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RUN THE DAMN BALL

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Tempo for Tigers: Comparing the Pace of the Irish Offense

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When Brian Kelly assumed the mantle of coaching the Fighting Irish, there was an expectation that he would bring the crazy insane, up-tempo offense that put his Bearcats in that year's Sugar Bowl against Florida. "Up-tempo" can mean a couple of things. Think "number of plays per game," or "time between plays," or "caravan of fat people charging into an all-you-can-eat casino buffet." For the purposes of this piece, I'm going to look at the number of plays per game the Irish have managed under ...

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Notre Dame is also undefeated when Cam loses his helmet AND we have fun with the resulting meme in the Roundup.

Can We Please Stop Using Stats Like These?

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Excuse the mini-rant, but I just can't help it. Look, I love stats, they are great for determining trends and trying to dive deeper into games and a season. But can we stop using ones like this? https://twitter.com/BGI_DanMurphy/status/404980582074941440 I got nothing against BGI or ND Rivals or any of their reporters who do solid work, but this kind of stat is beyond worthless. No, I'm not saying this because it breaks my narrative/agenda or anything other ridiculous claim. There are ...

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Friday Roundup: The “2013 Needs to End” Edition

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You know, there are "ow, my balls" moments associated with Notre Dame football and then there is what is happening this year. Ever since the calendar turned to 2013, it's been one disaster after another. I really don't have adequate words to describe it, so I'll let the Big Lebowski do it for me: http://youtu.be/P7lGGhHZSZs After each disaster, we try to be The Dude, but when everything keeps snowballing we end up being the other Lebowski. And who can blame us? Let's just recap the mess ...

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Notre Dame Offense: Checking the Balance

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As I wrote yesterday's piece on Tommy Rees, I couldn't help but dive into some numbers. I felt that another unfair criticism of Rees is the claim that he audibles out of running plays far too often. The corollary of course is that Brian Kelly puts Notre Dame in a position to fail by putting far too much on the shoulders of Rees as well. AKA, the "RUN THE DAMN BALL!" argument. Of course, deciding to check out some stats led me into a rabbit hole that started at Tommy Rees and led me to ...

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Four Pleasant Surprises and Four Areas of Concern

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Week one is in the books. While all of us here at HLS will start diving in to some deeper analysis of the game, for now, I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts and takeaways from the tilt against Temple. So without further ado, here are four pleasant surprises and four areas of concern from last Saturday's game. Four Pleasant Surprises 1) Tommy Rees Has Improved And not just his stat line either. Oh sure, he had a career day going 16-23 for 346 yards, 3 TDs, and, most importantly ...

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Friday Roundup: The “Empty Gestures” Edition

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The SEC, Big Ten, and PAC 12, have all made their stand for their student athletes. They will no longer be a part of EA Sports NCAA Football video game series. Yes, what a fantastic gesture by these conferences. It's a move that draws a clear line in the sand that amateurism and student athletes matter. Except for the minor detail that EA Sports has separate agreements with the schools and they don't need conference approval anyways. Even if these dominoes are falling due to the O'Bannon ...

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Irish Overcome Mistakes, Trap Game, Remain Undefeated

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Two missed field goals, an interception off a facemask, a horribly inaccurate passing attack, and dumb, undisciplined penalties -- quite frankly the Irish resembled the 2011 squad instead of this year's top five version. However, unlike last year, the Notre Dame prevailed thanks to a career day from Theo Riddick and yet another solid performance by the Irish defense. ...

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Irish Dominate Hurricanes, Rise to #7 in the Nation

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The day began with concerns of Brian Kelly going back on his word of making Everett Golson his starting QB. The game itself began with worries that Miami would torch the Notre Dame defense all game long and that Tommy Rees' first nightmare drive would ensure the Irish offense would sputter. Then Miami roughed Ben Turk, Everett Golson ran onto the field, and the worries were gone. ...

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Irish Blogger Gathering: In a Happy Place

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This time last year, the members of the IBG were beside themselves, trying desperately to find silver lining against the disaster that was the turnover-laden USF game. This year, the IBG marches into week 2 with a 40-point victory and loads of confidence heading into Purdue. We are definitely in our happy place. This week, HLS teams up with Keith Arnold of Inside the Irish for IBG duties. His answers to my questions are below and you can check out my responses to his trio of questions over at ...

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12 & 13 – The ND Power Running Game

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One of the most striking things of note during the ND/Navy game this past Saturday was just how much we ran the ball. Notre Dame ended the contest with 46 runs and 23 passes -- that's right, the rushes doubled the passes. More striking though was the fashion in which we ran the football as we saw a mix of personnel packages unlike anything we've ever seen in the Kelly era. ...

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