Yours truly is the host this week…and away we go:
- Having actually seen the uniforms in the wild on Saturday night, what are your final thoughts regarding them? Does Ronald Darby stating that he liked them change your views on trying out the different uniforms for the “Shamrock Series�
- While I technically was at the game in person on Saturday, those of you who follow me on twitter know what kind of shape I was in. Anyway, having watched the game on my DVR, the helmet did not look nearly as bad as the initial photo tweeted out. That said, if we never see the helmet again, I’d be okay with that.
To answer the second question, I don’t mind trying out different uniforms at the Shamrock Series neutral sites. As DMQ has ranted multiple times this past week and half, the execution of the uniforms would hopefully be better in the future. - Manti is clearly hobbled right now. Re-watching the game on Sunday, I barely noticed him on the field and I rarely remember Mayock or Hammonds calling his name. I believe Kelly stated in his Sunday teleconference that Manti was did not play most of the 3rd or 4th quarters. If you are BK, do you sit Manti on Saturday?
- I wrote this before BK stated during his Tuesday press conference that Manti was feeling much better after sitting most of the 2nd half against Maryland. Anyway, if I’m BK, I’m resting Manti as much as feasible this week. Manti should not be the difference between ND winning or losing this weekend and if he is, we have much bigger issues than some of us realized.
- We’ve seen Tommy Rees play deep into blowouts against Navy, Air Force and Maryland with Hendrix only getting a significant number of snaps in the Air Force game. Rees is only a sophomore but it seems most Irish fans take it as a foregone conclusion that Golson or Hendrix will pass Tommy going into the 2012 season. So do you agree with the use, or lack thereof, of Hendrix so far this season? Do you accept the thought that this is Rees’ last year as starter?
- I definitely would like to see Hendrix get more snaps even during non-blowouts. He definitely adds wrinkles to the offense that opponents have to account for. But, I too am guilty of forgetting Rees is a sophomore and assuming this is his ceiling. Tommy is 6th on the all-time passing TDs mark, he’s in the top-40 in passing efficiency in the country and should finish the season with 3,000 yards passing. So, I can see where Kelly wnats to get Tommy as much experience as possible, even in blowouts. Kelly has shown no qualms rotating players at other positions so fear of playing younger players definitely isn’t an issue to him.
- Tommy Rees needs 608 yards for 3000 passing yards on the season. Cierre Wood is 93 yards short while Jonas Gray is 270 yards short of 1000 rushing yards. Michael Floyd is 78 yards shy of 1000 receiving yards for the season. Despite SubwayDomer’s insistence that bowl stats count, predict final numbers for all 4 players before the bowl. Do they all hit the milestones?
- Tommy Rees – 2,900 yards
- Cierre Wood – 1,100 yards
- Jonas Gray – 950 yards
- Michael Floyd – 1,050 yards
- So I don’t think they’ll all make it before the game. The Irish’s performance against Boston College should make or break each players hitting the milestones. All 4 of them should hit the marks during the bowl game.
- Notre Dame opens up as a 24.5 favorite for Saturday’s game and this is clearly the worst Boston College team in recent memory. That said, BC absolutely loves to play spoiler when it comes to Notre Dame and this game will be the last chance for something good to happen this season. Given those two thoughts, does the margin of victory matter to you on Saturday?
- The Irish have shown the ability to blow out bad teams this year as Biscuit wrote about earlier this week. (link) This is one of the worst BC teams in awhile. So, I’d definitely be disappointed in a close win, I wouldn’t lament it as the end of the world or hold it up as some general failing of the team. On the other hand, this is BC…the Irish need to stomp them.
- Bonus Question:
On a scale of 1-10, how much does Keith Arnold look like Jay Cutler? (Link to photo for reference)
A 9 at worst. I’d probably say a 10
OneFootDown has responded: Link
So has GameDay40: Link
SubwayDomer responded via Podcast Link
Frank at UHND chimed in Link
Keith Arnold over at Inside the Irish finally answered. For some reason, he seems particularly angry with me. Link
And, one late addition: Lisa over at the Shamrock Head blogs responds to her first set of IBG questions. Link
Feel free to submit your own answers to the questions in our Sideline Forum. Link
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“Blow game”?
Freudian slip?
hahah whoops. Thanks!
Good questions this week. I’m interested to see other answers around the blogosphere.
The only one I’ll address here is that I thought the helmets ended up looking horrific on TV. I actually thought they looked better in the tweeted pic, if it’s possible. My wife said they looked like the shiny gold golf balls she got for her birthday when she turned 3 years old.
When my wife pointed out to me that the shamrock was a different shade of green than the jerseys, all I could think was “its the execution”.
Manti should rest.
I like the idea of Hendrix, but Rees is the guy for a reason. I’m gonna keep the mindset that Kelly knows what he’s doing.
I’d say your right on with the yardage, Jonas breaks 1000 and Rees breaks 3000 in the bowlgame.
The margin of victory matters to me because I will be there. I want to spend the second half celebrating Floyd and the rest of the outgoing seniors. I just realized yesterday that I was at ND vs SDSU in 08. Floyds, and the rest of the fourth year seniors, first game. Clausen connected with Floyd for a td. The first of many for the stud we have enjoyed watching for four years. I’m glad I will get to see his final game in south bend.
Irish 52 BC 17
With regard to ‘Hendrix should get more mop up duty’ i have to strongly disagree. We all pretty much are in accord that Tommy isnt the BEST qb ever to grace our team, and as such, i think he needs just as much exp as possible. What is most important right now is THIS year and the post season game, whatever that may be. There are still things rees needs to improve, so he should keep going until everything is worked out.
I live in the Lake Forest High School District where Tommy played high school ball. I never saw him play in high school (my daughters went to a Sacred Heart school) but heard about him as being a good QB on a not very good team. I will admit that I was one of those who wondered why Weis recruited him, and I thought, and confidently said to anyone who would listen, that “this guy will never see the field.”
Then I saw the spring game in 2010, and was shocked that Tommy far and away looked the most comfortable on the field. My brother in law and others told me I was nuts, and who could tell who looked all that good on a muddy, rain soaked field, but he seemed much more comfortable out there and in command than did Crist or Montana.
The conventional wisdom among fans seems to be that Tommy is going to be passed up in the spring by one of the two younger QBs. That might be. However, I would not count Tommy out. We all underestimate him at our peril.
That’s a great point. And it is exactly what Gary Danielson said last year at the bowl game, and that is a pretty objective viewpoint as he had not seen ND all year.
My take on this year has always been that the competition was close as stated, and Coach deferred to the logical choice of Crist, but as soon as he saw Dayne under fire and failing, he knew he had to make the switch. There was no panic in the decision as some people have stated.
But on to less controversial points. I hope Jonas gets a few extra carries on Sat and maybe can rush for 150-180. He’s been close to breaking another one the last couple of games.
Tommy will probably only throw for 200 or less on Sat because we will run the ball more, and hopefully Dayne will get at least two meaningful series.
It will be interesting to see if the long pass practice pays off this week.
45-13!