of stopping the run that night.

 

[stlnd01]

No one knew Nd would smoke them, but many were confident because USC was severely compromised on the DL (believe they had to start a 3rd string DT) and they were going up against arguably the best interior college OLineman of the last decade in Big Q. SC had no chance of stopping the run that night.

Was at that game. A good one. I think we all knew how it was going to go when Tevon Coney ripped the ball out of Darnold's hands on USC's first snap. And that's basically how it went all night.

 

[IrishFanForever23]

Mercxe525 and Bua, why not offer Pritchett’s son considering the state of the TE room?

 

[BuaConstrictor]

All good points, and with the playoffs you may be right about LSU not having to go through UGA because even in the SECCG it wouldn't matter who wins...Both would be in. As for Les, that was 20 years ago and pre Saban or year one Saban. And Ed got Lucky as hell with that '19 team so I guess BK could also be lucky, but Stevie Wonder could have coached that team to a Natty.

As for big game BK....the only game that comes to mind that he was able to pull off was OU in Prime time early in his career at ND. I can't think of another one off the top of my head. Oh, he beat Clemson without their star QB in 2020 only for said QB to get healthy and come back and drill him by 4 TDs.....and then a week later Bama. I agree, Urban and Saban both have ugly losses but they also have amazing wins. All jokes aside...at ND is BK's biggest win against OU in Norman in 2012 or The 2020 Clemson game that took 2 OT's to knockout a DJ Uiagalelei led team? I'm not thinking of any of the USC wins when they were in the dumps during the majority of his time at ND, because Lord knows what Pistol Pete would have done to him.

I suppose you need to define big game. Big game stakes for ND? (CPF playoffs on the line? Top 25 match up? Top 10? Top 5?. Bowls only? CFP only?)

I could argue a lot of those Stanford games were "big games". Michigan home games. USC's to end the season. USC in 2015, 17, &19. OU would be one. Clemson in 2020 etc etc.

Don't really want to re-litigate BK a ton, but I'll say I agree with part of the premise that BK had issues coaching his teams up into competitive games when he was at a talent deficit. It lead to some ugly results.

but I think he won a lot of "big"/"pressure" games at ND. He just didn't do great in some of those needing to "punch up" battles.

I guess I'll kind of leave it there.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

They won titles in very different playoff systems though. BK doesn’t have a BCS/New Year’s 6/playoff win in 15 years at LSU and ND. I can’t see him rattling off 3 in a row

I have very little doubt those will come soon.

 

[TheProspector]

I suppose you need to define big game. Big game stakes for ND? (CPF playoffs on the line? Top 25 match up? Top 10? Top 5?. Bowls only? CFP only?)

I could argue a lot of those Stanford games were "big games". Michigan home games. USC's to end the season. USC in 2015, 17, &19. OU would be one. Clemson in 2020 etc etc.

Don't really want to re-litigate BK a ton, but I'll say I agree with part of the premise that BK had issues coaching his teams up into competitive games when he was at a talent deficit. It lead to some ugly results.

but I think he won a lot of "big"/"pressure" games at ND. He just didn't do great in some of those needing to "punch up" battles.

I guess I'll kind of leave it there.

I think your examples touch on the issue though. BK was a huge beneficiary of playing extremely flawed USC teams with a revolving door of head coaches. He likely doesn’t sniff the playoffs if he has to play Pete Carroll’s USC. Does he beat Carroll more than once out of ten times versus the 8-3 I think he ended up going against SC? It’s kind of like Harbaugh versus Meyer. Once Meyer was out of the picture, Harbaugh was able to get over the hump.

Clemson 2020 turned out to be fool’s gold with Lawrence out of the lineup and playing DJU. When Lawrence and Skalski were back in the lineup a couple weeks later, we were smoked.

The only good Michigan team he beat was the 2018 version. The other Michigan wins were against Brady Hoke.

And fair or not, no ND fan is going to wax nostalgic over beating Stanford at home a couple times or one really good MSU team at home. OU was definitely a great one and likely the best of the BK tenure.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

I suppose you need to define big game. Big game stakes for ND? (CPF playoffs on the line? Top 25 match up? Top 10? Top 5?. Bowls only? CFP only?)

I could argue a lot of those Stanford games were "big games". Michigan home games. USC's to end the season. USC in 2015, 17, &19. OU would be one. Clemson in 2020 etc etc.

Don't really want to re-litigate BK a ton, but I'll say I agree with part of the premise that BK had issues coaching his teams up into competitive games when he was at a talent deficit. It lead to some ugly results.

but I think he won a lot of "big"/"pressure" games at ND. He just didn't do great in some of those needing to "punch up" battles.

I guess I'll kind of leave it there.

Agreed. I think ND fans fail to consider the context when discussing BK’s tenure. Recency bias seems to have forgotten how absolutely average-to-horrible ND was from 1997-2009. Kevin White may be lauded as Duke AD but he made some horrible moves as ND AD. Wadsworth as well before him.

I’m glad BK is gone but I’m not gonna act like he didn’t bring ND back to relevancy & left a solid foundation for a first time HC to take to the next level.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

I think your examples touch on the issue though. BK was a huge beneficiary to playing extremely flawed USC teams with a revolving door of head coaches. He likely doesn’t sniff the playoffs if he has to play Pete Carroll’s USC. Does he beat Carroll more than once out of ten times versus the 8-3 I think he ended up going?

Clemson 2020 turned out to be fool’s gold with Lawrence out of the lineup and playing DJU. When Lawrence and Skalski were back in the lineup a couple weeks later, we were smoked.

The only good Michigan team he beat was the 2018 version. The other Michigan wins were against Brady Hoke.

And fair or not, no ND fan is going to wax nostalgic over beating Stanford at home a couple times or one really good MSU team at home. OU was definitely a great one and likely the best of the BK tenure.

Some of those games were still against Top 10-15 teams(at the time). I think we shift the sands so much of what "big games" mean and retcon what games were and weren't. I don't view the 2023 win vs USC as "less" now bc that USC team fell off after we beat them. That was a big/pressure game win.

I wasn't arguing those USC teams were Pete Carrol level, but I also feel that's an unfair comparison. Weis nearly beat a Carrol team with a really flawed roster, especially on defense. Were some of the 15, 17, and 19 teams any worse than the '05 team that took a generational USC team to the wire? I don't think so.

I'm not asking ND fans to act nostalgic about wins vs MSU or Stanford, I'm just asking for a fair evaluation (or maybe a consistent definition) of what a "big"/"pressure" game is...bc right now I feel like the definition keeps shifting to exclude any important win in BK's entire tenure.

 

[TheProspector]

Agreed. I think ND fans fail to consider the context when discussing BK’s tenure. Recency bias seems to have forgotten how absolutely average-to-horrible ND was from 1997-2009. Kevin White may be lauded as Duke AD but he made some horrible moves as ND AD. Wadsworth as well before him.

I’m glad BK is gone but I’m not gonna act like he didn’t bring ND back to relevancy & left a solid foundation for a first time HC to take to the next level.

White wasn’t great but Monk was a far more insidious influence on that time in ND football than Kevin white. And if O’Leary’s lie isn’t uncovered, O’Leary probably has similar success to BK.

 

[TheProspector]

Some of those games were still against Top 10-15 teams(at the time). I think we shift the sands so much of what "big games" mean and retcon what games were and weren't. I don't view the 2023 win vs USC as "less" now bc that USC team fell off after we beat them. That was a big/pressure game win.

I wasn't arguing those USC teams were Pete Carrol level, but I also feel that's an unfair comparison. Weis nearly beat a Carrol team with a really flawed roster, especially on defense. Were some of the 15, 17, and 19 teams any worse than the '05 team that took a generational USC team to the wire? I don't think so.

I'm not asking ND fans to act nostalgic about wins vs MSU or Stanford, I'm just asking for a fair evaluation (or maybe a consistent definition) of what a "big"/"pressure" game is...bc right now I feel like the definition keeps shifting to exclude any important win in BK's entire tenure.

His record against top 10, top 15 teams speaks for itself. It isnt great and he’s had similar struggles at LSU. He won some good games, but he’s consistently wilted when he’s even at a slight talent disadvantage.

 

[allenm5333]

Some of those games were still against Top 10-15 teams(at the time). I think we shift the sands so much of what "big games" mean and retcon what games were and weren't. I don't view the 2023 win vs USC as "less" now bc that USC team fell off after we beat them. That was a big/pressure game win.

I wasn't arguing those USC teams were Pete Carrol level, but I also feel that's an unfair comparison. Weis nearly beat a Carrol team with a really flawed roster, especially on defense. Were some of the 15, 17, and 19 teams any worse than the '05 team that took a generational USC team to the wire? I don't think so.

I'm not asking ND fans to act nostalgic about wins vs MSU or Stanford, I'm just asking for a fair evaluation (or maybe a consistent definition) of what a "big"/"pressure" game is...bc right now I feel like the definition keeps shifting to exclude any important win in BK's entire tenure.

Man i was there in 2013 for the michigan state game. That is nostalgic to me! All the pass interferences

 

[IRISHDODGER]

White wasn’t great but Monk was a far more insidious influence on that time in ND football than Kevin white. And if O’Leary’s lie isn’t uncovered, O’Leary probably has similar success to BK.

Not disagreeing to your Monk comment but at least the football program hadn’t collapsed yet like it did under Wadsworth & White. And I put the O’Leary incident on White. Do the most extensive background search possible b/c you’re Notre Dame. Had he done that he could’ve either moved on from O’Leary or had a PR plan to reconcile it & continue on with him.

 

[TheProspector]

Not disagreeing to your Monk comment but at least the football program hadn’t collapsed yet like it did under Wadsworth & White. And I put the O’Leary incident on White. Do the most extensive background search possible b/c you’re Notre Dame. Had he done that he could’ve either moved on from O’Leary or had a PR plan to reconcile it & continue on with him.

In my opinion, blaming O’Leary on White is like blaming Ludwig on Jack. The leader of course has to take the fall, but like most things, I’m guessing some underling messed up which was likely outside of their control.

And White’s time overlapped with Monk as president so maybe I’m misinterpreting your comment. But the athletic department at that time was doing things with two hands tied behind their back. There was very little institutional appetite for all that comes with big time college football (e.g. facilities, recruiting exemptions, coaching staff salaries, etc. )

 

[Dale]

I think your examples touch on the issue though. BK was a huge beneficiary of playing extremely flawed USC teams with a revolving door of head coaches. He likely doesn’t sniff the playoffs if he has to play Pete Carroll’s USC. Does he beat Carroll more than once out of ten times versus the 8-3 I think he ended up going against SC? It’s kind of like Harbaugh versus Meyer. Once Meyer was out of the picture, Harbaugh was able to get over the hump.

Clemson 2020 turned out to be fool’s gold with Lawrence out of the lineup and playing DJU. When Lawrence and Skalski were back in the lineup a couple weeks later, we were smoked.

The only good Michigan team he beat was the 2018 version. The other Michigan wins were against Brady Hoke.

And fair or not, no ND fan is going to wax nostalgic over beating Stanford at home a couple times or one really good MSU team at home. OU was definitely a great one and likely the best of the BK tenure.

ND beat A&M with their future backup QB, Georgia with their backup QB and a flawed PSU team with no good WRs and best player hurt.

See how easy that is?

The reality is every single CFB team except one a year is flawed - deeply flawed so if you want to go back and re-litigate them it’s easy to poke holes in almost any win. I think you know it when you see it, and ND won plenty of big games under BK.

 

[TheProspector]

ND beat A&M with their future backup QB, Georgia with their backup QB and a flawed PSU team with no good WRs and best player hurt.

See how easy that is?

The reality is every single CFB team except one a year is flawed - deeply flawed so if you want to go back and re-litigate them it’s easy to poke holes in almost any win. I think you know it when you see it, and ND won plenty of big games under BK.

The difference being that in the case of Clemson, ND played them a couple weeks later at full strength. The examples comparing them to this year were one off examples.

Again BKs record speaks for itself without any litigation. And his big game success, or lack thereof, has followed him to LSU. He is who he is at this point.

 

[Kingbish01]

I suppose you need to define big game. Big game stakes for ND? (CPF playoffs on the line? Top 25 match up? Top 10? Top 5?. Bowls only? CFP only?)

I could argue a lot of those Stanford games were "big games". Michigan home games. USC's to end the season. USC in 2015, 17, &19. OU would be one. Clemson in 2020 etc etc.

Don't really want to re-litigate BK a ton, but I'll say I agree with part of the premise that BK had issues coaching his teams up into competitive games when he was at a talent deficit. It lead to some ugly results.

but I think he won a lot of "big"/"pressure" games at ND. He just didn't do great in some of those needing to "punch up" battles.

I guess I'll kind of leave it there.

I'm not trying to shit on BK, I'm thankful for what he did for ND. To clarify big games...I guess I mean when the country is watching. Ya, a couple of those Mich St games, and even that Wisconsin game. But it's Mich St... Wisconsin...even Stanford (although he blew it when it mattered '15 & '17) . It would have been nice if he beat a few power houses (not named USC and Mich when both programs were down) like he did OU in Norman that night. Or got the team at least competitive in top ten matchups .. remember ASU beat a top ten ND by 3 TDS.

In short any casual NCAA football fan hasn't seen ND knockoff a really good team under BK. A UGA win would have been nice.... That's a prime example of what I mean, and they weren't even the UGA of late.

I'll just never be convinced he's a big game coach....I say good luck to him against that SEC schedule...because UT, UGA, Bama, Ole Miss, Fla, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and A&M....are all gonna be "Bigger games" than what he dealt with at ND.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Kingbish01]

His record against top 10, top 15 teams speaks for itself. It isnt great and he’s had similar struggles at LSU. He won some good games, but he’s consistently wilted when he’s even at a slight talent disadvantage.

His team WILL NOT be ready for Clemson week 1. That I know for a fact

 

[TheProspector]

His team WILL NOT be ready for Clemson week 1. That I know for a fact

I’m sure LSU will be good this year, but I’m not sure how anyone could be confident in BKs ability to get LSU back to competing for titles when he lost three games two years ago with Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, and Brian Thomas. That’s an all time offense and he completely wasted it somehow.

 

[Kingbish01]

ND beat A&M with their future backup QB, Georgia with their backup QB and a flawed PSU team with no good WRs and best player hurt.

See how easy that is?

The reality is every single CFB team except one a year is flawed - deeply flawed so if you want to go back and re-litigate them it’s easy to poke holes in almost any win. I think you know it when you see it, and ND won plenty of big games under BK.

Gunner Stockton is a Georgia (I'll argue with anyone best HS football in the country...Fla, Tex and Cali..don't care) High school legend. I don't wanna put him in the same breath as Kyler Murray in Texas because he lost a few games but check his stats, started as a freshman. Also UGA is my 2nd fave team...I go to a few games a year. UGA was NOT worse off with Gunner playing in New Orleans. I was hoping Beck would play because he takes risks and ND would have capitalized in it.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

The difference being that in the case of Clemson, ND played them a couple weeks later at full strength. The examples comparing them to this year were one off examples.

Again BKs record speaks for itself without any litigation. And his big game success, or lack thereof, has followed him to LSU. He is who he is at this point.

In the context of BK, I thought him beating Saban in year one was a big win. That was before Daniels Heisman run. IIRC, it was the same night ND smoked Clemson

 

[Kingbish01]

I’m sure LSU will be good this year, but I’m not sure how anyone could be confident in BKs ability to get LSU back to competing for titles when he lost three games two years ago with Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, and Brian Thomas. That’s an all time offense and he completely wasted it somehow.

You and I are on the exact same wave length!

And sorry to blow up the thread, I'm at a cheerleading competition and am getting bored AF

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Gunner Stockton is a Georgia (I'll argue with anyone best HS football in the country...Fla, Tex and Cali..don't care) High school legend. I don't wanna put him in the same breath as Kyler Murray in Texas because he lost a few games but check his stats, started as a freshman and. Also UGA is my 2nd fave team...I go to a few games a year. UGA was NOT worse off with Gunner playing in New Orleans. I was hoping Beck would play because he takes risks and ND would have capitalized it.

He’s just taking a Devil’s advocate position. Fans can pick apart any win. For instance, I think ND beats PSU handily if they have Mills & Bothelho &/or Traore & a Cross at full strength. But a PSU fan would say I’m just a biased ND fan & PSU “gave the game away”.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

In my opinion, blaming O’Leary on White is like blaming Ludwig on Jack. The leader of course has to take the fall, but like most things, I’m guessing some underling messed up which was likely outside of their control.

And White’s time overlapped with Monk as president so maybe I’m misinterpreting your comment. But the athletic department at that time was doing things with two hands tied behind their back. There was very little institutional appetite for all that comes with big time college football (e.g. facilities, recruiting exemptions, coaching staff salaries, etc. )

Even picking nits on Swarbrick I don’t think you can convince anyone that White is anywhere near Swarbrick’s level of success. Jack was far from perfect but he cleaned up a lot of disasters left by his predecessors.

Monk had zero to do w/ White getting played by Weis’ agent & giving him that ridiculous extension.

 

[Kingbish01]

He’s just taking a Devil’s advocate position. Fans can pick apart any win. For instance, I think ND beats PSU handily if they have Mills & Bothelho &/or Traore & a Cross at full strength. But a PSU fan would say I’m just a biased ND fan & PSU “gave the game away”.

Oh I know...But UGA and PSU were top 5 teams in big bowl games with the world watching. It's a win, and nobody will remember the details in 3 years. But nobody outside of us who bleed blue and gold will remember how exciting it was for ND to beat Mich St or Stanford in October...