Virginia Tech Post Game

[Rack Em]

Didn’t see a thread up here yet.

A few observations from the stands:

1. Playcalling was bad all around. Long has these little moments where he calls a great play and the rest are fart noises
2. Wtf was up with our defensive alignments and personnel groupings. We often had 5 down linemen and 3 DBs with Crawford as the single high safety. On the last drive, Jamir Jones was dropping into coverage as the 5th lineman. That makes zero fucking sense. Lea called a good game but those things make no sense.
3. For as much as we rag in Book (and he deserves a lot of it), the receivers just mailed it in on a lot of routes. They don’t break it off and help him during a scramble. But I couldn’t tell if they were lazy or had no faith in Book to keep his eyes up field. Either way it’s a problem.
4. The goal line fumble changed the endures game. It was a 14 point swing that changes VT’s playcalling in the second half.

 

[Me2SouthBend]

This team is average at best.
Book needs to be benched. Moral victories mean nothing.
I really haven’t been so disappointed with a ND team in quite some time.
Play calling sucks. Overall coaching is substandard.
Love the school and program but down on coaching and many of the Captains charged with leading the team.

 

[BeatSC]

Didn’t see a thread up here yet.

A few observations from the stands:

1. Playcalling was bad all around. Long has these little moments where he calls a great play and the rest are fart noises
2. Wtf was up with our defensive alignments and personnel groupings. We often had 5 down linemen and 3 DBs with Crawford as the single high safety. On the last drive, Jamir Jones was dropping into coverage as the 5th lineman. That makes zero fucking sense. Lea called a good game but those things make no sense.
3. For as much as we rag in Book (and he deserves a lot of it), the receivers just mailed it in on a lot of routes. They don’t break it off and help him during a scramble. But I couldn’t tell if they were lazy or had no faith in Book to keep his eyes up field. Either way it’s a problem.
4. The goal line fumble changed the endures game. It was a 14 point swing that changes VT’s playcalling in the second half.

When I saw Jamir Jones dropping back I thought WTF?!

Didn’t like the 3 man rush on the last series. I guess it worked out but I prefer more pressure. Our D line got jack schitt for pressure again today. A couple god plays by Okwara and Kareem today but nothing that says 2nd round draft choice. We will be fine without them as long as we get the Daelin Hayes that left back.

Didn’t see Jalen Elliott today but I also didn’t see someone’s get faked out of their jock or take a bad angle. Hamilton is a big upgrade.

How many times has Pride (our fastest guy on the team) failed to get his head around and get burned in the corner of the endzone? Answer: A lot!!!

Jafar was an overall liability today but caught a couple decent balls. Doesn’t negate the bonehead fumble that single handedly could have lost is the game. Prefer JAhmir Smith frankly.

Please enough of Finke. He didn’t play awful today but not playing our best athletes. Sick of him being Books security blanket.

Javon blocked well on Book TD and made one nice catch. Wouldn’t like to see Book give him more chances to make a play.

We won every statistical category and ran 98 plays.
Book needs to pull down the ball on the read option more often (more than once). This play has been there for him. His last run was a work of art though. Read the blocking perfectly!
What happened to Tariq Bracy? Did he play?
Special teams were not special and many poorly timed stupid penalties
We were not committed to the ground game again. You can pass against VT apparently but not Book.
His passing on most deep balls was inaccurate again!
Wouldn’t it be awesome if someone called Long again? Please leave! This guy seems like a pomp and for no good reason.
We had almost double the yardage and first downs as VT. No way did they deserve to sneak away or steal a win. Nice that Kelly found a way not to lose this. Book did ok on that last drive. Book also looked good in the first quarter minus ints.

This is not a top ten team. Top ten teams don’t get challenged by this schitty VT team. If we do win out we will probably sneak in the top ten. We need the 5 stars to show up stat Android bring a real qB with them!

 

[T-Boone]

Would have lost that in 16. This team has some character.
Is it too soon to make Hamilton a captain starting next week. The captains room must be a depressing place right now someone like KHam could go in and slap some face.

 

[Ignats]

A different angle that hasn't been mentioned.. the complete inability to run the football is shocking to the point of being embarrassing. Rhode Island almost had a 100 yard rusher against this team. Even with the right side of the line out, you'd expect a bigger push.

Special teams is also a disaster. Would be very supportive of keeping Polian around for his recruiting, but how can anyone justify the players having no clue on some of these plays?

 

[irishtrain]

As I said earlier this week Ian Book is not the problem-so now he must be Joe Montana for 4 more games without a running attack-Kelly is coaching his *@$ off trying to get blood out of a stone-sometimes I just don't get our fan base-for my $$$$ that was a balls out big win for a team that is not elite by any means but Notre Dame proud.

 

[ACamp1900]

This team is not average,... there’s a ton of teams that would like to be that kind of average,... but still far from

 

[Sea Turtle]

As I said earlier this week Ian Book is not the problem-so now he must be Joe Montana for 4 more games without a running attack-Kelly is coaching his *@$ off trying to get blood out of a stone-sometimes I just don't get our fan base-for my $$$$ that was a balls out big win for a team that is not elite by any means but Notre Dame proud.

I get what you're saying but why don't we have a running game? We don't have elite backs. We should but don't. But even then, we do recruit elite at the o line and tight end positions. We shouldn't need NFL starting caliber backs to run the ball effectively. Indiana is pounding the rock against Big Ten teams with a guy named Stevie Scott lll.
And why after 10 years is Kelly not able to get a QB to play well for more than 8 games with countless prospects from 3 star to 5 star rankings?
We don't have elite receivers but I don't see us running crossing routs, rub routs or any schemes to get guys open. I also don't see us ever moving the pocket or doing anything quick hitting whenever Michigan decided to run a jail break on every freaking play.

 

[Crazy Balki]

I just don't get our fan base

Kelly is coaching his *@$ off trying to get blood out of a stone-sometimes

You answered your own question.

I have a question, WHY is Kelly having to coach his ass off trying to get blood out of a stone? Why has it come to that? It's his program, his roster and his coordinators.

Any situation where he's forced to "get blood out of a stone" is almost entirely on him. There have been injuries, but that is not why this offense is so ineffective. It's having to rely on Tony Jones and virtually no one else to establish some semblance of a running game. It's the fact that Ian Book appears to be the only quasi-competent QB on roster. It's the fact that our OL depth is so abysmal that one injury appears to have affected them immensely.

Pretty much every captain, that he chose, has been a disappointment this year.

The win was gutsy, I'll give them that, but that's about it.

Keep in mind, that VT had given up 35 or more points to every single Power 5 opponent they had played to date (35 v. BC, 45 v. Duke, 35 v. Miami, 41 v. UNC) until yesterday. And those aren't good offenses they're playing either.

I'd be more forgiving of this kind of performance, but this has been the story of the year practically every game minus New Mexico and Bowling Green.

 

[NDdomer2]

Didn’t see a thread up here yet.

A few observations from the stands:

1. Playcalling was bad all around. Long has these little moments where he calls a great play and the rest are fart noises
2. Wtf was up with our defensive alignments and personnel groupings. We often had 5 down linemen and 3 DBs with Crawford as the single high safety. On the last drive, Jamir Jones was dropping into coverage as the 5th lineman. That makes zero fucking sense. Lea called a good game but those things make no sense.
3. For as much as we rag in Book (and he deserves a lot of it), the receivers just mailed it in on a lot of routes. They don’t break it off and help him during a scramble. But I couldn’t tell if they were lazy or had no faith in Book to keep his eyes up field. Either way it’s a problem.
4. The goal line fumble changed the endures game. It was a 14 point swing that changes VT’s playcalling in the second half.

Chip Long is def. Jekyl and Hyde with play calling.

From my view in section 3, the receivers absolutely do not scramble drill, they stand and box out.

I think Books biggest issue is he will not throw ball until he sees receiver open after the break in route. Little to no anticipating. I think we also saw why we don't try and stretch the field very often.

There were definitely a lot of personnel missing. I haven't heard about any injuries really tho. Maybe someone can provide some updates.

Is it just me or are the CB's significantly regressing?

I thought we could have had some longer runs broke off but some real poor blocking.

I will say the team showed some moxie in hanging in there and fighting back.

 

[ulukinatme]

The WR group as a position needs to step it up. We have a lack of consistent offensive weapons. The few times Book actually stayed in the pocket and had all day to throw, there was no one open.

Long needs to go. Give Kelly playcalling abilities for the rest of the season.

We need to go hurry up more often! It reduces the number of adjustments needed and it allowed Book to get into rhythm a bit. Keeps the defense more honest too.

 

[Irish YJ]

I get what you're saying but why don't we have a running game? We don't have elite backs. We should but don't. But even then, we do recruit elite at the o line and tight end positions. We shouldn't need NFL starting caliber backs to run the ball effectively. Indiana is pounding the rock against Big Ten teams with a guy named Stevie Scott lll.
And why after 10 years is Kelly not able to get a QB to play well for more than 8 games with countless prospects from 3 star to 5 star rankings?
We don't have elite receivers but I don't see us running crossing routs, rub routs or any schemes to get guys open. I also don't see us ever moving the pocket or doing anything quick hitting whenever Michigan decided to run a jail break on every freaking play.
Michigan shouldn't

The OL is not performing at a high level either. We've had some great OLs that made mediocre and good RBs look great. We haven't had that for a few years. A couple articles called out run blocking the past two weeks. I love it when I hear folks tell me, well, but we're good at pass blocking,.... I don't see that either... We recruit with the best in this area so it's an area we should clearly be in the top 10 in stats instead of outside the top 50...

 

[Crazy Balki]

The OL is not performing at a high level either. We've had some great OLs that made mediocre and good RBs look great. We haven't had that for a few years. A couple articles called out run blocking the past two weeks. I love it when I hear folks tell me, well, but we're good at pass blocking,.... I don't see that either... We recruit with the best in this area so it's an area we should clearly be in the top 10 in stats instead of outside the top 50...

Well, Adams, Prosise and Williams are all far more threatening backs than Tony Jones or Jafar Armstrong. They simply do not possess the threat of housing a run. That's a major problem.

ND's offense is severely limited in making plays past 15 yards. Both running and passing.

We saw what that entails vs. Michigan. A defense that could play with their ears pinned back and commit almost everybody to going downhill. ND had neither the speed to attack outside nor the ability to attack deep.

That makes an OL's job all that much more difficult, because numbers become an issue. Michigan had 8 or 9 in the box constantly.

Against VT, you already lost Kraemer and then Hainsey went out. I'd say those were the two best OL so far and they're out. Doesn't help that ND's depth on the OL has been horrendous this year.

 

[Blaise]

We won... I don't care about point spreads or any of that non sense. I care if we win and we won..

With that being said.. CHip Long's playcalling OR Ian Book's decision making on that final drive was mind boogling...

Play action with no time outs, Throwing a 1 yard pass to Finke? (Luckily it was dropped)

The UCLA win in 2006 was a thing of beauty as far as play calling on the final drive. Yesterday feel like they lucked into the TD more than we went out and took it

 

[NDRock]

Well, Adams, Prosise and Williams are all far more threatening backs than Tony Jones or Jafar Armstrong. They simply do not possess the threat of housing a run. That's a major problem.

ND's offense is severely limited in making plays past 15 yards. Both running and passing.

We saw what that entails vs. Michigan. A defense that could play with their ears pinned back and commit almost everybody to going downhill. ND had neither the speed to attack outside nor the ability to attack deep.

That makes an OL's job all that much more difficult, because numbers become an issue. Michigan had 8 or 9 in the box constantly.

Against VT, you already lost Kraemer and then Hainsey went out. I'd say those were the two best OL so far and they're out. Doesn't help that ND's depth on the OL has been horrendous this year.

Pretty much sums it up right there. This offense has to dink and dunk its way down the field which isn't how you win in college football. Heck, it's what our defense tries to get opposing offenses to do.

 

[NDOM]

Every single coach sucks plain and simple!!! From day #1 I have hated the Brian Kelly hire. And I have hated everyone he has hired to be an assistant. We can't do better than Tommy Reese for a quarterback coach???

This team is NOT a top 25 team. I would put them more in the 35-40 category.

We play down to competition. See ball state and Vanderbilt last year and Virginia Tech this year. This was a team we were supposed to beat by 17.5!

Not trying to sound racist here but the team has WAY too many white kids playing. Sorry but 70% of white athletes are nowhere near as athletic as black athletes. That's a fact!

Also a fact is Notre Dame will NEVER EVER win another National Championship until they lower academic expectations/standards and we all know this will never happen. This roster and the rosters of the past are 85% 3 star athletes. Let's just get used to this.

Notre Dame will continue to be just an ok football team with a good run from time to time only to get smoked in a bowl game or against a better opponent. We are a joke and nobody takes us seriously and I know why!

This is a game we were lucky to win. Dont get me wrong....I love my Irish. I have been a fan since before the Lou Holtz era. It has been an emotional roller coaster ever since Lou left.

Until we lower academic standards, hire a coach and assistants that are actually good and start recruiting 4 and 5 star guys, this team will continue to be a 8-4, 9-3 or a 10-2 football team.

 

[Henges24]

Claypool is an F’ing God. He’s playing himself into a 2nd/3rd round pick, IMO. It’s a shame he doesn’t have a QB to show his true deep threat ability. I think McKinley has shown promise too - again, no QB to utilize these guys. Armstrong running dudes over is fun to watch. Hang onto the ball, kid.

Disappointed in the use of Lenzy. He has shown he can beat you with speed and we continue to use Finke in those situations. Finke isn’t fast and he’s far from reliable this year.

 

[NDRock]

Every single coach sucks plain and simple!!! From day #1 I have hated the Brian Kelly hire. And I have hated everyone he has hired to be an assistant. We can't do better than Tommy Reese for a quarterback coach???

This team is NOT a top 25 team. I would put them more in the 35-40 category.

We play down to competition. See ball state and Vanderbilt last year and Virginia Tech this year. This was a team we were supposed to beat by 17.5!

Not trying to sound racist here but the team has WAY too many white kids playing. Sorry but 70% of white athletes are nowhere near as athletic as black athletes. That's a fact!

Also a fact is Notre Dame will NEVER EVER win another National Championship until they lower academic expectations/standards and we all know this will never happen. This roster and the rosters of the past are 85% 3 star athletes. Let's just get used to this.

Notre Dame will continue to be just an ok football team with a good run from time to time only to get smoked in a bowl game or against a better opponent. We are a joke and nobody takes us seriously and I know why!

This is a game we were lucky to win. Dont get me wrong....I love my Irish. I have been a fan since before the Lou Holtz era. It has been an emotional roller coaster ever since Lou left.

Until we lower academic standards, hire a coach and assistants that are actually good and start recruiting 4 and 5 star guys, this team will continue to be a 8-4, 9-3 or a 10-2 football team.

Not a lot of accuracy of this post. Almost like we didn't go 12-0 last year. As far as recruiting, here is a breakdown of our team and other teams this year.

https://247sports.com/Season/2019-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite/

 

[stlnd01]

Every single coach sucks plain and simple!!! From day #1 I have hated the Brian Kelly hire. And I have hated everyone he has hired to be an assistant. We can't do better than Tommy Reese for a quarterback coach???

This team is NOT a top 25 team. I would put them more in the 35-40 category.

We play down to competition. See ball state and Vanderbilt last year and Virginia Tech this year. This was a team we were supposed to beat by 17.5!

Not trying to sound racist here but the team has WAY too many white kids playing. Sorry but 70% of white athletes are nowhere near as athletic as black athletes. That's a fact!

Also a fact is Notre Dame will NEVER EVER win another National Championship until they lower academic expectations/standards and we all know this will never happen. This roster and the rosters of the past are 85% 3 star athletes. Let's just get used to this.

Notre Dame will continue to be just an ok football team with a good run from time to time only to get smoked in a bowl game or against a better opponent. We are a joke and nobody takes us seriously and I know why!

This is a game we were lucky to win. Dont get me wrong....I love my Irish. I have been a fan since before the Lou Holtz era. It has been an emotional roller coaster ever since Lou left.

Until we lower academic standards, hire a coach and assistants that are actually good and start recruiting 4 and 5 star guys, this team will continue to be a 8-4, 9-3 or a 10-2 football team.

It's been a long 25 years for you, huh?

 

[NDOM]

Not a lot of accuracy of this post. Almost like we didn't go 12-0 last year. As far as recruiting, here is a breakdown of our team and other teams this year.

https://247sports.com/Season/2019-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite/

I was meaning on average. According to your link we only have 1 5 star player while Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Lsu has on average more than 10. That's a problem!

Oh and according to your link Michigan has 5 5 star players...that's another problem.

Yes we went 12-0 last year but keep in mind we barely escaped 3 or 4 mediocre teams during the season not to mention we got throttled in the playoff.

 

[NDOM]

It's been a long 25 years for you, huh?

Hell yes!!! lol been a fan since 1980

 

[stlnd01]

The OL is not performing at a high level either. We've had some great OLs that made mediocre and good RBs look great. We haven't had that for a few years. A couple articles called out run blocking the past two weeks. I love it when I hear folks tell me, well, but we're good at pass blocking,.... I don't see that either... We recruit with the best in this area so it's an area we should clearly be in the top 10 in stats instead of outside the top 50...

I thought the OL was playing pretty well this year until last week. Then Michigan came for it, and had the athletes to do so, and Kraemer got hurt. And then Va. Tech did the same, with their own pretty decent stable of front seven players, and now Hainsey's hurt. I haven't watched a ton of Stanford or BC this year but they usually have stout front sevens and that's worrisome.

So now we really need a QB who can spread the field to open up any running game at all. And we know how that goes...

Plus, Jafar is just not an RB1. He doesn't have the instincts, or the moves, for running between the tackles. I love him for 10 touches a game, around the edge or in space - that screen pass he took for 30 yesterday was a thing of beauty. But we need either Jones or Smith as our every down back carrying the rock in the middle. And, ideally, someone faster than either of them doing so next year.

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

Claypool is an F’ing God. He’s playing himself into a 2nd/3rd round pick, IMO. It’s a shame he doesn’t have a QB to show his true deep threat ability. I think McKinley has shown promise too - again, no QB to utilize these guys. Armstrong running dudes over is fun to watch. Hang onto the ball, kid.

Disappointed in the use of Lenzy. He has shown he can beat you with speed and we continue to use Finke in those situations. Finke isn’t fast and he’s far from reliable this year.

I don't know. I love Claypool, but think he'll be blanketed on the next level. He gets zero separation. imo, he'll need to be used in an H-back/TE role for a real chance at success.

McKinley has yet to make an uncontested catch. They both lack top end speed.

 

[Irish#1]

Like it or not, this team had a hangover from last week. As much as we’d like them to simply toss it aside, they are human and there is a lot of emotion involved. Like your girlfriend breaking up with you, it takes more than a week to get over it. Look at this win as that first date after the break up. You really didn’t want to go and in the end you had a pretty good time.

This isn’t a great team, but an average team wouldn’t have found a way to win.

On getting rid of Kelly and academic standards. You don’t think Kelly would have a better record if he didn’t have the restrictions?

Also, I’ve asked this before but nobody answered. How do you know Rees isn’t a good coach?

 

[Luckylucci]

Way late but love it! I came to the conclusion with a buddy who’s not an ND fan that I should enjoy the W’s. And that’s what I’m going to do. It was ugly. The offense is a mess. We should be able to sustain drives and we can’t. And I don’t give a shit.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

Didn’t see a thread up here yet.

A few observations from the stands:

1. Playcalling was bad all around. Long has these little moments where he calls a great play and the rest are fart noises
2. Wtf was up with our defensive alignments and personnel groupings. We often had 5 down linemen and 3 DBs with Crawford as the single high safety. On the last drive, Jamir Jones was dropping into coverage as the 5th lineman. That makes zero fucking sense. Lea called a good game but those things make no sense.
3. For as much as we rag in Book (and he deserves a lot of it), the receivers just mailed it in on a lot of routes. They don’t break it off and help him during a scramble. But I couldn’t tell if they were lazy or had no faith in Book to keep his eyes up field. Either way it’s a problem.
4. The goal line fumble changed the endures game. It was a 14 point swing that changes VT’s playcalling in the second half.

All your four points stem from inadequate QB play. If the other team knows your QB will not stay in the pocket and is a one read QB, their defense will play like the 85 Bears. When your offense cannot move the ball, your defense that many acknowledge has substantial holes in the front seven will get exposed. When exposed, you try anything. If your QB is a one read and run and NEVER has shown the capacity to pass on the run, don’t blame the receivers. The fumble was VATech making a play. We should have had a decent cushion to offset that.

So it is Book’s fault? No, Book is playing to his abilities. The blame must go to the OC and Head Coach. Week after week they observed Book making the same reads, same decisions, and same mistakes and their approach has not changed. You might think they may try to prep the backup as a contingency. Develop a package for the backup to come in and spell Book. The notion that your backup after a year and a half into the program is not ready for any meaningful time is a damning statement of the Kelly’s “Program”, “Process”, or “next man in” schtick.

 

[Dizzyphil]

I think I have figured out this board:


Beginning of year statements - paraphrasing of course;


If we go 10-2 / 9-3 I will be happy


The two games I'm worried about the most is the Dawgs and Michigan - (well, guess what)



We do not have a good receiving core this year, hopefully Finke will step it up since he's a Captain, Claypool will be money but I don't think Lenzy is ready yet.



Our O-Line will be mediocre at best with the last two years of losing 4 great linemen


We need LBs badly - this year's may be the greenest in a while, but our D-Line should be good and DBs outstanding.



Book should improve under Rees - we'll see but he will either be just as good or regress a bit as usual......




Kmet, Young and Vaughn (played) were out in the beginning of the year, the Irish have since lost Hainsey, Kraemer, Hayes, and Austin (non-injury). Not to mention Jones Jr. has had some minor issues and a few other key spots.




And here the Irish are, right where many/some expected with Duke, Navy, BC and Stanford left over. They may be close, they may be blowouts....


Complain, complain, complain about coaching and calls and I have seen drops, loading the box against the run... it's later in the year so there is more film to study against the team so games tend to be closer; especially for those that want revenge or come out with their best to beat the Irish, on Irish turf - basically their 'Super Bowl'...



Fromm from Georgia, when asked what has been some of his best times since joining the team in a one-on-one with Todd Blackledge said he can't wait to be able to tell his grandkids how he beat ND on their turf.


Some here talk about ugly wins but I am 53 years old.... some here probably didn't know that ND championship year in '88, they scored 1 yes that is a 1, offensive TD until the 2nd game of the year in the 3rd quarter... and that 1 touchdown was the total for the first two games vs Michigan and Michigan State respectively. Very 'ugly' wins.




So for the record, I was thrilled to see the comeback - showed character, poise, and determination. No games are played on paper.... regardless how VT won or lost their prior games before going to the Irish stadium.




Ok - off my soapbox.... sorry fellas, just love Thee Irish !!
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[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

Not a lot of accuracy of this post. Almost like we didn't go 12-0 last year. As far as recruiting, here is a breakdown of our team and other teams this year.

https://247sports.com/Season/2019-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite/

Notice any trends in that offense list? Notre Dame has ONE 5* and everyone above them has way more. Bottomline, we aren't gonna compete until we get some studs on this team. That list indicates we are the 14th most talent laden team in the country, and we get curbstomped by Michigan? And almost lose to Va Tech? The talent is there, the list proves that. Wish there was a list to show coaching adequacy -or lack thereof-.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

I think I have figured out this board:


Beginning of year statements - paraphrasing of course;


If we go 10-2 / 9-3 I will be happy


The two games I'm worried about the most is the Dawgs and Michigan - (well, guess what)



We do not have a good receiving core this year, hopefully Finke will step it up since he's a Captain, Claypool will be money but I don't think Lenzy is ready yet.



Our O-Line will be mediocre at best with the last two years of losing 4 great linemen


We need LBs badly - this year's may be the greenest in a while, but our D-Line should be good and DBs outstanding.



Book should improve under Rees - we'll see but he will either be just as good or regress a bit as usual......




Kmet, Young and Vaughn (played) were out in the beginning of the year, the Irish have since lost Hainsey, Kraemer, Hayes, and Austin (non-injury). Not to mention Jones Jr. has had some minor issues and a few other key spots.




And here the Irish are, right where many/some expected with Duke, Navy, BC and Stanford left over. They may be close, they may be blowouts....


Complain, complain, complain about coaching and calls and I have seen drops, loading the box against the run... it's later in the year so there is more film to study against the team so games tend to be closer; especially for those that want revenge or come out with their best to beat the Irish, on Irish turf - basically their 'Super Bowl'...



Fromm from Georgia, when asked what has been some of his best times since joining the team in a one-on-one with Todd Blackledge said he can't wait to be able to tell his grandkids how he beat ND on their turf.


Some here talk about ugly wins but I am 53 years old.... some here probably didn't know that ND championship year in '88, they scored 1 yes that is a 1, offensive TD until the 2nd game of the year in the 3rd quarter... and that 1 touchdown was the total for the first two games vs Michigan and Michigan State respectively. Very 'ugly' wins.




So for the record, I was thrilled to see the comeback - showed character, poise, and determination. No games are played on paper.... regardless how VT won or lost their prior games before going to the Irish stadium.




Ok - off my soapbox.... sorry fellas, just love Thee Irish !!
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Very well said.


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[fightingirish26]

I don't know. I love Claypool, but think he'll be blanketed on the next level. He gets zero separation. imo, he'll need to be used in an H-back/TE role for a real chance at success.

McKinley has yet to make an uncontested catch. They both lack top end speed.

I don't know if he's NFL quality at WR, but I didn't think Boykin was either. He's still an absolute stud on ST and honestly, I could see an NFL team converting him to defense full time.