Sep 19 | Georgia Tech

[ACamp1900]

Lol'd for real at:
'Fire everyone!
Light them on fire!"

 

[TheChosen1]

Culture beats scheme.

 

[ulukinatme]

Damn you, George O'Leary and your curse!

Just got back from the game. Did the team appear as dominate on TV as they did in person? The score should have remained 30-7, but it looked like a few backups got some playing time at the end and we let them get some easy scores in garbage time. Was so glad Hunter picked up the 2nd onside-kick, was starting to get a bit worried.

CJ was a monster, thought Fuller may have gotten away with one pass interference on one of his big plays (But I consider that one a wash given a few missed calls that would have gone our way). Defense was impressive, Coach Elliot earned his paycheck I think with the way we defended the triple option. For 59 minutes essentially we defended one of the toughest running teams in the country, and that was impressive.

I had a feeling this game would be won by the defense if they could find a way to shut down Tech's running attack, and they came through.

 

[Irish2155]

Those talking heads spoke enough...will you all shut the fudg up?

Keep talking. We need to keep winning. Clemson in two weeks.

 

[ulukinatme]

GT/Paul Johnson related. Tweeted by Keith Arnold

 

[BeauBenken]

"That guy from Grand Valley State?" LOL

You're going to Tech? To play for that guy from Georgia Southern?

What a dick.

 

[ThePiombino]

"That guy from Grand Valley State?" LOL

You're going to Tech? To play for that guy from Georgia Southern?

What a dick.

Yeah, thems the sourest of grapes. Haha, suck it, Johnson!

 

[T Town Tommy]

Big win by the Irish. That defense played well and keeping Thomas bottled up was indeed something to se.

Well done Irish... well done.

 

[JughedJones]

Big win by the Irish. That defense played well and keeping Thomas bottled up was indeed something to se.

Well done Irish... well done.

This guy should get props. You've been on here a while and never been an asshole. Moreover, you've been a boon to IE. Right on, man. You're a credit to SEC fans everywhere. I honestly didn't know that they could be nice.

 

[dublinirish]

Deshone Kizeman..ROLL KIZE...KIZE 4 HEIS...

Im copyrighting all of these btw

 

[Irish YJ]

This guy should get props. You've been on here a while and never been an asshole. Moreover, you've been a boon to IE. Right on, man. You're a credit to SEC fans everywhere. I honestly didn't know that they could be nice.

This /\
Living in ATL, I deal with SEC fans hourly at the office..... 70% of my employees are UGA fans, 20% are a mix of other SEC team fans, and 10% misc...... Not all of them are bad, and I'd say some are just big CFB fans, and not full on SEC homers. 3T however is in a class of his own. Cracks me up when people get in his grill about Alabama and want to pick interwebz wars..... Tommy is about as logical and humble as anyone I know, and full of good fact and data. YJ will be buying him beers if he ever gets to take in a game with 3T.

 

[JughedJones]

This /\
Living in ATL, I deal with SEC fans hourly at the office..... 70% of my employees are UGA fans, 20% are a mix of other SEC team fans, and 10% misc...... Not all of them are bad, and I'd say some are just big CFB fans, and not full on SEC homers. 3T however is in a class of his own. Cracks me up when people get in his grill about Alabama and want to pick interwebz wars..... Tommy is about as logical and humble as anyone I know, and full of good fact and data. YJ will be buying him beers if he ever gets to take in a game with 3T.

word..

 

[connor_in]

Deshone Kizeman..ROLL KIZE...KIZE 4 HEIS...

Im copyrighting all of these btw

Kizeman az in Hizeman

 

[JughedJones]

Kizeman az in Hizeman

Kizeman Uber Alles

 

[dublinirish]

Kizeman Uber Alles

der Kaizer auf unserer Lieben Frau

 

[JughedJones]

der Kaizer auf unserer Lieben Frau

I bet Kizer is Aufing a buncha Fraus right now.

As long as he knows his Sitz from his Leben, he'll be alright.

 

[dublinirish]

Monday Morning Quarterback: Jackets Squander Opportunity in South Bend - From The Rumble Seat

Headline implies GT were in with a shout on saturday when in fact they were played off the park

He also gave the GT d-line a A- grade despite the fact they got no pressure and gave up a ton of yards to CJ

 

[JughedJones]

Monday Morning Quarterback: Jackets Squander Opportunity in South Bend - From The Rumble Seat

Headline implies GT were in with a shout on saturday when in fact they were played off the park

that might be the squirliest headline I've ever read.

the article reads like they got their ass kicked. the lead says they hung in.

The South is fuckin weird.

 

[dublinirish]

that might be the squirliest headline I've ever read.

the article reads like they got their ass kicked. the lead says they hung in.

The South is fuckin weird.

Go home GT fan writers you are drunk

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Monday Morning Quarterback: Jackets Squander Opportunity in South Bend - From The Rumble Seat

Headline implies GT were in with a shout on saturday when in fact they were played off the park

He also gave the GT d-line a A- grade despite the fact they got no pressure and gave up a ton of yards to CJ

I don't know how that website operates but generally the writers write the articles and the editors do the headlines.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Agree with Pops.

Also, given that this is a GT fan writer, that commentary was pretty flattering to ND, especially our "big, bad, front seven." You could feel him trying very hard to hold out lots of hope for his home team, despite the general clobbering.

It also was interesting how much Will Fuller seems to have [finally] penetrated the national sports consciousness. {and to hear Johnson, elsewhere, say, in his defense, to the press "you can't afford to double Will Fuller or it will open up the other receivers" --- translation: that Fuller is REAL good but they have a BUNCH of good ones.}

 

[connor_in]

I had no problem (or interaction) with GT fans...but this makes me dislike them

Here is the YouTube Link


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpTSHYNFtd8

Be sure to notice on a random GT play where a pass was thrown incomplete, the defender celebrates and blows out his knee, crying and screaming on the ground. It wasn’t a scoring play, or the end of the game, or anything. Be sure to turn the volume up – maybe this was Karma for when the guy helmet speared Justin Thomas in the back of the head and wasn’t kicked out of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3MVX26QdqE

by BooBooBoo on Sep 21, 2015 | 11:12 AM ⬆up ↩reply



It was a pass in the endzone.



by thebugman10 on Sep 21, 2015 | 11:24 AM ⬆up ↩reply

From the comments section at Monday Morning Quarterback: Jackets Squander Opportunity in South Bend - From The Rumble Seat posted above by dublin

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Keith Arnold's "The good, the bad and the ugly: Notre Dame v. Georgia Tech":

What a difference a day makes. The third Saturday of the college football season was a crazy one, with the happenings in South Bend far from the only eye-opening outcome on the weekend.

Alabama went down. USC lost to Stanford at home for the fourth time in their last five contests in the Coliseum. Big bad Ohio State looked far from that as they struggled to beat Northern Illinois 20-13, while future Notre Dame opponent Clemson’s defense carried the Tigers against Louisville in a closer-than-expected 20-17 win.

On a day where Colorado, Kansas State, Miami, South Alabama, Syracuse, Toledo and UTEP all won in overtime, Notre Dame served notice with its convincing 30-22 victory. The AP moved Notre Dame up to No. 6, while the coaches slid the Irish up to No. 8.

With UMass set to visit South Bend next Saturday, let’s get to the good, bad and ugly from the big Irish victory.

THE GOOD

The Defense. A day later, the performance of Notre Dame’s defense is just as impressive. A week after looking much more susceptible than we ever expected, the Irish were completely locked in (at least for 58 minutes and change) as they turned Georgia Tech’s well-oiled machine into a mistake-prone unit that lost its composure.

“I thought right from the start we kind of got rattled a little bit,” Paul Johnson conceded after the game. “When it wasn’t going good at first, we didn’t respond very well.

“I think you have to give Notre Dame some credit. They had something to do with that.”

A season after leading college football in third down conversion rate, Georgia Tech started 0 for 9 on 3rd down, and finished the game just three of 15. Entering the game without a three-and-out on the season, Notre Dame forced two straight to open the game.

Even more important, after starting the season 12-of-12 with a ridiculous 12 touchdowns in the red zone, Paul Johnson’s team got nothing on its first red zone appearance, scoring just twice in four appearances.

Notre Dame’s athleticism in the front seven matched Georgia Tech’s, with Joe Schmidt phenomenal from his middle linebacker spot. The schematic tweaks the Irish utilized paid immediate dividends, as Greer Martini stepped into the starting lineup and made eight tackles at outside linebacker.

Keeping Max Redfield on the sideline was a bold move, but it paid off, as Drue Tranquill put together an impressive first half working the alleys before his season was ended just before halftime. And when Matthias Farley was called into action after Tranquill went down, Farley immediately made a big play, forcing a fumble and holding his own with four tackles.

Best of all, it was finally revealed that there wasn’t just some “solution” for the option. Notre Dame’s defense succeeded by being aggressive, being multiple, and continually making changes, varying three and four-man fronts, one and two-high safeties, with the only constant aggression. And after five years of looking for a solution to the option, Kelly and company seem to have found their firmest grasp on it yet.

The SWAG team. Nothing better illustrates Notre Dame’s commitment to stopping the triple-option than the SWAG team. Assembled in training camp and utilized on a near daily basis to give the starting defense consistent work against an option opponent, the SWAG team is a specialized unit comprised of walk-ons, scholarship players and scout teamers whose sole job was running Georgia Tech and Navy’s triple option.

“I’d be remiss without mentioning our swag team,” Kelly said. “That is our triple option team. They named themselves swag. It’s been kind of this thing that’s gone on since camp started. They wanted their own identity. They did such a great job preparing our defense.”

According to Kelly, SWAG stands for Students With Attitude and Game. But fancy wordplay aside, “swag” is a shortened version of swagger, and how kids these days talk about confidence, uniqueness and style.

That isn’t usually how you’d describe a group of freshmen, walk-ons and career back-ups whose job it is to get knocked around by the starting defense on a daily basis.

“The Swag team does an incredible job week in and week out. And I think they just have complete buy in,” captain Matthias Farley said after the game. “There’s guys on that team who are on scholarship and are very talented, fast and dynamic. When you have guys like that giving you a great look, they’re not down, they’re busting their tails and that gives us an incredible look.”

Notre Dame’s coaching staff. It had to feel pretty good inside the coaches’ room on Saturday evening. With just about every national pundit picking Georgia Tech to win, the self-belief in the locker room was instilled by the staff this week and carried onto the field by the players.

Notre Dame’s game plan for slowing down Georgia Tech was nine months in the making. And a continual approach to facing off with the option as opposed to one week of focus is now the way you should expect Kelly and company to move forward.

“For me personally and moving forward as we see that the option is going to be something that we see each and every year, I wanted something that definitely could be duplicated and replicated from year-to-year,” Kelly explained on Sunday.

“The way we play it, you know, is something that I want to continue to do, and we don’t have to have such a huge adjustment each year with our defensive football team. I think we may have found the right kind of balance with the way we’re teaching our kids.”

The Irish aren’t in the clear yet, especially considering Keenan Reynolds is every bit as dangerous as Justin Thomas. But this game meant something, and there was no hiding that.

We already knew about the Brian VanGorder-Paul Johnson subplot. Now add to it this little tidbit, revealed by Eric Hansen and Al Lesar in the South Bend Tribune, and it likely tasted even a little bit sweeter.

Paul Johnson went there. Might as well have called him "small timey." From @EHansenNDI's research: pic.twitter.com/6NI8BScpXj

— Keith Arnold (@KeithArnold) September 20, 2015

There’s a reason that Brian Kelly called this game a “program win.” I think it’s probably the most impressive regular-season victory of his time in South Bend, considering what the option did to him early in his tenure, the injuries that have accumulated and being forced to start DeShone Kizer for the first time.

THE BAD

Turnovers and Mistakes. Probably the most impressive thing about Saturday’s win was the fact that the Irish weren’t perfect. DeShone Kizer’s ill-advised throw to Corey Robinson was the product of a bad read by Kizer, who missed bracket coverage that forced Robinson to convert his route. It took points off the board.

Freshman tight end Alize Jones did his best to test the blood pressure of his head coach when he coughed up the football in the final minute of the first half. The defense bailed him out. And kicker Justin Yoon was shaky again, clanging one extra point off the upright and missing another completely. But Kelly sent him right back out there after halftime, and Yoon converted the kick.

Kizer, Jones and Yoon are all doing this for the first time, thrown into the deep end as the Irish have won three games against Power 5 conference opponents. So credit goes to the Irish for overcoming their mistakes and still winning the game.

The last two minutes.

With the majority of the working press bundled on the sidelines, Georgia Tech made the game interesting. Too interesting. With just a victory formation left, the Irish couldn’t get the ball back, allowing Tech to march down the field and score a touchdown, then follow it up with another score.

It didn’t get close. But it certainly got a little uncomfortable. And while Torii Hunter recovered the onside kick to end things, it took a little too long to do so.

THE UGLY

Drue Tranquill’s knee. You can’t help but feel horrible for Tranquill, who tore his right ACL celebrating a pass breakup before half time, his second major knee injury in as many seasons.

Tranquill was a key piece of the option package, and his loss will be felt against Navy. He’s also a piece of important depth at safety, where the Irish will be looking for considerable answers.

This article seems to confirm something I've long suspected regarding our recent struggles against Navy: it's mostly an issue of allocating a scarce resource (limited practice reps), rather than any special voodoo of Paul Johnson or Ken Niumatololo.

In most seasons, we only face the triple option once. And it's almost always Navy's, over whom we enjoy a significant advantage in athleticism. So our coaching staff naturally chooses to dedicate more practice time to preparing for the marquee games on our schedule (OU in 2012, FSU in 2014, etc.) and counts on getting past Navy on athleticism alone.

But this season we face two triple options teams, one of which is a marquee opponent. So it suddenly makes sense to dedicate more resources to stopping it, and we end up holding GT to 7 points for 59 minutes.

I'm encouraged to hear that Kelly thinks that this year's success against the triple option can be replicated going forward, but I'm skeptical we'll see similarly dominant performances in future seasons where Navy is our only opponent running that scheme.

 

[BeauBenken]

I had no problem (or interaction) with GT fans...but this makes me dislike them





From the comments section at Monday Morning Quarterback: Jackets Squander Opportunity in South Bend - From The Rumble Seat posted above by dublin

Their message board was more than happy to see Tranquill blow out his knee.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Keith Arnold's "The good, the bad and the ugly: Notre Dame v. Georgia Tech":



This article seems to confirm something I've long suspected regarding our recent struggles against Navy: it's mostly an issue of allocating a scarce resource (limited practice reps), rather than any special voodoo of Paul Johnson or Ken Niumatololo.

In most seasons, we only face the triple option once. And it's almost always Navy's, over whom we enjoy a significant advantage in athleticism. So our coaching staff naturally chooses to dedicate more practice time to preparing for the marquee games on our schedule (OU in 2012, FSU in 2014, etc.) and counts on getting past Navy on athleticism alone.

But this season we face two triple options teams, one of which is a marquee opponent. So it suddenly makes sense to dedicate more resources to stopping it, and we end up holding GT to 7 points for 59 minutes.

I'm encouraged to hear that Kelly thinks that this year's success against the triple option can be replicated going forward, but I'm skeptical we'll see similarly dominant performances in future seasons where Navy is our only opponent running that scheme.

Remember in 2013 when ND throttled Air Force 45-10 and the next week Navy took them to the wire 38-34?

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Remember in 2013 when ND throttled Air Force 45-10 and the next week Navy took them to the wire 38-34?

Air Force runs a lot of option, but their offense is much more multiple than Navy's or GT's. Don't take my word for it. Tell 'em, Boob!

"They're actually a multiple-formation, multiple-concept offense," said New Mexico head coach Bob Davie, a long-time college defensive coordinator. "They're not Navy or Georgia Tech, where they're in double-slot (formation) a majority of the time. The thing that they do great is that it's too elementary to say they're just a triple option team. You have to spend a majority of your week preparing for triple option and they may not run any triple option against you. They'll be in the I-(formation). They'll run spread, no-huddle, up-tempo. They have a bank of offenses. In some ways it reminds me of Nebraska when Tom Osborne was winning all those championships. It's depending on the quarterback and their personnel, and they can get in and out of so many different things.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Air Force runs a lot of option, but their offense is much more multiple than Navy's or GT's. Don't take my word for it. Tell 'em, Boob!

Even so. My recollection is that Navy said they got a read on how ND defended the triple option from the AF game and used it against them the following week.

This time around Navy is going to have the same benefit and ND can expect some interesting countermeasures.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Even so. My recollection is that Navy said they got a read on how ND defended the triple option from the AF game and used it against them the following week.

This time around Navy is going to have the same benefit and ND can expect some interesting countermeasures.

If we still struggle against Navy this year, that will undermine my theory. We'll see what happens, but I expect a much more comfortable win than we've become accustomed to.

 

[Bluto]

Even so. My recollection is that Navy said they got a read on how ND defended the triple option from the AF game and used it against them the following week.

This time around Navy is going to have the same benefit and ND can expect some interesting countermeasures.

They could throw to the fullback out in the flat every play I suppose. That seemed like the only thing that worked for GT.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

If we still struggle against Navy this year, that will undermine my theory. We'll see what happens, but I expect a much more comfortable win than we've become accustomed to.

I actually agree with you... just figuratively crossing my fingers and hoping it carries over to Navy.