Post spring thoughts

[BMT]

Golson is clearly our starter based on a live scrimmage, Rees is not even close. He may look ok in 7on 7 but not with a defense flying in his face, just the facts. Hendrix also pretty good. Rees should clearly be number 3 Qb and Gunner needs to redshirt.

 

[PLACforever]

QB Depth:
Golson = Starter
Hendrix = Backup
Rees = This year's Mulvey
Kiel = Red Shirt

 

[Patulski]

To expalin the lack of QB pressure, only blitzed in red zone and 3rd down I think, maybe not even the 3rd down part

And one of those times, Rees audibled out of the play to take advantage of single coverage. Unfortunately, he had Eifert wide open in the endzone, but chose to throw a dead duck jump ball to the outside receiver in the end zone that fell incomplete.

 

[irishtrinity]

Golson needs to QB...

TO MANY TURNOVERS...I felt sick watching that..

Defense Did Work...

 

[Redbar]

I think I would be grooming Golson as the starter the rest of the way. He's got work to do but athletically he's so far ahead. He's going to make mistakes this year but put him in charge and challenge to run Notre Dame football.

I was pretty pleased with what I saw. Need the WR's to keep coming on. The CB's were okay just need more rep's. Thought McDaniel showed some good technique considering he's only had 15 or so practices at the position.

Agreed on all points.+1

 

[irishtrinity]

Also i would be fine just running the ball 24/7... Riddick/Wood/GA3 all looked like elite backs.

 

[Rhode Irish]

I've been saying consistently that if Rees starts the season then there is nobody to blame but Hendrix and Golson, because Kelly will play the best guy and if those guys don't win the job he doesn't have a choice but to start Tommy. But after seeing that game, the discussion is over in my mind.

If Rees starts the season it will, for the first time, cause me to seriously question Kelly's judgment. I know that it was a scrimmage and all of that, but Tommy just cannot do the things that Golson can, and more importantly Golson doesn't do the stupid things that Rees does. Sure, Golson could use some work on the center exchange. I think its just a lack of experience and he'll figure it out, but even if he doesn't, Golson out of shotgun all game is still better than what Rees will give you.

I'm officially off the the calm and collected, "trust the coach" QB train. Now, if Tommy is the starter I think the coach's judgment should be questioned.

Also, Kiel is not anywhere close to being ready. Golson was much farther along last year. I doubt we see Kiel until 2014 at the very earliest. Maybe not even then. Needs a ton of work. Big arm, though.

 

[no.1IrishFan]

I liked a lot of what I saw today but that doesn't change that we still can't stop giving the damn ball away. I love having explosive speed on the field but it means nothing if you drive 60 yards in impressive fashion just to give the ball away.

 

[Irish Houstonian]

To expalin the lack of QB pressure, only blitzed in red zone and 3rd down I think, maybe not even the 3rd down part

To be fair, it looked like the D wasn't necessarily trying to "win", in terms of schematics, but rather replicate what we saw last season -- our worst plays (i.e., the most picks) seemed to occur when the opposing defense dropped more than what Tommy expected.

 

[EddytoNow]

Do the turnovers remind anyone of the past two years? If we turn the ball over this frequently, we can't expect to win many games in 2012.

Interceptions and fumbles were our downfall last year, and it looks like the problem is yet to be corrected. Same faces = same results. When it comes to multiple turnovers it's time to use the Kelly philosophy of next man in.

In regards to Kiel, he did not have a fair shot in his second half quarterbacking stint. The decision to use 8-minute quarters and a running clock made every play rushed. By the end of the game it was taking almost two minutes to get a play off. Kiel only had 4-5 chances to throw the ball. He also showed his gutsinees on two runs where he took hard hits.

On another topic completely. I was disappointed in the decision to shorten the second half to just two 8-minute running clock quarters. I was returning to my seat as the second half started, and when I sat down there were just 3 minutes left in the third quarter. If I had known the entire second half was goin to take only sixteen minutes, I may have left at half-time. My message to Notre Dame officials is to give the fans what you advertise. The game was advertised as two 15-minute running clock quarters for the scond half. That is not what the fans received, and I wasn't the only fan upset with the decision to shorten the second half.

 

[phgreek]

So if I'm a detective assigned to a murder case, have no evidence, no witnesses, no motive, no clues, and generally no idea what's going on with the case, but a some guy walks into my precinct and hands me the murder weapon and confesses and tells me his motive and reasoning, then is that "perfect detective work?" No, I just caught a break and got lucky.

Williams was just floating around, not near any receivers nor potential receivers, and the ball came straight to him. That's all. Yeah, then he made the catch and made the play. I'm glad he did and glad it happened. But let's not start getting carried away with some of our coronations for players just yet. Pretty decent play by Ishaq? Yes. Perfect coverage? No.

Solid Int...I think 11 was there because he was told to be...

I've seen this a couple of times where he looks off, and comes back to a receiver...but its like anything in the periphery between he and the reciver...can't see it. Kid says he loves to throw the dig..but maybe thats because its all right in front of him...he's thrown a couple inexplicable ints since he's been here that really make me worry about him.

He was my preseason pick to start, but EG has as much claim to that as anyone at this point...

 

[Bubba]

I liked a lot of what I saw today but that doesn't change that we still can't stop giving the damn ball away. I love having explosive speed on the field but it means nothing if you drive 60 yards in impressive fashion just to give the ball away.

this. Too many turnovers and it's just the spring game. Imagine a real game where the other team really wants it. Not trying to be negative cause I hate that shiit, but dang it hold on to the ball already.

 

[Irish Houstonian]

And one of those times, Rees audibled out of the play to take advantage of single coverage. Unfortunately, he had Eifert wide open in the endzone, but chose to throw a dead duck jump ball to the outside receiver in the end zone that fell incomplete.

Yup. But in TR's defense, he's probably been taught that on a Cover-0 blitz (which was what was on) you have to immediately look off anyone who's been jammed which, at first glance, it looked like Eifert had. And his second read was probably the fade.

 

[Old Man Mike]

A depleted and scrimmage-limited defense won the game going away. I will leave it to those in the know to imagine what that means about our offense at this moment. Looking at the game, the O-Line generally looked good --- not a lot of pressure on the QBs and lots of running space generally for the backs. The backs ran hard and effectively with the space that the O-Line gave them. GAIII dropping the ball twice was terrible and hopefully will not be repeated. TE play was excellent for the most part. TJ didn't play much but caught a good ball and blocked well. Toma will be OK. What does that leave? You guessed it....

Quarterback play generally stunk. I say this because even if you make a few decent plays, one real trainwreck and the offense is stopped. Golson played the best, yes. The game is consistency. I'll wait on his consistency, but it was nice to see him looking more relaxed as his success moved forward.

Our defense had a ton of studs not available or playing only small minutes. We were playing Salvi and Joe Schmitt a fair amount, as well as Utupo and several other rarely-players. The offense STILL lost. One thing that might have been true defensively was that Lo Wood seemed to hold up --- his name was rarely called, and I am assuming that he was not thrown against much. Sometimes that is a very good sign. I also thought that if we could give Cam McDaniel enough reps, he would not only be in the opponent's shorts [which he usually was] but get the instinct to turn-and-locate at the correct time. Guy's got the athleticism.

It really hacks me off that this group of rampaging super-jocks can be so held back by not having the QB play and the RB ball security play [though I believe that the latter will be no problem by season's start.] SOMEBODY STEP UP!!!!!!!!

 

[Rhode Irish]

With regard to the score, Mike, I'm not an actuary but it seems to me that the scoring system they used favored the defense. Plus Kiel played the entire second half and it was as bad as any QB play I've ever seen on my TV, so the score isn't all that relevant to me. (I'm not hating on the kid, just being honest. The kid has all the talent in the world and I'm not nervous about him eventually putting it together. Right now, though, not even close.)

On most of your other stuff, I agree. On the ball security stuff - it obviously has to get a lot better or even 8-5 is a pipe dream. Some of that is sloppiness you expect to see in a spring game, but it is still inexcusable in light of what went on last season. All of the QBs turned it over. In a real game, fumbles are worse than picks a lot of the time just because of field position concerns, but when our two experienced QBs continue to make the same infuriatingly bad throws (reads) that doomed them last year, that worried me a lot more than a botched snap from an inexperienced player. I'm much more confident in Golson figuring that out than I am about Rees or Hendrix getting better at not throwing it to the other team.

One other point on the turnovers: I'm not making an excuse for the players because there is none, but when we get down into the red zone I would really prefer we see less of the gadget-y pitch plays and reverses (fake reverses), etc., not more. The players should be able to execute these plays without putting the ball on the ground, but they don't. So can we please cut them out when we're in scoring range until they show they can execute them safely? It would cut down on the potential for disaster, IMO.

 

[Rhode Irish]

On another topic completely. I was disappointed in the decision to shorten the second half to just two 8-minute running clock quarters. I was returning to my seat as the second half started, and when I sat down there were just 3 minutes left in the third quarter. If I had known the entire second half was goin to take only sixteen minutes, I may have left at half-time. My message to Notre Dame officials is to give the fans what you advertise. The game was advertised as two 15-minute running clock quarters for the scond half. That is not what the fans received, and I wasn't the only fan upset with the decision to shorten the second half.

I'm with you totally. Even if they were 15 minutes, the running clock was a stupid idea. I see zero logic in it. Maybe someone could explain it to me? If the NCAA allowed it, they should play four 20 minute quarters. They need all the snaps they can get in as close to game-like situations as they are going to see until they take the field in Ireland. What is the point of shortening the game? Because everyone is getting snaps, nobody is playing even as much as they would in a real game, and even if somebody got dinged up, they have four months to get ready to play the next game. Makes no sense to me at all.

 

[clashmore_mike]

Eh I'm fine with it. Would have been great to get the qbs more reps but the rbs had enough, wrs are really thin, CBS are thinner, dl and lbs were thin because starters didn't play much. If they play a full half and Lo Wood or Josh Atkinson blows out a knee, Kelly would be stoned on his way to the tunnel. There isn't any help on the way at cb. The goal of the program isn't to play a 60 minute game in April, its to win every game in the fall. Get out of spring as healthy as possible and get to work in the summer at full strength.

 

[Black Irish]

Golson certainly got the QB edge after today, but not by the margin people say, IMO. Don't minimize his ball-bobbling mistakes, because they've obviously been a nagging problem which is likely why Kelly seemingly tossed him under the bus when talking to Alex Flanagan at the half. His throws were sharp, but he did next to nothing with his feet, while Hendrix showed that he's a credible run threat in addition to having a good arm. I'll take either over Rees, who showed zero improvement over last season.

It was funny to see Cierre Wood dance his way to a TD. People gave him a lot of grief for too much dancing and not enough north-to-south. Maybe he figured how to make it work.

I also noticed our DBs getting away with some holding. MAybe our secondary will do all right if Big 10 refs officiate every game.

 

[Irish4Life09]

So if I'm a detective assigned to a murder case, have no evidence, no witnesses, no motive, no clues, and generally no idea what's going on with the case, but a some guy walks into my precinct and hands me the murder weapon and confesses and tells me his motive and reasoning, then is that "perfect detective work?" No, I just caught a break and got lucky.

Williams was just floating around, not near any receivers nor potential receivers, and the ball came straight to him. That's all. Yeah, then he made the catch and made the play. I'm glad he did and glad it happened. But let's not start getting carried away with some of our coronations for players just yet. Pretty decent play by Ishaq? Yes. Perfect coverage? No.

In defense of notredomer23, he is correct.
Ishaq was in the perfect position in front of the receiver, and the cb(I'm not sure who it was) was in perfect position just passed him. There was absolutely no window, and was great coverage by the defense. It was a HORRIBLE throw by Tommy.

 

[Irish Houstonian]

...

I also noticed our DBs getting away with some holding. MAybe our secondary will do all right if Big 10 refs officiate every game.

For real. Holding, PI, late hits on the QB's -- this was not your father's spring game. Someone must have said something to the refs, and I like it. Just what we needed.

When Golson got hit late out of bounds by Shaq he asked the ref for a warning, and the ref said "watch out you don't get killed."

 

[Redbar]

With regard to the score, Mike, I'm not an actuary but it seems to me that the scoring system they used favored the defense. Plus Kiel played the entire second half and it was as bad as any QB play I've ever seen on my TV, so the score isn't all that relevant to me. (I'm not hating on the kid, just being honest. The kid has all the talent in the world and I'm not nervous about him eventually putting it together. Right now, though, not even close.)

On most of your other stuff, I agree. On the ball security stuff - it obviously has to get a lot better or even 8-5 is a pipe dream. Some of that is sloppiness you expect to see in a spring game, but it is still inexcusable in light of what went on last season. All of the QBs turned it over. In a real game, fumbles are worse than picks a lot of the time just because of field position concerns, but when our two experienced QBs continue to make the same infuriatingly bad throws (reads) that doomed them last year, that worried me a lot more than a botched snap from an inexperienced player. I'm much more confident in Golson figuring that out than I am about Rees or Hendrix getting better at not throwing it to the other team.

One other point on the turnovers: I'm not making an excuse for the players because there is none, but when we get down into the red zone I would really prefer we see less of the gadget-y pitch plays and reverses (fake reverses), etc., not more. The players should be able to execute these plays without putting the ball on the ground, but they don't. So can we please cut them out when we're in scoring range until they show they can execute them safely? It would cut down on the potential for disaster, IMO.

Agreed on all points especially the red zone gadget plays. On another note, I thought I heard during the broadcast that the exchange where Golson fumbled may have been on Hegarty as much as it was on Golson. Haven't reviewed the game just yet, anybody else recall this?

 

[clashmore_mike]

Was that the one where Golson was in the shotgun and the snap was as if he was under center?

 

[Riddickulous]

Typical spring game. Really sloppy play with some nice performances that will probably lead to inflated preseason expectations for a handful of players.

 

[BurningRiver]

I've been saying it all offseason, but if Rees is named the starting QB...

 

[stlnd01]

I'm with you totally. Even if they were 15 minutes, the running clock was a stupid idea. I see zero logic in it. Maybe someone could explain it to me?

I believe it had something to do with a two-hour TV window on NBC Sports. The first half ran long, so they cut back the second half. Yes, that's rather asinine (why not just cut away if you have to. Not like this is the Sugar Bowl.) But, whatever.

As for the game:

Yeah, Golson looked best of the QBs, no doubt. Rees seems to have regressed somehow. Don't know what to make of Hendrix.

Loved watching Atkinson. And did Riddick bulk up a bunch? I don't remember him being that muscular. But the slot/RB hybrid accentuates his quickness, which is good. Can't wait for Carlisle and Neal to join the gang. Curious who'll play tailback behind Wood, though.

Not impressed with our outside receivers. Daniels made that one great grab but seemed to bail on a couple of other balls. Goodman was Goodman and Daniel Smith? Eh. Paging Justin Ferguson.

Hard to say much about our front seven, as the best guys didn't play much. Though Schwenke, Nix and Day all made nice plays. And Ishaq was all over the field.

D-backs worry me. Would probably go with Josh A. over Lo Wood. But I sure hope Bennett Jackson can ball.

 

[TheSunIsRising]

I'm with you totally. Even if they were 15 minutes, the running clock was a stupid idea.

I believe it had something to do with a two-hour TV window on NBC Sports. The first half ran long, so they cut back the second half. Yes, that's rather asinine (why not just cut away if you have to. Not like this is the Sugar Bowl.) But, whatever.

There might well have been a limit for NBC Sports Network, but the team may also have been up against practice time limits as well. Don't forget that the Blue-Gold game is really just one of the scrimmages/practices allowed. The allotted number of practice hours run continuously during a practice and do not stop "to move the chains, etc". I know the team didn't practice Friday, but with their workouts on Monday and Wednesday they may have been closing in on allowable time [just speculation]

 

[TheSunIsRising]

In defense of notredomer23, he is correct.
Ishaq was in the perfect position in front of the receiver, and the cb(I'm not sure who it was) was in perfect position just passed him. There was absolutely no window, and was great coverage by the defense. It was a HORRIBLE throw by Tommy.

"Freudian slip"??? I would place more blame on Hendrix for that one

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

Agreed on all points especially the red zone gadget plays. On another note, I thought I heard during the broadcast that the exchange where Golson fumbled may have been on Hegarty as much as it was on Golson. Haven't reviewed the game just yet, anybody else recall this?

Golson was on the field for 3 fumbles.
-1st was when the snap hit Riddick while he was in motion. Unsure if it was a direct snap to him or not. Not his fault.
-2nd was under center and the ball went through his hands. WAS his fault.
-3rd was in shotgun and the ball only was snapped about a yard and a half never reached him.

All our quarterbacks are turning the ball over.
IMO only Golson appears to have the ability to play over the mistakes.
Tommy is Tommy and Hendrix is his own worst enemy.
The choice is clear.

 

[Patulski]

Golson was on the field for 3 fumbles.
-1st was when the snap hit Riddick while he was in motion. Unsure if it was a direct snap to him or not. Not his fault.
-2nd was under center and the ball went through his hands. WAS his fault.
-3rd was in shotgun and the ball only was snapped about a yard and a half never reached him.

There was a 4th snap to Golson that was so fast and high that I doubt any of the other QB's could of handled it. I was amazed he was quick enough to get the ball and run the play.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Rhode: about who was favored by the system of scoring --- you could be correct, but Kelly didn't just make this up himself. I believe that the system is actually supposed to be a fairly level field UNLESS THE OFFENSE IS TURNOVER PRONE. Then it "favors" the defense. Well, guess what? Kelly designed the game to see if his offense could overcome the one error that is paramount. It couldn't. Even a makeshift defense playing competent but not spectacular ball just sat there and waited for the O to beat itself. That's what I saw anyway....