Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 OCT. 29, 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FAN FORUM POSITION SWITCH? Notre Dame should make Chris Tyree a wide receiver. He would pull two play- ers to guard him, and that would open up the running game for Logan Diggs and Audric Estime. They are not using him properly. Tyree as a wide receiver would make the passing game a lot more dangerous and open up the running game at the same time. Joe Perillo Via the internet TRYING TO STAY POSITIVE I'm trying to stay as positive as I can. On one side, I'm lucky we have a pretty darn good ND club in Mobile and a fair amount of Irish fans. That said, I'm getting tired of defend- ing our team(s) as overrated and can't win against a top team or in a bowl by all these SEC fans. I witnessed firsthand the Ricky Watters team crushing Alabama in 1987, the four wins against Bear Bryant and the wonderful win in Tulane stadium over Alabama in 1973 as a young boy. Going to SEC games in addition to my usual one ND game, it is very apparent that we have lacked explosive offenses. Our defenses, for the most part, have been good to great, but our offenses scare no one. Every top team has a very good QB and receivers. The play calling I see week in and week out here in SEC country is way more varied and explosive. We all know we can't get the majority of the top-100 players due to grades, etc., but we have done very well in recruiting the last two years. So there is hope. Coach Freeman must get and keep a great QB and get our team more excited. I hate to say it, but our play calling is like watching the grass grow sometimes. I'm not getting any younger, and I sure wish we had a team coming up more like the '88, '93 and 2005 teams. We will be up for the Clemson game, so we'll see. Thanks for listening. C.L. "Skipper" Walters Mobile Ala. When an offense struggles, like the Fighting Irish did in a 16-14 loss to Stanford Oct. 15, the conversation often revolves around quarterback play. Here is an excerpt from a conversation about Irish signal-callers that took place on our message board at BlueandGold.com: Irishchef3: So with the struggles of Pyne on Saturday, it got me thinking about when Notre Dame will have that difference-maker at QB that elite programs seem to always have. Being a Bears fan I can relate to QB futility basically my entire life. I first started taking ND football seriously at the start of the Lou Holtz era, which was 1986. From 1986 to 2021, how many NFL-caliber QBs has Notre Dame produced? Not including Marcus Freeman, that would be five coaching regimes — Holtz, Davie, Willingham, Weis and Kelly. Lou Holtz produced Steve Buerlein, Rick Mirer and Ron Powlus. Davie produced Jarious Jackson. Willingham technically gets credit for Brady Quinn, and Weis produced Quinn and Jimmy Clausen. Brian Kelly produced DeShone Kizer and Ian Book in 12 years. Only Steve Buerlein and Rick Mirer had some success in the NFL. Over the last 35 years, the Notre Dame football program has produced eight QBs that were either drafted or were signed as undrafted free agents. Eight QBs! After 2022, it will be eight in 36 years. There is a argument to be made that the main reason Notre Dame has not won a title since 1988 is based on QB play. Weis had two that played well enough, but did not have a good enough defense. Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley produced Baker Mayfield, Jalen Hurts and Kyler Murray. In six years, the Sooners had two No. 1 overall picks and feature three current starting QBs in the NFL. Even Bob Stoops had Jason White and Sam Bradford as Heisman winners. Until Notre Dame can recruit, but more importantly develop quality QBs, the football program can't really move forward. ND96SC01: How many have Alabama and Ohio State produced in that time? Tua and Mac Jones for Alabama recently, but not many before that. MikeyGalv: Don't forget Jalen Hurts. With Bryce Young, that's what — 8 straight years of NFL QBs? Ohio State: C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields, Dwayne Haskins. Hell Bur- row couldn't cut it there. And look at these QB rooms compared to ND. Pyne wouldn't hold the clipboard at OSU. Bostonirish: ND needs to go back to the power-option run game to have a chance at another championship. Go back to what got you there. They still had better WRs back in the Holtz years than what they have had in the past 10 years. mgormal1: From what I gather the talent can get a little better but it's just ex - ecution guys. If Pyne throws a better ball on an open post route or a wide makes a catch or two we are 5-1 and we are a great offense. So it's really not much to complain about. Everything is in place. Just gotta make plays. FROM THE WEBSITE .com .com Through six games, junior running back Chris Tyree ranked second on the team in rushing (256 yards and 1 touchdown on 60 carries) and third in receiving (14 catches for 86 yards and 1 score). PHOTO BY KAYDEE GAWLIK