I share a lot of the thoughts that have already been expressed, but after stewing on the game and rewatching via highlights, here's some stuff:
1. I thought Flutie was really good. Best color commentary/analysis I've heard from him. Maybe it's because the game was ONLY ND, and thus he had no incentive to try and talk up the opposition and downplay the fact that he's ND's home color analyst? I thought he did a really good job of breaking down Wimbush and the things he was seeing from Wimbush in the pocket. He did the same with Book, but not to the same critical degree. Maybe he excelled because he called the game like he was evaluating film, rather than providing color commentary? I hope we get that Flutie during the season, but we'll see.
2. Honestly, #HotSportsTake here, but I wasn't impressed with Tony Jones Jr. I thought Dex looked good, and Jahmir Smith played the "Tony Jones Jr." role better than Jones did. Smith was more effective at creating yards when they weren't there, and he looked natural catching the ball out of the backfield. Hopefully it was an aberration, and Jones was just the unfortunate one who got the crappy blocking and had to run against well-timed defensive calls.
3. Everyone noted how good Gilman looked, but no one has mentioned what a travesty it is that Tranquill got Defensive Player of the Game honors over him. Gilman had one extra tackle, as well as a Forced-Fumble/Fumble-Recovery combo, which I thought was more impactful than Tranquill's one sack. Someone handling the awards has a bias towards 5th-year guys.
4. Literally didn't take away any mental notes on any of the linebackers except Tranquill and JOK, and JOK was only because he dropped a pick-6. Is it a problem that the other guys seemed to do little of note, or is Tranquill simply going to collect tackles like Manti did and outshine everyone all the time?
5. I thought McKinley looked good, despite a drop or two. He looks the part physically, and was moving really well through his routes. He wasn't getting much help from Book on ball placement. I would've liked to see what he could've done with some well-thrown targets.
6. Boykin and Claypool are going to be boom-or-bust all year long. They are both capable of housing any 50/50 jump ball simply based on size and strength alone... but they're both going to drop passes at maddening times. Just a little extra consistency from either guy, and the WR group goes from "liability" to "Defense's Nightmare" pretty quickly, considering the diversity of skill sets in the group as a whole.
7. It will also be interesting to see if any of the frosh can break into the top 5 at WR. Historically under BK, ND only goes 4-deep at WR, with a 5th guy being there to take garbage minutes. Micah Jones was on campus early and couldn't crack the top group. Austin is going to need to look like a 5-star talent in short order; Lenzy is going to need to show the staff that his speed can be used like Fuller's was his freshman year; Keys is going to need to look like an immediate upgrade over Finke. Otherwise, they're all candidates to RS.
