Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/616353
FAN FORUM Jaylon Smith and Sheldon Day play on fire, but you have a back four that plays confused. The safeties continu- ously bit on play fakes and the corners were burned repeatedly. The front four played okay, but needs to be more of a front eight to rotate. Coach Kelly is putting together a roster of real starters and a team to prosper in the coming years. Still, the Irish aren't out of the woods because there's a place, a thing, an area so scary it causes coaches and players to just freeze up. It's called "The Red Zone." Go Irish! Neal Barbera Ventura, Calif. DEFENSE MECHANISM Bryan Driskell did a great job ex- plaining how Notre Dame's defense should work. Now could you spend some space on how Notre Dame's de- fense actually performed? Too many receivers running free, and safeties chasing and being out of position. How come Notre Dame's linebackers are never involved in pass coverage, intercepting a pass or even getting a hand on a pass? The defense of the past two years reminds me of the Gary Darnell years (1990-91): High emotion on the side- lines, but poor tackling, lousy cover- age and lots of opposition points. Gorman Findley Centre Hall Pa. HIGH-LEVEL FOOTBALL For many years, I have had a prac- tice of taping Notre Dame games so I could watch the good ones again with- out sitting on the edge of my seat, or just fill in some down time with a little more football. Contrary to my usual practice, I de- cided to watch the Stanford game again despite the loss, just focusing on the times the Irish had the ball. What a marvelous display of high- level football! When your No. 3 quar- terback and No. 3 running back can average 9.5 yards a carry against a top-10 team, you are good. The Irish are a very small number of plays away from a 12-0 season. Kudos to the young men who gave everything to a challenging season! Joe Dickmann St. Louis WARDROBE MALFUNCTION During the entire Boston College game, I never recognized our team in their new "costumes." I bet the Notre Dame players felt the same way. What a distraction. If Coach Kelly was trying to sink his own team, he did a pretty good job of it. If it was dif- ficult for me as a fan just watching, I can only imagine the adjustment it had to have been for the players. As a longtime coach, I know from experience distractions can destroy a team's chemistry. Whose bright idea was it to think that our players were above losing it by wearing a different uniform? If it is such a great idea, why aren't more teams trying it? Some of our leaders are full of themselves. They forget that these are young men. Keep your Shamrock Series, but forget the costumes.