Is 8-4 Better Than 7-5?

If you say Yes, then you have to agree that the Irish have improved over last year and that the Football Program is headed in the right direction?  It sure is a mixed bag and a vexing question with no easy answers.

It appears that Head Coach Brian Kelly cannot escape a quarterback controversy.  Who will start in the Bowl Game?  Will spring training be an open quarterback competition?  It is pretty much assured that Dayne Crist barring any quarterback injuries in the above assumed Bowl Game is finished playing football for Notre Dame.  What about recruit Gunner Kiel on the outside looking in?  He has to be pleased with what he sees as a great opportunity to play for the Irish.  One he did not anticipate when he erred in verbally committing to Indiana early this fall.  I blame Jimmy Clausen.  If Jimmy had not performed his ill-timed jump to the NFL and stuck around to play for Kelly, none of this would have happened.  What if Golden Tate had said, yeah, I’m going to stick around too.

Oh well, this quarterback business will keep all the message boards and media in speculation fodder until the starting quarterback is announced next fall.

Wow.  I never thought I would miss Braxton Cave and Jonas Gray.  Those two injuries hurt more than all the other player injuries combined this year.  Their play against Stanford was sorely missed.

A lot of folks complained about Notre Dame Stadium’s natural grass this year and at times it was pretty bad.  However it played like the 18^th fairway at Augusta National compared to the embarrassment Stanford calls a football field.  Talk about home field advantage.  They knew better than to cut and weave and instead tried to run North and South.  The Irish never did figure that out.

I guess a less than 100% Theo Riddick was better than a 100% George Atkinson III.  George went missing from the Irish backfield.  Kelly had said GAIII and Cam McDaniel would see playing time spelling Cierre Wood.  Riddick looked as if he was still favoring the hamstring injury. 

Looking at Andrew Luck’s statistics and play, I’d say once again, Notre Dame has unintentionally helped a Heisman Trophy Winner clinch the award.

People living in glass houses don’t throw stones.  Although the Irish ran on the field twice this year sporting some unusual uniforms and helmets, at least they didn’t have small, tiny names on the back.  Stanford should start a tradition and save those "All Cardinal" colored uniforms and black helmets for “worthy opponents”.  Maybe someday we will be worthy enough for Stanford to wear them against us.

This being the 12^th and final regularly scheduled game of season last night and listening to all the Kelly bashing, I would have to say the Team let Kelly and his staff down by their play against Stanford.  Sure this year you can talk about some of his decisions at playing which quarterback, throwing some players under the bus after USC, ranting on the sidelines, and refusing to correct the punt return game.  But against Stanford, a lot of players had games they wished they could replay.  If you watched the game you know what I mean.

Well here at Subway Alumni Station, we are the first in yelling:

Go IRISH BEAT FSU.

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Black Friday Odds and Ends

No way in hell am I venturing out shopping or getting in traffic with crazed drivers bent on a bargain.

Got involved with a movie and forgot all about the Texas and T A&M shootout Turkey night.  No big deal, all those state of Texas fans kind of remind me of Black Friday Shoppers anyway.  What did strike me funny as I read the paper was the fact that the rivalry will end this year with A&M going to the SEC.  Texas gave the answer that their future schedules are full through 2018.  I googled up the Texas football web site and checked out their future schedules and noticed two things.  They have already included Notre Dame in 2015 and 2016.  They still show playing A&M the last game of the season as usual year after year.  So who did Texas add?  They had better update their schedules as it looks to me as sour grapes by Texas and the Big 12 against A&M.

Here’s hoping the Irish do not turn the ball over Saturday.  If they are lucky enough to get a turnover from Stanford, they had better convert it into a touchdown.  The Tree does not give up many gift horses.

Well down here in Florida, the media has finally picked up on the Urban Meyer rumors of him going to Tattoo U and coach football.  Yeah, what did happen to spending quality time with the family and his mysterious illness?  Hmmmm.  One coach gets well (Meyer) and another gets treatable lung cancer (Paterno).  You got to wonder eh?  Wonder how many Irish fans still want a coach that leaves a program in a talent decline but claims burnout, family concerns, health.  If he’s done that once would he do it at Notre Dame?

I think every Irish fan realizes that our Team is better than 8-3.  Could we make it 9-3 and then 10-3? Would that be a successful season?  How about losses to Stanford and probably a FSU in Orlando.     8-5, same as last season.  Would that be considered successful?  No improvement even with a tougher schedule?  A step back?  It will be fun and interesting to see how this plays out.

A number of pundits say we should be 10-1 right now except for two fumbles (Jonas Gray and Dayne Crist).  A group of Brian Kelly haters blame him for Gray’s fumble against USF [Need to teach runners how to carry the football] and Crist’s fumble against UM, [Should have put Hendrix in, stupid play to call].  I have a difficult time blaming Kelly.  My only complaint against him was the call for a freshman quarterback to pass instead of taking the field goal against Tulsa.

After some discussion here at The Station we have decided to pull the plug on “Gipper’s Blackboard” after the Stanford game.  We started it up just before the start of the season and have 26 posts, 20 by me.  We only signed up 14 members and only three chipped in now and then.  Pretty dismal.  Thanks Tulsairish, Grim Jack, and Kreyfish34 for your support.

Getting back to the bitchers and Kelly bashers.  I sometime suspect they would be out for Knute Rockne’s head after his first year at Notre Dame (1918, 3-1-2 record).  Or Frank Leahy’s 1950 season going 4-4-1 after winning the NC in 1949 with a 10-0-0.  It is starting to get tedious reading their rants and not worth the cheap entertainment anymore.

Talk about dismal.  Take a look at the injury list on the left side of the Blog.  And that's just what we can gleem from stories and tweets.

Here is something nice from the South Bend Tribune.  Geat story.  Read it here.
 

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and gave some time to give true thanks.

Go IRISH, Beat the Cardinal (or is it Tree)?
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Brian Kelly Pulling a Hare Out of His Bonnet

Head Notre Dame Football Coach Brian Kelly needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat.  Actually a number of rabbits.  Are there enough hiding in the hat and can Kelly figure out how to pull them out?  He must prepare the Team and game plan worthy of a true Notre Dame Football Coach.  An awful lot of Notre Dame Subway Alumni are watching, waiting and counting on him.

***  Who is going to backup Cierre Wood at tailback?  George Atkinson III or a hamstring gimpy Theo Riddick?  Who will pop out of the hat?

***  If quarterback Tommy Rees is unable to find receivers open when Stanford drops eight and even nine into coverage will he throw Picks, run slowly for his life, run to the sidelines, or throw the ball out of bounds?  Which course of action will come out of the hat?  What can Kelly do to prevent this from happening again?

***  Will Kelly pull Andrew Hendrix out of the hat to force the Stanford defense to play fair and defend the run?  While Rees has poise and game experience savvy he cannot throw deep, run well or make good decisions concerning slinging the ball into double coverage.

***  Will Kelly dig deep into the top hat and pull a “Leprechaun” series of plays involving Riddick or John Goodman taking snaps to help take pressure off Rees? 

***  Who will Kelly utilize to patch up a injury decimated Team and one that is also hobbled, sick, and lame?

***  Can he correct a kickoff problem in which the Irish defense is forced to defend from the 40 yard line.

***  An injured Jonas Gray made an emotional locker room speech after the Boston College game.  Will Kelly needs have Jonas speak to the Team in the visitor’s locker room at Stanford either before or at half time.  Quite a trick if he can pull it off.

A couple things are clear, Tommy Rees cannot play like he did against Boston College for the Irish to have a ghost of a chance. The Irish cannot come out flat like aginst USF or BC.  Not against Stanford.

Kelly needs to find a way to keep Stanford from doing what most teams lately have defensively thrown up against the Irish.  It has become fashionable on passing downs to drop seven, eight, and even nine defenders into coverage to blanket Kelly’s spread passing offense.  This is even more critical with the loss of Jonas Gray.

For the Irish, this game Saturday against Stanford is the closest they are going to get to a BCS game.  Kelly has a lot rabbits to pull out of his hat and the Team needs to dig down deep into a gut check and PLAY LIKE CHAMPIONS TODAY.

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Decisions That Are Coming Back To Haunt ND’s Brian Kelly

Special Teams Coaching

While the Irish have long given up in developing a punt return game, these two years in a row now of dismal performances are embarrassing.  

The kickoff aspect of special teams has faltered as well.  Against Boston College, Kyle Brindza winged one kick toward the sideline only to have a BC return guy snatch it before it went out of bounds.  Later Brindza would kick TWO out of bounds giving BC the ball at the 40 yard line.  Brindza has kicked off 66 times so far for a 65.3 net yard average, with FOUR OB’s and ten TB’s.  Looking at last year, David Ruffer kicked off 65 times for a 64.3 net yard average with two OB’s and ten TB’s.  So where is this great leg brought in early to improve the kicking game?  Better yet, where is the Special Teams coach to nurture it?  Hire one now.

Theo Riddick to WR

Theo flunked punt returns.  This year he has 34 receptions for 362 yards and 3 TD’s ranking him fourth on the team.  Robby Toma in very limited action has 15 receptions, almost halving Riddick’s total.  Riddick needs to be moved back to tailback where things are getting a little dicey.  See below.

Playing Time

Notre Dame has played four games that were basically over at half time. Purdue 38-10, AFA 59-33, Navy 56-14, MD 45-21.  You could even throw in MSU 31-13 to some extent.  So we are down to one tailback and how many game reps has George Atkinson III gotten?  9 for 23 yards.  Another freshman Cam McDaniel is 3 for 13 yards. 

At quarterback everyone has been waiting for Andrew Hendrix in the easy wins or even some time for Dayne Crist.  Hendrix has participated in the AFA, USC, and MD games.  Crist has been in the USF, Purdue, USC and Navy games.  If Tommy Rees goes down again, it will look like the Chinese fire drill during the USC debacle all over again. 

 
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Cam Roberson Update

Cameron Roberson - Tailback

We here at Subway Alumni Station try to stay abreast of injuries and status of rostered players.  You can check out what we know on the left side of the Blog.  If the Notre Dame Athletic Department would only grant us press credentials!!   Oh we could do such a much better job of keeping all you Subway Alumni informed on a variety of topics that the local media fail to report or are interested in writing about. 

Finally a reporter asked about Cam Roberson.  Remember him?  Cam a redshirt freshman starting his second year and spring training this 2011 eager to compete for tailback against Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray for playing time.  On the very first practice with full pads he goes down with what turns out to be a full LCL tear and a partial ACL tear.  Those are very bad knee injuries and bad juju.   

Just as a reminder, Cam ran for 1,452 yards on 226 carries and scored 18 touchdowns for Newbury Park CA in 2008.  He had 29 receptions for 279 yards and three more scores.  His best running game was 279 yards and he had two games of more than 200 yards rushing.

Reporter:  Cam Roberson we haven’t asked you about him for a while.  How is his rehab coming?

Coach KELLY:  It’s been a slow process and it will continue to be.  He’s moving around a little bit.  He’s not going to be able to practice this year for us, but certainly it’s a long, long road for him.

Wow.  We don’t claim any prizes for brilliance here at SAS, however reading between the lines and trying to decipher “coach speak” this is not good for Cam.

Two pieces of advice from someone who is not/has not walked in your moccasins Cam.

*** Give it everything you got to come back physically.

*** Get the best possible education you can out of NotreDame.

If anybody is passing by the Grotto, light a candle for Cam, say some prayers and send us the bill.

Hang in their Cam!

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If You Plan On Attending The Notre Dame vs. Boston College Game, November 19, 2012

IF

you are a diehard football traditionalist.

you like the look of natural grass.

you don’t like commercials mixed in with instant replays.

you don’t care to view advertisement signs and billboards for Sirius, Sprint, Coke, et al.

you don’t like blaring music and obnoxious PA system announcers.

you don’t need a wall of flashing lights telling you when to cheer, clap, stand, sit, or shut up.

THEN

take a good long look around Notre Dame Stadium, because change is in the wind.  Between hints and comments from Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick and Head Coach Brian Kelly all indications are that field turf and a Jumbotron are in the works.  It may be the last time you get to enjoy a football game the way Stagg, Rockne and all the rest saw it coached and played.  You saw or heard a taste of it at FEDEX Field last week and heard the beginning of it during the USC game.  Music, uniforms, wall of lights/video, plastic and rubber grass, it’s a coming.

Our feelings have been well documented here at Subway Alumni Station:

Read Traditionalism Here.

To steal from Margaret Mitchell, it appears that Notre Dame traditional football is gone with the wind.

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Sunday Morning Musings From Saturday Night

Moth Balls

They can wrap up the green jerseys, bright gold pants, flesh colored undershirts, and gaudy helmets until Soldiers Field and the Hurricanes next year.  If they store them with moth balls maybe no one will want to wear them.

Numbers

The Irish sell-out Notre Dame Stadium at 80,795 every home game.  This "home game" at FedEx Field was a different breed of Turtle.  91,704 seats to fill and they only could get 70,251 to show-up.  Does this “home game” go against the consecutive sell-out streak?

Hurry up already

The Irish offensive tempo was just super.  Guess Tommy Rees and the offense are starting to click.  He looked poised and in control.

Limited Duty

Manti Te’o started at ILB but was not very effective and was eventually pulled and replaced by sophomore Kendall Moore.  Manti had 4 tackles and at times appeared to be slowed and out of position by his ankle injury.  Moore ended up with 4 tackles himself and looked very good.

Fumble!!

George Atkinson III was credited with a fumble, his second or third returning kick-offs.

Spread the wealth

No one had more than six tackles on defense (Gary Gray and Danny Spond) and 7 different receivers caught passes.

Did not see action

DE Chase Hounshell nursing a shoulder injury although cleared to play did not get in the game.

One pain tolerant dud

DE Aaron Lynch hobbled with an ankle injury where in the Wake Forest game he limped-hopped off the field twice, limped off again in the Maryland game.  But once again Lynch came back in and harassed the quarterback and made 5 solo tackles.  To top it off he was held on almost every play.

Theo who?

Robby Toma getting his first start at WR had 7 catches for 73 yards in place of Theo Riddick who is sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Not fair

It was pretty clear that Notre Dame had the game well in hand and controlled the outcome early.  So why didn’t senior Dayne Crist see any playing time?  His last chance will be the Boston College this Saturday.  It’s senior game, Brian Kelly should start Crist.

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JoePa Memorial

In Memory of JoePa, PSU updated his statue outside the Stadium.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE VICTIM CHILDREN

Jonas Gray of Notre Dame

#25 Jonas Gray

Check out his arms and biceps.  Look at his calf muscle protruding. 

Duh, you can’t arm tackle this dude.

Without getting obscene or personal, you’d almost like to see Jonas in an athletic speedo just to note his thigh muscles.  He can at times run like a man possessed.

I picture myself rushing to tackle Jonas head-on and it really turns into a painful nightmare.

Charlie Weis could never convince Jonas to run North and South.  Somehow Brian Kelly go him to quit going East and West and start hitting linebackers and safeties.  The cornerbacks pretty much are afraid of him.

Wish he was coming back next year.

This lad can make it in the NFL.

Side note:  Nice tat on Trevor Robinson.

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Battle of the Uniforms

Well it’s official for the Irish.  Kelly green jerseys, bright gold pants and new shiny helmets with a big green shamrock on the sides and a leprechaun slapped on the back for good measure.  Even new fancy gloves. 
What it takes to motivate kids these days to play football.   Check it all out Here.

Now what is Maryland going to wear to upstage the Irish?

More importantly, what is Maryland going to do on the field to upset the Irish?  Not much, they are full injuries, coaching problems, and nothing to play for but a butt-whipping from the Irish.

Tough game to call since a strange team took the field in the first half against the Deacon Demons.  It reminded me of a problem Lou Holtz had in getting his teams ready against an inferior opponent.  His teams had the tendency to play to the level of the opposition.  As a fan it was most frustrating because you knew the Irish were so much better.

Can Head Coach Brian Kelly (no relation to the color) wake his team up?  (It took a half-time locker room chat last week)

Can Quarterback Tommy Rees quit throwing picks?  (We doubt it)

Can Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco hobble together a defensive front seven smitten by injury?  (Good luck)

Can the Irish out-fashion the Terrapins?  (Not likely from what we’ve seen this year coming out of College Park)

We would really like to see a blow-out early and get Dayne Crist going in the 3^rd quarter and Andrew Hendrix running in the 4^th.

This game and next week will be the best chances for the younger guys and walk-ons to see action.  Sure hope the Irish come out strong and keep it that way.

Go IRISH Beat the Turtles.

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Road Trip Home Game

HOME SWEET HOME?

Notre Dame versus Maryland – Saturday, November 12, 2012.

Who was the moron that thought this up concept?  Play a home game at a neutral site?  We can’t get teams to come to South Bend for a one-game series anymore?

Neutral?  The Maryland campus is 20 miles from FedEx Field.  The football team, support staff, band, camp followers can be there in 30 minutes.

What the advantages???

**  We get to wear our home uniforms.  Actually ‘special’ uniforms and shamrock blazon helmets again.  However, we could wear them at home as well.  As an added attraction, Maryland is going to wear some crazy god awful football uniform as well.

**  The Notre Dame band will be there.  Of course we miss all the band game day activities that they do back on campus.

**  The majority of tickets are reserved for the Irish faithful.  A lot of east coast subway alumni who could never make it to South Bend can see their favorite team play in Maryland.

**  Potential recruits can see the Irish play.  Although the coaching staff is prohibited for having contact with any of them and this is not considered an official or unofficial visit by NCAA rules. You would think recruits would be more interested in participating in the one official visit allowed by touring the campus and watching a game from the Team sidelines.

What are the disadvantages???

**  Difficult and expensive for the Notre Dame students to travel to Maryland.

**  Prohibitive cost for Team, coaches, staff, cheerleaders and band in traveling.

**  Tremendous loss of revenue from parking, bookstore (estimated game day sales are a million bucks), stadium concessions (non-profits are the majority of the employees), alumni club store in the JACC, students who sell food on the Quad, and all the area businesses.

Guess it evens out since next year we play Miami at Soldiers Field in Chicago, not exactly a neutral site for the Hurricanes.  But who has ever cared about them anyway?

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Why Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o Will Return For His Senior Year

Te'o - High School

The pundits, NFL analysts, bloggers, and Irish fans everywhere are starting to ask if Manti Te’o will return to anchor the defenses for his final year.

Of course he will oh ye of little faith.

Although the tom-toms are beating strongly that Manti will be drafted in the first round along with Michael Floyd it makes perfect sense for him to stay at Notre Dame.

**  His family and friends want him to complete what he started, his education.

**  He has to decide on taking a mission for his Mormon faith.

**  His best friend WR Robby Toma will still be at Notre Dame in 2012, going to class and playing football.

**  Manti’s best year is still ahead of him.  He’s still learning and mastering the middle of the field.

**  While he is being considered and in the running for almost every award and recognition, he will be in a much better situation next year to run the table on defensive awards.

**  He still has things to prove to himself.  87 tackles this year through9 games, 133 last year and 52 his freshman year.

**  The most compelling reason is that he has been playing through an ankle injury which has slowed him down considerably.  Manti Te’o comes from a very proud heritage, culture, and family.  He’ll be back to finish what he started.

Te'o - College

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