Coach gave a great presscon, and looked genuinely positive about the growth of the team. He said one thing that I believe absolutely: that last year we got beat by some teams; this year no one hasn't "beaten" us; we have beaten ourselves. He said that he showed the team last year's UofM game and then this year's, and that the team saw it too.
On the microscopic side: this is too bad about Mike Ragone, but it will be remembered as the rising day of Ben Koyack. Kelly said that he was already "assignment correct" and really doesn't mind sticking it in there, physically. Big Ben's comin' and Tommy's going to have one more weapon.
Turk must punt because Brindza is not really a punter --- I will bet that Kyle has WAY too long a "get-off" time for college punting, and therefore hoping for Turk to get ZEN is better than having punts blocked.
Coach is happy about Jonas, and so am I. I will believe until the day I die that his fumble was phony, and that it is asking a human being way too much to be stood up by three guys while a fourth rips away at the ball. That was progress stopped and whistle should occur. Jonas is now running like a train.
Kelly thinks that Tommy is special, and it's the sort of special that you can only really see in game conditions. This is hyperbole by me, but I had little flashes of Peyton Manning as Tommy would get up to the line and talk to wides and line and back, as he regularly changed the plays up. Coach was smiling broadly when he talked of that part of what Tommy does.
There was a lot more to the presscon, but all was in that mode. I thought that it authenticated much of what I've been feeling about the team. The bad goofy things MUST stop sooner or later. Let's hope it's this week against a very competent team.
Coach Kelly definitely gave a great presscon. When he talks about Tommy, he certainly seems to perk up a bit when talking about how smart he is.
I agree that Tommy made some fantastic play changes during the Michigan game, and he seems to really have a good grasp at reading the defenses (PRE-SNAP). That being said, Tommy has a long way to go to seeing the defenses after the snap. Kelly talked about the first INT, and said that there was an incorrect route ran, and that was the cause for the INT, but that is a terrible excuse IMO. If you watch that play over again, Rees is rolling out to the right and he had TWO receivers running routes. First was Floyd running what looked to be a 10 and out (it was 3rd and 9). The second was Eifert running a fly right down the hash. Rees was rolling out and never, for one second took his eyes off of Floyd and tried to throw into triple coverage (cause the guys supposed to be covering Eifert dropped off to Floyd). Meanwhile, Eifert was as wide open as they come, streaking right down the hashes. If Floyd ran the incorrect route (I am assuming this is the case), then you move on with your progressions and throw to the next man. Even if it was Eifert that ran the wrong route (which I doubt cause Rees was never looking for him) it would have been a simple throw to a wide open receiver. Point is that Tommy still needs alot of work on the post snap reads. Nevertheless, BK seems to have a lot of confidence in Tommy making the right decision.
Back to the presscon...
Kelly definitely said the right things. Even if its not true, he made it seem like he still has high hopes for this team, and that he feels this team is very good. I agree with him in the sense that this team is very good.... for most of the game...
I also got the sense right at the beginning of the conference when he was talking about playing MSU that he wanted to drill into the press that "yet again, ND will be playing a VERY good opponent". I wonder what his sense is into getting into a conference and being able to play some easier opponents early on to shore up some of the problems we have seen the past two weeks?
