please dissect my thoughts so I can be a better person

[Old Man Mike]

Not to belabor the Rees throw too much, but since it seems to be playing WAY too much in people's psyche's, Kelly said at the press conference that the play was called because it was "safe", and that he didn't want to stress Rees out too much with his first pass. With a bit of a head shake and a small wry smile, Coach said that "Tommy's" old training kicked in and he didn't stay with the call, but automatically did what he'd done in high school and gave up on the primary target [who was supposed to be the only target on this play] and "progressed" down to a secondary [which he wasn't supposed to do in this case], and never saw the linebacker dropping into the pattern beneath. The coach DID NOT screw that play up. He tried to do something to make it easy for his rookie, but you cannot cover every possible behavior. If you want to take Kelly to task, you might gripe about him putting Rees in at all, but I will not do that. I believe that Rees had looked better in practice and Kelly went with his best shot.

 

[SoInIrishFan]

I agree, Kelly went with who he thought gave us the best shot, Rees. I also believe Kelly took him out because he wanted to be more cautious with the game plan, and Rees is a type "A" person who thinks he can do it all, and wants to prove it. I was impressed with Rees' poise, and the fact that he "naturally" went to read progression. He's a star waiting to shine. Was his decision a good one? The obvious answer is no, but I liked his moxie.

As far as Riddick on that play, he was smoked by the dropping backer during the interception. He didn't see him either, as they both arrived to the ball at the same time.

The boys will definitely learn from this one, and I think you'll see a different team next week. There will be more man on the outside, and the OLB's will do a much better job in the passing lanes. Of course they don't have to worry about the QB busting them for 15 yds every play either.

Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

 

[ND4EVA]

Change is a process...not an instant. You don't just suddenly change 5 years of bad habits, lack of discipline, and losing ways in 15 practices in the spring and a month of practices in August. Especially when you are changing both offensive and defensive systems. It just doesn't work that way. So for you to be expecting him to be a miracle worker, well, he still may very well be that (I think he could be), but it takes time. And bringing ND up from the dead, whether it takes one game or 5 seasons, will be a miracle considering how far we've fallen since Lou Holtz.

See, I'm actually extremely excited for the season and the Kelly era. I don't look at wins and losses as much as I look at HOW we're playing. And we're playing TOUGH (everyone blocking, including receivers finally, guys hitting on d, etc), and we're playing HARD (we could have easily folded yesterday, but we fought and fought and fought back, and we actually won a 2nd half for a change), and we're playing DISCIPLINED (6 penalties in 2 games, guys in the right spots for the most part). We lost our QB for a half and played a kid who couldn't even start at a JC, and yet we still barely lost to a team that has been 3 years in the same system.

So to me, it's all good right now. Things are looking up. I had us at 8-4 this season, with one loss being at MSU this weekend. If we beat MSU, then we're right where many of us predicted before the season started. And if we lose but still make great progress and play football the right way, then I'll be pissed of course but I'll know we're in good hands. Look at Lou's first year at ND...look at Saban's first year at Alabama. They turned out OK didn't they?

Dead on there man, pretty much how im looking at this year myself

 

[Kak7304]

Makes sense. Thanks for finding that, I hadn't seen it anywhere. Still, I don't like the call. Even if it eliminates the reads for Rees, it still puts him under a lot of pressure of having to hand off then wait for Allen to flip the ball back (the fact that a d-end could be right behind him must have been in the back of his head somewhere). There is a lot of pressure to have to catch the ball, hope the D-line fell for the fake and then make your read. I would've preferred the call if it was an all or nothing Jones/Riddick going deep not an intermediate throw. Good find, though. Thanks for clearing that call up a bit.

After rewatching the play, I noticed that the option on that play was in fact TJ going deep on a deep post. The UM CB was manned up on him and in coverage, not even looking to be in run support. As a result, he was covered and the ball should have been thrown away.