Post Game: USC

[IRISHDODGER]

So I saw the tweets saying Hart & Merriweather were out today but now I read, after the fact; that Bracy was out w/ a hamstring?!? Can anyone elaborate?

 

[ulukinatme]

Appreciate this board. It’s been a challenging year and this place has been a good place to vent and celebrate. Some bad lows and some incredible highs. This game was more of a composite of the season, undisciplined habits mixed with talent and battling. I’m pulling for Freeman and this squad. We have some very talented players like Estime, Morrison, Diggs, Colzie, and Kollie among others. We need the QB spot to improve vastly, but I appreciate what Pyne did this year given his limitations. Respect to Mayer, Foskey, Patterson, Ademilola, and others moving on.

Very fair. Lots to build on, and what a strange season.

 

[bkess8]

We fail to have a solid offensive identity when starting games. Are we pounding the rock or are we trying to be cute?

Estime needs to be the #1.

Pyne is Pyne and hopefully we only have one more game of watching him play QB at ND.

Our LB play was terrible tonight and Marist is very bad at his position. He doesn’t read plays and only crashes into oncoming blocks removing himself from making a play 90% of the time.

Very pleased with Colzie and Thomas, I think they have become a lot better this season. Styles is playing scared it seems and needs the off-season to get it together.

Caleb Williams is a prick and Georgia is going to break him in half and I will smile while watching it.

LSU lost and our former coach still sucks.

One last thing FCUK U$C!

 

[irishtrain]

Appreciate this board. It’s been a challenging year and this place has been a good place to vent and celebrate. Some bad lows and some incredible highs. This game was more of a composite of the season, undisciplined habits mixed with talent and battling. I’m pulling for Freeman and this squad. We have some very talented players like Estime, Morrison, Diggs, Colzie, and Kollie among others. We need the QB spot to improve vastly, but I appreciate what Pyne did this year given his limitations. Respect to Mayer, Foskey, Patterson, Ademilola, and others moving on.

Great Post- very sad how this season played out-I'm not sure anymore if the administration really wants to win-I will not be posting much from here on out only to say this. I dont think this 'good' man is the coaching answer.

 

[yankeehater]

Just got home from the game. Seeing this team in person for the first time this year what struck me was the lack of athleticism on the outside which seemed way more apparent than I even expected. I was with several SC alum and they all commented on ND not having any threat to take it to the house, and sadly I had to agree. It seemed quite the opposite for SC as it felt like every touch had a chance of going the distance.

I had no idea Pyne was putting up the numbers he did. He just does not look smooth even when he does something well. The people I went with also commented on Pyne's height or lack thereof. Funny they noticed that along with his lack of arm strength.

 

[IA4irish]

This is ridiculous. New least favorite player. Don’t care how talented he is. What a classless prick

 

[Dale]

He’s been doing that, today is just the first time in a while USC has real amount of eyeballs on them

 

[PigtownIrish]

This is why he's not the next Mahomes. Zero class.

 

[Bluto]

He’s been doing that, today is just the first time in a while USC has real amount of eyeballs on them

Will be interesting to see if Williams is more of a Manziel type phenomenal college QB that flames out in the pros.

A lot of what he does in terms of the scrambling/running around making big plays off busted ones isn’t going to translate to the pro game in terms of sustained success in my opinion.

 

[IA4irish]

Riley sure seems to have a “type”

We need a quarterback badly, but I don’t think I could cheer for a player like this. No way would they ever get into ND so won’t have to worry about that

 

[Irish4life]

Riley sure seems to have a “type”

We need a quarterback badly, but I don’t think I could cheer for a player like this. No way would they ever get into ND so won’t have to worry about that

What does this even mean lol. Also Rattler was offered and recruited by ND. And Caleb Williams went to a Catholic HS in DC. Maybe if Tommy/Chip/BK don't fall in love with Buchner at a camp he's in South Bend?

 

[Dale]

Maybe if Tommy/Chip/BK don't fall in love with Buchner at a camp he's in South Bend?

Yeah maybe not.

 

[NDPhilly]

Yeah I mean Gonzaga HS is ab as ND friendly as u can get outside of Chicago I’d bet. Regardless, can guarantee he wouldn’t be putting Fuck USC on his fingernails at ND. The fact that Riley is cool with his says a lot ab him and the program he’s trying to build.

Unfortunately, CFB is more interesting when USC and Miami are villains.

 

[Irish4life]

Yeah maybe not.

Impossible to know today, obviously. All in hindsight.

 

[Dale]

Impossible to know today, obviously. All in hindsight.

Caleb (and his father) always wanted to play for Lincoln. It is possible to know.

 

[ulukinatme]

This is ridiculous. New least favorite player. Don’t care how talented he is. What a classless prick

It's always sex with this dude. No thanks.

 

[GATTACA!]

Will be interesting to see if Williams is more of a Manziel type phenomenal college QB that flames out in the pros.

A lot of what he does in terms of the scrambling/running around making big plays off busted ones isn’t going to translate to the pro game in terms of sustained success in my opinion.

He does have similar elf like ears as Johnny. 🤔

 

[GATTACA!]

Caleb (and his father) always wanted to play for Lincoln. It is possible to know.

I mean who would you rather play for? He’s about to win the Heisman, go to the CFP, and likely be the #1 pick in the 24 draft. Meanwhile Rees/Kelly’s QB will be transferring to Buffalo or Rutgers or something.

 

[irishff1014]

So I saw the tweets saying Hart & Merriweather were out today but now I read, after the fact; that Bracy was out w/ a hamstring?!? Can anyone elaborate?

Not much more to elaborate on. Hart was in a sling, Merriweather is coming back from a concussion, and like you said Bracy had a bad hamstring.

 

[IrishLax]

1. Please let the bowl game be the last game of Pyne. It's time to move on. We are so limited in what we can do... everyone else around him needs to be perfect, and even then he's good for a couple "drive killers" a game. I miss the days of Wimbush (or even Book) being able to create something-from-nothing. Pyne routinely creates nothing-from-something. I don't know how someone with his skill set isn't better at having an internal clock and hitting guys in the flat.

2. Being out Bracy/Hart certainly hurt us. I'm presuming the amount of soft coverage we played was because we didn't trust Mickey/Lewis/Brown to not give a big play in tighter coverage.

3. There is no good way to take away someone like Caleb Williams but having an overall lack of athleticism at LB doesn't help. I don't think Caleb Williams can do the same "run around for three years until someone gets open" against Georgia. I was also unimpressed with our discipline and scheme on defense defending the zone read... our alignment was consistently fucked up to the point of having no one available to account for the QB.

4. I will miss Mayer. Fuck Brock Bowers. You have to be an 80 IQ moron to think Brock Bowers is even on the same tier as Mayer and it's criminal that he's about to steal a bunch of awards/recognition from Mayer.

5. I hope this is a wakeup call to the ND admin that there is no way to consistently compete in this day and age without throwing around some $$ and aggressively pursuing top tier transfer candidates. I worry about our guys getting poached this offseason.

 

[Grahambo]

- Coaching was the biggest disappointment. How do you show clips of Caleb Williams being elusive to the team then look at Bertrand, Liafu, and Kiser and say, ‘yeah, that’ll do it’ while Snead/Kollie/Junior are sitting right there? If this was game 1, ok but this is game 12. The inexperience excuse is out the door.

- Can’t get mad at the LB corps when they were not set up for success. It’s not Bertrand’s fault he isn’t athletic enough to tackle Caleb Williams.

- Mickey was also set up for failure. How are you going to continually leave him on an island?

- Stats don’t tell the whole story. Pyne was terrible. He had moments but his mistakes were massive. Missed reads, bad turnovers, holding the ball too long. Zero improvement all season in those categories.

- The missed checkdown to Diggs early the game was a big miss. Diggs had a ton of green in front of him then the miss read to Colzie later in the game..while he’s looking in that direction..more disappointed in those misses then the turnovers.

- Can we please retire the TE sneak? That was the perfect time to run a fake and have Mitch toss one. Since there was no intention to fake it, spread out and give it to Estime. It’s one yard. If the OL can’t get Estime one yard then so be it but the TE sneak was so easy for them to defend.

- Absolutely no quit in the team. I cannot emphasize enough how important that type of mentality is for a young team. There is a lot of talent coming back next season and an incredibly manageable schedule. They cannot miss this time.

 

[Grahambo]

1. Please let the bowl game be the last game of Pyne. It's time to move on. We are so limited in what we can do... everyone else around him needs to be perfect, and even then he's good for a couple "drive killers" a game. I miss the days of Wimbush (or even Book) being able to create something-from-nothing. Pyne routinely creates nothing-from-something. I don't know how someone with his skill set isn't better at having an internal clock and hitting guys in the flat.

2. Being out Bracy/Hart certainly hurt us. I'm presuming the amount of soft coverage we played was because we didn't trust Mickey/Lewis/Brown to not give a big play in tighter coverage.

3. There is no good way to take away someone like Caleb Williams but having an overall lack of athleticism at LB doesn't help. I don't think Caleb Williams can do the same "run around for three years until someone gets open" against Georgia. I was also unimpressed with our discipline and scheme on defense defending the zone read... our alignment was consistently fucked up to the point of having no one available to account for the QB.

4. I will miss Mayer. Fuck Brock Bowers. You have to be an 80 IQ moron to think Brock Bowers is even on the same tier as Mayer and it's criminal that he's about to steal a bunch of awards/recognition from Mayer.

5. I hope this is a wakeup call to the ND admin that there is no way to consistently compete in this day and age without throwing around some $$ and aggressively pursuing top tier transfer candidates. I worry about our guys getting poached this offseason.

Darnell Washington > Brock Bowers

 

[laughingirish90]

even though part of the defense didn't play well the rest didn't make it easy for USC and the offense played it's butt off as they never gave up when down by 18 pts. we would've won this game if it wasn't for the two turnovers

 

[notredomer23]

1. Pyne routinely creates nothing-from-something. I don't know how someone with his skill set isn't better at having an internal clock and hitting guys in the flat.

This is a great point about Pyne actually. You’d think given his limitations, we’d actually get annoyed by how much he checks down. But it’s actually the opposite and it’s shocking when he actually does it.

 

[thekid33]

I hope this is a wakeup call to the ND admin that there is no way to consistently compete in this day and age without throwing around some $$ and aggressively pursuing top tier transfer candidates. I worry about our guys getting poached this offseason.

It won't be.

 

[irish4ever]

Inauspicious beginning for ND to start off offensively with an unnecessary push in the back on the kickoff. Not for sure who the culprit was but it sure caused a very poor field position that led to a quick 3-n-out. from the get-go. Then the Pyne fumble pretty well ensured that Irish couldn't come back. Ugh! Oh well, let's see what happens in the bowl game I suppose. Thanks to the seniors and all others that won't be back next year.

 

[FWIrish4]

I forgot how much I hate losing to USC since it’s been 6 years.

Someone with much more football knowledge than I can probably answer this. I’m assuming with Hart/Bracy out our defensive game plan had to shift to softer coverage to protect the secondary which weakened our run defense.

The turnover on downs (which I think they should have reviewed for a spot) and the fumble to start the 2nd half were absolute killers. Probably lost us the game.

It’s crazy that I forgot how much elite QB play impacts the game, considering we saw it vs. Trevor Lawrence in 2020. Williams single handedly won them the game tonight and his improvisation on 3rd and long was the key.

I’m not a big ref or tv booth complaint guy but holy hell. That may have been the worst combination of the two in years that we’ve witnessed.

The young talent is starting to shine through (Colzie, Jayden and Styles all looked great) and the team never quit. We were not ill-prepared, we didn’t execute.

If I see anyone complain about Tommy (outside of mitchapolooza which was just a tad to deep to run), I’ll meet them at the Irsay Y. We averaged 7.8 yards per play against a bad defense like we should.

 

[Grahambo]

This is a great point about Pyne actually. You’d think given his limitations, we’d actually get annoyed by how much he checks down. But it’s actually the opposite and it’s shocking when he actually does it.

I’m not sure QB play has bothered me more than Pyne.

 

[irishff1014]

I forgot how much I hate losing to USC since it’s been 6 years.

Someone with much more football knowledge than I can probably answer this. I’m assuming with Hart/Bracy out our defensive game plan had to shift to softer coverage to protect the secondary which weakened our run defense.

The turnover on downs (which I think they should have reviewed for a spot) and the fumble to start the 2nd half were absolute killers. Probably lost us the game.

It’s crazy that I forgot how much elite QB play impacts the game, considering we saw it vs. Trevor Lawrence in 2020. Williams single handedly won them the game tonight and his improvisation on 3rd and long was the key.

I’m not a big ref or tv booth complaint guy but holy hell. That may have been the worst combination of the two in years that we’ve witnessed.

The young talent is starting to shine through (Colzie, Jayden and Styles all looked great) and the team never quit. We were not ill-prepared, we didn’t execute.

If I see anyone complain about Tommy (outside of mitchapolooza which was just a tad to deep to run), I’ll meet them at the Irsay Y. We averaged 7.8 yards per play against a bad defense like we should.

The problem with Rees last night was that he was slow to adjust. USC did a good job stuffing the run for the most part. But the o line looked uninspired last night. Not what we have been used too.

But he had some good calls that Pyne missed a read or an open back in the flat.

 

[irishff1014]

Just looking at the snap count and it just makes you wonder. Mickey played every defensive snap and Tyree still has good speed was in the field for 11 snaps.