Brian Polian Archives - Her Loyal Sons https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog A Notre Dame Football Blog Fri, 09 Sep 2016 15:20:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.3 https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/HLS-Avatar-Option-2-150x150.png Brian Polian Archives - Her Loyal Sons https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog 32 32 Morning Roundup: Sept. 9, 2016 https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/09/09/morning-roundup-sept-9-2016/ Fri, 09 Sep 2016 09:00:37 +0000 http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/?p=35687 Mike Tirico says he’s not a Michigan man. Bleacher Report has us reaching for the tissues with its remembrance of Greg Bryant. These stories and more from the last 24 hours of Notre Dame football below. FROM OUR SITE Defensive “change” must come, one way or another PODCAST CSN Chicago: Where does Notre Dame’s defense...

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]]> Mike Tirico says he’s not a Michigan man. Bleacher Report has us reaching for the tissues with its remembrance of Greg Bryant. These stories and more from the last 24 hours of Notre Dame football below.

FROM OUR SITE

PODCAST

NEXT GAME: vs. Nevada (3:30 ET Saturday, NBC)

2016 TEAM

OFFENSE

DEFENSE

RECRUITING

LAST GAME: Texas 50, Notre Dame 47

MISC.

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]]> Morning Roundup: Sept. 8, 2016 https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/09/08/morning-roundup-sept-8-2016/ Thu, 08 Sep 2016 09:00:07 +0000 http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/?p=35673 DeShone Kizer says he’s starting against Nevada and won’t rotate with Malik Zaire at quarterback. The BGI guys debate the effect of Torii Hunter’s absence. Brian VanGorder’s defense remains under the microscope. All these stories and more from the past 24 hours of Notre Dame football below. FROM OUR SITE This is not the end...

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]]> DeShone Kizer says he’s starting against Nevada and won’t rotate with Malik Zaire at quarterback. The BGI guys debate the effect of Torii Hunter’s absence. Brian VanGorder’s defense remains under the microscope. All these stories and more from the past 24 hours of Notre Dame football below.

FROM OUR SITE

PODCAST

NEXT GAME

2016 TEAM

OFFENSE

DEFENSE

SCHEDULE

RECRUITING

LAST GAME: Texas 50, Notre Dame 47

MISC.

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]]> Morning Roundup: Sept. 7, 2016 https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/09/07/morning-roundup-sept-7-2016/ Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:00:23 +0000 http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/?p=35641 Brian Kelly meets with the media. The Texas game is further dissected. The Irish drop to #18 in the AP poll and #21 in the coaches’ poll. This news and all others about Notre Dame football from the past 24 hours is below. FROM OUR SITE Notre Dame defense vs. Texas: The numbers Texas loss...

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]]> Brian Kelly meets with the media. The Texas game is further dissected. The Irish drop to #18 in the AP poll and #21 in the coaches’ poll. This news and all others about Notre Dame football from the past 24 hours is below.

FROM OUR SITE

PODCAST

NEXT GAME: vs. Nevada (3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, NBC)

2016 TEAM

OFFENSE

DEFENSE

SCHEDULE

RECRUITING

LAST GAME: Texas 50, Notre Dame 47

IRISH IN THE NFL

MISC.

Photo credit for featured image: Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune

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]]> Experts: Brian Kelly is Among Ten Best College Coaches https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/06/22/experts-brian-kelly-among-ten-best-college-coaches/ https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/06/22/experts-brian-kelly-among-ten-best-college-coaches/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2016 13:08:52 +0000 http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/?p=34622 While there will always be a segment of Notre Dame fans unhappy with Coach Brian Kelly’s performance, it’s getting harder to argue against his inclusion in the list of top, active FBS coaches. Kelly was ranked in the top 10 of all 128 FBS coaches in two separate publications Tuesday. Athlon Sports, which boasts an...

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]]> Kelly141While there will always be a segment of Notre Dame fans unhappy with Coach Brian Kelly’s performance, it’s getting harder to argue against his inclusion in the list of top, active FBS coaches.

Kelly was ranked in the top 10 of all 128 FBS coaches in two separate publications Tuesday. Athlon Sports, which boasts an online readership in excess of 1 million readers annually, chose Kelly as the 10th best coach. The Sporting News, which has covered college football since before the second World War, put Kelly at #9.

Here’s what Athlon said:

The Fighting Irish just missed out an appearance in the College Football Playoff last season, but Kelly has the program on stable ground and poised for another run at the top four in 2016. Since taking over in South Bend in 2010, Kelly is 55-23 at Notre Dame, including an appearance in the BCS National Championship game in 2012. The Fighting Irish have won at least eight games in each of Kelly’s seasons at the helm and finished No. 11 in the Associated Press poll last year. Winning at a high level at different programs is nothing new for Kelly.
From 1991-03, Kelly went 118-35-2 at Grand Valley State, including back-to-back Division II titles (2002-03). Additionally, he went 19-16 in three years at Central Michigan (2004-06) and 34-6 at Cincinnati from 2004-06. Kelly is a proven winner at four different jobs and clearly has a place among the top 15 coaches in the nation.

Here’s what the Sporting News said:

Last Year: 11
Record: 55-23 (108-45)
Lowdown: Give Kelly credit. He’s the steadiest presence the Irish have had on the sideline since Lou Holtz, and he’s coming off his second double-digit win season. He’s still just 11-12 against ranked teams. He’ll test that against the same tough schedule in 2016.

Athlon and The Sporting News both considered Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher, TCU’s Gary Patterson, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, Ohio State’s Urban Meyer and Alabama’s Nick Saban to be better than Kelly. Athlon also ranked David Shaw ahead of Kelly, while the Sporting News had Stanford’s head coach at #11 – behind LSU’s Les Miles. (Miles was #25 at Athlon, so there’s quite a discrepancy there.)

Here are the coaches Kelly will face in 2016 and their respective rankings:

Team Coach Athlon Sporting News
Texas Charlie Strong #11 #8
Nevada Brian Polian #91 #91
Michigan St. Mark Dantonio #4 #5
Duke David Cutcliffe #15 #27
Syracuse Dino Babers #46 #64
NC State Dave Doeren #63 #56
Stanford David Shaw #8 #11
Miami (Fla.) Mark Richt #16 #13
Navy Ken Niumatalolo #40 #36
Army Jeff Monken #105 #112
Virginia Tech Justin Fuente #33 #39
USC Clay Helton #86 #45

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]]> https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/06/22/experts-brian-kelly-among-ten-best-college-coaches/feed/ 4 Does Notre Dame Have a California Problem? https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/02/12/notre-dame-california-problem/ https://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2016/02/12/notre-dame-california-problem/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2016 13:06:08 +0000 http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/?p=33156 I’m admittedly a fan of prospects out of California that go on to become great college football players. I especially love it when they buck the trend and go out of state, and take a chance on Notre Dame. From my days of cheering on Kory Minor, I have always had a soft spot for...

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I’m admittedly a fan of prospects out of California that go on to become great college football players. I especially love it when they buck the trend and go out of state, and take a chance on Notre Dame. From my days of cheering on Kory Minor, I have always had a soft spot for guys on our roster from the Golden State.

Fresh off signing day 2016 and the anticlimactic Caleb Kelly announcement, I wanted to know how Brian Kelly has fared recruiting wise compared to his predecessor, Charlie Weis. My fuzzy memory tells me that Weis had better success in CA and landed a good number of kids from the state.  With the help of my HLS compatriot, @andrewinn, I looked at the data. Here are some summary points:

Charlie Weis in California

  • Through Weis’ years (2005-2009) Notre Dame targeted 45 prospects in CA.
  • Weis had 12 commits during this period, representing a 27% hit rate on pulling guys from out west.
  • 11% of Weis’ commits transferred or left Notre Dame, guys of note – Joe Fauria and Shaq Evans who went on to become good players at UCLA (note that Evans left after Weis was fired, and it seemed he never was in the good graces of the new coaching staff)
  • Notable misses from CA: honestly? Looking at the guys we didn’t get and looking at star ratings and what they went on to become – the only guy that could be a ‘miss’ was Mark Sanchez.

Brian Kelly in California

  • Obviously Brian Kelly has a few extra years on Weis, but if you just consider his first five years – ND offered 70 prospects. If you include through 2016’s class – a whopping 123 total prospects offered.
  • Unlike Weis, we didn’t land as many guys out of our targeted prospects. BK only signed 13% through his first five years, overall through 2016 ND has signed 11% of its CA targets.
  • Not a lot of transfers out of ND for CA guys – one guy of note, Tee Shepherd (only for the drama), and most recently Tyler Luatua. Not a transfer but kind of a bummer – Troy Niklas leaving early for the NFL.
  • The guys we missed on reads like an all-star roster (or the starting roster for USC): George Farmer, Robert Woods, Anthony Barr (still irks me that we couldn’t get him), Arik Armstead, Eddie Vanderdoes, Deontay Greenberry, Su’a Cravens, Matt Dickerson. It would be an understatement to say that the recruitment of these guys (and others from CA) were eventful and came down to the wire, and then some.

So what can we say about ND’s presence in CA? It would appear that Weis had better success from a bottom line perspective, targeting fewer guys but landing all of our top targets in the state. I mean, the guy called Jimmy Clausen on day one of the kid’s recruitment. Weis had Brian Polian running CA for the most part if I recall, and Polian really worked hard in the state for the most part.

Brian Kelly, although not as successful, is targeting more guys in the state, and going toe to toe against USC, UCLA, and Stanford to a certain extent, for a lot of the in-state talent. We hear of Denbrock running recruiting for CA, which at first seemed iffy. But he’s had a good run in the state and the addition of Mike Sanford is a good sign for CA recruiting.

I’m a believer in hitting to win – and you can’t get guys from CA if you’re not offering. It’s a good sign that we are offering as many guys over time in California; if anything to keep our traditional opponents on their toes (USC, Stanford).  I think as painful as these long recruitment sagas can go, I appreciate that ND is in it for a lot of guys late in the game. I think an energetic guy like Sanford could move the needle a bit for CA recruiting and we can have the best of Weis and Brian Kelly with regards to success out west.

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