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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