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Morning Roundup: Sept. 9, 2016

andrewwinn — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 09:00:37 +0000

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.

Morning Roundup: Sept. 4, 2016

andrewwinn — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 09:00:20 +0000

Here are the headlines from the last 24 hours in the world of Notre Dame football.

FROM OUR SITE

Notre Dame at Texas: Predictions from deep in the heart of Texas

PODCASTS

Irish247: Notre Dame-Texas preview
Irish247: 1-on-1 with Jeff Howe of Horns247

NEXT GAME: at Texas (7:30 p.m. ET Sunday, ABC)

Austin American Statesman: Texas countdown to football: 5 Texas-Notre Dame games to remember
Burnt Orange Nation: Five non-QBs to watch on Sunday
Burnt Orange Nation: How to watch Texas vs. Notre Dame: Game time, TV, live streaming and more
Burnt Orange Nation: Showing improvement in 2016 is the biggest goal of all
Chicago Tribune: Notre Dame linebacker Nyles Morgan returns to starting role at Texas
CSN Chicago: Three keys and a prediction
The Football Brainiacs: It’s here, finally!
Hook ‘Em Headlines: Notre Dame game a recruiting event for Longhorns
Houston Chronicle: Preview: Texas vs. No. 10 Notre Dame
Irish247: Crawford confident heading into first start
Irish247: Luke preparing young players for hostile environment
Irish247: Staff predictions: Notre Dame at Texas
Irish247: Keys for a Notre Dame victory
iSportsWeb: Season opener and the two quarterback system
KVUE: Tailgaters lining up early for UT-Notre Dame showdown
SB Nation: Notre Dame vs. Texas, 2016 odds: Irish the road favorites on Sunday night
Slap the Sign: Notre Dame’s X-factor player of the week: Nyles Morgan
UND: Notre Dame-Texas 2016: Five things to watch
USA Today: Notre Dame huge test of Charlie Strong’s future at Texas

OFFENSE

Irish247: McGlinchey has high expectations for offensive line
Irish247: Folston, Irish offense ready to run

RECRUITING

Irish247: Jurkovec leads team to come-from-behind win
Irish247: Jamire Calvin continues to dominate on the field

SCHEDULE

Mercury General: Insurance and USC athletics offer Trojan football fans a chance to win a Notre Dame game VIP experience

IRISH IN THE NFL

Dolphins Report: Miami Dolphins make cuts: Track them here (Sam Young)

MISC.

The post Morning Roundup: Sept. 4, 2016 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Analyzing the Fall Camp Depth Chart

BJ Konkle — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 09:00:05 +0000

Fall camp produces the perfect mix for any college football junkie – immeasurable aspirations coupled with unlimited potential. The 2016 Fighting Irish are no exception. Many positional battles follow #NDFB into fall camp and understandably so with the solid depth at all positions. Let’s do a quick rundown of what to expect.

Depth, baby! Everything this fall will revolve around the exceptional depth that has slowly been built year over year. The coaching staff has recruited exceptionally well over the past few years (the 2017 class aka #IRISHEL17E and the 2018 class aka #IrishBouND18 are stacking up quite nicely as well) especially addressing specific positional needs.

The depth is far and above where it has been in years past. The offense returns multiple assets at every position. Proven running backs Tarean Folston and Josh Adams will lead the ground game along with Dexter Williams guaranteed to be fighting for carries.

The offensive line depth is nothing short of incredible considering it lost two future NFL starters from last year in Ronnie Stanley and Nick Martin. Junior guard Quenton Nelson has been named a Sports Illustrated preseason All-American and senior tackle Mike McGlinchey is garnering elite status as the 64th best player in the nation – according to ESPN. These two woolly mammoths will anchor the left side of the offensive line, and the right side anticipates a battle between junior Alex Bars and seniors Hunter Bivin and Colin McGovern.

Tight end, once a surging position of depth, took a hit in the academic ineligibility ruling against Alize Jones. As reported, Jones will miss the entire 2016 season. The return of transferring/not transferring Tyler Luatua provides the group with a huge (255 lbs. pun intended) veteran h-back, and his decision to not transfer now proves to be vital to the position group. Nic Weishar and Durham Smythe are both capable and consistent targets from a three point stance and split wide – this groups presence and overall utility within the red zone should not be understated.

Credit: Matt Cashore

The wide receiver cupboard is full – yet unproven. The only shoe-in to start is senior Torii Hunter Jr. Behind him will be an intriguing battle between Equanimeous St. Brown, Corey Holmes, Miles Boykin, C.J. Sanders, and potentially true freshman/early enrollee Kevin Stepherson. Finishing on the offensive side of the ball, who could forget the quarterback situation, in which the Irish arguably have the most collective talent at the position in the entire nation (including Brandon Wimbush)? *Insert your own opinions about the QB situation* and find my own here.

The defensive line (also unfortunately known as the Irish’s Achilles heel in recent years) is loaded with talent and (FINALLY) depth. Isaac Rochell, Jarron Jones and Daniel Cage are battle tested veterans while Andrew Trumbetti, Jay Hayes, Jerry Tillery, Jonathan Bonner, Micah Dew-Treadway and Elijah Taylor all look to make significant impacts and potentially break out. Also, look for the word “sub packages” to be thrown around as highly talented true freshman defensive ends Daelin Hayes and Khalid Kareem could be utilized as pass rushers in such schemes.

Nyles Morgan (Credit: Chicago Tribune)

Nyles Morgan is an automatic upgrade at the Mike linebacker position, and while replacing the “once in a century” freakish athleticism of Jaylon Smith is no small task, the linebacker corps is well stocked with young talent. Te’von Coney saw limited action last year and is reported to be fully recovered from a shoulder injury suffered in the Fiesta Bowl. His classmates and other blue chip linebacker recruits, Asmar Bilal (2015 defensive scout team player of the year) and Josh Barajas redshirted last year. This young talent will push upperclassmen, Greer Martini and James Onwaulu for reps.

The secondary returns Jekyll and Hyde aka Max Redfield along with sixth year Cal transfer Avery Sebastian and fan favorite Drue Tranquil – all at safety. Garnering spring ball notoriety was true freshman and early enrollee Devin Studstill, who was my “most likely to make an immediate impact” of the 2016 recruiting class.

Rounding out the secondary at cornerback is senior multi year starter Cole Luke along with juniors Nick Watkins and Devin Butler. They are surrounded by younger talent in sophomore Nick Coleman and Shaun Crawford, who was slated to be the team’s starting nickel back last year until suffering a torn ACL in fall camp. Crawford drew incredibly high praise during the 2015 fall camp before his injury, and his return provides a massive athletic boost to the secondary.

Credit: UHND.com

Over the past few years the Notre Dame special teams have often been regarded as the “not-so-special teams.” Last year, however, the group made great strides and improvements. Returning “The Big Three” key specialists in kicker Justin Yoon, punter Tyler Newsome, and long snapper Scott Daly should pay dividends for the special teams in 2016. DeShone Kizer has been relieved of his holding duties and he will be replaced by Montgomery VanGorder. The Irish also have the luxury of Sanders’ electric and ever-elusive return skills. As a true freshman, Sanders returned both a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown last season. The special teams should continue to build off of last year’s success.

With the well-rounded depth in place, #NDFB is primed for an entertaining fall. Don’t forget that it is your civic duty as a Domer to recite one Hail Mary each day of camp for the shake of keeping this vital depth healthy!

Cheers and Go Irish!

The post Analyzing the Fall Camp Depth Chart appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

A Trio of Irish Injuries

andrewwinn — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 18:46:06 +0000

Devin Butler / Credit: 247 Sports

Senior cornerback Devin Butler, junior running back Justin Brent and junior cornerback Nick Watkins are among Irish injured during recent football activities, with Butler’s injury expected to sideline him until late September.

Coach Brian Kelly revealed Monday that Butler sustained a second fracture to his left foot. After starting in place of the injured KeiVarae Russell, Butler missed the Fiesta Bowl after breaking the long bone on the outside of his foot that connects to his little toe.

Kelly said Butler has had “a great semester academically. We really see him trending in the right way. And then to have an injury like that was very disappointing for him. And we’re disappointed for him.”

The 6-foot-1/2, 200 pound senior was expected to compete for an open position opposite fellow senior cornerback Cole Luke. Watkins, who suffered a fractured left humerus April 2, was also vying for the position. The junior is expected back when camp reconvenes in August.

Redshirt freshman Shaun Crawford, who may have already hopped Butler before his recent injured, is now a favorite to open the season with Luke at cornerback. Irish Sports Daily’s Jamie Uyeyama said sophomore Nick Coleman, who played primarily on special teams last year, and redshirt freshman Ashton White will probably get more attention for a spot behind Luke, Crawford and Watkins.

The Irish certainly lack experience at the corner position, with Butler giving them a little more than they’ll obviously have without him.

Justin Brent / Credit: 247 Sports

Butler started against Arizona State and USC in 2014; against the Trojans, he recorded a career-high 7 tackles. The junior also made seven tackles on special teams last year, third highest among the Irish. Butler also recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half against Navy, which ultimately resulted in a touchdown. He started against Stanford last year, recording three tackles.

Brent, who has struggled to crack the depth chart at running back, suffered a Lisfranc injury and had a screw inserted into his foot.

“He could be slowed for the first week or two,” Kelly told Blue Gold Illustrated’s Lou Somogyi.

Other injury news:

Corey Robinson, who suffered multiple concussions during his football career, will announce Wednesday if he will continue to play. Robinson, who is the university’s student body president, is a senior with one year of eligibility remaining.
Sophomore wide receiver C.J. Sanders is progressing nicely from surgery to repair a hip flexor. Kelly told Blue Gold Illustrated that “CJ is ahead of schedule by almost three weeks, which is really good news.” Sanders is expected to compete for the starting role at the slot position with redshirt sophomore Corey Holmes and may also be the Irish’s primary kick and punt returner.

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Notre Dame vs. UMass 62-27: The Game I Hated and Have Always Wanted

Ryan Ritter — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 06:19:02 +0000

View image | gettyimages.com

For the first time in a long time, I found myself downright pissed at Notre Dame at halftime.

The 35-20 lead that the Irish took into the locker room might as well have been flipped. The effort was uninspiring. The offense sputtered far too often, including a terrible interception due to, of all people, Will Fuller trying to catch the ball with his body and not his hands. The defense looked lost, giving up three consecutive UMass drives for touchdowns, including a one-play, 78-yard drive that made Marquis Young look like Leonard Fornette.

I wanted Brandon Wimbush to start the second half. C.J. Prosise should have only needed his impressive 100+ yard first quarter before he took a well-deserved rest for the remainder of the game. Nyles Morgan should have been flying around the field while Jaylon Smith and Joe Scmidt were carefully bubble-wrapped on the sidelines. The Irish looked to be on pace for such a performance for most of the first quarter, but everything just seemed to fall apart.

Then the second half happened and everything was great again.

This game reminded me of so many other non-ND games that I have watched before. You take a top-ten team against a ridiculously weak opponent. The top-ten team falls on their face and, by halftime, you start to entertain the notion of a huge upset. More often than not, halftime is where such thoughts remain and quickly die as said superior team figures it out and just trounces their opponent like it was nothing in the second half.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted a Notre Dame team to come out with a similar response. It seemed to be all or nothing with the Irish. If a blowout was going to happen, it went wire-to-wire. If there was a struggle, that too went wire-to-wire.

Something finally clicked against UMass, as the Irish dominated UMass 27-7 in the second half, mostly played by backups, to finish the day with an impressive 62-27 victory that covered any spread Vegas conceived comfortably.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3afbWJ5ufQ

By the time the final whistle blew, you could take your pick on impressive and historical stats that the Irish managed to compile. They scored 60 points for the first time since 1996 against Rutgers (man, that school is still taking in the shorts these days) and their 457 rushing yards on 51 attempts for a 8.96 yards/rush average (hell yes, I’m bolding that sexy stat) where the highest since they ran over Boston College in 1996 for 426 yards.

More run the damn ball goodness: Notre Dame has rushed for over 200 yards every game since the Music City Bowl against LSU. The last time the Irish did that was in 2000 under Bob freakin’ Davie when the Irish did it six times in a row (sidenote: I’m now cheering hard for this team to topple that mark now that I’m aware). Notre Dame also came close to having three rushers go for over 100 yards and probably would have if Wimbush didn’t stumble on one of his runs in which he had nothing but green turf ahead of him, finishing with “only” 92 yards.

C.J. Prosise led the day with 149 yards on 15 carries, notching two TDs. He now has 600 rushing yards this season with 495 in the past three games which is the most in a three game stretch since Julius Jones in 2003. Prosise is also the first ND back with three consecutive 100-yard games since Darius Walker in 2005. He was almost outdone by freshman Josh Adams who had 133 yards on 13 carries and a 70 yard TD.

Adams wasn’t the only freshman to find the endzone against UMass. The aforementioned Wimbush had a TD run. Dexter Williams found paydirt. And C.J. Sanders returned a punt for a TD (shockingly, out of what appeared to be a punt safe call) which was the first Irish punt return for a TD since Golden Tate in 2009 and the first in ND stadium since Tom Zbikowski (!) in 2006.

Oh, and that Will Fuller guy got another TD reception, the 22nd of his ND career. Minor footnote.

Even with the second half freshman party, the game wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Despite Cole Luke pulling down the first INT of the season for the Irish on a Mathias Farley tip drill, the secondary had very little to hang its hat on. For quite a bit of the game, UMass receivers consistently burned Irish DBs in one-on-one coverage, which is ever-so concerning with Clemson and Southern Cal right around the corner.

I’m honestly not sure what the issue is here. Brian VanGorder could be trusting his DBs too much against inferior opponents and blitzing more than he should. Both Virginia and this game against UMass had borderline disaster moments against the pass. Perhaps the blitz rate slows down against Clemson next week (although with freshman all over that O-line, I doubt it), but even then, when the Irish drop into zone, the windows appear to be so large that I’m pretty sure I could complete a pass.

Make no mistake, the Irish are getting pressure even if the sacks aren’t coming very often. However, it appears that opposing QBs (Swoopes excluded) are able to find their open receiver quickly than BVG would like.

Whatever the issue is, I’m hoping there is another SWAG team that BK has up his sleeve that can help fix it. While Clemson has shown some holes in their game, the Irish simply can’t afford to let Deshaun Watson pick them apart and place all the pressure in the world on DeShone Kizer on the road.

But all-in-all this was a game that would drive you to drink out of anger and joy. I both hated and loved this game. At the end of the day, the scoreboard reading CFB fan/pollster will chalk this up as a dominating ND victory against a vastly inferior opponent which is exactly what the Irish want. The silver lining to the terrible moments of the first half will give Brian Kelly and staff more than enough ammo in the next week of practice.

EVEN BETTER: no one had a season ending injury. There were some injuries before the game as Tyler Luatua was held out with a concussion and Corey Robinson suffered a knee sprain during warm-ups and will have an MRI to confirm there is nothing more serious. Ronnie Stanley gave us all a scare as he went down after being rolled up on, but Kelly stated after the game it was only patellar tendonitis and not major.

(By the way, big ‘ol h/t to UND.com for all of the awesome historical information for this game.)

The post Notre Dame vs. UMass 62-27: The Game I Hated and Have Always Wanted appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Friday Roundup: The “Notre Dame Fall Camp 2014 Catch-Up” Edition

Ryan Ritter — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 10:00:25 +0000

Once WatchND started pumping out Notre Dame football fall camp practice videos, I was all in for breaking each one down. It worked great for the first two practices, but then practice #3 happened and saw the video breakdown was a position profile for the CBs.

Don’t get me wrong, the feature was great, but a basically started at my title of “Fall Camp Practice Report #3: CB Report” for about an hour and realized there was no way that I could even drag 100 words out of the topic.

So I passed on the post. Ten more practices are in the books (ND completed practices #12 and #13 yesterday) across the past eight days and quite a bit has happened. It’s time to play some catch-up.

So today, it’s time to enjoy a very Irish-centric special edition of the Roundup. Think of this as the quick way to catch up the past week of fall camp.

The Roundup

I will never cease to be amazed at the freaks of nature we have at TE. Koyack should not be able to move as fast for how big he is. Tyler Luata is also an absolute freak of nature. Just check out the pancake he delivers at 3:20 in the clip. Yeah, that’s a freshman.

The first day of practice in full pads is probably the real first glimpse of what we can expect this season. I think this goes double for defense. For most of the videos to this point, we’ve seen the secondary just abuse receivers with incredibly physical play. Throughout this clip though, they seem to have backed off behavior that would draw out more defensive PI flags than Sparty trying to stop Tommy Rees. Other highlights that I liked: Sheldon Day looking like a beast and Ishaq Williams putting some good rushes together:

The August 9 practice gave us a peak the Irish in the red zone. Spoiler alert: THEY RAN THE DAMN BALL! In all seriousness, the last bit of the video has Greg Bryant flat out GOING OFF on two great runs. Once the Irish got inside the 10, we saw Bryant get a blow and Cam tried to punch it in. The next play featured Bryant in a personnel package that included freshman beast Tyler Luata that got the TD. As for the rest of the practice? Probably the most physical highlights we’ve seen thus far:

The RB profile gave us no clues on the depth chart battle. The combination of Cam McDaniel, Tarean Folston, and Greg Bryant make this position one of the most exciting on the team. With their talent though, it’s hard to project who is going to come out of the gate as the starter or how all three will rotate. If I could read any of the tea leaves that Tony Alford was throwing out there, it appears that Bryant might have the most work to do out of the trio.

The profile on the safeties led me to an interesting conclusion. Kerry Cooks said a few different things that jumped out at me. Firstly, Austin Collinsworth has clearly jumped out as the QB of the defense. The mention that he can play both positions jumped out at me as well. Cooks also mentioned that Max Redfield was making noticeable improvement. Mathias Farley was listed in the video as a S/CB. Finally, Cooks touted Shumate as the most talented of the group. All of this together leads me to believe that nickel and dime packages might feature some hybrid roles that we haven’t seen before. Either that or we are going to see a crazy, constant rotation:

Here’s a shocker, Everett Golson is your starting QB for Rice. Yes, “for Rice”, much like the same language Kelly used in 2012. That’s fine, I’m good with it and I’m sure Malik Zaire is going to see the field a fair amount this season (hopefully not due to injury). Want to know what really stood out to me though? The managers got to play the pitch man for the QBs during an option drill and I’m forever sad that I didn’t get to do that:

Yesterday’s practice video focused on the defensive line. Honestly, I thought this was one of the more enlightening position profile videos to date. The D-line has to be the lead as far as question marks go considering all the talent that was lost. Listening Mike Elston break down everyone’s performance and what they expect of everyone was great. I know Andrew Trumbetti made a lot of waves this week (more on that later), but it’s good to hear that another freshman, Johnny Williams is standing out a bit as well, even if it appears he is behind a touch on the learning curve:

And here’s your main event: Brian Kelly’s August 13th presser. Loads of information in this one, including our first peak into portions of the depth chart. I had a few things that stood out to me:

Kelly talked a lot about rotations on defense, especially in the front seven.
Mentioned that VanGorder’s defense allows the young guys to just go and play on instinct.
In fact, for all that’s been made about how complicated the schemes on defense are, I have a feeling VanGorder is scheming to his talent.
Kelly seemed frustrated with questions about if ND had their base defense installed. I read that as “we won’t have a traditional base”.
Everett can check out of plays, but he probably won’t need to due to the way the offense is designed.
No major injuries on the O-line, but with various guys being out for a day, the starting five is still up in the air.
Kelly is taking a look at individual competitive drills before he decides who is on the special teams units.

With all that in mind, here’s the depth chart. Or rather, what Kelly confirmed explicitly thus far:

[table “” not found /]

And now you’re moment of Nix…

What is this I don't even #MSPaintMonday pic.twitter.com/MBKxDzX8Yw

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) August 12, 2014

The Booze

Summer is nearly done and I haven’t yet had one of my favorite summer whiskey cocktails, the Lynchburg Lemonade:

1 part Jack
1 part Triple Sec
1 part Sour Mix
4 parts lemon-lime soda

You can sub in Jack with a bourbon as well (obviously it kills the Lunchburg namesake, but whatever).

Cheers.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Notre Dame Fall Camp 2014 Catch-Up” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

8 Big Questions: Where Do the Irish Stand?

Ryan Ritter — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 15:12:26 +0000

Back in August, I outlined 8 big questions that were on my mind for the upcoming season. Now that we are three games in, I wanted to take a look at where the Irish currently stand.

1. Which Tommy Rees will show up?

So far, we’ve seen good Tommy Rees, Touchdown Tommy, Reesus, whatever you want to call the opposite of Turnover Tommy.

Thus far, Rees is 65/107 (60.7%) for 969 yards (323 yards/game), 7 TDs, and, most importantly only 2 INTs. Further, only one of those INTs was really a bad mistake by Rees when he completely lost sight of a CB in zone coverage against Michigan. His second INT that night was a tip drill while trying to lead the Irish to a comeback that same night.

This is exactly what I wanted to see from Tommy and to be honest, I’m getting a bit more than I expected. He is doing a lot more than just managing the game, he is one brightest spots of the whole team.

Sadly, when things turn sour, he seems to be the one still catching much of the blame, even when he has nothing to do with it. The fact of the matter is that Tommy isn’t hurting the team at all. Would it be better if he was more mobile and we could throw in a read option wrinkle? Sure, but it isn’t like defenses can now rush 3, drop 8 and expect Rees to eventually fold anymore.

We’ll get some of the reasons why the offense is stagnant a little later, but, needless to say, Tommy isn’t one of them.

2. Will ND return punts for positive yardage?

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: the punt return still needs a lot of work.

The Irish have still stumbled on special teams which was illustrated best this past week by T.J. Jones inexplicably fair catching a ball inside the five yard line.

The Irish still have some work to do here, but it is still encouraging to see an actual effort to return punts and end the fair catch parade. If they can clean up the sloppy play we’ve seen the past few games, we may finally stop having a headache about this every weekend.

3. Who will step up into Te’o’s leadership role?

On the offense, Tommy Rees has definitely stepped up the leadership aspect. The cameras caught him rallying his offensive troops on multiple occasions which is encouraging.

However, I don’t think he’s stepped in to the Te’o role of the team’s emotional leader.

The defense quite frankly plays completely flat at times. While you might see an individual step it up on occasion, there isn’t that one guy that lights a fire under everyone else’s ass so all eleven men on the field run through walls on the next play.

The defense is still searching for their identity and because the defense was such a large part of who the 2012 Irish were, I think the entire team is looking for their identity.

All is not lost here, but someone needs to step into this role and make this their team. Perhaps Tommy will continue to grow and do this or someone else will take the reigns. Either way, I hope it happens fast because we desperately need it.

4. Which freshmen will make an immediate impact?

Jaylon Smith has to be the leader in the clubhouse for this. Yes, it is mostly by default since he is the only freshman getting any real playing time, but that doesn’t detract from what he’s doing on the field. He is playing some solid football and making very few mistakes as a true freshman. I expect his level of play to only improve as the season moves on.

However, I do wonder why most of the highly touted freshmen are riding the pine most of the game. Perhaps Kelly’s tendency as a coach is to hold them back for a few games to ease into the situation before he lets them loose (think Tuitt a couple of years ago). It’s hard to say this isn’t the case because as of now, Jaylon is playing out of need, Elmer got more playing time only when Watt went down, Cole Luke, Bryant, and Folston have seen limited action, and I’m not sure Redfield has been involved in a snap yet (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on that).

I’m hoping Kelly takes the training wheels off because this team has needed a spark on multiple occasions and freshmen going all out can be a great way to do that. Sure, it’s a risk considering they are more prone to mistakes, but I think it’s a calculated one that can pay huge dividends.

5. First Tate, then Floyd, then Eifert, then…?

Both T.J. Jones and DaVaris Daniels are stepping up in a big way for the Irish. Daniels has been on the end of the more explosive plays, but Jones has been the security blanket for Rees to this point in the season. Both are poised to continue to have big seasons for the Irish and will cause defenses fits in coverage schemes as focusing on one will open up the other and focusing on both let’s someone like Chris Brown burn everyone.

The receiving corps is in great shape and definitely exceeding my initial expectations to say the least.

6. Which running back will rise to the top?

Will the real RB1 please stand up, please stand up?

The real answer to this question is that no one has. Sure, Cam busted out some tough yards while wearing a crimson mask, but he simply lacks the impact that someone like Amir Carlisle or GA3 can provide. The problem is that both backs, especially GA3, are making awful cuts and reads on their runs. Amir Carlisle coughing up the football against Purdue wasn’t exactly encouraging either.

As of now, I’d say Amir might have a slight edge, but no one has separated themselves from the pack yet. This needs to change immediately as the stagnant rushing attack is causing most of the offensive woes. If you wondered why we don’t run the ball more often, the failures of Purdue might just be an example of why. Luckily, the Irish remained in striking distance during that game and weren’t forced into an air raid mode, but if we go down two-plus possessions, I would expect to see everything on Tommy Rees’ shoulders until the running game shapes up.

7. Will ND finally beat Southern Cal at home?

As of now, the answer appears to be yes. Despite ND’s frustrating showings, they would look like All American performances compared to the dumpster fire that is the Trojans.

Their first win was against Hawaii and was only due to Hawaii’s QB being so much worse than the entire Trojan offense was that evening. They followed this performance up by losing to Washington State at home by a score of 10-7 — yes, 10 points beat the Trojan offense. Last week the offense “exploded” for 35 points against a BC team that would have a hard time beating anyone with a pulse.

This is a bad football team; however, they have a lot of talent despite their awful start. They could still figure it out by the time they get to South Bend, but as of now, it’s looking all-Irish for that game.

8. Will ND finally win a BCS Bowl before they’re put out to pasture?

I think we should forget about winning a BCS game at this point and focus more on actually getting there first because that alone will be an achievement at this point.

Things need to improve and fast as a 9 or 8 win season seem like more realistic possibilities than a 10 win season.

BONUS: Will HLS crash during the season?

Thus far, the HLS hamsters have been the only reliable thing about this season. The answer remains: no, we aren’t crashing.

The post 8 Big Questions: Where Do the Irish Stand? appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Cole Luke Archives - Her Loyal Sons

Morning Roundup: Sept. 9, 2016

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.

Morning Roundup: Sept. 4, 2016

FROM OUR SITE

PODCASTS

NEXT GAME: at Texas (7:30 p.m. ET Sunday, ABC)

OFFENSE

RECRUITING

IRISH IN THE NFL

MISC.

Analyzing the Fall Camp Depth Chart

A Trio of Irish Injuries

Notre Dame vs. UMass 62-27: The Game I Hated and Have Always Wanted

Friday Roundup: The “Notre Dame Fall Camp 2014 Catch-Up” Edition

The Roundup

The Booze

8 Big Questions: Where Do the Irish Stand?

1. Which Tommy Rees will show up?

2. Will ND return punts for positive yardage?

3. Who will step up into Te’o’s leadership role?

4. Which freshmen will make an immediate impact?

5. First Tate, then Floyd, then Eifert, then…?

6. Which running back will rise to the top?

7. Will ND finally beat Southern Cal at home?

8. Will ND finally win a BCS Bowl before they’re put out to pasture?

BONUS: Will HLS crash during the season?