Ok what’s next?

[IrishSpartan]

So.. I got some sleep and cooled down from that non-sense yesterday and now it’s time to think of the hell happens next. Thought I make a thread to discuss.

Some of my thoughts?

-Time for Freeman to stop being so nice and falling on every sword.
-Freeman needs to take back all the free reign he has given his assistant coaches.
-Tommy needs to be relieved of play call duties. (Even though they won’t, after all he is the golden child)
-I want him gone like most
-He can’t even adjust it’s embarrassing
-If your going to waste a scholly on a FB at least use him especially if you can’t block on the interior and still want to keep running so many draws
-Maybe get Parker more involved in play calls.
-Bench Baumann kid can’t block
-Heistand what the hell?
-kick lugg and Corell out and play Patterson at C and replace the guards with young takent at this point.
-What the hell is going on with the lack of play when it comes to Merriweather, Tyree, and the youth in general.
-defensive line has been abysmal… allow Brian Mason to help Washington
-Rylie Mills is too slow to seal an edge
-Linebackers we’re awful yesterday and maybe it’s time to play Junior.
-Dbs just need to play like they did game 1
-Bracy needs a commendation he’s been great and the brightest spot on defense

Sorry for the rant feel free to vent here

 

[irishff1014]

So.. I got some sleep and cooled down from that non-sense yesterday and now it’s time to think of the hell happens next. Thought I make a thread to discuss.

Some of my thoughts?

-Time for Freeman to stop being so nice and falling on every sword.
-Freeman needs to take back all the free reign he has given his assistant coaches.
-Tommy needs to be relieved of play call duties. (Even though they won’t, after all he is the golden child)
-I want him gone like most
-He can’t even adjust it’s embarrassing
-If your going to waste a scholly on a FB at least use him especially if you can’t block on the interior and still want to keep running so many draws
-Maybe get Parker more involved in play calls.
-Bench Baumann kid can’t block
-Heistand what the hell?
-kick lugg and Corell out and play Patterson at C and replace the guards with young takent at this point.
-What the hell is going on with the lack of play when it comes to Merriweather, Tyree, and the youth in general.
-defensive line has been abysmal… allow Brian Mason to help Washington
-Rylie Mills is too slow to seal an edge
-Linebackers we’re awful yesterday and maybe it’s time to play Junior.
-Dbs just need to play like they did game 1
-Bracy needs a commendation he’s been great and the brightest spot on defense

Sorry for the rant feel free to vent here

You want Mason to help on the d line but he was brought he for his special teams and they suck.

 

[Irishdrunk]

What's Next??? LOL. Nothing for 2 or 3 more years. Freeman has to get rid of Rees and hire the best EXPERIENCED OC available. Then hope that person can get ND putting points on the board. I think its pretty clear Kelly was a difference maker last year. We were Top 5 last year, We were Top 5 going into this year and now we shit the bed. What has changed?? We know what has changed - your Offensive minded HC left for crawdaddies and his boy is still our OC.

"When the water goes out, you find out who is swimming naked" - Warren Buffet

 

[NDMatt91]

What's Next??? LOL. Nothing for 2 or 3 more years. Freeman has to get rid of Rees and hire the best EXPERIENCED OC available. Then hope that person can get ND putting points on the board. I think its pretty clear Kelly was a difference maker last year. We were Top 5 last year, We were Top 5 going into this year and now we shit the bed. What has changed?? We know what has changed - your Offensive minded HC left for crawdaddies and his boy is still our OC.

"When the water goes out, you find out who is swimming naked" - Warren Buffet

At this point I'd even welcome Dan Mullen. He's not a great recruiter, but hey, neither is Tommy boy, but he can at least draw up some good plays.

 

[NorthDakota]

At this point I'd even welcome Dan Mullen. He's not a great recruiter, but hey, neither is Tommy boy, but he can at least draw up some good plays.

Dan Mullen is a rockstar.

 

[IrishSpartan]

You want Mason to help on the d line but he was brought he for his special teams and they suck.

He coached the vipers also at Cincinnati

 

[notredomer23]

You want Mason to help on the d line but he was brought he for his special teams and they suck.

I don’t want Mason helping on the defensive line but special teams have been awesome. What more are you expecting through two games? Blocked punt, perfect onside kick, great punting, touchbacks on kickoffs. What more do you want?

 

[PigtownIrish]

I don’t want Mason helping on the defensive line but special teams have been awesome. What more are you expecting through two games? Blocked punt, perfect onside kick, great punting, touchbacks on kickoffs. What more do you want?

Agreed. Special teams actually looked like the best unit yesterday. Watts and Bauer should have fallen on the onside kick but seemed to be waiting for it to clear 10 yards. We shouldn't have had to rely on that to have a (remote) chance to win, and wouldn't have even gotten that if they hadn't blocked the punt earlier.

 

[Irish4life]

By far the most important thing is to improve the ND offense. Defense wasn't great yesterday, but it was good enough to beat Marshall.

 

[Rudy89]

Hire Urban, lower academic standards for athletes, and let our head coach run the program the way we need to so we can WIN! Quit using this ethical high horse that hasn’t gotten us any respect in the college football world and focus on doing what elite programs do and that’s fucking win.

 

[notredomer23]

I really think all is fixed if you fix the offensive line. Maybe not ALL is fixed, but the glaring holes are covered up. How or can you even fix that? Probably not at this point. I’d start with Paterson at center with Zeke at LG and Kristofic at RG. If that doesn’t work then it’s Spindler and Schrauth time.

 

[Irish'15]

We all played the positivity card. Deep down we should have seen this coming. Look at what happened to Michigan, Texas, USC, Miami, FSU, Nebraska, LSU, Tennessee, etc. when they made willy nilly coaching hires. Unfortunately when it happens to a team like ND that doesn’t have the means to quickly rebound, it will be a dagger like it was for Michigan and take decades to fix. I expect 20 years of losing. History repeats. Until we get a new AD and fans have had enough and ND sinks into major irrelevance, we will get desperate enough to hire a proven winner again. Sadly that will take a long long time.

 

[NDRock]

I can’t imagine Rees getting let go two games into the season, especially as we was the golden boy after Kelly left. We have to hope both he and Freeman figure some things out quickly. They are both facing some real adversity, hope they are able to respond.

 

[Irish'15]

I can’t imagine Rees getting let go two games into the season, especially as we was the golden boy after Kelly left. We have to hope both he and Freeman figure some things out quickly. They are both facing some real adversity, hope they are able to respond.

We aren’t serious about football like LSU. We will give these clowns years.

 

[irishandy]

Bench Buchner

If the offense gets worse, look for a new OC.

 

[Rudy89]

We all played the positivity card. Deep down we should have seen this coming. Look at what happened to Michigan, Texas, USC, Miami, FSU, Nebraska, LSU, Tennessee, etc. when they made willy nilly coaching hires. Unfortunately when it happens to a team like ND that doesn’t have the means to quickly rebound, it will be a dagger like it was for Michigan and take decades to fix. I expect 20 years of losing. History repeats. Until we get a new AD and fans have had enough and ND sinks into major irrelevance, we will get desperate enough to hire a proven winner again. Sadly that will take a long long time.

I hate to say it but I think I’ve lost all hope for this program. Since 1997 we have ran our program the same way to have minimal success in the grand scheme of things. If they’re never gonna change it, this program isn’t going to change. I’m beginning to realize that holding onto hope of seeing this team win a title is just something that won’t happen. Not unless this program reevaluates everything they’ve done.

 

[IrishinTN]

Bench Buchner

If the offense gets worse, look for a new OC.

Buchner is benched. Probably out for the year.

 

[Irish'15]

Best way to fix this is act fast. If Freeman doesn’t show major improvement by mid season, loses the next 2-3 games is 0-5 or 0-6, I make Al Golden interim and start putting out feels to Fickell, etc. ND is better than this and if you’re that bad it’s not good for our student athletes.

 

[SouthSideChiDomer]

Best way to fix this is act fast. If Freeman doesn’t show major improvement by mid season, loses the next 2-3 games is 0-5 or 0-6, I make Al Golden interim and start putting out feels to Fickell, etc. ND is better than this and if you’re that bad it’s not good for our student athletes.

This is so idiotic. Do you want to become FSU? Because this is how you become FSU.

Plus, do you really think you can get Fickell after firing his friend less than a year into his contract?

Everyone needs to calm the f down. What happened yesterday sucked. It was a disaster. We are a laughing stock.

But would it really be much better if we still had Kelly? We probably would have found some way to win that game, but the problems would most likely still be there.

We need to hope that Freeman will be able to fix the problems the same as Kelly would, or if he is not able to do that, that he learns from failing so next time he does.

 

[irishandy]

Getting rid of Freeman is not the answer.

 

[chisea03]

Bench Buchner

If the offense gets worse, look for a new OC.

 

[Rudy89]

This is so idiotic. Do you want to become FSU? Because this is how you become FSU.

Plus, do you really think you can get Fickell after firing his friend less than a year into his contract?

Everyone needs to calm the f down. What happened yesterday sucked. It was a disaster. We are a laughing stock.

But would it really be much better if we still had Kelly? We probably would have found some way to win that game, but the problems would most likely still be there.

We need to hope that Freeman will be able to fix the problems the same as Kelly would, or if he is not able to do that, that he learns from failing so next time he does.

Is FSU really any worse off than where it seems this program is headed? I think our projection is prolly worse than FSU to be honest.

 

[Old Man Mike]

What needs to happen first is EVERYONE WITH ANY TESTOSTERONE needs to get furious. That starts with the head coach. There was a time in the first half when Marshall was out-hustling us all over the field but we managed some minor positive play, and Coach Freeman was happily smiling like a visiting uncle. I saw that and thought: HELL NO!!!

After Coach Freeman GENUINELY lets everyone know that he's outrageously p!ssed WITH EVERYONE (OK maybe not Mayer, Joseph, and Bracy but everyone else), then the coaching staff needs to GET SERIOUS in peoples' faces.

After that, the veterans on the DLine need to crew up their group and get screaming mad. They are probably the only position group who can instantly turn up their heat and be productive while doing so (not just animal stupid.) Maybe then the LBs would come along on the testosterone ride, and since the DBackfield is playing OK, maybe we'd have a defense. If Brandon Joseph feels he's been around long enough to have earned it, he should lead that side of the ball. Bracy and Foskey and Ademiola can be lieutenants. The defense is fixable. We do need more RAGE at the snap out of the line, though... and we probably need a bunch of tricky stunting and blitzing --- no vanilla. This defense is going to have to win games, because the offense can't.

Special teams are OK. But except for punting, we aren't going to win any games there either. Our punter has the potential to set the defense up, however.

Offense: Lord what a continuing mess. My opinion here has always aroused ridicule on IE, but I am still persuaded that the problem with the OLine is NOT the five OLine players primarily. I watch them every play and run back the boner plays several times. Five guys can block five guys. They almost always do. When more than five guys are stepping forward, you try to run away from some of them, but usually ask somebody else to help --- RBs, TEs, WRs. Watch the film. THESE GUYS AREN'T BLOCKING WELL. There's no Kyren Williams. There's no Brock Wright. There's no big wideout crashing into the wideside defender. The so-called supplementary blocking game sucks.

But why don't the five big guys just blast the holes open without them, and we just run right through "like other teams do"? Number one: Look at the ND backs. Do they look to you as fast hole hitters? Not to me. But the bigger deal is this: If you have opposing DCs who are obviously LAUGHING at your ability to pass down the field further than 8 yards. you can walk up AT A MINIMUM all your linebackers, and at least one safety. You can also REGULARLY decide to blitz a corner --- that's AT LEAST EIGHT oriented to the run. Five block five. Then one of the extra defenders shoots the gap immediately --- no pass responsibility. Initial hole rapidly clogged. Back sees the clog (some of the time) and veers left or right to the open area --- with normal offenses and decent backs this works fine. But with us there are at least two defensive players (safeties or even corners flying to that same open green area --- no pass responsibility. Result: No gain. .... and the OLine blocked. The extra D just "made a pile" and no one else blocked worth crap, and the no-pass-responsibility extras cleaned the plays up.

So how do you beat it? With our personnel, maybe you're screwed. Pass receivers need to get separation (Three or more of them NOT JUST MAYER) to scare those "extra defenders." We got nobody. On the rare occasions when someone DOES get separation, that happens fast (The window isn't going to be there long since our opponents are faster than we are), and the QB has to see it, then not panic and put the ball there fast. AND we need to try to bomb these people (IF THE RBs stay in and block the blitzers) and throw the ball to our guy accurately (of which we're incapable) and have our guy not clumsily fall down and drop the pass (of which we're astonishingly capable.)

Parts of this offense CAN play good quality football. BUT MOST OF IT REALLY NEEDS WORK.

Last unpopular comment: I would really NOT like to be Tommy. There is almost nothing he can do about some of this. The blocking by TEs RBs WRs might improve. If so, maybe we could grind yardage better. But who gets open? What QB sees it? What QB throws it to our own guy?

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Dan Mullen is a rockstar.

And a former GA at ND FWIW

 

[IRISHDODGER]

my hope is that the GAs & other analysts are scouring the FBS for frustrated QBs who are caught in a logjam and will be open to be a grad transfer next season b/c they’re obviously not going to sign one in this class (at least one that offers something more than Drew Pyne) & Carr isn’t reclassifying (which I think is the right move for him).

 

[calvegas04]

Lived through 2007, not sure I will survive another season like that

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Lived through 2007, not sure I would survive another season like that

Buckle up

 

[Old Man Mike]

Try one of my years (1960) --- we had long time NFL all-star QB Daryle Lamonica (Raiders) and averaged eleven points per game, going 2-8. (our two wins were Cal-Berkeley and USC, weirdly.)

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

What's next:

Cal.

 

[dublinirish]

i love the fact that folks on here think that they need their own threads for their hot takes