And then tries to kick you in the teeth.
Keith over at NBC notes the shift to 6-5-1 in his post on the schedule changes that are happening under Captain Jack S. I have to say, I'm thrilled that JS is abandoning 7-4-1, which never made any sense, and resulted in some really weird scheduling challenges.
The part of Keith's post that inspired me to link here and write this little entry, though, is this:
While the home stretch seems a little bit more manageable with Navy, Wake Forest, Maryland, most likely BC, and Stanford, Kelly will have to get used to a difficult opening quarter of the season, as the next few years have the Irish facing top-flight opponents from the get-go.
What's amazing to me about this paragraph isn't the reference to the top flight competition early on. It's that this 'easy stretch' (which Keith aptly describes as 'a little more manageable') would be considered the meat of a usual conference schedule. ND's 'easy' games are the 'average' games for everyone else.
Do people really not see a difference between A DII school or a perennial conference dog (e.g. Indiana Big 10, etc) and playing a slate of decent programs like Navy, Wake, Maryland and Stanford? No those aren't top 20 killer teams year in and year out, but Stanford is a Top 15 team right now, and Navy is a perennial bowl team. And that's the 'easy' part of the ND schedule?
ND needs to figure out a way to keep an interesting, challenging schedule that isn't a slog each and every week against tough opponents. Call me whatever you want, but why must we make the road to a MNC that much more difficult? Yes, we'll play anyone, anytime, blah blah blah. Great! But while we're doing that, next week's opponent is resting their starters by half time rather than battling it out to the final second against another quality foe. Which means they're that much more rested, and that much healthier, the next week. Over time, this adds up. Forget about the guaranteed wins our opponents get in those cupcake games, think of all the other benefits - extra time to focus on the bigger games. Fewer injuries. More rest. An opportunity to just have some fun and score a ton of points. Over the course of the season, those are advantages.
For every Wake or Maryland we play, our 'competition' for an MNC is playing a DII team, or some team you didn't realize was even DI. Everyone complains that this year's schedule is TOO EASY, and we're playing a Top 20 SOS! Madness.
Now I'm not advocating for us to schedule DII teams - never. Never, never. But I do think the cries to play schedules that are more and more difficult need to end. And there's no shame in playing a cakewalk once in a while.
This team better improve pretty quickly. Because the road isn't getting any easier. Care for 2012? How about Michigan, Oklahoma and Miami back to back to back?
By Craig September 28, 2010 - 1:10 pm
The thing that really annoys me with the fan perspective on scheduling is, there’s a lot of people who swear up and down that they don’t want us to play the toughest schedule in the country, but then won’t accept any of the easy games that the team needs to play in order to avoid the unreasonable degree of difficulty. They’re fine with our overall strength of schedule being in the 20 to 30 range in the abstract, but they’re not fine with the real schedule it would take to get there.
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By The Biscuit September 28, 2010 - 2:24 pm
Agree 100%. Plus, who said we HAVE to be in the 20s at all? I think a schedule in the mid/lower 30s to the low-40s should be the goal. That way when a team you dont expect to be great (Stanford) ends up good, you might jump to the lower 30s, but not all the way to the Teens. And if you end up with some cakewalks you didnt expect, you’re in the upper 40s, maybe 50, which is still well above the average difficulty.
Everyone griping that this year’s schedule was too easy is insane. It’s #20 in the country right now, and could end up higher.
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By ActionPak1 September 28, 2010 - 2:20 pm
Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone. –The Dhammapada
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By Brendan September 28, 2010 - 2:26 pm
So we can’t travel with New Mexico (0-4) and Eastern Michigan (0-4). Everybody else is fine?
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By The Biscuit September 28, 2010 - 2:31 pm
Snap
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By ActionPak1 September 28, 2010 - 9:20 pm
We’re not Eastern Michigan or Western Kentucky or freakin’ UNLV. WE ARE ND. I’m not saying we have to play the mist difficult schedule in the country. There is a reason why Notre Dame is special. We don’t do what everyone else does, we don’t need a stinking conference and we don’t need to add Ball State to the sked.
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By Brendan September 29, 2010 - 2:04 pm
Thanks. I didn’t know any of this and was completely serious with my previous post.
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By tjak September 28, 2010 - 9:47 pm
Dude, we are and then some in 2010 and then some in 2011, 2012. It does not mean we have to play a top 10 ten every week. As Biscuit has pointed out already it really is not healthy for any program to play top 12 every season for all 12 games. We shouldn’t schedule Appalachian State ( they beat Michigan did they not har de har har) and we are playing solid non-traditional opponents in the likes of Utah.
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By Hugh September 28, 2010 - 2:58 pm
No less an authority than Bob Davie was on Colin Cowherd today saying when its all done this year’s ND schedule will be amongst the easiest in its HISTORY.They were still talking 8-4, 7-5 final record (which is surely possible). Almost spoke like a W against now #13 Utah was a given….
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By Craig September 28, 2010 - 3:04 pm
Bob Davie, a modest man with much to be modest about. (The line that never gets old…)
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By TLNDMA September 28, 2010 - 3:31 pm
A HUGE advantage to those bunny games is being able to play your 2nd & 3rd teams. It not only builds depth through experience but, allows your coaches evaluate those kids in game situations. It rest your starters but, also they’re not in on as many plays and less likely to get hurt.
Moral can also be higher as kids know they have a chance to play more, therefore they may practice harder.
I saw next years schedule and consider it to be quite a gauntlet.
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By Pat September 28, 2010 - 3:49 pm
I do like playing meaningful games week after week. Maybe you will, too, once we start winning a few more of them.
I think that Michigan-Miami-Oklahoma stretch comes with a bye between two of the match-ups. Still a heck of a stretch.
I think part of this perception about the schedule getting too difficult is due in part to the last three seasons being lousy and this year being rough so far. As things improve — as I think they will — games like ones against Miami, Texas, etc. are going to draw every eyeball in the country and will, hopefully, build the momentum in putting this program back in its rightful place as a perennial power. That seems to be Swarbrick’s theory at least, and I, for one, support it.
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By SDI September 28, 2010 - 4:20 pm
I also think, as Biscuit alludes to, that history plays a role in all of this given that games are often scheduled in advance. Navy was a doormat for ND for 40 years, but now they are much better. I think it would be somewhat unsportsmanlike to drop a team just because they have improved. Same goes for Stanford who, except for the Bill Walsh and Harbaugh interludes, is not much of powerhouse. Even USC, with all their tradition and history, was never really a juggernaut before Carrol arrived, and probably won’t be again anytime soon.
Mike Frank is a big proponent of telling Michigan and MSU that ND will play them, but only a little later in the year after some warm up games. If they balk, make the same offer to Indiana or Minnesota or Arizona State or any other respectable BCS conference school that would probably jump at the chance to play ND.
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By The Biscuit September 28, 2010 - 4:52 pm
Yes, if you could guarantee me an undefeated record i’d like to have the hardest schedule in the country year in and year out. But as it is, I want something in the 30s or low 40s. Not in the 20s, not in the teens, and not in the 10s.
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By TLNDMA September 28, 2010 - 6:06 pm
Actually, thinking about it who’s to say how good some of these teams might be next year. I mean look at Pitt this year, they don’t seem quite as formidable as they did 4 weeks ago.
Threre’s a number of teams on that schedule you could see tanking next year.
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By The Biscuit September 28, 2010 - 6:47 pm
True. But there’s a difference between could suck, could be average, could be good, and sucking for sure, every year, barring some weird miracle.
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By TLNDMA September 28, 2010 - 6:59 pm
Yeah thought about that after my post. Suppose it’s just as likely on average that they’d be real good as opposed to real bad.
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By ActionPak1 September 28, 2010 - 9:23 pm
Agreed.
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By tjak September 28, 2010 - 11:32 pm
How in the hell are we ranked #2 on Scout.com recruiting rankings. Seriously Davaris Daniels says that we are his go to place and we are 1-3.
How are kids buying what Kelly is smoking(selling) when we are 1-3. When will the aura of the Fighting Irish rub off. We have not lost less then 3 games in 17 years. When will these kids not wake up and say f#$%#$k Notre Dame.
When will they say that this program is dead and go elsewhere? Stanford for instance.
In three years when we are 1-35 then you can say that we are shite. Shut the hell up all you naysayers, because if Davaris Daniels says the Irish are his team, then they are mine.
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By Joe Magarac September 29, 2010 - 3:19 am
How are kids buying what Kelly is smoking(selling) when we are 1-3.
Pretty simple: ND sells itself regardless of record. Not the tradition or the campus or the facilities, although those are nice. Rather, if you play for ND:
1. You stand a better-than-average chance of going to the NFL. ND players play on Sunday at a very high rate.
2. If #1 doesn’t work out, you will almost certainly have a degree and a path to a good job. The African-American graduation rate at most power schools is below 50%. At ND it is 90% or higher.
I think kids and their parents think long-term when choosing a school. And ND is a good choice regardless of its current record.
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By southbendblarney.com September 29, 2010 - 6:55 pm
The scheduling debate it as old as time. I can see both viewpoints.
On the positive, more marquee games=more games that elite recruits want to play in. It works in the SEC. A ridiculously tough schedule hasn’t hurt Florida or Alabama. Rather, it has made them even better and more attractive to recruits, and as programs.
The Irish numbed their schedule down in recent years, and it didn’t help at all.
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By The Biscuit September 29, 2010 - 11:13 pm
The opposite point can be made too. OSU gets their fair share of top recruits, and thus far they’ve played the 118th most difficult schedule. I’m not saying I want that, but you see my point. We don’t need a Top 10 schedule every year to get top recruits. And we dont need one to get to a MNC game. Something in the 30′s is just fine, and increases our chances of running the table.
And our ‘numbed down’ schedule was still relatively tough. Check out my old post on it.
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By The Biscuit September 29, 2010 - 11:18 pm
Oops forgot the links.
Here’s the first, which shows that our Avg SOS over the recent past is 20. And in the last three years (06-09) we were 24, 50, 37. 50 was kinda low, but the rest arent really low at all. Link:
http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2010/08/11/sos-delusions/
Here’s another in case you’re interested:
http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2010/08/11/sendin-out-an-sos/
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By GB September 30, 2010 - 1:17 am
Who cares who ND plays. They need to start winning. Everything else is moot.
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By southbendblarney.com October 1, 2010 - 11:50 am
Biscuit,
I know exactly what you are saying, just throwing a counterpoint in there.
GB is right, ND just needs to start winning, they go undefeated, I would think they will play for it all.
Assuming Kelly can turn it around, it would be more fun as a fan to watch the “big boy” games though.
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