Well, we’ve had a week to stew on the Arizona State loss and it’s almost time to turn the page to Northwestern. Before we do, it’s time for the IBG to weigh in.
As a reminder, myself, NDNation, UHND.com, The Fighting Irish Blog, and the godfather of the IBG, the Subway Domer, will pose a question to the group and link everyone’s answer while we each field the rest of the field of questions.
So without further ado, let’s get to it because the sooner we do, the sooner I can forget things that happened in Arizona.
My Question: With the playoff now out of reach, what are the new goals for the 2014 season? Would you consider achieving this new goal a successful season or would such a designation be gone without a playoff berth?
Answers will be linked as they go live:
UHND.com
The Subway Domer
(Mike Coffey, NDNation) Outside of the holder promotion, what do you think should be the Malik Zaire plan going forward? Status quo? More playing time? If the latter, in what scenarios?
I’ve said quite a bit, whether here, HLS TV, ND Fan Radio (and, eventually, my radio show tonight), or Twitter that I’m fully on board with Kelly if he is adamant that Everett will remain the starter. He wouldn’t be so steadfast and quick with that answer repeatedly if he thought Zaire was ready for primetime.
That being said, I sure wouldn’t mind seeing more of Zaire this season. Perhaps we loosen the requirement for when he can come in, especially against a team like Northwestern. Up by a couple scores in the 4th? Throw him in there and see what he can do with the rest of the ones. The experience certainly won’t hurt.
That would be about as far as I would go with it. I think trying to get Zaire playing time in either other kind of situation (save for injury) is just asking for a unneeded circus.
(The Subway Domer) If you didn’t see, I took a few blows to the head Saturday. In my migrained state, a thought popped in my head while trying to watch the ND / ASU game on the DVR: Have you ever wondered what football would be like today if it was a pass oriented game in 1897? How different do you think today’s game would be if it evolved from what it is now?
I’m glad you survived that mess. Take care of your melon, sir, we need your brain in this blogging landscape.
Your question is a rather interesting one. In thinking about it, I’m not sure it would have changed too much. Perhaps the spread concepts would’ve appeared much, much earlier, but beyond that, I don’t think it would’ve thrown the evolution of the game off to the opposite spectrum in which fans are screaming “THROW THE DAMN BALL!”
If anything, perhaps the biggest change we would’ve seen is a desire for speed rather than size and strength in the earlier days. Perhaps the type of football player that we’d see today would resemble something like that of the sprint football leagues in college.
Today, coaches look for the freakish combination of size, strength, and speed; however, I feel the first two take a bigger priority for most positions. Hell, even when a speedster gets on campus, step one is to bulk him up.
I think that would be the only real change that you’d see today; however, I really think that, in the end, you wouldn’t notice too much of a difference in that divergent timeline.
(Frank Vitovitch, UHND.com) What were your initial thoughts on Nyles Morgan in his first career start and how do you envision the linebacking corps looking next year assuming Joe Schmidt is back for a 5th year?
I’m more or less where I was even before Arizona State. He’ll have some work to do, but the guy has incredible physical tools. I’m excited to see what he’ll do the rest of the way out now that he has a full game under his belt.
I think the LB corps is in great shape for next season. I think there is a 100% chance Schmidt is back next season and a trio of Moran, Schmidt, and Jaylon Smith is all kinds of awesome. Further, with some of the speed the group will have, I wonder if VanGorder doesn’t try to slide one of them into a hybrid LB/nickel back role for certain packages. Either way, that’s a lot of young weapons on the roster and the arrow is going nowhere but up in my opinion.
(Aaron Horvath, Fighting Irish Blog) How do you think this weekend’s forecast will change the game plan? Will it help a certain team more than the other?
Brian Kelly strikes me as more of a guy that adjusts his gameplan to the opponent rather than the weather. If we see more runs, I think it will only be to assert physical dominance over Northwestern; however, I fully expect Kelly go take shots at the endzone early and often to try and leverage our speed advantage.
Now, I say that with the assumption that the snow won’t accumulate to a level that makes any form of a football a pain in the ass. If that happens, both teams are just going to run the ball like crazy.
As far as helping a team, I think it’s a wash. Both teams are used to playing in the cold. Heavy snow, as I mentioned above, throws everyone for a loop equally. All bets are off if that happens.
- Epilogue - January 3, 2022
- HLS Podcast Finale - January 2, 2022
- The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim - December 31, 2021