BCS title game postgame thoughts

[007depthchart]

Great season for the Irish. I really like the direction our team is headed.

I guess I was not as impressed with Golson as some people. He made some nice plays and really looked like he was getting into a nice rhythm with Daniels and T.J. at times -- but I thought he looked imprecise much of the game. Nothing major, i.e. no bad INTs, but he'd fail to lead a guy far enough, put a ball just out of reach of a guy toeing the sidelines, etc. Still love the guy, and he made some nice plays for us tonight and all season, but I think we need a little more precision from our QB. It will be interesting to see how the QB competition goes in the spring. If we had won this game and Golson had played lights out, it would be tough for Gunner to win, but I think Gunner has a fighting chance the way this went.

McCarron, on the other hand, was unbelievably precise and accurate. I think some of the criticism of our secondary is fair, but some is misplaced -- McCarron just made them look bad by putting every ball right on the freaking money. It blew me away. Against LSU and TAMU McCarron looked like the weak link on his team. I had no idea he was capable of playing like that.

But we'll get there. Pasadena 2014. I'm already excited.

You guys are starting to recruit at a very high level so I think future is bright. In regards to AJ not looking good latter half of season I tried to tell everyone on this board he had a severely bruised back right before lsu game that likely effected him for 3 or 4 wks, and Cooper and the rest of starting wideouts were playing gimpy with injuries such as turf toe, sprain ankles last half of regular season and didn't have near their explosiveness. AJ looked like a heisman candidate first half of season and then when these injuries hit, it basically took out the passing game. Lacy was also playing with turf toe and sprained ankle until late in year. For the first time since Michigan Bama was healthy(besides the two starting wideouts and starting hback fowler who were lost for the season).

 

[BGIF]

I really want to know what would have happened if the refs didn't call that ridiculous fair catch interference.

I thought it was a momentum changer, one of the plays that ND needed a couple of.

We might have been able to establish a running game but I doubt it. They knew we had to pass down 4 scores and still stuff any running plays.

Lacy still would have run like a beast despite the fair catch. I like Wood and Riddick but would start them if you had Lacy and Yeldon? Me neither.

McCarron would still have throw perfect balls against the sidelines and our young secondary while the much younger Golson was throwing rainbows down the sidelines against an All-American. Golson made some nice throws. The much more experienced veteran, McCarron, made more good throws regardless of the call on the punt.

Eifert still would have made tough catches in traffic but would not have gotten any more yards than he battled for on every play. There was somebody glued to him all night.

Nix was double teamed much of the night. He made some plays and got beat on some. The punt didn't effect that.

We might have gotten another score. We might have gotten a momentum boost. It didn't help but it wasn't worth 4 TDs.

 

[BGIF]

I only deleted a small handful of posts in this thread. I'm really proud of you guys that you didn't get more out of hand than that.

Proud of this team and the young men who represent everything good about college football. Back to the grind.

Damn you Beau. I spent 15 minutes rereading pages trying to find one post that several people responded to over a failed season comment. I wanted to neg rep the twit. Now I have to wait for next season.


Thanks to you and Ironman and all the other mods that anguished through the game with their own emotions but also had to deal with those that resorted to childish behavior.

12-1 a hell of a lot better than 9-3 but still not good enough. We're getting closer.

GO IRISH!

 

[jus10]

BRUISED. beaten. from an all-SEC party. i was the sole ND fan. i got gang raped.

love ND still. gonna wear my green beads tomorrow still.

rough night.

 

[ohara831]

Team had a great year, and I am proud of them. Just ran into a buzzsaw tonight. Defense had a bad night tackling, and those two combined led to a defeat. O line struggled a bit against a tough Bama D, and Golson had to scramble all night long. I was proud of the effort given by that young man, and I strongly believe he will take this experience and build upon it for next year. I am not disappointed with Golson's play at all.

 

[BGIF]

BRUISED. beaten. from an all-SEC party. i was the sole ND fan. i got gang raped.

love ND still. gonna wear my green beads tomorrow still.

rough night.

My wife and I and two dogs in ND jerseys were only ND fans at a Alabama pregame bonfire. We had fun there. They had an Alabama Trivia contest and I had 9 of the 10 answers. (No, they didn't ask any about Robin Webber nor Parshegian.)

After the game I turned off the 4' tall lit #1 sign on the peak of my house (Grace Hall South). It will go back in the basement until next year. Meanwhile my ND gear and the dogs ND gear will be daily wear tomorrow as it has been the custom here in the Heart of Dixie for the past 30 seasons.

GO IRISH!

 

[Grahambo]

While I think ND didn't perform to the level that we are growing accustomed to, I don't think ANYBODY was beating Alabama tonight. They seemed to be on another planet and one of those nights were they would have beaten every D1 team.

This is a huge learning tool and one that will only serve to help for the 2013 season.

A simple tip of the hat to Alabama for that mastery of a performance. A solid handshake to every single person associated with ND football.

Made me damn proud to be a Subway Alum. Haters will always hate and after a few weeks off, I will be screaming for ND football to be back in full swing.

There are times in life when you come up against a force greater then you can handle and it will knock you to your knees. How you respond is what matters? How will the team respond in '13? How will BK and the staff prepare in '13?

As BK said recently, anything short of the title is a failure. Just last year we were 8-5. The year before, 8-5. Before that? 6-6. Before that? 7-6. All the while Alabama was building this current dynasty of theirs.

I was neither mad or upset last night. Bummed? You bet but I understood. I wanted Alabama. I wanted the best and last night was why.

This is my fond farewell to the 2012 team. The Turning Point if you will. They took what little was in the cupboard and turned it into something special. I will miss watching #5, #89, #52, #6, #80, etc but the sun will rise on Her Loyal Sons again.

 

[Mr. McGibblets]

If Ihear "it was men vs boys out there" from some stupid a$$hole who is over the age of 50 and listens to sports talk radio and regurgitates the same **** I just listened to on the way in, I may be fired today.

Old, grouchy Philadelphia men who are pissed because the Eagles blow and they are forced to root for Temple and Nova football and hate Notre Dame because they "think are too good to join a conference". None of their thoughts are original--they hear something and are like "that sounds good, I'll use that cliche 10 times today at work in 15 separate convos.

 

[vuirish]

Great season and a senior class that returned ND back to prominence in college football. A lot to proud of this year. I'm not taking any negatives away from this season.

 

[Who'saWildManNow]

We watched a different game:

1. Kelly called an aggressive pass game and Golson under threw open receivers downfield in single coverage. Had he led those receivers and completed those passes we would have had two long gains in the 1st half, which would have helped us immensely.

2. Motta was consistently put into perfect position by Diaco's blitzes, but Lacy and Yeldon were too quick for him. He simply was not the kind of difference maker we needed at safety tonight.

Under threw? No. Those DBs were just that good. They had the ability to play man and smother our receivers and get up to the ball. He should have thrown to Eifert instead of Jones on that interception..

But to me 21/36 270 yds against this Bama defense that knew he was going to throw every play is pretty damn good.. While also passing and rushing for both our TDs. Sorry, but two more completed passes and even that fumble recovery would not have helped us immensely, it would have simply softened the blow.

Yes Motta was out of position and missed some tackles but they all did..

I'm proud of our guys for giving us fans an amazing season and reaching the NC. It's a solid foundation. We have now seen first hand where we need to get to.

 

[phork]

Pete Thamel ‏@SIPeteThamel

Nix:"(Bama OL) did not dominate, I hope no one uses that word. I don't think they physically dominated us and took us out to the woodshed."

Could have fooled me.

BUT:

Kate Upton ‏@KateUpton

It's okay Notre Dame this happened to the Jets every week
Retweeted by Irish Illustrated

At least some sympathy sex?

 

[irishff1014]

Thank you seniors for giving it all you had all season and good luck to all of you at the next chapter of your lives.

Everett got some very good reps against an awesome defense that he will learn from and have more growth.

TJ & DD show that we will have some good weapons next, Love that fight i saw out of them,

Ishaq got a good amount of playing time hopefully we will see a burst from him next year.

 

[irishff1014]

Could have fooled me.

Yea they did. Nix was being handled by Jones.

 

[chicago51]

He guys. Couple thoughts and question from BCS title game.

1 - How much live tackling in practice did ND leading up to the game?

Lacy ran like a beast, but I'm sorry that was not the best our boys had in them. Don't get me wrong I have no doubt they gave their all last night but they missed tackles they normally make. It makes me curious to how much live tackling they did leading up to the game.

I know coaching jr. high and high school aged kids is not the same as coaching D1 FBS football. In the past though I had some very good teams get beat in playoffs games because of poor tackling because I backed off the live tackling late in the year. Not saying this is what happen to ND just a theory.

2 - Where was the pass rush?
3 - Lots of separation from the Bama WRs.

Can we only play off coverage? Can we ever get up and play tight? I'm an off coverage play it safe guy myself but sometimes you got up on people. You also have send more than 3 people to get the quarterback at times. When do send extra people you have to be able to play tight coverage and take away the quick easy throws, you leave yourself vulnerable deep but you hope you sack the QB before then.

4 - ND's WRs and TEs got to leave themselves more space between the sidelines. At the college level it is like basic stuff that you need to have space on the sideline as a WR.

5 - Feel bad for the seniors.

6 - Inspite of the questions and critizisms above I think the staff did an awesome job. They are all great coaches and great people. They certainly know a great deal about the game, definetly than a fool like myself.

 

[OrlaNDomer]

Sorry if any thing I say is repetitive but I didn't want to read through all four pages..

Players that stuck out to me as playing to the end: Tyler Eifert, TJ Jones, Davaris Daniels, Louis Nix

As for the game, I believe I always knew it was going to be a very, very tough game for us to pull out a victory, but after the season we had I felt like it was destiny. We needed to play our best game of the year and we needed to play virtually error free. Neither of those things happened. Getting down early, penalties and a pair of calls early swung all momentum completely in Bama's favor and we were never able to recover.

Bama to me would have beat any team in the country by 20+ points last night. They are the truth, and giving that team so much time to prepare is a death sentence. Too deep, too athletic, too experieced.

Glad we made it this far. Maybe it would have been nice to have played an Ohio St or Kansas St who we would have had a much better shot at, but in the end the best team in college football has won the title and that's the way it should be.

 

[ClausentoTate]

The second we had to bring a safety into the box and Nix didn't need a double-team, the game was over. It's also hard to establish the run and play our style of TOP when you're down 21-0 with no defensive help.

It was a long drive back to Orlando after the game...

 

[rtrn2glory]

First off, hats off to our boys and coaches for playing the full four quarters. to say we didn't play hard is simply not a fact.

Bama is good...really good, bottom line. Saban is even better almost to a fault. scary how much of a perfectionist he is and how un satisfied he seems to be.

few things we found out:
1. Golson is going to be very good.
2. Tyler Eifert is Elite
3. Davaris Daniels is the game changing receiver that we need and is only going to get better.
4. Our defense not only needs to be Elite up front, but in the back end as well needs Elite athletes to be an Elite defense.
5. We still got a ways to go to be at the same level as the best of the SEC (much like everybody else)

Each issue that we have after last night is fixable and I believe in the right direction to be fixed. Future is much brighter today than it was last January and I can only hope/expect that it will continue to flourish.

Go Irish!!!

 

[ulukinatme]

First off, hats off to our boys and coaches for playing the full four quarters. to say we didn't play hard is simply not a fact.

Bama is good...really good, bottom line. Saban is even better almost to a fault. scary how much of a perfectionist he is and how un satisfied he seems to be.

few things we found out:
1. Golson is going to be very good.
2. Tyler Eifert is Elite
3. Davaris Daniels is the game changing receiver that we need and is only going to get better.
4. Our defense not only needs to be Elite up front, but in the back end as well needs Elite athletes to be an Elite defense.
5. We still got a ways to go to be at the same level as the best of the SEC (much like everybody else)

Each issue that we have after last night is fixable and I believe in the right direction to be fixed. Future is much brighter today than it was last January and I can only hope/expect that it will continue to flourish.

Go Irish!!!

I agree, but I think both our offensive lines and defensive lines need to improve if they hope to accomplish #5. After last night, #5 seems pretty far away. We were dominated on both sides of the ball, even on our defensive line which I thought wouldn't get pushed around that much.

 

[maineman]

I really don't get why Alabama fans were apparently chanting SEC, Alabama is at a different level than everyone else in the country (No doubt in my mind they'd beat Texas A&M tonight) and the rest of the SEC is just piggybacking along for the ride now. IMO this year there was:

Level 1: Alabama



Level 2: Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas A&M, Stanford
Level 3:KSU, LSU, Florida, Oklahoma,Clemson, Florida State, Michigan, Ohio State
etc.

Level 2 and 3 not in a particular order btw

What about Georgia....what level would they be?

 

[Buster Bluth]

After the game I turned off the 4' tall lit #1 sign on the peak of my house (Grace Hall South). It will go back in the basement until next year. Meanwhile my ND gear and the dogs ND gear will be daily wear tomorrow as it has been the custom here in the Heart of Dixie for the past 30 seasons.!

 

[Bogtrotter07]

I think most of you have good points.

Bob Diaco - Who could watch a game film of Alabama this year, and figure we could play sit back and wait defense against them? There is word and two modifiers for this; incredible and monumental arrogance.

Alabama - Think back to this season. This same team barely beat some FBS schools, and lost to TA&M. Now look at what you saw on the field last night. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing positive to say about much of anything the Irish did to prepare for or how they played in this game. But the type of talent Bama stockpiled, their season, their roster, oversigning and all. My question; Is football going the way of boxing? These guys have the same relationship to my sports heroes as Alexander Vladimirovich Povetkin (Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Пове́ткин) does to John Sullivan. Regardless. Is it just becoming less fun anymore? I cannot take a bama and ND fan arguing about SAT scores, that just ruins it for me. It is one thing, your team getting jailsexed, an entirely different a good portion of the fanbase punking out . . .

And what genius designed the offensive game plan? The best I can see it was sit back and get popped in the mouth and forget everything that got you here. We could go on and on about this but there were holes underneath and behind the linebackers. There just were not receivers in them.

I am very glad that Everett Golson survived the implosion and destruction of his offensive line. Harry has some work to do. ND's recieving corps will be awesome next year despite losing Eifert and Goodman.

I disagree with some of you on one issue. The criminal reffing at the beginning of the game helped set the tone of the game, in which ND got behind fast and furriously; I would like to tell the refs that I didn't think bama really needed that much help from them. But what good would that do?

 

[Domina Nostra]

Agreed. The term "SEC" encompasses a lot of teams. We are not at the point where we could win the SEC, but we'd be competitive with almost everyone. Remember, the SEC teams all lose to their champion as well. Alabama is a notch better than the rest of those guys--even if Georgia and TAMU came on strong at the end of the year. We are inbetwen their top tier and second tier, IMHO.

 

[chicago51]

What will this loss do to ND reputation for future considerations to be in BCS title game? I know this year there really was no choice. Say though ND, OSU, and Bama all have same record next year. Who goes? Bama for sure. With ND just tanking it though and Urban Meyer's reputation any chance OSU would be put in ahead of ND? OSU is just an example could be say Oregon or someone else as well.

 

[BobD]

I just woke up. Man yesterday sucked! I'm gonna go back to bed for awhile.

 

[ulukinatme]

What will this loss do to ND reputation for future considerations to be in BCS title game? I know this year there really was no choice. Say though ND, OSU, and Bama all have same record next year. Who goes? Bama for sure. With ND just tanking it though and Urban Meyer's reputation any chance OSU would be put in ahead of ND? OSU is just an example could be say Oregon or someone else as well.

I think the voters would put OSU in first. This game is gonna hurt when it comes down to us vs. a ranked team with a similar record next year.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I think most of you have good points.

Bob Diaco - Who could watch a game film of Alabama this year, and figure we could play sit back and wait defense against them? There is word and two modifiers for this; incredible and monumental arrogance.

Totally disagree. I wasn't a big fan of only sending three, but the blitzes failed 90% of the time anyway. McCarron made several (literally) perfect throws, which they had to be.

It would have been arrogant to blitz six or seven, which you'd need to, and expect your young DBs to cover one-on-one those Alabama WRs with McCarron throwing perfectly. The few times he got aggressive Lacy and Yelton sidesteppd blitzes and ran 25 yards for touchdowns.

I said it when Alabama became he opponent and everyone thought Diaco could just put nine in the box and make McCarron get sloppy--NO. Alabama is perfectly balanced. Literally it's perfect.

Alabama - Think back to this season. This same team barely beat some FBS schools, and lost to TA&M. Now look at what you saw on the field last night. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing positive to say about much of anything the Irish did to prepare for or how they played in this game. But the type of talent they stockpiled, their season, their roster, and all. My question; Is football going the way of boxing? These guys have the same relationship to my sports heroes as Alexander Vladimirovich Povetkin (Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Пове́ткин) does to John Sullivan. Regardless. Is it just becoming less fun anymore? I cannot take a bama and ND fan arguing about SAT scores, that just ruins it for me.

Who?

 

[chicago51]

I think most of you have good points.

Bob Diaco - Who could watch a game film of Alabama this year, and figure we could play sit back and wait defense against them? There is word and two modifiers for this; incredible and monumental arrogance.

Alabama - Think back to this season. This same team barely beat some FBS schools, and lost to TA&M. Now look at what you saw on the field last night. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing positive to say about much of anything the Irish did to prepare for or how they played in this game. But the type of talent they stockpiled, their season, their roster, and all. My question; Is football going the way of boxing? These guys have the same relationship to my sports heroes as Alexander Vladimirovich Povetkin (Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Пове́ткин) does to John Sullivan. Regardless. Is it just becoming less fun anymore? I cannot take a bama and ND fan arguing about SAT scores, that just ruins it for me.

Yea I don't get that. Especially when Kelly did all this talk about being aggressive. Should have gave that speech to Bob. Look my football philosophy is to sit back on D, and have players read and attack. I don't like to bring heat. BUT when you are getting your a$$es handed to you then you have no choice but to start bringing it. You don't drop 8 people into coverage.

The other thing is that the few times when we did blitz we played off coverage. Off coverage and blitzing don't mix well. When you blitz the QB is going to throw hot (quickly) so if you blitz and give an 8 yard cushion it makes it really easy for the QB to get rid of the football. Yes when play tight you are vulnerable deep, but the idea is that blitzing with tight means that you take away the easy throw and by bringing pressure the deep routes won't have time to develope.

 

[NDohio]

What will this loss do to ND reputation for future considerations to be in BCS title game? I know this year there really was no choice. Say though ND, OSU, and Bama all have same record next year. Who goes? Bama for sure. With ND just tanking it though and Urban Meyer's reputation any chance OSU would be put in ahead of ND? OSU is just an example could be say Oregon or someone else as well.

Playoffs.

 

[NDohio]

Very proud to be a ND fan today. Not emberassed, not angry, not discouraged. This team came a long way this year and BK is the answer. The coaches and players will learn from this game and be better for it. We now know where the bar is. Let's climb up to it.

Congrats 'Bama - you have a great team.

 

[chicago51]

Totally disagree. I wasn't a big fan of only sending three, but the blitzes failed 90% of the time anyway. McCarron made several (literally) perfect throws, which they had to be. It would have been arrogant to blitz six or seven, which you'd need to, and expect your young DBs to cover one-on-one those Alabama WRs with McCarron throwing perfectly. The few times he got aggressive Lacy and Yelton sidesteppd blitzes and ran 25 yards for touchdowns.

I said it when Alabama became he opponent and everyone thought Diaco could just put nine in the box and make McCarron get sloppy--NO. Alabama is perfectly balanced. Literally it's perfect.



Who?

The blitzes failed because of the coverage we used with them.

I generally don't like blitzing a ton either. When you do blitz though you have to play tight coverage. We played off coverage when we brought pressure and McCarron just got rid of it easily for an 8 yard gain. When you blitz you have to take away the easy throws and hope you get to the QB before he can beet you deep. You can't just give the QB an easy hot route.