“Notre Dame Needed Its Captains to Step Up in 2019 and They Haven’t”
So far there has been a lot of talk about identity and standards following the 45-14 debacle against Michigan. I suppose there is a place for that following this kind of performance. There are naturally big-picture questions about the program, where it’s headed, what this all means, etc. People always have a doomsday approach after losses like this, but it’s most likely an overreaction. This happened in 2017 against Miami, too, and the season mostly fell apart, and the next year, the team went 12-1. Things change year to year in college football. I’m more interested in the trend we’ve seen since the opening game, and that’s the deterioration of play from the seven Notre Dame captains this season.
When you name seven captains, all of which are front line players bordering on stars, that says you believe this team has better than good leadership. It also means you expect the team overall to have a very high standard of play. A coach won’t name someone captain unless they are pretty confident what they are getting on the field. The captaincy is not only being good in the locker room or giving good speeches before games. There is a performance element to it. Basically, you’ve got to be a sure thing, and that’s the expectation.
If you look at any single player, beyond the quarterback, the play has mostly been fine from these guys. But, collectively, there has been a drop, and when there are seven of them, a collective drop is a pretty big deal. They represent the top 1/3 of the starters.
So, if we are going to have a conversation about what failed yesterday, and what’s been going wrong all year, we need to talk about the drop in play from Notre Dame’s leaders, because everything starts with them.
