Post Game Impressions

[Grahambo]

Davonte Neal avoided catastrophe when he quickly grabbed a punt that hit him and scampered for 12 yards, a return that tripled the team’s net yardage total from last season.

From Keith Arnold

 

[KPENN]

Davonte Neal avoided catastrophe when he quickly grabbed a punt that hit him and scampered for 12 yards, a return that tripled the team’s net yardage total from last season.

From Keith Arnold

That's ugly. Lol

 

[georgia irish]

Neal might better start practicing at cb.

 

[Cogs]

I saw Neal play against my high school last year, and damn. What a freak of nature. Incredibly athletic.

 

[irishff1014]

Neal might better start practicing at cb.

I think we will be ok. We had a True Freshamn playing a position that he has only played for a month. Let him watch the video and see what he did and the the coaches help him get better.

 

[georgia irish]

I hope Motta improves he scares me.

 

[irishfanjho15]

Neal might better start practicing at cb.

So your coaching move would to be replace a true freshman corner with another true freshman corner?

At least I know what you're working with.

 

[georgia irish]

You don't which freshman will pick things up first,and did Josh Atkinson get to play and if so how did he do.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Our O-Line will continuously block the Purdue D-Line with the exception of Short [He is, as the pro scout once said when looking at film of Bob Lilly of Dallas, "Someone who needs a good leavin' alone".] Short will make some plays. We blocked all the rest of them last year and we are strong and violent and we ain't scared.

Add to this that our offense hits quickly. As long as Everett reads properly the ball will be gone before Short arrives. And, I don't care who the player is, Braxton Cave is stronger. He was one of the nation's top ten last year, so he's way up there this season too. When you ask Braxton about Chris Watt, he gets a strange almost maniacal grin going .... meat-moving soulmates. And we know how good ZMart is. I'll put my money on Troy Niklas crashing down on any DE and collapsing the side.

Riddick, GAIII, and Cam are going to find places to run. Weirdly, Golic seems much more at home at guard than center. Lombard will be fine. The bigs will move the Earth and the jets will shoot through the spaces. It's still going to be down to not what Purdue does but what Everett and the receivers do.

 

[Chris P. Bacon]

I've seen a few posts that our secondary was terrible, I'm going to agree to a certain extent. Yes we were out of position on a number of passing plays, damn near all of them, but Navy runs the ball about 95% of the time and our corners knew that. I honestly think they were getting bored watching the receivers attempt to put a block on them and they just wanted to get in on the action. I mean it's the first game of the season, they been busting their a$$ all of season and really just wanted to get a taste of the action. I think Purdue will give us a better idea of where our corners are really at with a more balanced offense.

Golson looked great on the run, he obviously forced that one pass but overall I give him a B grade. I don't think Kelly wanted to really force anything or show any of our offense, and with the running game so easy why bother throwing it? Our running game was terrific, I was overly impressed with the way Theo ran the ball as well as GAIII, I was hoping to see a bit more from Eifert, but again, I think we were hiding a lot of our offensive plays this game.

Teo was a monster, and expect him to be at his prime level come Mich ST. Speaking of Mich ST, I'm not impressed with them at all, yes they played Boise, but Boise lost everything to the draft this past year. And it is definitly heart warming to see the Mich ST offense and defense struggle against a team like Boise, who IMO is no where near the caliber of team we are on the line and Boise still caused problems for Mich St on the dline and oline.

 

[PJWhitfield]

Kelly had little to scream about.

 

[Me2SouthBend]

More from Keith.

Quick Hits. Boy is it going to be fun watching Elijah Shumate play special teams. Guy is a missile. Same thing for Nick Baratti, who made a nice play and repped in at safety. Matthias Farley is going to be a player. Amazing to think at this time last year he was a wide receiver. He’s got a great physicality. That was a big stick by Zeke Motta. Thought Jalen Brown looked pretty smooth at corner. Linebacker Dan Fox played a really nice game, leading the Irish in tackles and looking really athletic out there.

Loved watching offensive line coach Harry Hiestand coach-up his second unit offensive line. With the starters standing behind the reserves, Hiestand was fiery and animated after the disastrous opening series ended in a three and out. The group rallied for a field goal and touchdown.

The good, the bad, the ugly: Notre Dame vs. Navy | Inside the Irish

 

[Irish To The Core]

Absolutely not.

Cierre is still the best back. He's faster than Riddick, and doesnt get arm tackled nearly as often. He's just the most complete back on the roster. I would assume that his pass blocking is far superior too.

Don't get me wrong, I love Cierre but I also have eyes to see what the other three guys are doing while Cierre sits without game action two weeks in a row. May I also remind you that Riddick beat out Cierre when they were freshmen. AND as freshmen Riddick was actually faster than Cierre (4.4 to 4.5) so unless yo have seen a more recent side by side, Cierre is not actually faster than Theo. And GA III is the fastest of the bunch.

All I am saying is that if Riddick/Atkinson/McDaniels repeat this performance against Purdue, Cierre has some serious work to do. That is not a bad thing b/c if he has something to prove I suspect he will be focused and fierce. And 4 good options at rb is a pretty nice situation.

 

[TheTurningPoint]

Cierre is the best back on the team and thats not opinion. Theo is a damn good RB and probably should have never been moved from RB. Cierre is the typical 20 carry back, and an every down back. Theo is a 3rd down back. GA3 is going to be a every down guy but has a lot of fine tuning to do. Cierre does have work to do to show Kelly he is serious, but the infraction that got him suspended was comical at best.

Secondary will be fine guys lol. Its not the first time in history that a true freshmen has gotten beat. Its not the first time Navy took advantage of what their offense gives them. Now if Navy had put up 20-30pts I think there would be concern. They scored 10.

 

[georgia irish]

Last year when we played tough teams Cierre disappeared and Gray was the man the man.I think GA111 will, being strong and fast be the one who stands out against USC andOKLA.

 

[Chris P. Bacon]

Yeah I love how we get heat for scoring a TD late in the game, yet you didn't hear anything on any sports shows about OKLA ST score being 84-0, and they scored with seconds left in the game. Talk about bad sportsman ship, I'm happy Kelly put it in again, why get lazy just because we had the lead.

 

[tadman95]

Cierre probably is our best back but I like seeing Theo run. He runs decisively, more north to south than Cierre. Theo will stick his helmet/shoulder in your chest where Cierre tends to juke more.

They are both good.

 

[Count_on_Me]

Participation Report (Final)

Notre Dame
Pos ## Offense
WR 87 SMITH, D.
WR 18 KOYACK
LT 70 MARTIN, Z.
LG 66 WATT
C 52 CAVE
RG 57 GOLIC, M.
RT 74 LOMBARD
TE 80 EIFERT
WR 81 GOODMAN
QB 5A GOLSON
RB 4 ATKINSON, G.

Notre Dame
Pos ## Defense
DE 89 LEWIS-MOORE
NT 9A NIX
DE 7A TUITT
OLB 55 SHEMBO
ILB 48 FOX
ILB 5 TE'O
OLB 41 FARLEY
CB 6A RUSSELL
S 17 MOTTA
S 26 SLAUGHTER
CB 2 JACKSON



Notre Dame: 1B-FERGUSON, 1A-WILLIAMS, Ish., 2A-BROWN, C., 4B-CAVALARIS, 6-RIDDICK, 7-JONES, TJ, 8-MOORE, 9-TOMA, 10-DANIELS, 12-HENDRIX, 15-McCARTHY, D., 19-NEAL, D., 21-BROWN, Ja., 22-SHUMATE, 24-SALVI, C., 27-BRINDZA, 29-BARATTI, 30-COUNCELL, 33-MCDANIEL, 35-TURK, 40-TAUSCH, 43-ATKINSON, J., 45-OKWARA, 59-GRACE, 60-COWART, 65-HANRATTY, 69-SPRINGMANN, 72-MARTIN, N., 77-HEGARTY, 78-STANLEY, 85-NIKLAS, 91-DAY, 96-SCHWENKE.

I saw #50 Chase Hounshell out there as well. ** Also 51 Heggie. Lots backups got some PT!!

 

[Bubba]

I know Navy is not considered a powerhouse, but this same team ran for 274 yards against a pretty stout South Carolina defense last year. I think we can surely say that our run defense will be stellar, after only allowing 149 yards rushing.

Conversely, on the offensive side of the ball South Carolina, with Lattimore, Rushed for similar yardage with 274. Even though Navy's defensive line is undersized, the still find ways to compete with top level opponents. I think we will see some pretty spectacular play from our o-line this year.

I have heard already that our team looked one-dimensional, mostly from some of the dimwits over at bang-bang. I guess it would seem that way from the statistics, but we didn't need to pass the ball to win. You don't see teams like Alabama and LSU forcing the pass game when they are dominating in the run game. For once we showed that we were able to outclass an opponent, and physically dominate. This should be seen as a positive, more so than a negative. The kool-aid is rich this morning!

I haven't read through this entire thread to see if anyone else has commented, but it seems to me that even though we dominated in the run game and didn't need to pass to win, we needed to pass in order to get our young QB some experience. I'm glad we were able to get Golson some passing game experience. Even the int was a good learning moment. I think he will continue to get better.

 

[yankeeND]

Sorry I'm late to the party! Awesome game yesterday! Loved everything about it. Golson did just fine in his first start! Defense was dominant! Side note was at the Skunk bear beat down and enjoyed every second of that!

 

[tadman95]

Watching OutintheBend's 1st half video, Ishaq played a really good game. The stats may not show it but he was making some hits, and I mean some shots. He may be entering "Beast" mode.

 

[aubeirish]

Yeah I love how we get heat for scoring a TD late in the game, yet you didn't hear anything on any sports shows about OKLA ST score being 84-0, and they scored with seconds left in the game. Talk about bad sportsman ship, I'm happy Kelly put it in again, why get lazy just because we had the lead.

Highly comical, we had a receiver at running back and we still scored...

 

[obi wan mahoney]

Yeah I love how we get heat for scoring a TD late in the game, yet you didn't hear anything on any sports shows about OKLA ST score being 84-0, and they scored with seconds left in the game. Talk about bad sportsman ship, I'm happy Kelly put it in again, why get lazy just because we had the lead.

Plus, we weren't really trying; for the love of God, Toma was in the backfield.

 

[NDinL.A.]

Last year when we played tough teams Cierre disappeared and Gray was the man the man.I think GA111 will, being strong and fast be the one who stands out against USC andOKLA.

WTF??? Against Michigan (who won a BCS gameand was top 10 by the end of the year), he rushed for 125 yards and a TD. You call that disappearing? And against MSU, probably the best defense we faced all year, he had 2 TDs and rushed for 4.5 yards per carry.

The 2 other tough teams, USC and Stanford, were beyond his control. Against USC he got 5 carries. You think that's on him??? Sorry, but that's on Kelly/Molnar. ANd against Stanford, that field sucked balls and anytime he cut back he slipped. Plus everyone in the world knew how to defend ND with Rees in there and they sold out to stop Cierre and make Rees beat them over the top.

CW to me is still our best back, and people forget how truly good he was last year. He I have absolutely no concerns about him vs. MSU and getting his job back. He'll get the ball plenty, as will Theo, and GA will get the ball less, but they'll probably still find a way for him to get touches in space.

But CW disappearing in big games? Ridiculous. (Ask USC 2 years ago about his 2 runs that lead directly to TDs, which got the incredibly heavy monkey off our backs.)

 

[irishfanjho15]

A lot of you guys like to practice out of sight out of mind around here.

Cierre is a beast. To reiterate was LA said, Wood set the tone in, undoubtedly, the biggest game of the year last year. MSU, that 22 yard run around the edge where he dove and scored at the pylon. How about the Purdue game, with a chance to go over .500 last year after losing the first two games of the season? We're up 14-0 with a chance to step on the throat (something ND hasn't done much of in the last ten to twenty years), and Wood breaks loose and out runs four DBs to the house. 55 yards that basically broke Purdue's will to win.

He is great in pass pro and a dangerous threat out of the backfield. He has more experience than any other running back. He will make Golson even better. I'm sure he'll even be helping Golson with the pass pro slide calls if needed. Probably will even save his a$$ a few times this year.

Cierre Wood is a complete back with NFL caliber polish. Riddick and GAIII will be the 2A and 2B to Cierre's 1. It's a great problem to have.

 

[irishff1014]

Last year when we played tough teams Cierre disappeared and Gray was the man the man.I think GA111 will, being strong and fast be the one who stands out against USC andOKLA.

Wow Dude really your must not have watched must ND football last year.

 

[koonja]

We have 3 good runningbacks that could all start at 80% of other teams. Cierre's more complete, imo, and it will show against a more stout defense. He's the best 'bruiser', if you will.

The position I worry most about is Zeke, not so much the two corners. He's always one or two steps behind whoever he's matched up on. TP, is Shummate pushing him at all for that position?

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

I'd make him earn the spot back. His backups put up good numbers. He crapped on the team in a moment of need. Don't hand it to him. Make him earn it.

Put less emphasis on Me and getting high.......Put more emphasis on Team and Us winning.

 

[koonja]

I'd make him earn the spot back. His backups put up good numbers. He crapped on the team in a moment of need. Don't hand it to him. Make him earn it.

Put less emphasis on Me and getting high.......Put more emphasis on Team and Us winning.

Thanks but no thanks. He's our most experienced and most talented RB, and we need him right away for what are two of our biggest games of the season. After he serves his time I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's listed as the starter for MSU.

 

[irishff1014]

I'd make him earn the spot back. His backups put up good numbers. He crapped on the team in a moment of need. Don't hand it to him. Make him earn it.

Put less emphasis on Me and getting high.......Put more emphasis on Team and Us winning.

I agree with this comment 100%. But the other guys saying the Wood isn't good is CRAZY.