Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/276022
FAN FORUM SOFT TOUCH The much‑anticipated Notre Dame football schedules are out for 2014‑ 16, and I'm continually amazed at the schools in the lineup. Can anybody explain to me where the competition is found in these sched‑ ules? Again, with the exception of USC, Stanford, Arizona State and maybe Michigan State, the schedules continue to be filled with the likes of Navy, Army and Louisville, just to name a few. Athletics director Jack Swarbrick wants to schedule an SEC school later this decade? Well, better late than never. Art Arriaga Via the Internet Mr. Arriaga, the last we checked Notre Dame had nine lead changes last year against Navy before prevailing 38-34. Louisville also has won 23 games the past two years and features one of the nation's top coaches in Bobby Petrino. Few schools in 2014 will have three more challenging road games than Notre Dame traveling to Florida State, Arizona State and USC. When Michigan is not even considered one of your top four toughest opponents in a year, that speaks volumes. Then in 2015-16 and 2019-20, Michigan is re- placed with Texas. Notre Dame, USC and UCLA are the only three Football Bowl Subdivision schools never to have played an oppo- nent one classification below them in the NCAA. There has to be realistic balance in any schedule. The 1990 Notre Dame team had the most talent in the nation — four straight No. 1 recruiting classes from 1987-90 — plus a Hall of Fame coach in Lou Holtz. But because it played the na- tion's most difficult schedule, it finished only 9-3. Killer schedules take a toll that has a residual effect. BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Blue & Gold Illustrated: Letters P. O. Box 1007, Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com FROM THE WEBSITE The NCAA was on the cusp of passing a new rule March 6 that would require a football team to not snap the ball until at least 10 seconds had elapsed from the 40-second play clock. This was mocked in some quarters as the "Nick Saban Rule" because he cited player safety. The rule was not passed. Notre Dame's Brian Kelly said he couldn't offer an opinion on it be- cause he had no evidence that fast-paced of- fenses affected player safety. Many of our Blue- andGold.com readers weighed in: Dave83nd: This rule [would have been] equiva- lent in basketball to requiring 10 seconds to go by before you can shoot because a major college basketball coach got burned by the fast break. Ridiculous. ATXND: The 10-second rule is just bogus. Not that it would matter for Notre Dame. We couldn't get a snap off with more than two sec- onds left last year. Hopefully this year is much different. Hemy: Truth be told, Saban, Bret Bielema and a very small minority of head coaches are not fond of the up-tempo game. Rather than deal with it, they want to change the rules so that the game is more suitable to their liking.