Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FAN FORUM CHANGE, OR BE CHANGED It's time for Brian Kelly to make some long overdue moves, otherwise his job will be gone. Look at what happened to Bo Pelini at Nebraska. Nine-win seasons were no longer ac- ceptable. 1. Make The QB Change Going with Everett Golson is no lon- ger a "work in progress," nor a reality. It has become a "work in regression." He has never learned to "step-up-into- the-pocket" for pass protection. He scrambles around frantically thereby ending up into either a great play or a disaster. 2. Give Up The Play Chart Stop being the play caller and stop working exclusively with Everett Gol- son. It kind of reminds you of Charlie Weis. Brian Kelly needs to hire an of- fensive coordinator and he also needs to act as a head coach on the sidelines and start chewing out some butts, es- pecially with the defensive players. He needs to be "proactive" with the whole team. 3. A New Defensive Coordinator Losing the last four games, five of the last six, and giving up an average of more than 40 points a game is not acceptable. Brian VanGorder was the defensive coordinator at Auburn in 2012 when they had one of the worst defensive records in the country. A year later, it was playing for the na- tional title. 4. Bring Back The Running Game Good teams such as Alabama estab- lish the running game, take control of the line of scrimmage, play "smash- mouth football," and then bring on the passing game. Of particular impor- tance is to get the lead by the fourth quarter, grind out the yardage with the running game and wind the clock down. We need to get back to basics. "Those who choose to live in the past will remain and be forgotten in the past." Frank Reznick '56 Phoenix CHOOSE YOUR LANE Am I the only alumnus who wouldn't object to de-emphasizing football? That's right, I said de-em- phasize football at Notre Dame. I've been living and breathing Irish football since I was 8 years old and watched the 10-10 tie with Michigan State. But let's face it, it is no longer 1966, or 1977 or even 1988. There is no way we can keep our academic re- quirements, and standards of conduct, at a high level and expect to compete with national football powerhouses that graduate half their players and seem to be okay with criminal behav- ior by their athletes. Over the past several years we have had cheating scandals among some of our best players, not to mention sev- eral unsavory incidents of our players being arrested or cited by the police. BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Letters @ Blue & Gold Illustrated P. O. Box 1007 Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com