The Sound of Running Feet for the Exit

Hear that?!

It’s the running of Notre Dame’s 2011 football recruits scared feet, high-tailing it for other opportunities. Mostly away from what appears to be a Football Program in freefall.

We are down from 20 to 17 recruits and it is expected others will follow and no one sane will jump on board now after the fiasco Saturday.

The head scratching, mind numbing, bonehead call play with 45 seconds left in the game probably will be the final straw for the so called class of 2014.

You be the Notre Dame head coach, yeah come on you can do it, no experience necessary:

Trailing 28-27 with 45 seconds left on the clock. You are sitting at the Tulsa 19 yard line between the hash marks. Third down, one time out left, with a Groza semifinalist sitting the bench, 18 for 18 in field goals. What do you do? Well of course, order up a pass into the end zone to the perennial double-teamed Michael Floyd. What have you got to lose?

Just the game.

Ten Burning Questions About Notre Dame Football

1.  Are enough prayers being offered to Our Lady to get us out of this fix?

2.  Is the medical staff being paid by salary or the number of patients they treat?

3.  What other way can the Team figure out how to lose?

4.  Does Brian Kelly ever get hoarse?

5.  If Manti Te’o didn’t overrun half the plays would he have 100% of the tackles?

6.  Can anyone relate to what Tommy Rees is going through right now?

7.  The Team has two weeks to get out of the tank and prepare for what obviously is their Bowl Game.

8.  Do the trainers have enough crutches and boots?

9.  Can anyone other than Charlie Weis and Brian Kelly relate to what Brian Kelly is going through right now?

10.  Is there anyone else still on the bandwagon besides me?

7-5, 6-6, 5-7 ??

Yes, it’s a given, the Notre Dame Football season is tanked. Not quite as bad as the morons over at NDNation would have you believe, but trashed and broken just the same. No one is jumping out of basement windows or cutting their wrists with dull butter knives yet, we still have four games to go in a season that started out with such high expectations.

Many are walking around the now quite battlefield and bayoneting the wounded.

The Fighting Irish have not gotten any breaks. Be it injuries, some questionable referee calls, turnovers, bonehead play calling or drive-killing penalties. You can’t judge heart, desire, determination, love of the game, team loyalty, toughness, and all the other adjectives that make up a winning football program from a television set in the comfort of your living room. You have to be at practice, stand in the corner of the locker room and judge with your gut. So we shall leave all that to other pundits and experts.

We are not convinced that Dayne Crist can run a Kelly type offense anymore than Ron Powlus could run a Holtz-Davie offense. But we’ll leave that too for the experts.

Our arm chair (actually a LazyBoy) take is quite simple: NO OFFENSIVE LINE.

We back that up with two statistics through eight games.

Number of sacks allowed: 16 ranked 65th.

Rushing offense: 112.13 yards per game ranked 98th.

We at Subway Alumni Station are not convinced that Notre Dame can beat Tulsa, thus we are going with 5-7 to finish the season.

Navy Victory Notre Dame Fleet and Season Destroyed

I had just purchased a new 42” plasma TV and was afraid I would launch the remote through the screen so I turned off the Notre Dame – Navy game when it was 35 -10.  Father forgive me.

Here Comes The United State Navy

I like the Naval Academy and the midshipmen, I really do. In fact, just this spring I visited Annapolis for the first time with my wife and three kids who we were babysitting for the day. That completed my personal sweep of visiting all three military academies, sorry Coast Guard, you do not qualify.

Now naval officers are something else. Worked in a Joint Command for three years and got to know a bunch of swabbies and basically thought them arrogant, especially a certain three-star admiral.

If I was told once, I was reminded a 100 times, the United States Navy can fight a war all by itself thank you very much. It has its very own ground fighting force in the Marines, its own ship launched air force, and of course a bunch of ships to float around in.

Let’s move on before I really get started.

Navy The Football Team:

As in the past, Navy uses the passing game after they have scared you to death with the triple option and lulled the safeties and corners to sleep. Then they throw a mid-range pass or two. They have a 50-50 of success. Navy is 39 of 78 with four TD’s and for INT’s. Needless to say, they rank 117 out of 120 in passing.

Navy ranks 7th in the turn-over category. Recovered nine fumbles and made four interceptions while only putting the ball on the grass twice along with those four interceptions. That number 2 is huge considering how much the quarterback flips and tosses the ball to the trailing back.

Rushing, Navy is where you’d expect them to be, 9th, averaging 259 yards per game.

Total defense is a respectable 27th compared to Notre Dame’s hot and cold defense at 82nd.

Alexander Teich in six games has returned kick-offs 15 times for 395 yards and a 26.33 average, which ranks him 32nd. No Notre Dame Player shows up in the top 50 individual returners in NCAA statistics.

Gary Myers made the top fifty in punt returns (48th) averaging an anemic 7.39 yards per return. What am I saying? Notre Dame has only returned 8 of 45 punts and Goodman nor Allen show up in the statistics.

Navy has allowed 7 QB sacks, Notre Dame 15.  Of course you had to catch him first.

Another typical Navy statistic, in six games they have been penalized 27 times for an average of 37 yards. While Notre Dame started out with few penalties, they now after 7 games have 36, averaging 48 yards per game.

It will be interesting to see if Kelly wins the toss and elects to take the ball with all injuries to his skill players.

BTW, Jonas Gray is listed as probable with a sprained knee. Guess that’s why he didn’t play last week.

Gee, with Michael Floyd struggling through a hamstring injury, Kyle Rudolph out of the year, Theo Riddick walking around with an ankle cast and Armando Allen with his hip flexor, the receiving corps is down to those Next in Guys that Coach Kelly keeps talking about. Where is Shaquelle Evans when you need him?
For that matter will Duval Kamara show up?

I fear a nail biter.

The Cut Block or Chop Block

This Saturday, Notre Dame will again face Navy, the triple option and the infamous cut block.
The cut block is basically the same as the chop block and in many coaching circles it is considered a dangerous block that can cause serious injury to the knee and ankle.

Years ago I remember Lou Holtz ranting and raving against Air Force for cut blocks which he considered illegal.

Here’s some good info:

Cut blocks are legal mainly in the open field. This allows the defensive player an opportunity to avoid or hurdle the block. The main area in which a cut block is not legal is in the trenches at the line of scrimmage.
Now, it's obviously very easy for an offensive lineman to make a block on a defensive lineman by chopping him at the line of scrimmage. But with the amount of injuries that have occurred over the years from cut blocks, rules have changed making the cut block at the line of scrimmage illegal and will result in a penalty.

Cut blocks are also illegal to perform against a player that is already engaged in a block with another player. Meaning, if I'm a wide receiver or offensive lineman or running and I’m looking to make a block for someone, I can not intentionally go at the feet of a defender who is already being blocked.

Most triple option teams employ the cut block out of necessity because of lineman size differential and inability to go toe-to-toe with superior size and strength. Defensive ends, linebackers, and laterally pursuing linemen are the likely targets. Although safeties and cornerbacks had better be prepared like good boy scouts. The option is ideal for cut blocking since it is moving away from the line of scrimmage and into the open field.

Of course we all remember the debacle last year: Navy 23 –Notre Dame 21. It was the undoing of Charlie Weis and the unraveling of Corwin Brown. It’s also when I fell or jumped off the Weis band wagon. Anyway, Corwin worked with the defense along with John Tenuta, both had goofy titles to confuse the fact that Weis couldn’t make up his mind on a defensive coordinator or a defensive scheme.

So, after the embarrassing loss, Brown took it upon himself to call Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo and complain bitterly about his boys being blocked by cheap cut blocking that endangered his players safety and well being. Niumatalolo wrote it off as sour grapes and Weis jumped all over Brown for going over his head.

So we shall see. It was interesting that Kelly recently revealed that Notre Dame has been spending 20 minutes at practice all year preparing for Navy and Army who employ the triple option and cut block when necessary.

Go IRISH Torpedo Navy!

Don’t forget to add us to your favorites list: http://subwayalumnistation.blogspot.com

Notre Dame versus Western Michigan University -- Opportunities Galore

The Fighting Irish first have to overcome the stigma and bad ju ju of being 23+ point favorites over the Broncos.

Secondly, they must contend with a nothing to lose, upset minded, trick-play happy Team that can cause problems especially if ND is flat and decides NOT to put WMU away.

Opportunities Galore

** Rest injured running back Armando Allen.

** Rest injured right tackle Taylor Dever

** Get tight end Mike Ragone into the mix early and often.

** Build a lead and send in quarterback Tommy Rees and a play package set.

** Use a four wide-out set without a tight end with Floyd, Riddick, Goodman, and Jones.

**  Let kick returner Theo Riddick have a go at a return.

** Get Cierre Wood on the field and out of his funk.

** Build a lead and get more players on the field.

What did we miss?

Blogger Note:  Western Michigan is my almer and mater. 

Pass the Salt Please

Well it’s not often here at Subway Alumni Station (SAS) that we eat crow.

We had a little fun with Coach Brian Kelly before the season here.

The below picture was taken during the Pitt game. Wow. Way to go coach! Go IRISH!

A Notre Dame Amateur Assessment at the Mid-Point in the Season

Three and Three, the football season’s half over for the IRISH, who’d have guessed? A murderer’s row of a start, a little luck that’s been missing for years and it should be 5-1 for Notre Dame.

What’s gone right? What’s turned to cow pies? What’s to look forward to in the last six games and a possible bowl bid?

Gone Right.

A tenacious DEFENSE, long play mistake prone but won’t quit. Gang-tackling with a vengeance and is learning fast.

A field goal kicker that has been sorely missed during the Weis Era.

A punter who is getting better and more consistent.

A quarterback growing up fast.

Punt coverage.

Kick-off coverage.

Cow Pies.

Punt returns.

Kick-off returns.

A hot and cold offensive line. Who will show up Saturday to block against WMU?

A bevy and stocked troupe of running backs that has turned into a committee of one.

Some head-scratching offensive play calling, use of time-outs and exercise of the challenge.

Drive-killing dropped passes and penalties.

A game plan that didn’t work against a certain quarterback from Ann Arbor.

Disappointment in one All-American receiver.

An all season nagging injury and now season ending for one for an All-American receiver.

Look Forward.

A quarterback that’s only going to get better.

A beatable USC.

A big challenge with Utah.

Is the current Irish coaching staff smarter that the previous regime in defending against the option-wishbone of Navy?

A field goal kicker who by the law of averages is going to fail.

A kick-off and a punt return for touchdowns long overdue. Again,  because of the law of averages.

An offensive line that will shine against the four cupcakes on the schedule.

A receiving corps that will step up to the plate for the last seven games.

Learning how NOT to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

BLOGGER NOTE: The lag in reporting was due to a six-month relocation to Florida for the winter. Obtaining internet access and setting up the subway station took longer than expected. Go IRISH.

Notre Dame vs. Boston College Prediction

Remember our favorite Russian Spy? Look here.

Well Anastasis Kushchencko put this one in the win column.

Of course she got Michigan and Michigan State wrong.

Comments anyone?