Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 26, 2024 5 FAN FORUM LEARN FROM PAST MISTAKES How many times are we going to watch the ND coaching staff make poor decisions at crucial times in a game? Doesn't anyone on the staff learn from past mistakes? I'm talking about plays like the pass against Northern Illinois that cost the game and against Louisville when the great thinkers on the offensive staff ran the ball on fourth-and-3 near midfield and didn't make it. I would like to know where Marcus Freeman was when that call was made. He is the head coach and he has the last say, he should have overridden the OC and punted the ball. His thinking should have been, if they are going to win the game they are going to go 80 or more yards, not what ND left them. It seems to me that the DC and the defensive staff have a better handle on the game than the offensive staff. The offense put the defense in poor position and they gave up two very short touch- downs. Other than that, they played very well. Al Golden is an excellent coach. When Freeman was interviewed after the game he said we make mistakes and we have to learn from them. I agree, but it doesn't seem as if ND does learn from them. I'm 85 — I don't have that many sun- sets left. All I want is to see ND win an- other national title. Ray Ciarleglio BE HEARD! Send your letters to: sdowney@comanpub.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 At his weekly press conference Oct. 14, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman announced that junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison would miss the remainder of the 2024 season due to a hip injury that will require surgery. Needless to say, this news was a bombshell for Irish fans. Here is some of the reaction we had on our message board at BlueandGold.com after the surprising announcement was made. Holland3626: ****, I didn't even know he got hurt. I'm glad we've got some great CBs but this is still a massive loss. Ldboyle: These defensive injuries are just disastrous, and I guess we'll find out where the tipping point is. Only silver lining is that they have really shone a light on how good the depth of talent is on this team. I think people are largely reaching when assigning blame to the S&C team, but man … nothing to say other than this flat-out stinks for all involved. All the best for BMo. Maverick 1: Part of the game, they do have a deep secondary. apegambino: Hits keep coming every week. Unreal. GirthBrooks: This it for Morrison in an Irish uniform? ahoneywell: Do we anticipate Clark playing more CB and Heard moving over to nickel, or just play the freshmen at CB? SpaddyND: Clark, Heard, Moore and Hobbs will have to step it up. The good thing is besides USC, we won't be facing a great passing attack. mh2365: Does he come back now? Llenas: Is this one of the worst injury seasons in the past few decades? It sure seems like it. mgbirish: Yeah, it blows because Morrison is a great first-round pick po- tential, no way around it. We will also get to see this Moore kid who is being talked about as being better than Morrison. Remember Morrison's true fresh- man year? We'll find out Saturday. Sagashark: This is the last we see of BMo in a Notre Dame uniform. Recov- ery and on to the NFL. Wish him well but it's a tough loss. GO IRISH!!! SpaddyND: I hope Freeman never says this was the healthiest fall camp he has ever had. Talk about jinxing the team. Rsatkowiak: I recall 2015 being particularly bad as well. sim_kev: All right, well now, I don't think they're winning out. Bsmitty8: I would make a plan to use Urlacher against Navy and Army. Hard-nosed DB who seems to be very willing tackler. SilentBanjo: Hard to unpack this. The real concern should be for Morrison and his career and future, and to that end I fervently wish a full and healthy bounce back. As a fan of ND, you regard Morrison as a vital piece to the team's playoff prospects, and you feel somewhat guilty and selfish for having those thoughts … but you, or at least I, do … damn it. onward2victory: I think there's a real chance BMo returns. With his injury history he might see his draft stock plummet to a late-Day 2 pick. There could be a monster NIL package drawn up in the offseason to tempt to return. I'm not saying it's certain but it's not out the realm of possibility that he comes back. Now we all know that second contracts in the NFL are more important, so he may decide to hang 'em up at ND but there's no way to know for sure that he's gone from this roster in 2025. RickMoede: Worst one [injury season] I can remember in my lifetime (since the Faust years). He was hugely important to our team. I'm not looking for- ward to the board adopting the attitude that Al Golden can't coach, as the defense is going to take a big step back. The one I can think that was on par was Dorsey Levens circa 1990. He was the best RB I've ever seen in an ND uniform (at the Blue-Gold Game). He was never the same after the injury, yet still made the Pro Bowl. Fortunately, ND had a stable of talented RBs at the time. FROM THE WEBSITE .com .com JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT BLUEANDGOLD.COM! SAVE 50% off one year with code Join50 The Fighting Irish lost another starter for the season when junior corner- back Benjamin Morrison went down with a hip injury. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER