I'll try to continue my ND season preview as much as possible between feedings and poopy diaper changes! That's right, this Daddy is still blogging.
10/9/10: Notre Dame will have Pitt walking into South bend, proving an underrated interesting matchup. Last season the Irish lost to Pitt in a close 5 point game (but, then again, all of our games seemed close last year), with Pitt finishing #12 in the country (all together now: overrated). The Panthers may have gone 10-3 (5-2 in conference), but it's a pretty non impressive record when you consider their only game against a ranked team being a loss (44-45 to #5 Cincinnati). Their wins included The Penguins of Youngstown State, Buffalo, Navy, NC State, Louisville, UConn, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse, us (damn!), and UNC in their bowl game (by 2 points). How did this record get the Panthers to #12 in the nation? What a joke. Young running stud Dion Lewis will be back for his sophomore year at Pitt, but after exposing their "amazing" season, I'm taking ND in this one, especially because it's at home.
10/16/10: Western Michigan comes in to town to give the Irish a nice little break after starting the season 4-2. The Broncos went 5-7 (4-4 in the MAC West), not playing a single ranked team. They didn't even have a win that is worth mentioning. At least they scored 7 points against Michigan in their first game of the year. Add to that, QB Tim Hiller is leaving after a "successful Senior year," and you have a lock Notre Dame win at home.
10/23/10: Ah, the game against Navy at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ. Maybe Snookie will make an appearance. The 2009 version of this game was a crushing blow to the Irish. They were rolling at 6-2 on the season coming into this one (and I have them at 5-2 coming into the 2010 affair). Navy came away with their 23-21 win after Jimmy Clausen (God rest his soul) was another stellar game winning drive short of being a hero. Sacked in the end zone with 60 seconds to play. Pathetic, pathetic stuff. We were ranked, remember? Well, after losing two straight to the bucking sheep with a blanket across his back, this game #8 of the 2010 season is absolutely huge. Ricky Dobbs will be back for his Senior year (he had 102 rushing yards in the option against ND, and through his "typical" pass to the white tight end wide open in the middle) and FB Vince Murray will be back as a Senior as well. Man, this game is going to be so gigantic! I have no choice but to pick the Irish here, and this will be the season defining game for both Brian Kelly and Dayne Crist.
10/30/10: Tulsa at home! The Golden Hurricane will pass over Notre Dame stadium, but we don't need to worry about battening down the hatches. This Hurricane finished their season 5-7 (3-5 in the down C-USA West; sorry Rice), and really shouldn't make anyone in South Bend nervous. Tulsa went 1-6 in their last 7 games of the year. They lost to three ranked teams (Oklahoma, Boise St, and Houston) by a combined score of 119-66, including a defeat at the hands of Oklahoma by the tally of 0-45. Intimidating, eh? It will be fun to see Notre Dame go against a team from the C-USA (will Rice be next?). Easy, easy Notre Dame win.
We have finally reached the Notre Dame bye week of November 6, 2010. Heading into the final three game stretch of the season, the Irish are powering their along to a 7-2 season and have Utah, Army (at Yankee Stadium, boo), and the brand new USC left to finish the year. Part 3 of our preview will focus on those final games (is a BCS berth in Kelly's first year out of the question? Probably, but it'll be fun to pretend) and hopefully touch on predictions for the performance of some of our hottest players ("Te'o says no go to Mormons").
Back to the baby.
P.S. I just knew that USC fans would be delusional with the Kiffen hiring. A direct quote from one of my best friends in the whole world. "...Kiffin is a good coach." Really? He finished his 20 games stint with the Oakland Raiders with a 5-15 record. Just ask Brandon how great of a coach he was for them (4-12 in 2007 and 1-3 in 2008). Then he went back to college to show how great he could be, and led the Tennessee Volunteers to a stellar 7-6 record (4-4 in conference) before losing the Chick-Fil-A Bowl to V Tech. Hey Trojan fans, he lost to a down UCLA team 15-19 in Week 2. Have fun with your "good coach."
5 comments:
Put Dungy, Bellichick, Cowher, or any other elite coach with the '07-'08 Raiders or '09 Vols and I doubt you get a result much different. Like a team with Jamarcus Russell is really supposed to compete for the playoffs ...
The Vols were way down this year, especially with how good their defense was. I mean, I'm sure Kiffin is going to steal some recruits this year, but I feel like next year is going to be an absolutely abysmal year for the Trojans, wishful thinking aside. Yay, baby!
Vols were 5-7 under Fullmer the year before Kiffin came in,which included losses to UCLA and Wyoming. So I don't think it's quite accurate to say they were way down last year.
SC's D suffered big time last year as Pete didn't exactly groom anyone of the new LBs well, maybe besides Galippo. Three of the front 4 were new, and Wright being academically ineligible cause the secondary to shuffle around.
Losing Damien obviously hurts, but Butler and Flournoy are ready to step up, Ausberry's back and Woods and Prater could play well if they're not stuck behind on the depth chart.
We had a true freshman QB last year, who was responsible for beating Ohio State (the same Ohio State that crushed Oregon in the Rose Bowl), but not responsible for a loss to UW.
But keep the expectations low, and I'll be laughing when we win the Pac-10 and at least the Rose Bowl.
I meant down in terms of performance this year alone. Expectations were high for a Vols team with a solid D and high profile coaching staff. Them being about average was a disappointment in how I see it. You really think the Trojans can conquer a stacked Oregon squad? If they can capture the Pac-10 crown, maybe this isn't the beginning of the Trojan decline.
I think we had some serious problems with the D, and Pete was the one responsible for play calling on D. On top of that Rocky Seto, while a good guy and a good secondary coach, proved not to be so good as a D coordinator. I'd say Monte Kiffin's resume is much more polished, although the Vols didn't perform particularly well on D in a couple games last year. They did hold Florida to 23 pts though.
Most of our problems came in games against QBs who can run. The clear tactic was spread out the field and either have a designed run for the QB, or while the coverage is turned around head down the field with the QB.
Michael Morgan was a huge bust at weakside LB, and the true freshman Kennard had to step in. I think we'll see him back at DE opposite Nick Perry, so maybe one of the redshirt freshmen from last year may step into the other OLB spot opposite Malcolm Smith. Galippo was easily their best LB last year, but he often had to do too much or was called into coverage, leaving the middle of the field wide open.
I think losing Taylor to graduation may actually help in some ways. He was obviously one of our best defensive players, but we relied on and trusted in him a little too much. We'll go back to a more traditional coverage scheme, and we're backloaded with great corners and DBs.
Take away the horrible play-calling of Jeremy Bates, and you're probably looking at way less 3 and outs. The D doesn't have to be on the field for so long, and in the end I think we take care of business.
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