Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526670
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 21, 2024 5 FAN FORUM ND VS. NIU DISASTER 1. This kind of loss is unacceptable to the Irish fan base. 2. Time to put Marcus Freeman on the hot seat. Two season-crushing losses in the last three years to teams we should have beat. 3. Riley Leonard to be benched in favor of other talented QBs, at least in the short term. 4. With no conference title to play for, playoffs unattainable. 5. ND's bowl game will be USC. Dan Keliher (50-plus-year supporter) OBVIOUS WEAKNESSES The loss to NIU exposed two obvious weaknesses on the ND football team. First, the offense line is not protecting the QB, or opening up room for the running game. How to fix the problem is up to the coaches, but it's not likely to be a quick fix. Second, Riley Leonard is not a very accurate passer. Whether that's due to the lack of pass pro- tection or not is up to the coaches to determine. If not, it's time to consider another QB starter. And, incidentally, the vaunted defensive pass protection showed some weaknesses against an accurate opposing QB. Maybe the man-to-man scheme needs some rethinking? Last thought, NIU played a great game, showed resilience and some real talent on the team. They earned respect! Tim O'Reilly ('61) WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? I am not one of those fans that always wants the QB that is not playing to take over. However, it might be time to admit we made a mistake. I have not seen receivers run 2-yard routes on third- and-10 since Jim Colletto was OC. I understand why it is difficult to recruit elite receivers when we refuse to throw the ball down- field. Our OC is a proven coach so we must look at personnel, starting at QB. Tony Ardizzone Indianapolis BE HEARD! Send your letters to: sdowney@comanpub.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 Following Notre Dame's stunning 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois, among the talking points was quarterback play. Here's part of the discussion that took place on our message board at BlueandGold.com. Bsmitty8: This [transfer quarterbacks] isn't the answer. QBs lead programs. They form an identity of a team (think Tim Tebow). ND needs to get the face of the franchise so to speak and roll with that guy. [Riley] Leonard isn't the guy, I wasn't a fan when we signed him, and I'm not a fan now. Rip the band-aid off … admit you made a mistake and roll with [CJ] Carr or [Kenny] Minchey. Build for the future with this young OL and defense. FRG44: I think you bring in the best talent you can and then play the guy that gives you the best chance to win. That guy is Leonard, IMO. If it shakes out that ND brings in a transfer every year for the remainder of my life, and starts him, I'm cool with that. It means ND upgraded the position. Play the best man. In a year or two, the best man very well may be one of the current QBs, and it likely won't be because he was homegrown, but because he's just the better player. Homegrown is the ideal; not the final goal. Mh2365: [Transfer QBs] works for other schools … just doesn't work for us. Maverick 1: I agree with grooming your own quarterbacks I wanted them to have [Steve] Angeli and [Kenny] Minchey duke it out this year. Last year [Sam] Hartman was the right move and he was far better than what Notre Dame had on their roster. This year should go with what you got. FROM THE WEBSITE .com .com JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT BLUEANDGOLD.COM! New subscribers: Use Promo Code GoIrish2024 To SAVE 25% off your first year! YOUR POSTAL CONCERNS; OUR SOLUTIONS Dear Subscribers, We have heard your concerns (phone calls, emails and voicemails), and we understand the pain of slow postal delivery delaying your issues of Blue & Gold Illustrated. We live this reality every year, because each fall there are four postal holidays that inevitably disrupt our weekly mailing schedule — Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving. Rest assured, we do everything in our power to get the magazine into your hands as quickly as possible each week. Our team works tirelessly to send each in-season issue of BGI to the printer on Sunday mornings to insure that it gets printed, bound and delivered into the U.S. Postal Service system each Sunday afternoon. But given the changing nature of the USPS shipping lanes, understandable geographical challenges with zip codes far away from our distribution point in Indiana and the afore- mentioned holiday weeks, we continue to hear about some subscribers experiencing delivery issues. The leading complaint we hear about is when the issue doesn't arrive in time for you to read about the upcoming week's opponent. Here's the good news … 1) We have had two digital solutions in place for this for many years now, and we are making fur- ther enhancements for your convenience. • Each in-season issue of Blue & Gold Illustrated is emailed to subscribers on Sunday mornings with a link to our digital flip-book issue. We know you want the print version, but this digital version is identi- cal and immediate. It's easily viewable on computer or tablet. • Next, the Blue Gold Report newsletter is an essential component that is INCLUDED WITH your BGI magazine subscription. This is our weekly update that gets sent via email every pregame Wednesday afternoon. It includes the Game Preview and On Paper feature articles from the current issue of the magazine as well as Depth Charts, Rosters (for both teams), Statistics, Staff Predictions, TV info and our popular Trivia Question. Previously we had included a log-in button for the digital issue articles and a PDF for the rest, but going forward we will provide a link to each of these items in a printer-friendly PDF format. • We have approximately 80 percent of our subscribers' email addresses on file. However, only a small number of you are actually taking advantage of this information each week. This remains the only way we can guarantee the BGI pregame package reaches you each week — because the USPS offers no actual delivery guarantees, even with first-class mail. If you're not currently receiving this newsletter, send your email address to: BGIsupport@BlueandGold.com or check your spam folder to make sure it's being properly routed in your inbox. And if you're not reading it, then you're missing out! 2) We also will soon be making an editorial change to further address the situation in our magazine. Beginning with the Sept. 28 issue, we will now devote one page in our Game Preview package to the "On Deck" opponent for the following week on the schedule. That means Vol. 44, Issue 4 will recap the Miami (Ohio) game, provide a full preview of the Louisville game and offer an early look at the Stanford matchup. And we will continue to do this for the remainder of the season. We are passionate fans, too, and we want you to get the most out of your print subscription, which in- cludes utilizing the digital/email offerings to your advantage. As always, thank you for your readership. Go Irish! — Mark Panus, Publisher