Comments on: And a Tip of the Cap to…Brandon Newman

By: denverirish

denverirish — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:43:13 +0000

Re: Navy. We have certainly seen some growing pains from all the coaches from facing new opponents and a different attitude from the opponent. Diaco against Navy, Kelly against Stanford the first time (Crist hadn’t practiced against a rush 3 drop 8 defense?) are two examples. I do think our coaching staff has learned they will get something thrown at them the opponent has been saving for Notre Dame and that they have to react quickly during the game for something they didn’t really prep for. That’s part of what makes coaching ND unique – nearly every week, you are the team or one of the teams circled on the other team’s schedule. I still worry about big or unique opponents or really good opposing coaches — a little bit about Navy, a lot more about Stanford and USC and whether our team will be able to adjust quickly enough. Kelly and his staff are getting much better at this, but the heartburn is still there for now.

By: NDtex

NDtex — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:02:50 +0000

In reply to Twibby. To be fair, Newman did experience Tulsa.

By: Twibby

Twibby — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:54:17 +0000

“He is learning in a sense of relationships with players, relationships with coaches, and how to coach the games.”

I sure hope Kelly has figured out “how to coach the games” after over 20 years as a head coach.

By: NDtex

NDtex — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:19:14 +0000

In reply to Brad. The line was definitely a joke, but born in truth. There's been far too many moments that have me terrified of the worst possible thing happening, especially in an opener.

By: Brad

Brad — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:47:29 +0000

NDTex,

While I’m sure the bit about hoping Navy doesn’t trot out anything new was just a joke, I wouldn’t worry too much about Diaco. I think the issues we had with Navy that first year had a lot less to do with something new, than just a learning curve for Diaco. He is still a very young defensive coordinator, and before that game he probably had never been up against a team running a true triple-option. I think he prepared his defense as best as he could to go up against what he thought he would see, and simply wasn’t prepared for some variations of the option (and who Navy would be reading). As a defensive coordinator, if you haven’t gone up against it, I just don’t think you can be fully prepared for it.

I think Diaco tried to apply his 3-4 scheme to a system it simply wasn’t fit for (the triple option was designed in the late 60s and early 70s specifically to attack 2-gap defensive systems like the 3-4). I think Diaco learned a great deal from that event. Last year, he just went ahead and changed up his entire defense to one designed solely to stop the triple option. Thats really what you have to do against a pure-triple option team. Holtz used to do the same thing. For the week of a game against a service academy, you just scrap your entire defense and make up a simple 8 man front defense designed solely to force the other team out of what they are good doing, because its not like they are going to beat you with a power running game or spread passing game.

By: KA

KA — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:37:40 +0000

Good article. I can’t stop but think Newman is working on his communications resume as he continues to talk with Davis about BK and the ND days.

I probably would’ve yapped about the Irish baseball program in the days after my exit, but nobody wanted to hear my opinion. That said, any guy that rode the bench for four seasons after being a big blue-chip recruit looks like he’s got a major bone to pick.

For the next week, it makes for some fun reading.