'23 FL DE Keon Keeley (Prodigal Son)

[irish2104]

Remember you hover over someone's user name... like for instance is starts with a 9... you can ignore and makes this board so much more enjoyable...

 

[NDMatt91]

The whole staff pooped the bed in the second half. Glad Elston is gone.

But Rees....OSU made one adjustment. They walked the corners up on the receivers and Rees had no answer. The offense went from steamrolling to not being able to get a first down. This was without even having a DC.

That ain't cutting it.

I was never a fan of the Rees hire to begin with. It struck me as an incredibly lazy hire by BK and it reeked of nepotism. Did we ever hear about a thorough national search for a OC? Or did BK just waddle his fat ass 10 feet down the hallway to promote Rees?

 

[jason_h537]

I know what you mean.

The whole staff pooped the bed in the second half. Glad Elston is gone.

But Rees....OSU made one adjustment. They walked the corners up on the receivers and Rees had no answer. The offense went from steamrolling to not being able to get a first down. This was without even having a DC.

That ain't cutting it.

I know. I can't believe Rees called an Int. Or when he called a fumble. Or when he called on Austin to get T Rex arms on 3rd down. Or the screen that was blown up by just an incredible play by OK states captain linebacker. Notre Dame had 7 drives in the 2nd half that didn't result in a score. 4 of them ended in things beyond the playcallers control.

This is what I always find funny. Maybe it's because of Madden but everyone assumes they know what playcalling is. They'll show replays in game where someone completely misses a block and Rees is an idiot because of it. Book was scared to throw deep and it's because Rees doesn't call deep plays I guess?

I'm not saying Rees is blameless but ND had a 28 point lead with under 2 minutes in the first half and he got the ball back in the second half with a 7 point lead. But yeah let's keep acting like Rees shoulders most of the blame.

Rees is really good and he is only going to get better. I just hope people recognize it before he is gone because too many of you can't get past the fact that he was a mediocre QB that won the starting job.

 

[ulukinatme]

I was never a fan of the Rees hire to begin with. It struck me as an incredibly lazy hire by BK and it reeked of nepotism. Did we ever hear about a thorough national search for a OC? Or did BK just waddle his fat ass 10 feet down the hallway to promote Rees?

They interviewed a number of people actually. One of the guys they turned down is the dude that went to Oregon to be OC. What has Rees shown you that says he's incapable of doing the job? LSU was willing to bump him substantially, Kelly still wanted him on staff. Miami was willing to pay big bucks too.

 

[jason_h537]

As for recruiting I honestly believe half of the new people are just trolls. Freeman will be okay. This is bog boy recruiting and hopefully ND can keep Keeley and Bowen but half the posts in here read like some middle schooler trying to egg on a fight.

9 to your temple? Okay dude

 

[jason_h537]

This was my exact thought - and I’d venture a guess that Bama saw his moms tweet and made them some sort of offer.

Yeah man. If not for that, Alabama would have totally respected Keeleys commitment and backed off right?

This isn't a conspiracy. Keeley is the best edge rusher of 2023. If you are blaming a joke for his recruitment, maybe it's time to back away from the keyboard.

 

[ulukinatme]

As for recruiting I honestly believe half of the new people are just trolls. Freeman will be okay. This is bog boy recruiting and hopefully ND can keep Keeley and Bowen but half the posts in here read like some middle schooler trying to egg on a fight.

9 to your temple? Okay dude

Wouldn't be the first time. I caught some dipshit from SECRant once. He was coming over to act nice and to get info prior to the LSU bowl game a few years back I think, was going to hang around and then rub our noses in it when we eventually lost to LSU...which didn't happen of course. He laid everything out over there in a thread, one of our mods banned him before the game. It's a shame, we could have turned the tables.

 

[Irishdrunk]

He isn’t going to be a student athlete at Bama. He will take BS class so he can focus on the pig skin.

Wrong again. You do know Bama has an Honor’s School right? Sure it’s not ND but it has high level academic offerings. They have a Catholic Center too (named after Saban who is a devout Catholic).

I am not trying to rain on ND Fans’ homerish parade but let’s not make Bama and other SEC schools to be uneducated hillbilly institutions. They are not.

You want 5 Star players? You want Top 3 recruiting classes??? You offer the WHOLE package - including the NIL cash.

 

[ulukinatme]

Wouldn't be the first time. I caught some dipshit from SECRant once. He was coming over to act nice and to get info prior to the LSU bowl game a few years back I think, was going to hang around and then rub our noses in it when we eventually lost to LSU...which didn't happen of course. He laid everything out over there in a thread, one of our mods banned him before the game. It's a shame, we could have turned the tables.

Wrong again. You do know Bama has an Honor’s School right? Sure it’s not ND but it has high level academic offerings. They have a Catholic Center too (named after Saban who is a devout Catholic).

I am not trying to rain on ND Fans’ homerish parade but let’s not make Bama and other SEC schools to be uneducated hillbilly institutions. They are not.

You want 5 Star players? You want Top 3 recruiting classes??? You offer the WHOLE package - including the NIL cash.

Bama closet troll confirmed.

 

[Irishdrunk]

Bama closet troll confirmed.

Nope ND fan 100%. We need 5 stars like Keeley to win Nattys.

 

[9_To_Your_Temple_Presto]

Let me ask you this, and I mean it sincerely... What do you expect him to do? You have literally written him off as a head coach and he hasn’t even coached a season here yet at the helm. The disadvantage that this puts him in is tremendous especially since you know this is a point for programs to negative recruit. Step back for a second, and if possible, try looking at your criticisms from an absurdist perspective. He is in the thick of it battling for kids that Bama, Ohio St., Georgia, and Clemson want and who are technically still committed to Notre Dame. He’s done all this based on his character and integrity as a person, and while stressing why Notre Dame is a game changer for a young athlete with ambitions on and off the field. He doesn’t have the head coaching experience of a Saban, a Dabo, a Kirby, even a Day, and you are ready to throw the book at him? If you want to criticize aspects of his recruiting, fine. I get that. But this hyperbolic, “he ain’t gonna cut it” is incredibly shortsighted. He has done an exceptional job representing Notre Dame, has assembled a promising crew of coaches, and will only learn from any mistakes, and all while he is essentially without head coaching experience and in new NIL territory.

Recruiting is a zero sum game

Thats what makes it so fun to follow

Sign J Love and watch him take it 60 yards to the house against Clemson or watch Limar get tackled at the 25 and ND end up shanking a 37 yard field goal three plays later

Sign Tate and Wingo or watch Flores and Greathouse get bottled up by Bama's first/second round cornerbacks

Sign Keeley and M'Pemba or Moore and let teams figure out which one to single team or whiff on all three and have your best pash rushers in two years be Aiden Gobairia with 4.5 sacks on the season with Tyson Ford bull rushing from the other side

Sign Dante Moore or essentially piss away the 2024 or maybe even 2023 seasons (depending upon how Buchner is) with mediocre quarterback play

Sign Caleb Downs or Peyton Bowen or Xavier Nwanpka or Sonny Styles or Peyton Woodyard or watch Justin Walters do his best DJ Brown impersonation for two years as a starter

Unfortunately some of the above things are already not going to transpire

Misses in recruiting have consequences

MF was 100% hired because he was supposed to start winning some of these battles

So what I would have him do is start winning some. Flip the paradigm

This ain't some "Build it and they will come" fantasy were ND is going to take one 6.0, a few 5.9s, and a bunch of 5.8s and win a playoff game and then all of a sudden have some windfall of recuits fall their way

Recruits come first, then the playoff wins

ND made the right move going big with MF and he IS working hard. But unfortunately, as it stands now--and the way its trending--we may end up more or less in same spot on the trail

Just not good enough trade off for a dude with no head coaching experience and that took half a season to figure out he shouldn't play his best pass rusher at middle linebacker on third down

 

[TorontoGold]

Recruiting is a zero sum game

Thats what makes it so fun to follow

Sign J Love and watch him take it 60 yards to the house against Clemson or watch Limar get tackled at the 25 and ND end up shanking a 37 yard field goal three plays later

Sign Tate and Wingo or watch Flores and Greathouse get bottled up by Bama's first/second round cornerbacks

Sign Keeley and M'Pemba or Moore and let teams figure out which one to single team or whiff on all three and have your best pash rushers in two years be Aiden Gobairia with 4.5 sacks on the season with Tyson Ford bull rushing from the other side

Sign Dante Moore or essentially piss away the 2024 or maybe even 2023 seasons (depending upon how Buchner is) with mediocre quarterback play

Sign Caleb Downs or Peyton Bowen or Xavier Nwanpka or Sonny Styles or Peyton Woodyard or watch Justin Walters do his best DJ Brown impersonation for two years as a starter

Unfortunately some of the above things are already not going to transpire

Misses in recruiting have consequences

MF was 100% hired because he was supposed to start winning some of these battles

So what I would have him do is start winning some. Flip the paradigm

This ain't some "Build it and they will come" fantasy were ND is going to take one 6.0, a few 5.9s, and a bunch of 5.8s and win a playoff game and then all of a sudden have some windfall of recuits fall their way

Recruits come first, then the playoff wins

ND made the right move going big with MF and he IS working hard. But unfortunately, as it stands now--and the way its trending--we may end up more or less in same spot on the trail

Just not good enough trade off for a dude with no head coaching experience and that took half a season to figure out he shouldn't play his best pass rusher at middle linebacker on third down

 

[GATTACA!]

 

[BeauBenken]

I don’t even think you know what you’re talking about.

Press M’Pemba? You think they didn’t?

Staff still likes where they are with Love.

Freeling they moved on from after securing Jagusah.

And you’re talking shit about a class that currently is missing what? a QB? And that wasn’t fumbled by the staff but by the kid’s family.

Glad to have some new posters on the board but I’m starting to wonder if this is how it looks on all the crappy pay site forums…

 

[FWIrish4]

I don’t even think you know what you’re talking about.

Press M’Pemba? You think they didn’t?

Staff still likes where they are with Love.

Freeling they moved on from after securing Jagusah.

And you’re talking shit about a class that currently is missing what? a QB? And that wasn’t fumbled by the staff but by the kid’s family.

Glad to have some new posters on the board but I’m starting to wonder if this is how it looks on all the crappy pay site forums…

The “sky is falling” reaction to every bit of news that isn’t a clear positive to ND is exhausting to say the least.

This must be why Singer doesn’t want to break news and hates moderating their ND message board.

 

[317Irish]

The “sky is falling” reaction to every bit of news that isn’t a clear positive to ND is exhausting to say the least.

This must be why Singer doesn’t want to break news and hates moderating their ND message board.

The sky is falling mentality is by means new around here or around us ND fans in general, but there’s a handful of “new” posters that are making this site much more difficult to read at times lately.

 

[clashmore_mike]

Glad to have some new posters on the board but I’m starting to wonder if this is how it looks on all the crappy pay site forums…

It is....

 

[IrishLax]

Wrong again. You do know Bama has an Honor’s School right? Sure it’s not ND but it has high level academic offerings. They have a Catholic Center too (named after Saban who is a devout Catholic).

I am not trying to rain on ND Fans’ homerish parade but let’s not make Bama and other SEC schools to be uneducated hillbilly institutions. They are not.

You want 5 Star players? You want Top 3 recruiting classes??? You offer the WHOLE package - including the NIL cash.

They mostly are though. Georgia has an honors college as well, so does Missouri and virtually everywhere. How many football players participate in them? Virtually zero. Almost all are funneled into joke majors and online classes.

Alabama, Georgia, etc. all have improving graduation rates but historically a lot of SEC schools have floated around 50%-65% graduation rates. You talk to people who have actually played in or are playing in these programs and the academics are a joke. Especially since COVID, you spend 0 time on campus getting any actual instruction, take a few sham online classes, some at home exams that your tutor does for you and that’s that. I have no problem with that, a lot of these guys don’t want to “play school.” But let’s not pretend that’s the same experience that kids are having at Stanford, NW, ND, Duke, etc.

 

[Irish#1]

As ND fans we’re simply not used to defending the #1 class in the nation for an extended period of time..

I’m trying to get out of the Kelly “shop down a different aisle” expectations & trust that MF is as good a recruiter as his reputation states.

In that mindset, I have no reason to think MF won’t be all over these guys reminding them why they chose ND in the first place.

Kelly would barely even know who these kids were.. Marcus is “in” with the families.. making real impressions.

Let the kids be kids & let MF do what he supposedly does best..

I think he gets it done.

Loy said they have been recruiting Keeley like he never committed, so you know MF isn't going to go quietly into the night without a fight.

 

[Irish#1]

Fine vs equal terrible vs teams with more talent….

Nd lost to ok state under freeman who had less talent than nd

How hard is it for you to understand the dynamics in play from the time Freeman was promoted until the bowl game? This wasn't a normal scenario where he had all of the time in the world to devote to the bowl game. If this was at the end of his first season as HC, then you have a point, but it wasn't. It's like you keep bringing your '73 Vega to a car show and telling everyone it's a good as the '69 Mach I that won first prize.

 

[HouseofPain]

Wrong again. You do know Bama has an Honor’s School right? Sure it’s not ND but it has high level academic offerings. They have a Catholic Center too (named after Saban who is a devout Catholic).

I am not trying to rain on ND Fans’ homerish parade but let’s not make Bama and other SEC schools to be uneducated hillbilly institutions. They are not.

You want 5 Star players? You want Top 3 recruiting classes??? You offer the WHOLE package - including the NIL cash.

Im not sure you really know that much about Bama my friend. If you think Bama is offering education, you are clearly lost there. Great football? Check. Hot chicks? Definitely. Nice weather? Yup. Good food. Pretty much. Academics? Not even in the realm.

 

[Irish#1]

Unfortunately its going to take more than a pretty boy in an ESQ bamboo dress shirt to combat bags on bags on bags

He still hasn't really closed out anyone amazing yet

Dante Moore lost

Jason Moore lost (not even looking for a bag)

In a dogfight for a red-headed kid from Boston--should've been over months ago but actually likes Dabo better (also not looking for a bag)

He's pretty much holding the line right now. Lets be honest, most all these kids to this point are pretty predisposed to picking ND in a typical cycle

Ausberry would be a good get and Gray is solid too--but other than that?

He actually was more impressive in last years class

I mean swing a Caleb Downs or M'Pemba at least? Can't close out Jason Moore? Why aren't Hanifan and Love locked up yet? Where's the quarterback?

Just not seeing too much different right now from an actual results standpoint

You post like every commit they reach out to is supposed to commit on the spot. Saban is the only one that comes remotely close to that.

 

[Irish#1]

He needs a little cheese with that whine.

 

[NDdomer2]

Loy said they have been recruiting Keeley like he never committed, so you know MF isn't going to go quietly into the night without a fight.

Not intended at u Irish#1 but maybe we'll start getting consolation recruits like draft picks when ur best players decide they wanna play somewhere else.

 

[Irish#1]

The sky is falling mentality is by means new around here or around us ND fans in general, but there’s a handful of “new” posters that are making this site much more difficult to read at times lately.

We have some of those posters, but they don't do it with every single post. I've never ignored a poster or asked for them to be banned, but I'm getting closer.

 

[arahop]

Sort of reminds me of these coaches going public and saying “we need more money to compete”. I sort of see Mom throwing it out there that we are as loyal as our bank account allows… make me an offer.

Spot on.

 

[Mavericknyc1980]

I get the every but if negative news leads to it’s the end of the world. But when we can’t compete with other schools NIL and have a tough academic admissions, it really dampers the outlook of the programs.

 

[CoachB]

Agree on Gray and Ausberry

But...

Greathouse wasn't recruited by any big name schools (for some reason). We beat out S Carolina. Stuckey had already laid the groundwork at Baylor. Probably have Elzy instead if hired the Purdue coach

James literally asked ND to recruit him

Bell didn't even visit another school

James and Bell were possibly the easiest recruitments in history. Phone call to schedule the visit. Visit. Verbal

Flores clearly settled on ND as his best comittable offer. Georgia cancels his visit the day before (ouch) and OSU uses his planned visit as leverage on their Plan A guys. Might still flip if OSU loses Carnell

Shuler dad is huge ND fan

Even Willingham would've closed Hanafin by now. Had Rees as his primary recruiter for some strange reason. Hanafin probably thinks Stuckey thinks he has bad breath or something at this point

Fumbled around/slow played J. Love until he blew up. Could've been over by now

Could've pressed M'Pemba early (although he'd probably flipped eventually)

Jason Moore should be in the class

Ignored a bunch of quality viper candidates so as not to upset Keeley and now trying to play catch-up with them. Straight up told no by the kid from Indy

Dline recruiting as a whole this year is giving off really strong Weis/early Kelly vibes where goes from being "best haul in history" to not even meeting numbers

F'd up Freeling recruitment. Takes skill to botch an oline recruitment at ND. Willingham Trophy unlocked

Quarterback recruiting? Complete clown show. Totally played by Moore camp for two months longer than any savvy staff would have

Now very publicly and loudly going down list of backup plans one by one so that each successive offered quarterback can see how much ND devalues him as compared to the next guy

Its so sad literally have ND beat writers contemplating how great of target Fighting Illini recruit might be

As you correctly point out, anyone with a pulse can recruit oline and tight end at ND

Are you an ND fan? No offense, but why are you here? Or are you just one of those "fans" that constantly whine about "your" program? I wonder what we would see at your work place if we showed up to heckle you. Man, such negativity. Sorry, hit a nerve. I remember a few years back I had just finished up my 2nd straight unbeaten season. We did it with a very young team that wasn't expected to do much. In the final game of the year we had a showdown with another unbeaten team that had been tuning up opponents to the average of 42-5.5. We had been winning all year, but not by those margins and were considerable underdogs. We came in with a great game plan that we executed and pulled off the shocking upset 28-21. After the game, I go out into the parking lot and walk up behind this parent of one of my kids complaining about the coaching and how we should have won by 20. Some blow hards are never happy. They think being a fan is to whine and to complain and pretend they are smart. In my experience, those people never have solutions or anything positive to add, they are just there to complain and (are an extreme joy to be around)..instead of italics. None on my phone. Sorry for the rant. Climbing down off my soapbox.

 

[NDty9]

Gonna make myself feel old here, but….

When I used to come on this site for the past decade+ , I would come for insanely solid information , insider stuff that you couldn’t get anywhere else unless you paid out the A** for it. Along with intelligent opinions and conversation. Throw in a bit of immature banter and it was a lovely place to be haha

Of course the sky would fall with some Arrelious Benn or Aaron Lynch type situations, but never was it to the point where I wanted to ever block a poster. Now I feel like I come on daily and hear MOSTLY negative, whiny, or obnoxious takes from people I’ve never even seen on here, and have less than zero credibility as far as ND info goes.

Idk.. I guess all I’m saying is someone please save the ONLY ND site I go to!!!

GO MARCUS FREEMAN, GO ND, and FUCK MICHIGAN

 

[NDFAN2008]

If I had to put money on it I would say Keeley is more likely to stay Irish compared to Bowen. But I believe both end up sticking unless ND has a crappy season.