Some People Aren't Going to Like Hearing This...

[Crusty]

The one thing I worry about with Shafer is whether or not he is going to be able to fire somebody he has hired. It is so much harder to fire somebody you have hired than to fire someone else's mistake. We'll see.

 

[OrangePA]

Coach Mac said over and over again - it's 80-90% talent and the rest coaching.

Having said that.

I happen to feel that certain coaches do add something - I'm not sure exactly what that something is.

But, I think Brian Kelly is one of those coaches. And, though it may bother some, I feel that Randy Edsall is another of those coaches.

His MD team dismantled my other college football team yesterday - Indiana. And in doing so, shut down a very good offensive unit.

I became convinced that Marrone had that special quality. I truly hope that Scott Shafer does as well.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Assuming I heard it correctly, ND has a 5* linebacker backing up a one time walk on.

As others have said, that is telling.

 

[Millhouse]

Nc state was totally outmanned against the #1 team. FSU gave then a bunch of turnovers and they stayed in it. Of course FSU has way more talent. Crappy teams pray for turnovers. That should've been a miraculous upset but instead it was never in doubt for nd

 

[SaltineWarrior]

I watched the game with a very, very, very knowledgable NFL front office person tonight. Despite all of our laments about referees, missed fields goals, GMac, and Hunt, we as fans over looked one other aspect of this game -- talent. He has personally evaluated a lot of players on this year's team.

We as fans tend to overestimate our talent or somehow believe that a perfectly coached game can lead us to a win. Sometimes the other team is just better. And ND was just better. We are also a damn slow football team.

He actually put some plays on rewind and slowed them down. Our WR's really struggle getting consistent separation. West has nice hands but he made the comment that he is painfully slow and should have had multiple steps on the guy given his release. He likes Gulley but he just isn't fast enough. In his words, "how can you not beat a DE around the edge at this level" on that swing pass.

Our interior OL got blown up by ND's 94 on multiple occasions. He single handedly hurt our run game. Kelly made a poor play on Hunter Jr's TD catch. He hesitated on that route -- he could have blown him up or made a play on the ball. Instead he thought about it and did neither. Also said both our corners are a bit stiff and need to get better.

There were some silver linings I guess. He loved how hard we played for Shafer and co tonight. We played through every whistle and fought hard. He actually likes Hunt as a college QB. He made some decent throws and probably paid in a boatload of pain. In his words, "he's noa top 10 QB, but you could do a hell of a lot worse." He said we'd think differently about him if we had a WR that scared anyone else.

We just have to get better folks. We can nitpick calls all day long, but at the end of the day we do not have the horses to play with top 20 teams yet. Our DL still fails to get push without sending the house, and our skill guys aren't quite skilled enough.

I loved the way these kids competed today. I hope estime and Moore are ok and we get better from here.

They say "speed kills." In SU's case, a lack of speed has killed this team. Grob's players fought hard for him too. Our offensive abilities are limited right now.

 

[jgeorge322]

Gulley couldn't outrun a Notre Dame DL around the edge.

That was one play. Ive seen him outrun usc and wv defenders among others. Not saying he's a superstar but your comment is inaccurate.

 

[CuseOnly]

He did. He liked Bullough's scheme and though we did a pretty good job there. It's not Bullough's fault Whigham couldn't keep up with ND. He said offensively it was really tough to tell because their front did a really good job disrupting our run game. Clearly ND did not respect our WR's as they played a ton of man press with a single high a ton. Hunt's deep throws were really, really, good. Except for the overthrow to Estime, our guys clearly had difficulty separating from their defenders. The pick he threw was kind of a bad throw, but he did point out that the safety held Estime coming out of his break and it wasn't called.

His specific comment to me was "it's really tough to tell when your guys can't beat the other guys. Sometimes it's as simple as there Joes are just better than your Joes." It's a pretty simple way to say that coaching can only do so much. We'd all like to think that if a the right staff came along we'd be top 25 overnight. We just don't have those guys yet.

In the last 10 years of our program, we have had 1 QB, 1 RB, and 2 WR's drafted. None higher than the 4th round. LSU had 1 QB, 2 RB's, and 3WR's DRAFTED LAST YEAR! That needs to change if we want to make the next leap.

Our Athletic Department would never pay for that staff either.

 

[OttosBestFriend]

To be fair, we won 7 games last year with virtually the same team against a very similar schedule. Your point?

Why wouldn't the minimal expectation be improvement over last season with an OC that's no longer a rookie, a HC that's no longer a rookie, and a team that was returning the most starters in the conference? And a team that added on some freshman ready to contribute?

So,hanging with a top-8 team until the 4th quarter and actually coming close to giving them a scare at the end isn't minimal improvement? Maybe you forgot last years games vs. FSU & Clemson.

IMO, Cuse showed great improvement over last year in last nights game.

 

[Crusty]

So,hanging with a top-8 team until the 4th quarter and actually coming close to giving them a scare at the end isn't minimal improvement? Maybe you forgot last years games vs. FSU & Clemson.

IMO, Cuse showed great improvement over last year in last nights game.

I understand your view. However, the offense and ST did not improve and had it not been for 5 ND turnovers the score would have been 20 or 30 points higher. You really have to look very hard to find a kernel of improvement. ND never even had to punt. They either scored or stopped themselves. It was really a disheartening night.

 

[Sudano]

I watched the game with a very, very, very knowledgable NFL front office person tonight. Despite all of our laments about referees, missed fields goals, GMac, and Hunt, we as fans over looked one other aspect of this game -- talent. He has personally evaluated a lot of players on this year's team.

We as fans tend to overestimate our talent or somehow believe that a perfectly coached game can lead us to a win. Sometimes the other team is just better. And ND was just better. We are also a damn slow football team.

He actually put some plays on rewind and slowed them down. Our WR's really struggle getting consistent separation. West has nice hands but he made the comment that he is painfully slow and should have had multiple steps on the guy given his release. He likes Gulley but he just isn't fast enough. In his words, "how can you not beat a DE around the edge at this level" on that swing pass.

Our interior OL got blown up by ND's 94 on multiple occasions. He single handedly hurt our run game. Kelly made a poor play on Hunter Jr's TD catch. He hesitated on that route -- he could have blown him up or made a play on the ball. Instead he thought about it and did neither. Also said both our corners are a bit stiff and need to get better.

There were some silver linings I guess. He loved how hard we played for Shafer and co tonight. We played through every whistle and fought hard. He actually likes Hunt as a college QB. He made some decent throws and probably paid in a boatload of pain. In his words, "he's noa top 10 QB, but you could do a hell of a lot worse." He said we'd think differently about him if we had a WR that scared anyone else.

We just have to get better folks. We can nitpick calls all day long, but at the end of the day we do not have the horses to play with top 20 teams yet. Our DL still fails to get push without sending the house, and our skill guys aren't quite skilled enough.

I loved the way these kids competed today. I hope estime and Moore are ok and we get better from here.

I watched the game by myself and have said this on this site multiple times and get shouted down. We need to recruit better talent. So when we lose good recruits we have to stop delusionally saying next man up, or we trust the coaches, or our players will ultimately get offers from the big boys, or ...
We need bigger, faster, stronger players and beat the teams in recruiting we need to beat on the field.

 

[anomander]

So,hanging with a top-8 team until the 4th quarter and actually coming close to giving them a scare at the end isn't minimal improvement? Maybe you forgot last years games vs. FSU & Clemson.

IMO, Cuse showed great improvement over last year in last nights game.

The game was never in doubt. Half the crowd was leaving by the end of the 3rd quarter. Did we watch the same game?

 

[Chris02M]

The game was never in doubt. Half the crowd was leaving by the end of the 3rd quarter. Did we watch the same game?

it was in doubt in the 1st quarter and second. In the second half it was score a td on opening possession of second half our else its game over but did get interesting after the pick 6 in early 4th

 

[RF2044]

The game was never in doubt. Half the crowd was leaving by the end of the 3rd quarter. Did we watch the same game?

That's too bad--because the game got a lot closer and a helluva lot more exciting at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Plus, we were driving for a TD at the end of the 3rd quarter [I think we scored on the first play of the fourth]. Why would SU fans leave then? I've never understood people leaving the games early.

BTW, I don't think that your assessment is fully accurate. We were never quite in it, never quite out of it. In the main, it was pretty clear that they outclassed us talent wise, but the ball was taking some funny bounces and we were turning them over.

 

[Chris02M]

That's too bad--because the game got a lot closer at the beginning of the 4th quarter. I've never understood people leaving the games early.

BTW, I don't think that your assessment is fully accurate. We were never quite in it, never quite out of it. In the main, it was pretty clear that they outclassed us talent wise, but the ball was taking some funny bounces and we were turning them over.

I agree with you

 

[longislandcuse]

I stayed until the final ND field goal. The game was over shortly after halftime and we were basically only competitive for one quarter.

 

[OrangeSky]

It's been said multiple times here already, but to me, lasts night's game really showed the difference in size and speed between us and top tier teams.

Also, how many times have we killed effective drives, even into the red zone, with penalties or bad mistakes this year? I don't know how many, but it's a lot. That's a lot of points left on the field.

 

[anomander]

That's too bad--because the game got a lot closer and a helluva lot more exciting at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Plus, we were driving for a TD at the end of the 3rd quarter [I think we scored on the first play of the fourth]. Why would SU fans leave then? I've never understood people leaving the games early.

BTW, I don't think that your assessment is fully accurate. We were never quite in it, never quite out of it. In the main, it was pretty clear that they outclassed us talent wise, but the ball was taking some funny bounces and we were turning them over.

I worded it wrong. While the score was technically within reach, it still never felt like we were ever a threat to do anything. I just remember half of the section getting up and leaving at the end of the 3rd quarter.

 

[Alsacs]

Did Notre Dame punt last night? We were +4 in TO margin and lost by 14(I give us credit for the 2XPs) and people thought we looked good?
Our offense didn't sustain a drive till the late 3rd quarter and our defensive game plan was to clog the middle and force ND to small chunks all night.
Our offense scored 9 points that was not good.
The score wasn't a blowout but we never put game pressure on ND and our ad never stopped ND from moving the ball.

 

[anomander]

Did Notre Dame punt last night? We were +4 in TO margin and lost by 14(I give us credit for the 2XPs) and people thought we looked good?
Our offense didn't sustain a drive till the late 3rd quarter and our defensive game plan was to clog the middle and force ND to small chunks all night.
Our offense scored 9 points that was not good.
The score wasn't a blowout but we never put game pressure on ND and our ad never stopped ND from moving the ball.

This is exactly what I meant by saying the game was never in doubt.

 

[Alsacs]

Anomamder did our last recruiting class have more 3 star players or 2 star players?
We need more 3 star recruits and have our 2 deep majority 3 star talent.

 

[Chris02M]

Did Notre Dame punt last night? We were +4 in TO margin and lost by 14(I give us credit for the 2XPs) and people thought we looked good?
Our offense didn't sustain a drive till the late 3rd quarter and our defensive game plan was to clog the middle and force ND to small chunks all night.
Our offense scored 9 points that was not good.
The score wasn't a blowout but we never put game pressure on ND and our ad never stopped ND from moving the ball.

the Ad is not supposed to put pressure on the offense

 

[Chris02M]

Anomamder did our last recruiting class have more 3 star players or 2 star players?
We need more 3 star recruits and have our 2 deep majority 3 star talent.

I believe last year had more 3 stars than 2 stars

 

[anomander]

Anomamder did our last recruiting class have more 3 star players or 2 star players?
We need more 3 star recruits and have our 2 deep majority 3 star talent.

Last years class was mostly 3stars, with a handful of 4's (combining all services). imo it was our best class in a long long time. Looks like we will have a bunch of solid contributors out of it.

 

[Alsacs]

the Ad is not supposed to put pressure on the offense

Lol my phone autocorrect changed D to ad.

 

[Chris02M]

Lol my phone autocorrect changed D to ad.

so your phone has AD D?