Let me be clear, I don’t wish ill on Newman and hope he finds success at Ball State.

Yeah, I’m clearly at the lowest level of hating and bashing.

I disagree with his comments, but I don’t hate the kid. That’s an absurd conclusion. There’s a reason why I entitled this post “Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid” rather than “Seriously, Just Shut Up” or something similar. Hell, I mentioned that I can relate to his frustration in the post.

The affirmation I gave was for an inside perspective, but that isn’t what Newman gave. The rest of his answers were great, but his trying to detail a private conversation between Crist and Rees was completely unneeded out of context or not.

Do I think he was doing it on purpose? No. Do I think he made a huge mistake? Yes.

However, you’ve come into this post with the mindset of “his comments are true”, which, no matter how much you think that to be the case, that isn’t fact, it’s his (and your) opinion.

You seem to have lost “respect” for HLS more so for the fact you disagree with my opinion than anything else. That as well is “a scourge on the possibilities for productive discourse on the Inter-webs.”

Feel free to attack my work and debate me–my feelings won’t be hurt.

Wow. Loticicio- your quasi-intellectual comment (you might own a thesaurus but that doesn’t mean you’re smart) is one of the most self-righteous things I’ve ever read on the Internet. Get a grip and stop hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. It is immature and transparent.

Tempted as I am to go through your every indictment of this guy (and tear your reactionary extrapolations apart in the process), I’ve wasted enough time reading your tripe and typing this response.

Since we’re criticizing people’s public speech right now, however, I’ll take this opportunity to express that I’ve lost some respect for HLS after reading this article (as well as some of your other postings) [and even for Subway Domer for taking on a HerringBone (who apparently agrees with your statements).

Make no mistake, your post represents the lowest level of unnecessary hating and bashing — a scourge on the possibilities for productive discourse on the Inter-webs.

Coaches have a tough job, and there job is made that much more difficult when their players are not mentally tough. Newman is accusing Notre Dame’s players of not being mentally tough. I am of the opinion that no coach should guarantee a starting position to any player, especially when a player hasn’t established himself at a particular position. Sometimes it’s good for players to fear for their starting spots. If you ask me, last year’s team was screaming out for a little more of the Spurrier treatment, not less, especially as it relates to Rees. If Crist, or Rees, was firmly established after a year of stellar play my opinion would be different, but jeez this is football. I actually feel much better now about Kelly after reading the article. No wonder Kelly is always harping on the fact that this team first needs to learn how to practice. Now I have better insight into what he’s been harping on. I refuse to believe there are many more Newmans on this team. Let’s hope Kelly’s now getting to where he needs to be, and weeding out those with this overwhelming need to be coddled. Winning a championship is not for the weak-minded; it is an enormous challenge. Things will get tough. At the end of the day you have to earn it. And for the great ones, they wake up the next day and realize they have to earn it again. That’s football. Let’s see with the absence of Mr. Newman if this team might be headed in the right direction, which includes practicing hard enough to prepare your own teammates even if you yourself—or Allen Iverson—don’t need practice for your own stellar game performances.

It seems to me that either Kelly had great faith in Rees or felt he had no other options as Rees played a lot and in spite of many mistakes. I can remember thinking many times, about why Rees was not pulled. Crist was pulled after a half, yet Rees stayed in after making arguably more egregious errors. Either way, Newman probably should have kept this to himself.

trying to reply to two different posts — fail.

This is what makes the spotlight at ND more difficult and makes it such a difficult decision for Kelly. Look at what RGIII did at Baylor. He was very good prior years and always very athletic, but he really developed into an incredible QB his senior year because of all that game experience. When you have to win today, you sacrifice the ability to be even greater next year. That is the point of rebuilding years, but we aren’t allowed to have those at ND — unfortunately, for lots of reasons.