Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FAN FORUM KEEP IT SIMPLE Brian Kelly's game plan for LSU was masterful: eating clock, keeping the Brian VanGorder Swiss cheese defense off the field and committing to the run. His use of the jet sweep with C.J. Prosise and Amir Carlisle and the zone read mastery of Malik Zaire befuddled LSU all day. I cannot fathom a single reason why Kelly insists on his pro- pensity for east-west football when he has the horses to run the ball against the likes of LSU. Is it too much to hope that Coach Kelly sees the light of a long-term commitment to the run game? Or will he view this success as a brilliant anomaly of game planning, where he masterfully departed from his bread- and-butter east-west, get-in-the-red- zone-and-kick-a-field-goal style of play? The return of Sheldon Day to the defense was significant. This young defense will only get better, particu- larly if VanGorder departs somewhat from his complex NFL schemes and returns to a more simplified defense. Think about the fact that Notre Dame beat LSU with the return of a commitment to the run game, misdi- rection, perhaps some simplification of the defensive scheme, the restoration to health of a few key players (Day) and a paucity of turnovers as a result of Zaire's refusal to turn the ball over. Tarean Folston was part of an Irish ground game that piled up 263 rushing yards and three touchdowns in the 31-28 victory over LSU in the Music City Bowl. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA