Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FAN FORUM members its roots and someday starts to do a better job of accepting and ex- ecuting on the responsibility of that stewardship. Northwestern was ranked 109th in rush defense, so how on earth do we not utilize the talents of all our running backs in the same backfield and run the damn ball? It seems to me running the ball solves two problems: it typi- cally creates longer sustained drives for scores and, more importantly I sup- pose, keeps our young, inexperienced defense off the field. For my reality, it would not surprise me one bit if Greg Bryant transfers, and why would any back worth his salt want to come to Notre Dame? Those are the questions that I would want truthful answers to from our head coach. Kevin Kane Bel Air, Md. Mr. Kane, Kelly did say three days after- wards that they tried running (40 carries for 211 yards) — but there were also three lost fumbles from the ground attack. A counter argument is that after senior quarterback Everett Golson's 61-yard TD run in the first minute, Notre Dame man- aged only 150 yards on 39 carries over the final 59 minutes. Still, 40 points should be enough to win a football game. PAT PENDING? Brian Kelly is a good coach but not a great coach like Ara and Lou. Let's go FROM THE WEBSITE As expected, the majority of topics after Notre Dame's 43‑40 overtime loss at home centered on defensive woes, special teams snafus and turnover travails. One post centered on how the offense operated most efficiently in 2012 when the running game was emphasized more to take the burden off inexperienced Everett Golson. Here were those thoughts: J_Law: To be fair, this problem has spanned three quarterbacks and four offensive coordinators/quar‑ terback coaches: Charley Molnar, Chuck Martin, Brian Kelly and now Matt LaFleur. At some point, Kelly needs to ask if what he's doing requires too much from Golson — disappointing to say, as he's been in the program since the spring of 2011. I'd say an inconsistent running game contributes, but if he can't run zone read, just go pistol or something that plays to his strengths. I think if Kelly was going to start somewhere, he needs to get someone who can get the quarterback in line; some turnovers are to be expected in this offense, but this is too much. How can Ohio State's J.T. Barrett dominate as someone who didn't take a snap last year (schedule or not; he dominated Michigan State's defense)? Kelly has got to get someone who will demand a higher level of accountability from the position than he currently is; it's a cop out to say Golson has to take care of the ball; its time to go Holtz on Steve Beuerlein: "I guarantee you're only gonna throw seven interceptions this year — because after that your ass is gonna be on the bench." I may be wrong in my analysis, but it would appear to me that nothing the staff has done up to this point has eradicated turnovers at the QB position except when they kept a muzzle on Golson in 2012. I don't get it, but if Kelly doesn't go from "these are things that are correctable" to "we don't have to worry about that anymore," this type of stuff will continue to happen.