Notre Dame’s opponents

A quick look at how the rest of Notre Dame’s opponents did last week.

Nevada 30 – 27 WIN over Cal Poly

#12 Michigan State 28 – 13 WIN over Furman

Duke 49 – 6 WIN over North Carolina Central

Syracuse 33 – 7 WIN over Colgate

NC State 48 – 14 WIN over William & Mary

#7 Stanford 26 – 13 WIN over Kansas State

#25 Miami 70 – 3 WIN over Florida A&M

Navy 52 -16 WIN over Fordham

Army 28 – 13 WIN over Temple

Virginia Tech 36 – 13 WIN over Liberty

USC 52 – 6 LOSS to #1 Alabama

Of Notre Dame’s 2016 opponents only USC lost (and lost BIG to #1 Alabama).  Of course if you take the time to look at who most of the wins were against they are not too impressive.  Most of them should be ashamed that they even have them on their schedules.

The better records Notre Dame’s opponents have the better and tougher their schedule looks, especially Texas.  Right now it may be a little difficult to tell how good the rest of the Irish’s opponents are.  Obviously the ranked teams (Michigan State, Stanford & Miami) will be very good.  Expect Duke, Navy, NC State (all getting votes in national polls) to put up challenges and Brian Kelly and crew cannot afford to overlook and get tripped up by the likes of Nevada, Army, Virginia Tech & USC.

Onward to Nevada

It’s a little weird that the second game of the season against unranked Nevada is basically a “must win” for the Irish.  Not so much for a spot in the College Football Playoffs (which it is) but more for the pride of the program, getting on track for a successful season, perhaps Brian VanGorder’s job and to keep Brian Kelly from having a coronary.

None of this will be rocket science and it will insult Captain Obvious’s intelligence but I also thought everyone know when Swoops went into the game they were going to run the ball so stop the run but that didn’t happen, so I guess it does need to be said.

DeShone Kizer should be the starting quarterback.  Initially I was OK with letting this QB battle go on for a couple of games before meeting up with Michigan State but that was before I knew we will need to put up 50+ to win a game. 

Tackling will have to improve.  Texas may have had a big back but Nevada has the quickness and misdirection to make very good teams look very stupid.  There were too many broken tackles last week, due in part to arm tackles and not wrapping up.

Our defensive backs looked like Alan Bosley (Ryan Golsling) in Remember the Titans.

I don’t know if Texas had super speedy receivers, if we are slow or our DB’s didn’t know their coverage's.  To me it doesn’t matter, that’s for Todd Lyght, Notre Dame’s defensive backs coach to figure out, and quick.

Offensively let’s use the run to set up the pass, run on 1^st and 2^nd down and pass on 3^rd if we need to.  I know this is boring and predictable but with our offensive line and proven backs; 1) It should work, 2) I don’t care how it looks.

Finally, win, just win.  A win won’t propel the Irish back into the National Championship discussion but an 0-2 Notre Dame going into Michigan State will with very little doubt be catastrophic to the program on many levels.  

A quick look back - Texas

Well that was not our finest hour to say the least.  Sunday night was frustrating and disappointing and there is nothing we can do about that so let's take a look back so that we can move forward.

The Good: DeShone Kizer; 215 yards passing with five touchdowns passes along with 77 yards and a rushing touchdown.

The Bad: There is a lot to cover here but for this we'll pick the defense and tackling to be specific.  

The Ugly: The Officiating; I am not saying that bad officiating coast the Irish the game, the superior play of the Longhorns took care of that.  The officials seemed incompetent highlighted by the non-call of the helmet to helmet hit on Torii Hunter Jr. in end zone.

Traditionally we have not done stars of the game after losses but that is unfair to the players did well, so here it goes.

3rd Star(s): Jarron Jones for the extra point block and Shaun Crawford for the return

2nd Star: Nyles Morgan with 13 tackles, 9 solo and 4 assisted.

1st Star; DeSone Kizer went 15 of 24 for 215 yards, five passing touchdowns & NO interceptions.  He also rushed for 77 yards and a TD.