Top 10 Learnings - Week 1!!!

[jonesman]

10. Purdue will be better than expected. Because of Marves mobility they are going to win more games than most expected.

9. Bennet Jackson can play ball!!! Any time you put a true freshman WR on special teams, he must be good. Well, this kid can fly and loves CONTACT!! Anello version 2010!!

8. Front 4 pressure!! We had multiple sacks and a QB on the run all day just using our front 4. I saw several people commenting on here about us sucking at pass rush. I think they starting drinking a little to early in the game. I just rewatched the game and we were collapsing that pocket all day.

7. Hayseed Hatred??? After watching again, I just do not get the Harrison hatred. Did he get burned deep?? NO Did he miss a key tackle?? NO Why was he not in on a lot of plays?? That is because your safety must play deep in a 3-4. So, please stop the anger unless you can give me a real reason.

6. OLB's must improve contain. Several times we allowed the QB to get outside contain. We will need to see improvement before Denard gets unleashed next week. Brian Smith is not going to like watching film when he sees himself getting sucked in on the Marve TD run. CONTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

5. ILB's will be solid. We all knew that Teo would be a player, but questions remained regarding the other LB position. I heard some saying that Carlo looked slow and I just don't see it. He was solid in pass coverage. He took a couple bad angles to the sideline, but overall he made very solid plays. Further, he takes down a player when he makes contact. Teo struggled today with missed tackles, but that will improve.

4. OT's had some growing pains. There were several times today our T's simply blocked the wrong guy. I did not see them getting physically beat to much, except for Dever on a few plays. I expect them to improve much more as the season progresses. At Guard and Center we are set, Cave is a road grader and so is Stewart.

3. Kelly held tight on the reigns. It is obvious that Kelly was not totally comfortable with Crist yet. He called many short passes, ran more than his usual offense and most passes were spot up WR's.

2. Crist must show growth in weeks ahead. Dayne looked OK, but he must become more comfortable and efficient for us to trully succeed. He dumped too many passes off to the TE when he needs to get down field passes to stretch a D.

1. UM is going to be a force this coming week. I still believe we can win, but we must play better on O and the OLB's must improve. Denard will not find as easy sledding against our D, but we must improve.

Week ONE Awards:

Special Teams: Co-winners Bennett Jackson and David Ruffer. How nice is it knowing that our coach does not have to make a bad 4th down decision because we can't kick a FG. It was awesome watching those 37 and 47 yard kicks look solid. As for KO's, how about the speed and aggressiveness of Jackson!!!

Offense: Braxton Cave. When every snap is on the money and your running game is that solid, the OL has to get some credit. I watched him on many runs just push his guy down field several yards.

Defense: Co-winners of Gray and Walls. These two are as solid as they come. They can cover and WOW can they tackle. I will put them up against any WR's we play.

KNUCKLEHEAD AWARD: This award should speak for its self. BRIAN SMITH wins hands down for one play. If he stays home on the Marve TD, he makes the tackle in the backfield, but instead he will be hiding in the back of the film room this morning as this glaring, UH-OH, I FU%&#@-UP is shown today!!!

 

[Irish Man3]

10. Strength and Conditioning- For the first time in a long time we were able to come out of halftime and have more energy than the other team. We were fired up on both sides of the ball but especially defense.
9. Our depth really showed up. From the defensive line to the linebackers, and from the backup running backs to our depth at wide out. Cierre Wood brought a real spark off the bench and while Kamara only had one catch, his down field blocking was superb.
8. Running Attack- I was very impressed with the balance on offense. With both Cierre Wood and Armando Allen, we were able to effectively run the football. I think the two of them will push eachother all season and also keep eachother fresh. There was no drop off between the #1 and the #2.
7. Zone Blocking- Our blocking scheme from Braxton to Floyd was much improved. We were able to open lanes on both the first and second levels.
6. Wide Reciever Balance- With what looks to be a real solid freshman in TJ Jones, we have put together a very solid and balanced group of wide outs. We have two solid possession recievers in Kamara and Floyd. We have a great and fundamentally sound tight end in Rudolph. Riddick did not have a great game but I believe him and TJ bring great balance to an already solid WR core.
5. Open Field Tackles- In my mind we looked like a brand new team. Gary Gray was amazing in the open field. Everyone was flying to the ball and they showed a lot of good energy.
4. Crist- I think Crist had a very good first game. Its a new system and his first start for the Irish. As BK lets him open it up a little more down the road, I expect Crist to only get better. His decision making was great.
3. Special Teams- David Ruffer looked great on all three of his field goals. I may have been dreaming but I think I even saw a KO go through the back of the end zone? Bennett Jackson was very impressive on KO coverage.
2. Coaching Adjustments- Its good to see for the first time in awhile that we came out of halftime and made some solid adjustments instead of just relying on our offense to put up 40 points.
1. Defense- We didnt blitz 85 times yesterday and we were able to put more pressure on Marve than on qbs of the past. We looked like we knew what we were doing and we looked fired up.

 

[GO IRISH!!!]

I was really pleased to see Walls and Gray have such good games on the corners. I hope they have solid senior seasons because I think they are both quality guys.

The whole team just looked like they were coached better. I was not expecting to see such improvement in week 1, but they looked like a different team. Much less arm tackling. Oddly enough, the only glaring arm tackles I saw were from Teo. He will watch film and get that corrected.

Rudolph is a beast. Kelly did not tip his hat too much on how much he will use Kyle, but I expect the coming weeks will show off the TE a lot more downfield.

Dayne was awesome, in my opinion considering the circumstances. First game after major injury, in a new system, in your first career start and he managed the game very, very well. After the first pass goes incomplete, he settled down and rattled off like 8 in a row. Zero delay of game penalties and no panic "Jimmy-like" timeouts. Crist looked poised and in control the whole time.

Cierre Wood - wow! With the exception of the fumble, what a game! He just has the "it" factor and he will be very exciting to watch this season.

Thank goodness for David Ruffer. Kid has quite a leg. I can breathe a sigh of relief with our kicking game for the first time in years. This is the first time in a long time I can remember seeing a kickoff go in to the end zone. He didn't put all of the there, but if we face an elite returner, I feel better knowing we can put it out the back of the end zone if need be.

I was very, very pleased with this game. I think it will be an exciting season.

Bring on MICHIGAN!!! Mr. Robinson, meet Mr. Teo!!!

 

[Irish To The Core]

Jonesman, I couldn't agree more about the "I Hate Harrison Smith" club. Watch the game closely. I have and he did his job. These posters are hung up on last season when Smith looked lost at times. Re-watch some of those games...Walls and Blanton looked shell shocked too. It was a result of Tenuta's pigheaded and ineffective blitz every down scheme. The dbs were asked to do too much. A blitz puts pressure on the coverage guys, but SHOULD compensate by forcing the qb to make mistakes. If the qb is not pressured a scheme like that is suicide. Last season is over...Hayseed does not deserve all the venom.

 

[GreatGolson]

I feel like BK isnt showing us what ND is fully capable of on offense, i think hes saving his BIG stuff for the big games (pitt, utah, suddenly michigan)

 

[TerryTate]

Who the hell was criticizing Carlo? That dude single handedly dominated the first half. The defense's performance makes me feel 10x better about this season.

 

[Irish Man3]

Who the hell was criticizing Carlo? That dude single handedly dominated the first half. The defense's performance makes me feel 10x better about this season.

I agree. I dont understand the calling out of Carlo or Harrison. When you rush 8-9 players and leave your db's and safeties on an island, theyre going to look bad. Last year was bad on a lot of different levels but mainly it was because of Tenuta and people playing out of their natural positions. As far as Carlo, the only thing I was worried about before yesterday was his ability in the passing game. After seeing him yesterday I thought he handled himself very well and made a lot of open field tackles to prevent third downs. I love the physical aspect that he and Manti bring to the middle of our defense.

 

[DomeX2 eNVy]

Jonesman, I couldn't agree more about the "I Hate Harrison Smith" club. Watch the game closely. I have and he did his job. These posters are hung up on last season when Smith looked lost at times. . .
Last season is over...Hayseed does not deserve all the venom.

I agree with you both. It was so refreshing not hearing a safety's name call every play. He made solid tackles when he had to and was mostly anonymous - which is good

 

[PatsandBostonfan1975]

I feel like BK isnt showing us what ND is fully capable of on offense, i think hes saving his BIG stuff for the big games (pitt, utah, suddenly michigan)

Brother i felt the same way man with all the running I felt like he's holding back.

 

[Junkhead]

Carlo looked pretty good, matching the team lead with 9 tackles and never getting exposed in the pass defense. Not bad at all for first game action. We should continue to gain momentum, and get better, as opposed to the Weis tradition of peaking in game 2.

 

[NDFANnSouthWest]

I thought Carlo (corrected) played well...I think he had a better game than Manti. However I was really happy with both of them...I hope the OLB fix their contain issues....

 

[Butchie]

They gave coach running lanes. He ran. If scUM does that. He will run. If they send 8 or 9. He will light their ass up in the air. He's good. He will take what you give him. Pudon't was terrified of Floyd. They attempted to take him out of the game. With the fumble. He took himself out. He will have to have better concentration vs. scUM. We need huge play from the veterans to lead us to victory & the under classmen will get absorbed by the atmosphere. HUGE. HUGE. HUGE. scUM must fall. MUST. MUST. MUST FALL.

 

[irish1958]

Anyone who thought Harrison and Carlo played a poor game was watching a different game than I was.

 

[eNDzone]

The defence only gave up 10 points and 7 of those were on a short field due to the safety kickoff. One blown play cost us seven but other than that you can't ask much more from your defence.
Gone are the shoulder tackle attempts that only allow a runner extra yardage. When was the last time you saw ND wrap two legs and take them down like they did on Purdue? That shows Real focus. If they've already improved this much there is no telling how good they can get.
Buy the way loved seeing my man Mike McCoy at half time. The only think bad that came out of the day at the stadium was a sunburn on my face.

 

[DomeisourHome]

I thought Carlos played well...I think he had a better game than Manti. However I was really happy with both of them...I hope the OLB fix their contain issues....

I think this is the second time I seen you do this...his name is Carlo not Carlos, there's a difference.

 

[mrmiller8]

Just my personal opinion, but with a new coach, new system, new qb and all the other surrounding hype. I think that offense looked ok and they are only going to continue to get better every week and every day. This win was confidence builder for the Irish. I focused a lot more on the defense and if Harrison Smith is so bad why did not give up any big plays over the middle? If Calabrese is so slow how did he fly out to make to tackles on the edge all game? T'eo probably had the worst tackling game of his career in the open field, but he also sniffs out screens better than any young LB I have ever seen and I'm not worried about him, he will be fine.

The defense is lightyears ahead of where they were under W*** (I don't like saying his name anymore). They were faster, better tacklers, knew their assignments, in better shape, and more confident. The defense will always be ahead of the offense under a new coach and both will most likely improve in the next weeks. I'm excited for Michigan but no one knows how good anyone is right now and we won't know until week 5 or 6 how good we might be or how bad we might be.

Bottom line about the Irish: They were a well coached team that still needs improvement and that will come. We had a philosophy on offense and there was a rythm to playcalling. We had 15 yards in penalties. Had four sacks in one game compared to 20some all of last year. I think we are on to something here and I'm going to enjoy BK for years to come hopefully but I am not gonna be an idiot and say BCS Championship game here we come or that BK is gonna be the greatest coach of all time. Excitement doesn't last for long when you don't win.

 

[ND_HAS_RISEN]

Gary Gray played a breakout performance.

Darrin Walls played great except one bite he slipped up on, but the dude dropped the pass anyways....

Brian Smith "should" get replaced by Filer IMO

Manti is one of the best instinctive LB's I've seen in awhile, but he needs to wrap up instead on trying to make a highlight reel every hit.

Carlos played exceptionally well IMO. He seemed a bit slow at times, but overall I thought he played great.

The running game finally worked IMO because of the blocking downfield. We have always have decent run blockers on the line, but the downfield blocks always SUCKED. The WR looked great blocking down the field, and Rudolph looked exceptional blocking.

Crist can make the throws, he just needs to gain confidence. He has a very nice pocket presence and can move well.

AA FINALLY!!!!! Allen didn’t immediately fall down at the first person who touched his shoelace!!! AA has always been one of my favorite backs, but he always lacked balance. His vision and skills were always there, but his balance always SUCKED. I think he is poised for a GREAT YEAR!! He's also the type of back who could be real special in the league in the right system.

Cierre Wood is a STUD and gives us the homerun threat every time he touches the ball.

and finally.....











CONDITIONING!!!! I was a huge Weis supporter, but I couldn't help to think that we were going to give that game up in the fourth quarter again cause of how many times I'd seen it before..... The guys were FRESH the entire game. I credit this completely to BK and Longo, now just imagine what he can do with a full year or two under the same conditioning/weight program

 

[ND_HAS_RISEN]

Sorry, hit the enter button twice

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Agree with the above. Some things I learned: After almost a year of having this cable box thingy, I finally learned how to record on the DVR. Yippeee. I am re-watching the game right now. Crist is very accurate, except for that inexplicable overthrow to a wide open Rudolph in the endzone.

I didn't realize how good a game Gary Gray played. I voted for Walls in the other thread, but I might now add Gray. Carlo and Manti were fanfriggentastic.

I was not offended by the officiating.

Taylor Swift was on the ND sideline with an all access pass, and her brother is a student at ND. The friend standing next to her was good looking. I don't know how I missed the whole Swift episode.

Game went fast. I hardly had enough time to take a b.r. break.

 

[Big23Head]

I agree with everything in this thread I believe. I feel like giving my observations after being at the game.

Carlo Calabrese was the man. I don't remember him missing a tackle, he got near the guy and he was done bottom line.
**I am not sure if it was on TV or not because I was actually watching Carlo instead of the ball. On one play abuot the 2nd quarter, he engaged an O-line right off the snap, NO head start, it was head on and Carlo absolutely threw the guy flat on his @$$ and I mean threw. The play ended and the lineman was literally 4 yards behind on his back.

Manti Teo missed a fair amount of tackles for him. After one in the third quarter he went to the sideline and ripped his helmet off. After that he planted a guy on an inside screen and never missed again. He didn't miss a ton but you could tell it was not acceptable to him.

Gary Gray was awesome, sure tackler, no one got by him, fantastic play on Ian Williams pick.

Darrin Walls was very solid as well, only the deep ball he was beat on but they didn't complete it so it works out.

D-line looked fresh at the end of the game. Ethan one armed threw an O-lineman out of his way to reduce a double team to man in the fourth. It was awesome. They just looked strong, great to see.

Hayseed and Slaughter were not tested much but I thought they were in the right places at the right times. Blanton was burned on the two plays I watched him carefully and promptly removed.

Bennett Jackson was the man. The stadium announcer loved him from the beginning. Every time he made a special teams tackle the announcer would give an exaggerated pause before announcing his name.

Crist was perfect for what I wanted to see. First game, ACL recovery, I was happy with it. No big mistakes just things to clean up, but decisions were solid. I loved seeing him hit a LB, fall forward and fight with no hesitations.

Wood and Allen were a nice tandem. Wood seems to have that IT factor, it just felt different when he got the ball and the crowd knew it.

TJ Jones was a veteran in my point of view, calm and very cool. I like the receiving corp.

Cave was very consistent with his snaps and overall the O-line was solid. Kerrigan made some plays but that had to be expected from a guy like that.

Brian Smith caused me to have a very bad moment where I swore and then had to apologize to the people around me on the Marve touchdown. I completely agree with the poster that made the comment of him running up KLM's butt. He instantly was screwed. It reminded me of the UM game last year just seeing similar plays like that. He also had some other plays where he didn't hurt us but did not look fluent at all in pursuit, like he was not seeing the ball well or something.

Filer does need to see the field more. He is so strong and so quick. I think he will take over in time. He caught the RB from behind on a play and the RB became a rag doll as Filer down him.

Ruffer was solid, only mistake was the long kick off that he tried to crush and hit to high on the ball so it went no where.

Defensive MVP's Gary Gray and Carlo no doubt. Walls was solid too.

Stadium noise was solid. I was pumped when the crowd caused the 3 penalties in a row. The defense was waving there arms up and the whole place responded. Is the student section bigger this year? It looked it to me from past games. I know in my section, my friend and I along with 5 people in front of us made sure our section stood every third down or big play. And it worked, we had everyone on their feet that I could see.

I think walking through the section was a good idea, it added the instant excitement.

The flag ceremony was nice, a good tribute to those fallen, classy.

That is all I remember right now. Overall I thought it was a solid first game. Floyd doesn't fumble and the game was over. Purdue was down big time then, there was zero noise for them at that point and their sideline was dead. The biggest thing to remember I think is this team does not know really how to win in college yet. I'll be interested in our growth and continual effort. I thought the focus was there and most of the mistakes will clean themselves up with experience.

Random side notes: Joe Montana and Tony Brooks tailgated just outside the stadium with some people. Theo and his friends were out after the game, enjoying themselves all smiles.

 

[IrishAlum1997]

Where were u sitting Big 23? I was in section 24, and was definitely the vocal leader of our section. Was consistently louder than I have heard in the past in games against "average" opponents.

Still was surprised at the number of people NOT making the "K" during the 1812 Overture, and a few other standard game cheers in our section.

This week should be different...

 

[IrishinSyria]

Taylor Swift was on the ND sideline with an all access pass, and her brother is a student at ND. The friend standing next to her was good looking. I don't know how I missed the whole Swift episode.
.

I don't know how this whole board missed the fact that Taylor Swift was at the game. I was on the lookout all day, was going to ask her to marry me if I ever saw her around campus. No luck this time, but I've got my brother (who actually goes to ND) assigned to becoming best friends with her brother (who also goes to ND). The other good looking girl with Taylor was teen sensation Selena Gomez.

 

[Big23Head]

I was in Section 105 for this game. I agree that it was louder than normal for this type of game. I also had zero voice when I left the stadium. The stadium and campus buzz was simply different in a GREAT way.

I knew Taylor was there, I just couldn't find her. I had heard her brother was at ND. Seeing Theo, Montana and Brooks worked though.

I also forgot to mention that Anthony MacDonald looked good on the field for his injury, he was able to move fairly well. I missed Shembo though

Nice piece here to:
NBC Sports - College Football - Inside the Irish

 

[IrishAlum1997]

NO CRAP!!!! I could have been canonized at home if I could have come home with a pic of Taylor Swift and the Wizard of Waverly Place. They should come back for the Michigan game.

And why can't they sit in the stands? If I recall, Julia Roberts and Jason Patric sat in the stands for the FSU game in '93?

 

[NDFANnSouthWest]

Thanks fellas for the "at the game" perspective....cant wait to take my two sons to our first game at ND stadium.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Although I have heard the name Taylor Swift (my little 5 and 10 yr. old lil lady cousins are in love with her...), I am pretty much clueless about her career. I looked up a video - "You belong with me" - and in the video she is a band member for a high school team that is wearing exact Notre Dame uniforms. I wonder if that is a coincidence.


Go to 1:57 of the video for the ND look alikes.

YouTube - Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VuNIsY6JdUw?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VuNIsY6JdUw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

 

[NDFANnSouthWest]

found this...

Google Image Result for http://modoration.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/taylor-swift-620.jpg

 

[Big23Head]

Thanks fellas for the "at the game" perspective....cant wait to take my two sons to our first game at ND stadium.

Enjoy it! I'm going back for Pitt and I'm hoping to see an improved team building more and more confidence. Good start though, enjoy your experience, it'll be awesome.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

KNUCKLEHEAD AWARD: This award should speak for its self. BRIAN SMITH wins hands down for one play. If he stays home on the Marve TD, he makes the tackle in the backfield, but instead he will be hiding in the back of the film room this morning as this glaring, UH-OH, I FU%&#@-UP is shown today!!!

Again we were three LB’s short. Smith was playing both OS LB positions, correct? What chance that contributed to his mistake. He played a long hard game to that point, at both dog and cat. I want to see a game with Fleming and Shembo in, first.

Who is Carlos? Carlos is becoming an epidemic! Carlo was fine, I will stand by what I said in another post on another thread, he had a couple of times where he started to bite for the run, then realized he had the tight end dragging across the middle. Might have made him look slow. Maybe?

For one I am tired of hearing anything like “Hayseed.” Other people have alluded to it, but I think that it really needs to be said. Not many people could take the f@#ked up mis-mash of coaching, moving him in and out of position for no good reason, that Harrison Smith has had since he came to ND, with all the back and forth, schemes and techniques, and continued to make a solid effort and keep his attitude in line. That "hit-of-all-hits" at the end of the Washington game, says it all! I think anyone who calls Harrison, any condescending euphemism, referring to his family’s home town, owes him a hell of an apology. He is a Notre Dame man.

 

[NDFANnSouthWest]

Relax Domeisour....