"Shut up and hit somebody"

[Honey Nut Irish]

This needs to be next years team motto. This team doesn't lack size, speed, or talent. But it does lack heart. I want to see the hard-working, nasty team Charlie promised.

"Shut up and hit somebody" was Fresno State's team motto in 2001 when they made their run with David Carr. If you are familiar with Fresno's style of play you know that this quote really personifies their team spirit. Not a game goes by without them putting some highlight-worthy hits on the outer team or getting a personal foul for a late hit or something.

How is this relevant to Notre Dame? Just look at our running game. Again, our line does not lack size or strength. But they are lacking something, the "nastiness" Charlie spoke of. The whole team plays soft, not very physical at all. What can be done to improve this? I don't really think anything should need to be done at Notre Dame. They should be motivated enough by the schools tradition as well as their embarrassing play. However something needs to be done.

Charlie should do more to get these boys fired up. Maybe give them some incentives. Like making each player earn their lockers. Maybe have the team wear unpainted helmets until their play earns them the right to wear the golden domes. Instead of using the world class training facilities, make them train in a dingy basement. Don't let them use gloves and nice gear. I don't know, but something needs to be done. Other teams are always fired up to play ND, and our players come out like they are negotiating a business deal or something. With the players Charlie is bringing in there is no excuse for the teams horrible play.

If this team was out there flying around, playing hard, and going for the kill all the way through the fourth quarter they would have at least gone 9-3 this year.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Thats a good motto for the o-line. D does not need that motivation because that is what they try to do. Backs trying to avoid the hit. Receivers just wanna get open and either block or catch.

CWs line tries to politely protect QB. They need to shut up and hit somebody.

Previous coaches D just flew around and hit anything, usually their own teammates.

Just a passing observation (no pun intended).

 

[gairish]

shut up and hit somebody

shut up and hit somebody

Great words and to verify what you said I have a close friend whose son plays for Ga Tech and his son told me that Notre Dame played soft last year when they played them. It was like he stuck me in the chest with a dagger. End of story!!!

 

[jfjkd01]

This is the same thing that my Martial Art Instructor says. The Irish need to be Aggressive to the max on both Offense and Defense.............

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

CWs offense does not allow for agressiveness. Pansy offense. Based on Pro offense that tries to protect multimillion dollar offenssive (pun intended) athletes from injury through 20 games.

Just a thought...

 

[wahoo]

Team needs to just slobberknock someone !. I want to see some emotion and some agressiveness for a change

 

[tankjeep]

CWs offense does not allow for agressiveness. Pansy offense. Based on Pro offense that tries to protect multimillion dollar offenssive (pun intended) athletes from injury through 20 games.

Just a thought...

you are correct! it's built to bore the opposing team to death. the plays are developed not to confuse the opposing team. it's like solving the easiest sudoku puzzle and feeling like you haven't accomplished a thing.

 

[GO IRISH!!!]

I have a question for anyone who knows more than I do:

Do teams go away for "camp" in the summer anymore?

I seem to remember Holtz teams going somewhere off campus where they stayed for a week or two and really came together as a team. I have read about other teams, both HS and college level, doing this and it really seems to foster some good team spirit by forcing them to live a Spartan lifestyle for a couple weeks before getting down to the nuts and bolts of preseason workouts.

I don't know where this fits in to the subject of this thread, but I remember Holtz teams saying that camp really brought them together and made them tougher. I would love to know when that practice of going away to an offsite camp ended and why teams go away from it.

 

[alleycat9]

hmm some good ideas here.... i particularly like the going away for camp idea. and beat them into the ground until they cant be beaten anymore. thing is practice should be tougher than the games if you hit hit hit in practice you will have no problems with it in the game. and please dont tell me about injuries we dont have too many players that are irreplaceable.

i kinda like the put em in the basement to work out too, pussies wear gloves when working out. and this team definitely needs to be depussified.

i dont know about the helmets, that would be a real slap in the face to everyone even the fans.

one way or another something needs to be done, this team cannot carry this same sissy attitude into next year, they also need to have much more of a team approach.

since when dont rbs hit people? heck thats one of the best things about being a rb you get to hit someone everytime you touch the ball.

and please dont say our defense was tough or willing to put themselves on the line this year. they were not flying around taking peoples heads off, they were sitting back waiting for something to come at them. then it was like they were hoping htat someone would make the play so they didnt have to hit anyone.

 

[ARALOU]

One thing that kind of ticked me off (another tv remote toss) was the way, McKnight I think it was, ran right by three DBs like they were not even there. I thought we had some DB speed this year. Is that guy just that fast?

 

[NDinL.A.]

I'd say a bot of both. McKnight really is that fast. He's lightning fast. He was their #1 recruit 2 years ago, and he was all LSU until at the last minute he magically chose USC (the same thing happened with Reggie Bush years ago. He was ALL ND until he miraculously changed his mind and went to USC. Reggie's step-dad is dirrrrty, and there were whispers even way back then that something fishy happened. 5 years later, Yahoo broke the story of Reggie's dirty deed's. But damn, I digress). McKnight is a stud.

But our DB's aren't that fast. I don't know about Blanton's 40 speed, but he looks average speed-wise to me (he's a playmaker though - love him). The other guys don't look like burners either, but I could be wrong...

 

[ARALOU]

I'dsay a bot of both. McKnight really is that fast. He's lightning fast. He was their #1 recruit 2 years ago, and he was all LSU until at the last minute he magically chose USC (the same thing happened with Reggie Bush years ago. He was ALL ND until he miraculously changed his mind and went to USC. Reggie's step-dad is dirrrrty, and there were whispers even way back then that something fishy happened. 5 years later, Yahoo broke the story of Reggie's dirty deed's. But damn, I digress). McKnight is a stud.

But our DB's aren't that fast. I don't know about Blanton's 40 speed, but he looks average speed-wise to me (he's a playmaker though - love him). The other guys don't look like burners either, but I could be wrong...

So Bush was considering ND? I did not know that.

 

[KeepItCatholic]

I do not know how Division one college has it. My friend plays at a Division II school, We played in high school together. I asked him about the preseason training camps because our high schools were tuff. Our coach would break us down physically and mentally sometimes to the point of actual collapse. We were broken down and beat up, then he would build us back up to believe in ourselves and each other towards the end of camp. We knew the man to our left and to our right would sacrifice everything that we would, because he endured the same hardships as we did. We were encouraged to fight and scrap, it was a war within the team during camp. The defense tries to pound the offense, the offense tries to murder the defense. It is a constant competition to prove one side is better. This rivalry would become a competition in the season, our offense would try to produce better numbers than the defense,The defense would try to create turnovers and score for themselves, and both sides of the ball were encouraged to PUNISH the other team. Naturally our bond was increased as the season started and we were always united on the field. Always fighting with each other and for each other. Sorry i carried on.. but i asked my friend how training camp was at college, and he assured me it was no different then our crazy high school coach's. He said it was still a rivalry and a fight, blood thirsty and willing to sacrifice everything at anytime. He said the coach rewarded fights, stating that he would publicly renounce them but privately reward them, he said their mission was to be known as the nastiest most intense team on the field at all times. I do not know how the practices and camps are at Notre Dame, but i assure you they cannot be as violent as the above, it shows in your play, you need to be hungry they need to want it, at all cost...

ps i love the helmet idea, sure it will upset people, but imagine if it worked, and the team went undefeated and won the NC, can you say movie material? sometimes you need to go to great lengths to accomplish great things.

 

[nd1988]

this team definitely needs to be depussified Thats funny as hell... it's like I'm rooting for an entire army of dusty vaginas. Someone needs to go to ND "coachwise" and knock the dust off those vaginas.

About the McKnight run.... One of our DB's had a horrid angle on him.. That goes with a lack of experience.

 

[ARALOU]

They were all within a yard of him and he "RUNNOFT". Anyway my point was, I thought we had recruited some DB speed and that play made it look otherwise.

 

[kmoose]

They were all within a yard of him and he "RUNNOFT". Anyway my point was, I thought we had recruited some DB speed and that play made it look otherwise.

Charlie has recruited some speed. The problem is that there is a big difference between being fast, and playing fast. There are many athletes out there that can burn up a 40 yard dash, in shorts and a tshirt. Put pads on them and make them dodge defenders, and suddenly they look as slow as my grandma (God bless ya, grandma, I love ya. But you're not fleet of foot). It's also about vision. Some players process information from their peripheral vision differently than others. They are the ones that you hear about having great instincts. It's not like they have some kind of Uber Football Gene that others lack. They just process information better. In the military, this is called Situational Awareness. You have a bad guy in your sights, and you see some movement to your left. Your brain processes that registry of movement and inserts it into this "mental battlefield" that is in your head. That way, once you waste the bad guy in front of you, you don't charge forward, right into the crosshairs of the guy on your left. Running is very similar, and you have to make decisions almost as quickly. You have to see the pursuit from the defense, and almost automatically adjust your path to account for it. It's called "running to space", and all of the great backs are able to do it.

 

[IrishGold]

We've got the speed...we've got the talent...we've got SOME excellent coaching.

The apparent lack of motivation on offense can be attributed to both a lack of
coaching and the complexity of CW's playbook. Get real Charlie. Make the
playbook simpler ala Green Bay Packers of the 60's. The complexity doesn't
frighten anyone. Watching the first qtr & 1/2 of USC was all I needed. The
Trojans had 8-9 men up on the line with the confidence that we could not run
block. Defensive speed is great but if you put a body on it your offensive speed
can win the day.

Watch Corwyn Brown close-up and you see passion and motivation. Get an
offensive line coach who can show these guys how to knock people down and
keep knocking them down. Continually backing up to pass block puts all the
pressure on the offensive line. Putting pressure on the defense is what wins
ball games. It has to happen in the trenches.

 

[phgreek]

We've got the speed...we've got the talent...we've got SOME excellent coaching.

The apparent lack of motivation on offense can be attributed to both a lack of
coaching and the complexity of CW's playbook. Get real Charlie. Make the
playbook simpler ala Green Bay Packers of the 60's. The complexity doesn't
frighten anyone. Watching the first qtr & 1/2 of USC was all I needed. The
Trojans had 8-9 men up on the line with the confidence that we could not run
block. Defensive speed is great but if you put a body on it your offensive speed
can win the day.

Watch Corwyn Brown close-up and you see passion and motivation. Get an
offensive line coach who can show these guys how to knock people down and
keep knocking them down. Continually backing up to pass block puts all the
pressure on the offensive line. Putting pressure on the defense is what wins
ball games. It has to happen in the trenches.

Yup...I see hesitation, confusion, and yea we are soft too. Our defense plays OK...but they do alot of "catching"...we do very little on the other teams side of the LOS...and Corwyn might simplify some things too...I see some tell tale signs of hesitation on D as well.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

I think D looked as good as I have seen it in years. Offensive hesitation might be because of too big a playbook and imo a wrong interpretation of "taking what the defense gives you. Team needs to know its few plays it is going to run and practice and execute the hell out of them all season. They need more misdirection and creative blocking schemes.

 

[phgreek]

I think D looked as good as I have seen it in years. Offensive hesitation might be because of too big a playbook and imo a wrong interpretation of "taking what the defense gives you.

Yea...I don't want to slight the improvement, they were better most of the time, particularly on pass D...

But I did not see but a handfull of ball carriers get popped and go backward...most stumbled forward, and required 2 or more guys grabbing them...thats catching. I would say 90% of the time, a team who is catching is "thinking" and not reacting...only way to fix it is experience and/or simplification.

Team needs to know its few plays it is going to run and practice and execute the hell out of them all season. They need more misdirection and creative blocking schemes.

A-freakin-men on that point...

 

[scoutgod]

Off the point, but there has been so much criticism of modern football players lacking fundamentals in tackling and blocking. Older players bemoan the present generation of tacklers etc.....

I was watching a game last weekend and agreed with that point of view.... until I realized I was watching "The Greatest Game Ever Played" There is horrific tackling and blocking in that game. If those were the glory days... then the glory days were full of 5'11" slow chicken humpers (all with similar levels of melanin it should be noted.)

 

[ARALOU]

Blocking back then was whole different ball game. You could not use your hands. They even commented on it during the show. Tackling was not as advanced, in my opinion, as it is now. Even at a tick or two faster due to the camera speed they seemed slow. I will say one thing, Johnny U. could sling that ball with accuracy.

 

[scoutgod]

Blocking back then was whole different ball game. You could not use your hands. They even commented on it during the show. Tackling was not as advanced, in my opinion, as it is now. Even at a tick or two faster due to the camera speed they seemed slow. I will say one thing, Johnny U. could sling that ball with accuracy.

absolutely he could throw. the tackling was horrid though. I am just wondering when the golden age of tackling was.


it is like the 1973 Dolphins.. undefeated..... no one could argue they would roll through the league today.

 

[Junkhead]

Our Offensive line's motto is "Shutup and trip somebody".
Thanks to CW and Latina.

 

[ARALOU]

Lol

 

[alleycat9]

please remember the equipment they were using back then when talking about tackling. much different to tackle someone with that stuff on than it is today.

sorry its off topic.

 

[Junkhead]

please remember the equipment they were using back then when talking about tackling. much different to tackle someone with that stuff on than it is today.

sorry its off topic.

I could put on a leather helmet and be as effective as the ND line at run blocking. If I ignored the coaching and manned up.

 

[ARALOU]

You dont need a helmet to be in the o-line. Just get a red sheet and say OLE'

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Our Offensive line's motto is "Shutup and trip somebody".
Thanks to CW and Latina.

Friggen lol.

Shut up and miss some body.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

please remember the equipment they were using back then when talking about tackling. much different to tackle someone with that stuff on than it is today.

sorry its off topic.

But great point. Current equipment allows for Kamikaze action.