Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1061429
6 JANUARY 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FAN FORUM TURNING NEGATIVES INTO POSITIVES I was a freshman in 1964, but having been raised in South Bend and having gone to high school across the lake at the long since departed Holy Cross Seminary, I had lived through the Terry Brennan and Joe Kuharich eras. Yes, Hughie Devore, too, but as an interim coach in '63 at least Devore had his players imbued with fighting spirit, if absolutely zero X's and O's. All of that and the fabulousness of Ara Parseghian's first year led to the sheer awfulness of that last part of the fourth quarter in '64 at USC. That made me, like some of us, extremely cautious about this year 's Nov. 24 game at USC. What makes the perception of the 24‑17 victory interesting is we, the Notre Dame fans, are aware of how the particular historical aspect of the ND‑USC rivalry can make the Coliseum a very tough venue — but outsiders will be using the closeness of the score to reinforce the story line that we are trash and will get blown out by four TDs by Alabama or Clemson. That will help us avoid the Kool‑ Aid of 2012. If this team is as high‑ character as it seems, it will motivate them in their so far habitual good solid fashion to rise to the (magnifi‑ cent!!!) occasion(s). Peter Herrly '68 Paris, France MASK WORK Great photo on the cover of the Notre Dame‑USC issue! As the officiating in college football has been suspect at best this year, I was wondering if this "grabbing the face mask" drew a penalty. This is not just a swipe! Michael M. Malone Via the Internet Mr. Malone, no such call was made, but USC did finish with more than twice as many penalties (eight for 71 yards) than Notre Dame (three for 38). KELLY'S HEROES A gritty win for sure — we all knew USC would show up. After the "Barnum & Bailey Cir‑ cus" of 8,000‑plus miles, the Irish were a tad "fatigued." As you guys have pointed out, the SHAMrock game is a frivolous folly, and the bur‑ den far exceeds any benefits. Playing four of five games away in the stretch run makes no sense if you want to be a national player. Not one other school did the same foolishness. In light of the above, "Kelly's He‑ roes" deserve accolades and a spot in the College Football Playoff. After four CFPs in 2014‑17, no No. 1 seed has won, so the commit‑ tee hasn't yet figured out who is "re‑ ally" the best. This Irish club is much FROM THE WEBSITE Here we go again. Notre Dame football is in a championship setting, and one of the story lines nationally always is going to be that it "doesn't have the speed" of the other elite teams like Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Georgia, etc. Here were some samples on BlueandGold.com. Martin0956: Why do we always hear we lack team speed? Friedman IP: Lazy reporting that simply relies on previous ND teams that really did lack team speed, especially on defense. For the most part, we've had good team speed since 2012 (not elite, but good). Hard to shake nearly 20-plus years of narrative. NDNEIL: Speed is the easy route for pundits. Football isn't that simple. I do think ND has improved its recruiting of "faster" players. However, the biggest improvement made under Brian Kelly — save the Brian VanGorder years — is they are better schooled, which has allowed them to play faster, or appear faster, because they are in position. BigHoss28: Because they watched USC complete a bunch of underneath routes in soft coverage against Notre Dame and that somehow means ND is slow. Don't try to understand the logic. It's non-existent. IrishNaples: Do people really think Clemson's receivers are going to just outrun someone like Troy Pride? About the only position where we are noticeably slow is WR, but we make up for it in height, hands and, in Chris Finke's case, route running. I admit there have been instances in the past where we were slow. Joe Schmidt post injury was embarrassingly slow at times, but nobody besides him seemed to understand the defensive scheme. BGIUser2232: Is Dexter slow? Was Adams? Prosise? Do our defensive ends look slow? Are opposing WRs beating our DBs and safeties deep? Even Ian Book has good speed and athleticism for a QB, and Brandon Wimbush has much more. The only position where speed is probably only average is WR, but they compensate for it with other skills. Kwsusmc: It's a tired mantra constantly brought up every time ND reaches a big game. Even when it's shut down like against Syracuse, it rises again when USC scored 10 points. Yes, 10 points until less than a minute left, where they scored 17 total. Yet Clemson gets no grief giving up 35 and over 500 yards to South Carolina, who had a marginally better season than USC. CoopDog01: Our defense has been great at negating YAC (yards after catch) this year. We're a very sound tackling team that hits you and you go down. That's huge against these teams that do probably have more all-around speed. We play with better speed than we actually have, in my opinion, because we know what we are doing and what we are trying to accomplish. I hope it holds true against Clemson. GoldenJudge: That's a great point. A high level of consistent player execu- tion makes a huge difference. It's hard to put a stat on it and isn't referred to enough when analyzing how a team plays. Stonewall13: Our defensive line doesn't appear slow. Julian Love isn't the quickest, but makes up for it. Not buying it. If you told me our defensive interior was undersized then I would believe that. MRegan: Love actually has elite quickness. I think you are conflating straight-line speed with quickness. Love doesn't have elite straight line speed, but it is very good. ND35usc0: ND's offensive line effectiveness will tip the scale one way or the other. YSUbest: Receiver is the stark difference between Notre Dame and the rest in the CFP this season related to speed. Despite big plays throughout the season by players such as senior running back Dexter Williams, team "speed" is questioned about the 12-0 Irish. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA