NDPhilly
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Matt Balis - Director of Football Performance
- Thread starter NDinBoston
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B
Bogtrotter07
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Observation : So basically this thread is about hip hop and the fact that ND just can't get enough talent, and how ND's players drafted by the NFL are only there because of their smarts. OK.
SMH.
Hypothesis : Too much hip hop and too little strength and conditioning really limit the talent on the ND football team.
SMH.
Hypothesis : Too much hip hop and too little strength and conditioning really limit the talent on the ND football team.
NDRock
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Just curious as to where you think ND is ranked as far as talent? If you use recruiting rankings or NFL talent, we're clearly in the top 10-12. Obviously, you don't think this is accurate. Where do you think we're at?
ACamp1900
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Lil Wayne
stlnd01
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Train's a grumpyass, but he's got a point. Our high-end talent - both in recruiting and in the NFL draft - skews towards offense, and especially a few positions like OL, TE, maybe QB and WR. And we do get a few top end kids on defense. So our overall numbers look good. Top 10-15. But for whatever reason we have a hard time recruiting/developing quality depth, especially on defense. So we're thin. Especially as compared to the Alabamas and Clemsons of the world. Their guys are better, and they have more of them. You see that when you watch their defense and then watch ours.
KyfightingIrish36
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QB? Kelly hasn't had a single player get even close to drafted. Kizer will be his first. OL is the one position that we are consistently churning out NFL caliber players (and TE early in Kelly's tenure) and every other position is a grab bag. We've had some stars at basically every position but CB and RB, and those positions have produced some quality draftable guys too.
To the second bolded, this is absolutely correct and I've talked about this at length. It's why I was pessimistic before last season, too. The problem is holes. It's not even about being thin behind the 1s and having bad 2s for when your starters get hurt... it's more that the starting 22 often has one or two guys in it that are just flat out bad because then the opponent exploits that weakness. It doesn't matter how good Jaylon Smith is if the guy next to him is a bottom tier player. Diaco/Cooks/BVG were all failures at roster management. As you said, Bama and Clemson don't have that problem because they have layered talent in recruiting. On offense you had different coaches and different results, which is why there is rarely a "hole"... but even they're not perfect, and we had issues at RG last year and TE has really fallen off in quality of player and production.
Train does not "have a point," because his conclusion is bullshit. His conclusion is that ND "doesn't have enough talent" and is "Northwestern" and implies that it's a big issue that ND has smart kids. Every single one of those statements is beyond stupid. And I'm not sorry for being blunt.
Crazy Balki
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No. Notre Dame's issue on defense is not talent. Clemson made it to the National Title game last year with comparable talent. Heck, Shaq Lawson (90 247 rating) and Kevin Dodd (84 247 rating) were arguably the best DE tandem in the country in 2015. Ben Boulware led the charge at LB for Clemson in both title runs. Low 4-star guy.
ND isn't being held back because of talent. Sure, they can and should be recruiting better on defense, but there are plenty of teams who don't recruit at near as well as ND, who field far better defenses.
Development and coaching have lagged behind for a while now. Kelly has found that out. Don't know why it took him so damn long to figure it out, but he has. That's why guys like Balis, Ballou, Elko and Lea were hired. Their track record for development is very apparent. They made their living developing guys like Ade Ogundeji, Jon Bonner, Micah Dew-Treadway, Jamir Jones, Julian Love, Jalen Elliott, etc. Guys who had a lot of upside but arguably weren't quite there at that point in time.
Fact is that no staff just picks things up and starts recruiting elite talent, at least not legally. Show before you tell. These prospects see the new coaches and how they've made strides in developing the players ND currently has, they'll take notice and be more open to making that jump.
ND isn't being held back because of talent. Sure, they can and should be recruiting better on defense, but there are plenty of teams who don't recruit at near as well as ND, who field far better defenses.
Development and coaching have lagged behind for a while now. Kelly has found that out. Don't know why it took him so damn long to figure it out, but he has. That's why guys like Balis, Ballou, Elko and Lea were hired. Their track record for development is very apparent. They made their living developing guys like Ade Ogundeji, Jon Bonner, Micah Dew-Treadway, Jamir Jones, Julian Love, Jalen Elliott, etc. Guys who had a lot of upside but arguably weren't quite there at that point in time.
Fact is that no staff just picks things up and starts recruiting elite talent, at least not legally. Show before you tell. These prospects see the new coaches and how they've made strides in developing the players ND currently has, they'll take notice and be more open to making that jump.
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Not enough facial tattoos to be Wayne.
stlnd01
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Re: QB, was referring more to the recruiting side of the talent equation. We've recruited the position pretty well under Kelly. The challenges we've had turning those recruits into high-level QBs are well-documented.
Totally agree that Train is off base when he says we "can't" develop talent, and that that has something to do with our academic standards.. But it's true that, for a lot of reasons, we haven't. And if you look at our team today, especially on defense, it is not as deep and talented as the teams that consistently compete for national titles.
NDRock
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He stated our talent level was on par with Northwestern. Just because we are not as talented "compared to the Alabamas and Clemsons" (the two best programs in college football) doesn't mean we don't have the talent to be a top 12 program. Which according to our players getting drafted and our recruiting rankings, is where we are. Do you disagree? If so, where would you rank our raw talent?
stlnd01
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I'd say overall we're top 15, with some significant holes/inconsistency in important places like defensive front seven. Agree the bigger problem is turning our recruited talent into wins on Saturday.
NDinBoston
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Building some warriors..</p>— Drue Tranquill (@d_TraNquill) <a href="https://twitter.com/d_TraNquill/status/834489368593174528">February 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
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SoIll
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not the best lighting, but some gains for sure
ulukinatme
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I'd argue that Stanford can't quite by compared to ND as they have some unique circumstances.
For one, they're in a conference so they have the benefit of facing the same teams almost year in and year out. Obviously it's a 2 way street, but it's harder to get a drop on a team when you're facing the same offenses/defenses year in and year out.
While it is a 2 way street, Stanford's unique form of Pro Style, power football doesn't mesh well with what most of the PAC-12 does. The PAC-12 is mostly a finesse league that runs fast paced Spread offenses, or something comparable anyway. Stanford is one of the few teams that lines up and pushes people around, and I think a lot of those PAC-12 teams aren't suited for it, they can't match the physicality. Oregon is a great example, they regularly struggle with teams that play a power game.
Also...probably roids.
That said, if we can find some consistency on defense, I think we can be successful year in and year out. I'm not sure how we're going to accomplish that...we've been through a number of coordinators over the years, and aside from one magical year when all the stars aligned it's hard to say what all we need to do to get consistent on that side of the ball.
Rocket89
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Two out of the 3 Migos have been named in this thread.
The picture is actually Takeoff.
NDdomer2
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NDVirginia19
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I see Elijah Taylor every now and then and his traps have exploded, he's always talking about how sore he is and how unreal the workouts are
NDVirginia19
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I think it's going to be eye opening how much stronger we look in the trenches next year and how much better our LBs shed blocks
PANDFAN
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5321o4U4AEuJuC?format=jpg&name=large
not the best lighting, but some gains for sure
i understand he had shoulder injuries etc...but my goodness is this kid still skinny
NDPhilly
Philly Torqued
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5321o4U4AEuJuC?format=jpg&name=large
not the best lighting, but some gains for sure
Honestly just look like Pre workout and Post workout with a pump
NDVirginia19
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Veritate Duce Progredi
A man gotta have a code
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It'll be interesting to see where he weighs in this fall because if he looks like that at 250+, we might be in for a treat.
woolybug25
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and one step closer to the camera. Ha
I'll tell you what though, homeboy could probably carry 280 pounds of muscle on that frame. Scary to think about.
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He's truly a special type of athlete at his size. He just needs more football. If he develops a good skillset at WDE, oh my.
Rocket89
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Actually think he's unlikely to gain much more (good) weight.
Daelin's lower half is naturally built more like a defensive tackle. Huge rump, super wide thighs, and thick calves. Not much different than Sheldon Day.
But, his shoulders are pretty narrow. Not a ton of room to add more muscle on his back and shoulders. Justin Tuck had really narrow shoulders too but was 6'5" and even he weighed only 260 in college and 265 in the NFL.
I'm not sure Daelin is tall enough to weigh anything near 280 with good muscle.
PANDFAN
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Some NFL teams needs to hire UConn's strength & conditioning coach. That program has been sending stud athletes to the pros for a while now.</p>— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisTrapasso/status/838777109820514305">March 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
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And the HS kids notice this stuff... Elijah Ball is a 3 star DB from Indy Ben Davis:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Im convinced if you go to uconn your vert and broad is going to be stupid both years a uconn player has shut down the broad</p>— Elijah Ball ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@ProspectInTown) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProspectInTown/status/838833309614505988">March 6, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Im convinced if you go to uconn your vert and broad is going to be stupid both years a uconn player has shut down the broad</p>— Elijah Ball ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@ProspectInTown) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProspectInTown/status/838833309614505988">March 6, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
dublinirish
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anybody see the twitter exchange between CJ Holmes and Avery Davis talking about Balis? Pretty funny stuff