Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FAN FORUM always be in the conversation for a national championship. Since '94, there have been no na- tional championships and no major bowl wins. Being in Columbus, I also hate the fact that we are 0-4 against the Buckeyes. I will admit that the Buck- eyes were the better team those four games, but a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile. Since '94, every team in the Big Ten, save Indiana, Rut- gers and Maryland, has beaten Ohio State. This drought is starting to look more and more like Cubs baseball. If Stan- ford can win a major bowl and be in the conversation, why can't we? Bob Dent Columbus, Ohio SCHEME MUST COMPLEMENT TALENT Brian Kelly, with the assistance of his staff, has shown himself to be an excellent recruiter — perhaps better than excellent given the constrictions under which Notre Dame operates. The staff must consider whether the high school seniors it seeks are ca- pable of demonstrating the academic achievement necessary to graduate if they stay for four or five years. Pro- grams such as Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State and others, operate, at least "de facto," under no such con- straints. However, Kelly and his staff have not demonstrated an ability to coach the players up to their talent levels. On offense we have seen repeated "scratch your head" play calling from the head coach. The defensive failures have been paramount, especially this year with the best defensive talent of the Kelly regime and since the early Holtz era. The unit has been poorly prepared for the start of games, and has been un- able to defeat opposing players across the scrimmage line on a "one on one" basis and get key stops in game situ- ations. Brian VanGorder says the defense had been plagued by "inconsistency," but makes no mention of ascribing responsibility for the inconsistency, which falls on the shoulders of Van- Gorder and the defensive assistants. We also read that the scheme may be too complicated to be grasped by the players after two full seasons. If so, the solution is to simplify the scheme. The game is not THAT complicated. This year, I felt that Notre Dame's defensive front seven was as talented as any in the country, but the defense finished 45th in total defense, 75th in sacks and 109th in turnovers forced. The exodus of talent (graduations, plus early defections to the NFL) does not bode well for next year, es- pecially if the offensive play calling and defensive coaching do not im- prove. Notre Dame lost to the three best teams it played. Kelly can point out that the Irish lost two of those games by a total of four points and that they were two plays away from an undefeated regular season. However, they were also two plays from being 8-4 (at Virginia and Tem- ple), and the Ohio State game put to rest any nonsense about this 10-3 team being two plays away from any