Revised Season Predictions

[Irish Legend]

8-5 again.

 

[AKRowdy]

You won't go to a bowl if you turn the ball over like that every game. I really though Christ was good last year but so many of you like Reese better. I didn't see it in the Michigan game and thought if Christ stayed healthy we would have lost. I think you need a new qb altogether maybe. Will you have the patience with Kelly and the 6-8 win mark for the next few years while he develops the guy? I'm not sold the big east gimmick style offense can work for a top flight school like ND. Look at where it got Michigan. I feel for you guys. If Kelly is wrong as RR was you are stuck with him for a while. Our recruiting really sunk like a rock last season when things fell apart for the second year in a row. The best you can hope for is 8 wins. You just don't have the qb you need.

Was the Michigan vs. Notre Dame the only ND game you watched last year? Cause Rees was a freshman thrown into fire last year during that game. Anyone could tell he was scared back there. If you watched ND games toward the end of the season when Rees was starting he developed into a decent QB who stayed poised under pressure. From the UM game to the end of the season Rees made great progress in his development.

 

[koonja]

It's funny how many people turned on Herbstreit because he predicted 8 wins. Now we're predicting 7-8 wins. That's why I never rip an analyst for their predictions. They wear the unbias goggles WAY better than fans do.

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

Of course, it all depends on how these guys rebound from last nights cluster****.

But if thats what we have to work with, then 6-6 is going to be as good as it gets. I know, the likelihood of a train wreck like that happening again is low, but man, that fuggin STANK.

With that brand of football, we aren't going to beat Michigan, MSU, Air Force, Southern Cal or Stanford. Period. We have to be a TON better to win any one of those games. I don't know if I see a ton of improvement. Hope I'm wrong and hope this was just an anomaly.

 

[BurningRiver]

I think the real teller for how we finish the season will be next weekend at Michigan. That game will be HUGE

 

[LoveNDFootball]

Yes, he looked good, but the thing is Crist can do things that Rees will never be able to do. Crist has an absolute cannon. And with him in, the offense just has so much more potential because he can really stretch the field. Crist's ceiling is twice as high as Rees' simply because of raw ability. That's not to knock Rees because I like Rees and he played well, but I just feel like this offense's potential plummets with Rees in. We become a team that has to run successfully. People say Rees led us to a 4 game winning streak, but that really isn't on him. He didn't play badly, but take the USC game for example. We did not win the game because of him, we won it in spite of him. So I just think Crist is a QB who would really be able to make this offense fly (obviously if he can't do that Rees deserves a shot) and Rees is the QB who will just manage the game well and that's it.

I agree although I'm not that confident of Crist's arm. However, with the receivers and backs he has, he can throw short well enough and the receivers & backs can get the extra yards.

With Crist, we have a quarterback who can run, and a running game that can hurt other teams. BK needs to realize that and stick to that. Give Crist a chance and run, run, run. Floyd will still get his catches, although he may not get his yards. But ND will win games.

Of course, top the turn overs and penalties. Run the ball. That's the kind of ball control I want to see. Long drives that gives the defense long rests and keeps the opponent's offense on the bench. Long drives will get points. Even a 60 yard drive with no points is better than giving the opponent a short field and your defense a long afternoon.

 

[ChiefSecond]

I agree although I'm not that confident of Crist's arm. However, with the receivers and backs he has, he can throw short well enough and the receivers & backs can get the extra yards.

With Crist, we have a quarterback who can run, and a running game that can hurt other teams. BK needs to realize that and stick to that. Give Crist a chance and run, run, run. Floyd will still get his catches, although he may not get his yards. But ND will win games.

Of course, top the turn overs and penalties. Run the ball. That's the kind of ball control I want to see. Long drives that gives the defense long rests and keeps the opponent's offense on the bench. Long drives will get points. Even a 60 yard drive with no points is better than giving the opponent a short field and your defense a long afternoon.

dude i cannot disagree with that more. We run a spread offense, thats what we do. This is not a team that is conducive to a ground and pound style. Do you realize that we have only ONE running back on the roster. CIERRE WOOD. Pounding it too often requires us putting the ball in jonas gray's hands, and also giving it to a freshmen.
You don't think teams will realize all we're gonna do is handoff to cierre???
forget about dayne making a play to keep them honest.

Tommy is the guy and we gotta let him throw the ball around the field. And im not so worried about his lack of mobility. Do you guys believe for a second that tony pike was more mobile than tommy rees??

and it's time to start mixing gholson in the game.

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

I agree although I'm not that confident of Crist's arm. However, with the receivers and backs he has, he can throw short well enough and the receivers & backs can get the extra yards.

I've seen you post this like 3 times now, and I keep wondering if you are confusing Crist and Rees. Crist is the scattergun. His deep ball is fine, but short and intermediate stuff he's high, low, pretty much anywhere but on target. He only gets accurate at 25+ yards.

Rees is the guy who can throw short well enough. He's the one that is accurate in the short and intermediate throws.

 

[pkt77242]

9-3 during the regular season.

Who we play in the bowl game determines if we win or lose.

 

[JeremyND07]

8-4....another below average season! When do we start talking about next year?

 

[jmurphy75]

I'm going to reserve judgement until after next weeks game. This is college football where every year teams loose games that they weren't supposed to. If you think that you can just up and judge a whole season by the first game you are being unrealistic. We all watched this team and I think have a pretty good feel for them....they aren't the type to just forget the fundamentals. If they do the same thing next week then I'll start to doubt their abilities until then this was just a horrible game.

 

[anarin]

10-2

Yesterday was a freak game... You take away the penalties, turnovers and bonehead plays. And we're looking at 40 points on the board, the defense played VERY well.

You cant win when you get to the 5 yard line and turn it over 3 times and miss a field goal. This wont happen again and if it does? Then we would be truly cursed and we need a witch doctor!

 

[Who'saWildManNow]

10 wins is definitely still a possibility.

Yesterday was the perfect storm. What could have went wrong, did. The damage that Gray's fumble caused to NDs psyche and the motivation it gave to USF was irreversible.

Irreversible, because every time we drove down the field something went terribly wrong. If literally one of the following things did not happen, we win this game.

-Gray fumble
-Riddick punt fumble
-Eifert 3rd down drop
-Crist endzone interception
-Missed 30yd field goal
-Carlo's missed backfield tackle
-Harrisons back-to-back facemasks
-Floyds holding call

This team can be dominant. We just got caught in a perfect storm literally and metaphorically.

Few last things..

- Why the hell wasn't Goody fielding punts? The hang time was negating any return anyway.

- Where was Toma? Theo lost the picture out there.. Barring an injury or something unknown Toma should have been on the field moving the chains.

- TJ Jones is simply not a great weapon.

- Floyd is outstanding. He was literally telling the coaches to give him the ball at the end of the game. He catches everything and Tommy seems to have great on field chemistry with him.

- Cierre and the O line looked great.

- The defense played their hearts out and will keep us in every game.

This game came down to the basics.. Throwing accurately, catching, holding onto the ball and not getting penalties. We failed to do all of those and that's why we lost.

Those are fixable with some attention to detail.

We're going to beat Michigan.

 

[koonja]

TJ had 6 catches for 58 yards. I don't think he played bad at all. Not turning his head around was a bone-head play, but if he fixed that he has 7 catches for 65 yards and maybe a TD on that play. Not a bad day from what should be your 3rd receiver (behind Floyd and Theo).

 

[LoveNDFootball]

I have to tell you that even though some of us agree and disagree, I love reading what all of you are posting because one thing is clear - we all want to see ND win.

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

I have to tell you that even though some of us agree and disagree, I love reading what all of you are posting because one thing is clear - we all want to see ND win.

:awesomewo:awesomewo:awesomewo

 

[Junkhead]

Rees is obviously our guy now, and he puts a lower ceiling on what the offense can achieve.

I think the ceiling is knee high with Crist in, because his accuracy is awful.

 

[pkt77242]

TJ had 6 catches for 58 yards. I don't think he played bad at all. Not turning his head around was a bone-head play, but if he fixed that he has 7 catches for 65 yards and maybe a TD on that play. Not a bad day from what should be your 3rd receiver (behind Floyd and Theo).

Didn't he also drop a pass in the endzone as well (and yes the CB was a little early on that play but he still could have caught it)?

 

[Riddickulous]

I'll stick by my original prediction of 9-3.

 

[koonja]

Didn't he also drop a pass in the endzone as well (and yes the CB was a little early on that play but he still could have caught it)?

You're right but I don't blame him for that. It's really difficult to catch a ball when you get wacked at the same time. If it even come a split second early, it throws your whole body off. The DB did a pretty good job of wrapping up TJ's arm from what I remember. Good play by the DB.

 

[Riddickulous]

You're right but I don't blame him for that. It's really difficult to catch a ball when you get wacked at the same time. If it even come a split second early, it throws your whole body off. The DB did a pretty good job of wrapping up TJ's arm from what I remember. Good play by the DB.

It was a concentration error by TJ. Crist's throw was to his back shoulder and he had his arms positioned as if it was headed right for his numbers.

 

[DomerInHappyValley]

I'm gonna stick with my 9 win prediction.

 

[Blaise]

I had them 9-3 with a win over SF... So now I have them at 8-4... I'm not like a lot of people here who will say 9-3, lose that game and be like, yea, but now we will beat MSU to make up for it....
I wanted Crist to work, cuz i truly believe Rees gets eaten up by Stanford and USC (like he did last year against USC) and that gurantees two more losses IMO.. So that would mean we win out the rest and i don't see it

 

[blue in ohio]

Was the Michigan vs. Notre Dame the only ND game you watched last year? Cause Rees was a freshman thrown into fire last year during that game. Anyone could tell he was scared back there. If you watched ND games toward the end of the season when Rees was starting he developed into a decent QB who stayed poised under pressure. From the UM game to the end of the season Rees made great progress in his development.

I was very happy to see Reese beating USC. I always root the Irish over USC. I don't know how he will look against Michigan. Sure the defense is not full of world beating talent but it does appear the right calls are being made at the right time. Mattison will be coming after Reese all game. Turnovers will determine the outcome of this one. BK needs to settle down. When he yells they make too many mistakes. We saw the same thing with RR when he went nuts it only got worse.

 

[blue in ohio]

Of course, it all depends on how these guys rebound from last nights cluster****.

But if thats what we have to work with, then 6-6 is going to be as good as it gets. I know, the likelihood of a train wreck like that happening again is low, but man, that fuggin STANK.

With that brand of football, we aren't going to beat Michigan, MSU, Air Force, Southern Cal or Stanford. Period. We have to be a TON better to win any one of those games. I don't know if I see a ton of improvement. Hope I'm wrong and hope this was just an anomaly.

Go on and beat USC, MSU we'd love that just don't beat Michigan, lol.

 

[BurningRiver]

I hate to say the entire season hinges on one game, but it might. Beat scUM this weekend, and it's all good. But lose and all hell will break loose

 

[NDPhilly]

Beat michigan at there place at night and I'll stay true to my original 10-2. I had one of our losses to them but if we lose I say 7-5

 

[DCirishfan]

7 games max, Stanford and USC are losses IMO.

 

[NDOM]

As of now I'm still gonna stay with my original prediction of 7-5 or 8-4 if we can upset someone.

 

[DCirishfan]

Maybe the qualifying question should be what is the record if ____________ is our qb? I think Tommy gives us the best shot but ultimately Golson getting time to play might be the ring a ding move .