'18 FL WR Kevin Austin (Notre Dame Signee)

[GrangerIrish24]

I want to be clear I did not think Balis was teaching the 40. I do wonder if his program has some portion of this success.

But I'm honestly curious did all three of these guys use same coaches?

All 3 of them surprised the hell out of me.

Im too lazy to look it up, but Pete Sampson has discussed it in the past. Balis has been linked to alot of guys who dominated or simply even surprised everyone at the combine. I believe Byron Jones broke the world record , at the time, in the long jump.

 

[arrowryan]

Driskell’s continued harping on BK/Del is exhausting. Yes, I agree that they did not get the most out of some guys. But Kevin Austin is not a good example.

Called Austin’s injury history and suspension “excuses”. No, Bryan, those are facts.

He was on a rampage last night. The way he was talking, you would’ve thought BK and Del bullied him.

 

[NDdomer2]

Driskell’s continued harping on BK/Del is exhausting. Yes, I agree that they did not get the most out of some guys. But Kevin Austin is not a good example.

Called Austin’s injury history and suspension “excuses”. No, Bryan, those are facts.

He was on a rampage last night. The way he was talking, you would’ve thought BK and Del bullied him.

Also running fast doesn't not = great receiver. Because he showed up fit and fast doesn't suddenly mean we got less out of him than we should due to coaching. More due to KA himself, imo.

 

[BleedBlueGold]

Driskell’s continued harping on BK/Del is exhausting. Yes, I agree that they did not get the most out of some guys. But Kevin Austin is not a good example.

Called Austin’s injury history and suspension “excuses”. No, Bryan, those are facts.

He was on a rampage last night. The way he was talking, you would’ve thought BK and Del bullied him.

Also running fast doesn't not = great receiver. Because he showed up fit and fast doesn't suddenly mean we got less out of him than we should due to coaching. More due to KA himself, imo.

I noticed Driskell's rants too and had the same reaction as you two. I always felt KA could've been a stud but he had injuries, a suspension, and was wildly inconsistent with some amazing catches in clutch moments, but also some very bad drops in clutch moments. When I think about great ND WRs, KA doesn't scratch the surface for me. Just my take.

I hope he gets drafted and has a great career in the NFL. Truly.

 

[SouthSideChiDomer]

Im too lazy to look it up, but Pete Sampson has discussed it in the past. Balis has been linked to alot of guys who dominated or simply even surprised everyone at the combine. I believe Byron Jones broke the world record , at the time, in the long jump.

I'm pretty sure that's how we found him. He was at UConn and they had several guys putting up crazy numbers, especially considering they played for UConn.

 

[IrishLion]

Driskell’s continued harping on BK/Del is exhausting. Yes, I agree that they did not get the most out of some guys. But Kevin Austin is not a good example.

Called Austin’s injury history and suspension “excuses”. No, Bryan, those are facts.

He was on a rampage last night. The way he was talking, you would’ve thought BK and Del bullied him.

Also running fast doesn't not = great receiver. Because he showed up fit and fast doesn't suddenly mean we got less out of him than we should due to coaching. More due to KA himself, imo.

Idk, I'm usually on the "Driskell is a Turd" train, but I think I might agree with him on this one.

Even with Austin's injury struggles and off-field issues... he was MASSIVELY underutilized this year, and that goes back to Tommy and BK. A dude averaging 18+ YPC needs more than ~45 receptions.

You could make the argument that he was averaging big numbers on each catch because he's a deep threat that was targeted down the field more often than not, and it's not realistic to jack up his targets much more when he's constantly running vertical routes. And you could also make the argument that the early season offensive struggles affected everybody, and that KA himself left ~200 yards on the table with drops.

But the reality is that once they decided to stick with Coan and operate with more tempo as the year wore on, they should have been force-feeding KA. He seemed to be really good on short routes because he was a big athlete that defenses had to respect, and he seemed to turn quick slants (which had been missing from the playbook) into big gains whenever given the chance... but they only let him run a slant off the line like four times all year, if it was even that many.

I understand you had Kyren, Tyree, Mayer, etc., and a lack of depth at WR, but they should have done more to get him closer to 75 receptions, IMO.

 

[NDdomer2]

Idk, I'm usually on the "Driskell is a Turd" train, but I think I might agree with him on this one.

Even with Austin's injury struggles and off-field issues... he was MASSIVELY underutilized this year, and that goes back to Tommy and BK. A dude averaging 18+ YPC needs more than ~45 receptions.

You could make the argument that he was averaging big numbers on each catch because he's a deep threat that was targeted down the field more often than not, and it's not realistic to jack up his targets much more when he's constantly running vertical routes. And you could also make the argument that the early season offensive struggles affected everybody, and that KA himself left ~200 yards on the table with drops.

But the reality is that once they decided to stick with Coan and operate with more tempo as the year wore on, they should have been force-feeding KA. He seemed to be really good on short routes because he was a big athlete that defenses had to respect, and he seemed to turn quick slants (which had been missing from the playbook) into big gains whenever given the chance... but they only let him run a slant off the line like four times all year, if it was even that many.

I understand you had Kyren, Tyree, Mayer, etc., and a lack of depth at WR, but they should have done more to get him closer to 75 receptions, IMO.

I think everything you said can be true and it not come from a reaction to a good 40 time. If KA came otu and ran a 4.65 that wouldnt change the things you are saying above, at least imo. He deserved to get the ball more, but i dont think that means he was underdeveloped, just under-utilized.

 

[irishog77]

False Kevin Stepherson averaged 18.5 yards per reception in 2016 as a Freshman and 18.9 yards per reception his SO Year.

Right. But he qualified that with "#1 WR." Stepherson was like a #4 WR.

 

[IrishLion]

I think everything you said can be true and it not come from a reaction to a good 40 time. If KA came otu and ran a 4.65 that wouldnt change the things you are saying above, at least imo. He deserved to get the ball more, but i dont think that means he was underdeveloped, just under-utilized.

It might be a type of confirmation bias, and I hate giving any support to a Driskell rant, but I think it supports him being both underutilized AND underdeveloped, even if he wasn't available for a good portion of his time at ND due to injury/suspension. And either way, that's on BK, Tommy and Del.

If you've got a 6'2 athletic freak that can run in the low 4.4's, he needs to be doing more on the field if he's healthy and available for a full season.

Maybe some of it goes to BK and his preferences for upper classmen that can block, and some of it goes to Austin's own lack of concentration or soft mitts at times, but KA is *kind of* a similar story to Claypool and Boykin... big dudes with freakish athleticism that either took too long to bloom, or the coaches took too long to force into the gameplan.

 

[Irish#1]

Wish the kid the best. I think we can all agree that regardless of what you think the reason was, overall his ND career was a disappointment. Knock 'em dead kid.

 

[NDdomer2]

It might be a type of confirmation bias, and I hate giving any support to a Driskell rant, but I think it supports him being both underutilized AND underdeveloped, even if he wasn't available for a good portion of his time at ND due to injury/suspension. And either way, that's on BK, Tommy and Del.

If you've got a 6'2 athletic freak that can run in the low 4.4's, he needs to be doing more on the field if he's healthy and available for a full season.

Maybe some of it goes to BK and his preferences for upper classmen that can block, and some of it goes to Austin's own lack of concentration or soft mitts at times, but KA is *kind of* a similar story to Claypool and Boykin... big dudes with freakish athleticism that either took too long to bloom, or the coaches took too long to force into the gameplan.

yeah well likely never know the weighted ratio of the factors. The greatest ability is availability. Kevin was normally not that.

 

[IrishLion]

yeah well likely never know the weighted ratio of the factors. The greatest ability is availability. Kevin was normally not that.

The Bengals employed Bobby Hart at offensive tackle for two full seasons based on this reasoning, even though a broken, free-spinning turnstile would have offered more resistance to NFL defensive ends.

But generally yeah I agree otherwise lol

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

It might be a type of confirmation bias, and I hate giving any support to a Driskell rant, but I think it supports him being both underutilized AND underdeveloped, even if he wasn't available for a good portion of his time at ND due to injury/suspension. And either way, that's on BK, Tommy and Del.

If you've got a 6'2 athletic freak that can run in the low 4.4's, he needs to be doing more on the field if he's healthy and available for a full season.

Maybe some of it goes to BK and his preferences for upper classmen that can block, and some of it goes to Austin's own lack of concentration or soft mitts at times, but KA is *kind of* a similar story to Claypool and Boykin... big dudes with freakish athleticism that either took too long to bloom, or the coaches took too long to force into the gameplan.

The other thing is that all of Austin, Boykin, and Claypool dropped weight for the NFL.

ND's offense has been prioritizing WR skills besides downfield passing - even more than the NFL does.

I don't think that's a Del problem, it was from a broader scheme decision about blocking on the perimeter.

 

[Dale]

The other thing is that all of Austin, Boykin, and Claypool dropped weight for the NFL.

ND's offense has been prioritizing WR skills besides downfield passing - even more than the NFL does.

I don't think that's a Del problem, it was from a broader scheme decision about blocking on the perimeter.

I think Austin definitely dropped weight, which I assume is normal for any prospect, but I also would assume his listed weight could have been higher than his playing weight to begin with.

I don’t agree ND emphasized blocking on the perimeter more than many NFL schemes. NFL WRs are for the most part, good run blockers. That is from superstars on down.

 

[IrishLax]

Idk, I'm usually on the "Driskell is a Turd" train, but I think I might agree with him on this one.

Even with Austin's injury struggles and off-field issues... he was MASSIVELY underutilized this year, and that goes back to Tommy and BK. A dude averaging 18+ YPC needs more than ~45 receptions.

Generally agree. Driskell is calling a spade a spade here. He was obviously poorly coached, and beyond that the scheme for the first two thirds of the season really didn't put WRs in position to succeed. At the same time, the OL had its issues that might've scared them out of a big play passing attack, and that's valid.

 

[BeatSC]

Based on the combined drill results KA looks to have possibly the best overall scoring across all drills. If he had 70 receptions and fewer drops he would be up in the third round. Looks like a 5th rounder.

 

[Old Man Mike]

In my opinion, (not worth a lot I'll agree) the problems with productivity here are multidimensional. (just like anything in real life.)

I believe that Coan is/was an extremely conservative QB. As long as he worried about the pocket collapsing, he was either going to eat the ball, or get rid of it short. Austin was usually not the guy in that solution area. Secondly, a guy who drops the ball (sometimes spectacularly) often loses the QBs confidence. A conservative QB might not trust that guy very much. (this is famously true of, say, Aaron Rodgers.) Thirdly, for the last several years, Coach Kelly was trying to find a recipe for NDs offensive scheme to flourish without being able to consistently recruit game-breaker WRs a la the SEC and others. He settled on a pretty good scheme: Big Battering receivers and tight ends alongside a Big Battering OLine with tough RBs behind it. There were only two ways in the scheme to threaten big chunk plays consistently: Long runs, and long runs after-the-catch. Both emphasize down-field blocking by pass receivers.

So, was Austin, attitudinally, physically a good fit for this? It seems to me that it was a good scheme but a not so perfect fit for several reasons. I don't see a lot of blame to hand out here unless Austin's own attitude was bad, a topic I know nothing about.

 

[Luckylucci]

False Kevin Stepherson averaged 18.5 yards per reception in 2016 as a Freshman and 18.9 yards per reception his SO Year.

Did you read my post? The most from a #1 WR. Stepherson was never the #1 on those teams.

Will Fuller averaged 26.7 on 6 rec as a Freshman, 14.4 on 76 as a Sophomore, and 20.3 on 62 as a Junior. It wasn't because he got slower or created less separation, his role in the offense changed. A WR's role in the offense matters.

Kevin Stepherson had 44 rec over those two seasons. Less than Austin had this season alone.

 

[T-Boone]

I’d rather ND have a sprint coach than a TE coach.

 

[IrishRazor82]

So happy for him. Someone will take a flyer on him day 3. Have no idea how he ran that, he couldn't separate from a nose tackle on the field. Hopefully he is hitting his football stride just in time.

 

[RDU Irish]

Happy for him but his staying power will be based on crisper routes and surer hands. A lot easier for a 2nd or 3rd round pick to stick on a roster for a couple years to develop than a 5th/6th rounder.

 

[Rack Em]

He might have good straight line speed, but may not be able to fight off press coverage with his hands.

That's my first football related contribution in at least 2 years

 

[T-Boone]

He might have good straight line speed, but may not be able to fight off press coverage with his hands.

That's my first football related contribution in at least 2 years

It’s good.

 

[irishog77]

He might have good straight line speed, but may not be able to fight off press coverage with his hands.

That's my first football related contribution in at least 2 years

He prolly won't be able to fight off your mom either when she wants to employ a smothering defense. Of course he'll have his way with her with bump and run.

 

[CoachB]

How many Combines does it take to prove how terrible Del Alexander was as a coach?

Kevin Austin's Combine Performance Shows That Once Again Notre Dame Doesn't Have A Speed Problem

Kevin Austin is the latest Notre Dame wide receiver to blow up the combine

www.si.com

Not a great look for Del.

 

[GoldenToTheGrave]

As a Jets fan I wouldn't be mad if they took a flier on him in the 5th but not before.

Biggest headache he had this year were that 50/50 balls were more like 30/70 balls. He won't make it if he can't fight (and win) contested balls.

 

[GATTACA!]

His 40 time is rather surprising, but his underutilization isn't really. Coan didn't have the arm or protection (for most of the year) to be chucking it deep.

 

[Rack Em]

He prolly won't be able to fight off your mom either when she wants to employ a smothering defense. Of course he'll have his way with her with bump and run.

Bro she’s on My 600lb Life for a reason

 

[BobbyMac]

BEARS Baby!

Who needs stinkin David Bell!

* Boo! Bears suck in case there was anyone out there that thought otherwise, Thank goodness for the Lions being in the Central.

 

[Chicago Domer]

I looked at the draft board. I didn’t see him taken.