Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/416910
UNDER THE DOME "I'm proud of the way he's handled the scrutiny of being under the bright lights of the turnovers. He's in my office [Monday], talking about what can we do to continue to move forward. There's a lot of scrutiny on the quarterback position at Notre Dame, especially if there are turnovers. The fact of the matter is he's accountable for all of them. I said that in the press conference. He's responsible for all the turnovers, but that's not to mean that he's to be blamed for all of the turnovers. There's 10 other players on this football team, but we don't go around in this program blaming people." — Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly on how Golson has handled his turnover woes during the week "The worst part for Notre Dame fans is this team could very well finish 10-2 or 9-3 without a single great victory, which means an entire offseason of Notre Dame fans crying about a lack of respect and the rest of the college football world yelling back at them about being overrated. Good times." — USA Today's Dan Wolken in his weekly Misery Index column TWEET OF THE MONTH @CollegeGameDay: "'They called me, said we've taken away his admission to the University of Notre Dame. I was devastated.' —@ESPNDrLou" — ESPN's Saturday morning pregame show, College GameDay, quoting former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz in the 30 for 30 film "Rand University," which in part de- tailed what kept Randy Moss from attending Notre Dame in the mid-1990s. PERSONNEL NOTES On Nov. 8, Pro Football Focus had the Notre Dame-Arizona State game in Tempe as its College Football Game of The Week in which it would grade and evaluate each individual on every snap made by the of- fense and defense. The individual who far and away graded out as the best player on the field was Fighting Irish left tackle Ronnie Stanley with a 6.1 figure. Nobody else for either the Irish or Sun Devils scored higher than 2.9. The other members on offense for Notre Dame who were above a 1.0 were slot Amir Carlisle (2.0), wide receiver Will Fuller (1.7), right tackle Christian Lombard (1.6), center Matt Hegarty (1.1) and wideout Torii Hunter Jr. The entire starting Irish offensive line played all 79 snaps, as did tight end Ben Koyack, while quarterback Everett Golson had 77. Fuller had 64 snaps, Carlisle 35 and Hunter 13. The overall balance on the receiving corps is reflected in the snap counts beyond the three mentioned: Corey Robinson (44), C.J. Prosise (41) and Chris Brown (37). Of the 76 snaps on defense, the standout was sophomore Will linebacker Jaylon Smith with a 2.1 rating. Next were senior nickel back Matthias Farley (1.8) and sophomore cornerback Cole Luke (1.4). Per PFF, the entire starting secondary with corners Luke and Devin Butler and safeties Elijah Shumate and Max Redfield played all 76 snaps, as did Smith and freshman Mike linebacker Nyles Morgan. Isaac Rochell's 67 snaps were the most on the line, which Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said had its worst performance of the year (and was reflected in PFF's grades as well). • Freshman outside linebacker Kolin Hill, the pass rush specialist, did not play versus Florida State and Arizona State, but Kelly said it's not about hitting "the freshman wall."