One Stop Rumors Thread?

[Domina Nostra]

Good stuff, many thanks!

 

[Irish4life]

Some raw intel I picked up recently from a current player, nothing earth shattering:

-Said that the "vibes" around the offense with Hartman are completely different than at this same point last year where there was still just a ton of uncertainty around what they wanted to do // were going to do on offense. Said that with Buchner you kinda "hoped" shit would work but with Hartman you “know” it will (my inference is that this is about executing called plays and getting the ball to the right people accurately and on time). He basically made it sound like Hartman was Tom Brady and some sort of QB genius.
-Said everyone liked Buchner a lot and really believed in him and he thinks he could kill it at Bama. Said that he made "crazy" plays in practice and is the real deal just wasn't consistent and got hurt too much so he didn't get reps.
-Also said Buchner was done and knew he was transferring as soon as Rees left.

-On Styles… don’t want to be too negative, but sounds like he wanted out end of his freshman year and then stayed when we got a new WR coach and then mentally checked out when he faced some adversity to start the season. Did not sound like he was a great or a bad teammate just someone where it didn't work out how he had envisioned/

-On Diggs… big ego. Called him “mid” and said he was worse than Payne. Apparently Payne was destroying people this spring and is way more explosive than Diggs.

-I asked about the new coaches and he said his coach didn’t change so he didn’t really have a big opinion. Said that the most of the guys on offense liked Rees and everyone thought he was really smart.

Buchner's injury and lost Covid season remain tragic. I wonder if he had transferred out of Cali for his senior season and gotten those reps if he'd still be our starting QB?

 

[zelezo vlk]

Sounds like we have a bunch of dumb players for thinking Rees was a smart coach! They should have listened to us here instead.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

Some raw intel I picked up recently from a current player, nothing earth shattering:

-Said that the "vibes" around the offense with Hartman are completely different than at this same point last year where there was still just a ton of uncertainty around what they wanted to do // were going to do on offense. Said that with Buchner you kinda "hoped" shit would work but with Hartman you “know” it will (my inference is that this is about executing called plays and getting the ball to the right people accurately and on time). He basically made it sound like Hartman was Tom Brady and some sort of QB genius.
-Said everyone liked Buchner a lot and really believed in him and he thinks he could kill it at Bama. Said that he made "crazy" plays in practice and is the real deal just wasn't consistent and got hurt too much so he didn't get reps.
-Also said Buchner was done and knew he was transferring as soon as Rees left.

-On Styles… don’t want to be too negative, but sounds like he wanted out end of his freshman year and then stayed when we got a new WR coach and then mentally checked out when he faced some adversity to start the season. Did not sound like he was a great or a bad teammate just someone where it didn't work out how he had envisioned/

-On Diggs… big ego. Called him “mid” and said he was worse than Payne. Apparently Payne was destroying people this spring and is way more explosive than Diggs.

-I asked about the new coaches and he said his coach didn’t change so he didn’t really have a big opinion. Said that the most of the guys on offense liked Rees and everyone thought he was really smart.

Does this mean I can go back to convincing myself that LAX=Loy

 

[Luckylucci]

With regards to Hartman, that seems like exactly what we saw during the Spring Game. Just super crisp and clean execution of the easy stuff.

That, alone, wins 9 games this year. And, is something we haven't had consistently since the 2018 version of Ian Book.

 

[Irish4life]

With regards to Hartman, that seems like exactly what we saw during the Spring Game. Just super crisp and clean execution of the easy stuff.

That, alone, wins 9 games this year. And, is something we haven't had consistently since the 2018 version of Ian Book.

I would argue 2020 Book. By that point the WR room had really started to deteriorate. I don't see that as a problem for this years team.

 

[KPENN]

With regards to Hartman, that seems like exactly what we saw during the Spring Game. Just super crisp and clean execution of the easy stuff.

That, alone, wins 9 games this year. And, is something we haven't had consistently since the 2018 version of Ian Book.

If ND had a QB of this caliber from 2017-2021, they might have a title.

 

[NDFAN2008]

With Hartman at QB we should have at least 5 WR’s go over 500 yards

 

[rikkitikki08]

When a player calls diggs “mid” what exactly does that mean?

 

[dublinirish]

When a player calls diggs “mid” what exactly does that mean?

Mediocre


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ulukinatme]

If ND had a QB of this caliber from 2017-2021, they might have a title.

Maybe, but the WR room was still not a bunch of world beaters during this period. There was Claypool and then it's a decent drop off from there. Claypool was good, but he wasn't even in the same realm as a DeVonta Smith.

 

[Irish4life]

When a player calls diggs “mid” what exactly does that mean?

Mid = average/mediocre. Mid is short for middle (of the pack).

 

[Irish4life]

Maybe, but the WR room was still not a bunch of world beaters during this period. There was Claypool and then it's a decent drop off from there. Claypool was good, but he wasn't even in the same realm as a DeVonta Smith.

17-18 teams both had strong WR rooms. 19-21 definitely did not.

 

[NDQuebec]

Sounds like we have a bunch of dumb players for thinking Rees was a smart coach! They should have listened to us here instead.

So should have Saban!

 

[ulukinatme]

17-18 teams both had strong WR rooms. 19-21 definitely did not.

The leading receiver in '17 was EQ with 515 yards.
The leading receiver in '18 was Boykin with 872.
They were good. I wouldn't consider either to be exceptional talents, but both did make some big plays (Particularly Boykin in the bowl game).

I saw something where in BK's 11 seasons we only had 3 receivers break 1000 yards: Claypool, Fuller, and Floyd (Who was more of a hold over from Weis' talented WR rooms). While those players under BK put up decent stats, they were often one man crews without a lot of talent backing them up. Alabama regularly has receivers breaking 1,000 yards, some getting close to 2,000. They've had multiple seasons with two 1,000+ receivers too, which helps take the pressure off one guy. We didn't have any of that under BK. There was a lot of misses and a lot of lazy WR recruiting.

 

[Luckylucci]

I would argue 2020 Book. By that point the WR room had really started to deteriorate. I don't see that as a problem for this years team.

Without hijacking this thread too much, his comp pct. and yds/att were all down from 2018 to 2020. And, from watching the games his pocket awareness was as well. There were times in 2020 that Book playing from the pocket seemed like a small disaster waiting to happen.

I think the 2023 version of Hartman's ND offense will look more consistent and steady.

 

[CanadalovesND]

Without hijacking this thread too much, his comp pct. and yds/att were all down from 2018 to 2020. And, from watching the games his pocket awareness was as well. There were times in 2020 that Book playing from the pocket seemed like a small disaster waiting to happen.

I think the 2023 version of Hartman's ND offense will look more consistent and steady.

Anything is better than Pyne's 200 yard passing per game. And inability to consistently read the field and hit the intermediate and deep throws.

 

[WilliamWallace]

Maybe, but the WR room was still not a bunch of world beaters during this period. There was Claypool and then it's a decent drop off from there. Claypool was good, but he wasn't even in the same realm as a DeVonta Smith.

They knew we didn’t have a title contending QB

As in we may have been able to recruit the position better if we had better QB’s.

 

[ulukinatme]

Mid is an awful strange way to describe a guy that had 20 yards less from scrimmage compared to Estime and played less games. Don't get me wrong, I think Payne will be better. Just seems like more sour grapes.

 

[stlnd01]

Mid is an awful strange way to describe a guy that had 20 yards less from scrimmage compared to Estime and played less games. Don't get me wrong, I think Payne will be better. Just seems like more sour grapes.

To be fair, once Diggs announced he was transferring half the board here also declared him mid.

 

[CoachB]

To be fair, once Diggs announced he was transferring half the board here also declared him mid.

I'm on record of kind of agreeing with this. Never really saw the burst. Not bad, just nothing exceptional. Mid sounds like a fair description.

 

[AKRowdy]

Tbh it’s refreshing to hear this. BK would always play the “seasoned vet” no matter the difference in skill level, but this staff is letting the younger guys push the “vets” and actually compete for jobs. Yes I know Diggs was still going to get his fair share of carries.

 

[Henges24]

I'm on record of kind of agreeing with this. Never really saw the burst. Not bad, just nothing exceptional. Mid sounds like a fair description.

He certainly wasn’t blazing fast but he had excellent vision. I’d say “above-mid”, we‘ll call it Dro.

 

[Luckylucci]

Tbh it’s refreshing to hear this. BK would always play the “seasoned vet” no matter the difference in skill level, but this staff is letting the younger guys push the “vets” and actually compete for jobs. Yes I know Diggs was still going to get his fair share of carries.

I realize that everything is better, always, but to say that he would always play the vet no matter the difference in skill is just categorically untrue. There is such a long line of young guys that played and played well for BK it’s just hilarious folks have convinced themselves of this stuff.

It’s just constant re-writing of history to make Freeman seem cooler, better, etc. I just want to like Freeman because he’s a dude. Not because the guy before him did everything wrong and he’s here to save us.

 

[ThePiombino]

To be fair, once Diggs announced he was transferring half the board here also declared him mid.

To be fair, I said he was mid day 1.

 

[greyhammer90]

I realize that everything is better, always, but to say that he would always play the vet no matter the difference in skill is just categorically untrue. There is such a long line of young guys that played and played well for BK it’s just hilarious folks have convinced themselves of this stuff.

It’s just constant re-writing of history to make Freeman seem cooler, better, etc. I just want to like Freeman because he’s a dude. Not because the guy before him did everything wrong and he’s here to save us.

To be fair, "Kelly never plays young talent" didn't suddenly get created after he left. That was a long standing criticism of his tenure while he was here and was the source of as much constant bitching as his supposed nepotism hires. Dexter, Greg Bryant, the "5*" WR from Missouri, every hyped QB recruit, etc.

I disagreed with it then and still do, but it's not some post-BK pro-Freeman phenomenon.

 

[PutuporShutup]

To be fair, "Kelly never plays young talent" didn't suddenly get created after he left. That was a long standing criticism of his tenure while he was here amd was the source of as much constant bitching as his supposed nepotism hires. Dexter, Greg Bryant, the "5*" WR from Missouri, every hyped QB recruit, etc. I disagreed with it then and still do, but it's not some post-BK pro-Freeman phenomenon.

I think the narrative was less about young talent and more about “traits”. Players would be in his dog house for not living the traits needed to play for Kelly.

 

[stlnd01]

To be fair, "Kelly never plays young talent" didn't suddenly get created after he left. That was a long standing criticism of his tenure while he was here and was the source of as much constant bitching as his supposed nepotism hires. Dexter, Greg Bryant, the "5*" WR from Missouri, every hyped QB recruit, etc.

I disagreed with it then and still do, but it's not some post-BK pro-Freeman phenomenon.

Would note that with the exception perhaps of Dexter Williams, all those examples largely proved BK's approach to be correct.

 

[NDdomer2]

Would note that with the exception perhaps of Dexter Williams, all those examples largely proved BK's approach to be correct.

Crazy right?

 

[greyhammer90]

I think the narrative was less about young talent and more about “traits”. Players would be in his dog house for not living the traits needed to play for Kelly.

Traits was also a joke but it was also definitely youth. I made the joke myself a few times that the average impact of a 4 star WR at ND was to "find himself" in the last 4 games of his junior year, and then prefer to go undrafted than come back and play in our offense.

Would note that with the exception perhaps of Dexter Williams, all those examples largely proved BK's approach to be correct.

Which is why I disagreed, but Lucky saying this is some "new coach smell" criticism isnt true. I get that the Freeman love is overdue for a pendulum swing back to normalcy, but that's certifiably not a new complaint.