Others receiving votes

A the bottom of each top 25 poll (AP, USA Today Coaches, etc.) there are a list of teams who are not good enough to make the top 25 list but receive votes, meaning if the list went to top 30 or so they would be on it.  These teams are usually those who are good, but don’t have the gas to be in contention for a BCS berth.  These teams are often in a rebuilding or reloading year, plagued with injuries, or have had a favorable schedule and some luck (overachievers).  These also may be teams who are underachieving.  Granted, appearing in the others receiving votes list may be a sign of a team on the rise.  Most of the over 100 Division 1A football programs would be happy to be in the “others receiving votes” category, but those in the upper echelon are not.  The Irish have the upper echelon pedigree put not the play or maybe even players of a ranked team. 

Notre Dame has lived much of the 2011 season in the others receiving votes realm, being on the outside looking in.  I think that Notre Dame belongs there, and I also believe they put themselves there.   The Irish are a team that, whether we like it or not, are in a rebuilding year, underachieved at times, and have had their fair share of injuries.  The good news is if the Irish win their bowl game, they may finish in the year-end top 25 polls.  It will also put them in a position to be in next year’s preseason top 25’s.  Finishing at 8-4 with losses to USC, Michigan and Stanford, the Irish did not step up with the big boys (partial credit for beating Michigan State).  These are games that the Irish need to win if they want to be considered a top team.  Looking to 2012, Notre Dame’s schedule offers several opportunities to run with the nation’s best (games against Michigan State, Michigan, Stanford, Oklahoma, and USC) on some big stages including a game in Chicago at Soldier Field against the Miami Hurricanes and the season opener against Navy in Dublin, Ireland. 

Most experts are projecting the Irish to get an invitation to the Champs Spots Bowl in Orlando Florida to play the 8-4 Florida State Seminoles who, with a win over in state rival Florida last weekend, moved from others receiving votes into the Top 25.  I do believe that if the Irish win their bowl game, no matter which bowl it is or who they play, they would end up getting out of “others receiving votes” into the final top 25.  If you were curious, other teams currently in the polls’ others receiving votes arena include Texas, BYU, Georgia Tech., Missouri, and Virginia.

Stanford sums it up.

Saturday’s game against Stanford was possibly closer than the score showed, but the Irish were definitely beaten by a better team.  Notre Dame gave itself plenty of reasons (excuses) to lose; miscues, penalties and poor execution.   Special teams were unreliable to non-existent.   Players looked confused, coaches seemed frustrated, play appeared inconsistent and fans were disappointed.

Offensively, Notre Dame could have photo copied a summary of the season and laid it out against the Cardinals.  With 92 yards receiving and a touchdown, Michael Floyd (who broke Golden Tate’s single season reception record with his 94^th catch) can only do so much and needed to have the ball thrown to him (with accuracy) more often.  Tommy Rees was not the leader the team needed and with an interception and a lost fumble, has not developed and grown as hoped.  The offensive line was porous, allowing defenders into the backfield (when they weren’t jumping off sides).   

Maybe the loss of Jonas Gray was a bigger issue than initially thought; Notre Dame amassed a total of 57 yards on the ground (121 were initially gained but 64 were lost in the run game) with an average of 1.8 yards a carry.   Stanford’s defense was very good with five sacks (costing 44 yards), eight tackles for a loss (costing 53 yards) and two interceptions (with a total of 42 return yards).   The offense could not get any kind of rhythm going, losing the time of possession battle and only converting 5 of 15 third down conversion opportunities.

Despite giving up 28 points, the Irish defense actually looked decent, all things considered.  Notre Dame has not been known for their pass coverage this season and with receivers at 6’4” and 6”8” working with a quarterback of Luck’s caliber, it is going to make for a long day.  Add Stanford’s running game that finished with 196 yards rushing (led by Taylor’s 120 yards)the Irish defense was kept guessing and on its toes all night.  With Notre Dame having to stay honest against the rush, it’s no surprise that Luck had four touchdown passes (to three different receivers) along with his 233 yards.

Stanford

Stanford = Passing = Andrew Luck, right?  With over 3000 yards passing (most from Luck), averaging over 275 yards a game with 32 touchdowns coming through the air, of course that’s the case.  But don’t kid yourself; this is a very balanced offense with a very good rushing game.  The Cardinal has amassed nearly 2300 yards on the ground (averaging 209 yards per game) with 29 touchdowns.  This team is an offensive juggernaut to be sure; they have a 98% success rate in the red zone with 77% of that coming via touchdowns.

Stepfan Taylor is their leading rusher with 1035 yards through 11 games with an average of 5.5 yards a carry with eight touchdowns.  Stanford has a handful of other backs that share the rest of the workload; Tyler Gaffney (415 yards, 6.5 yards a rush with 8 TDs), Anthony Wilkerson (278 yards, 5.3 yards a rush with 3 TDs), and Jeremy Stewart (173 yards, 3.9 yards a rush with 8 TDs).  Andrew Luck is the perfect example of this offense’s personality with two rushing touchdowns of his own with 39 rushes on the year, racking up 199 yards. 

Luck has a very diverse receiving corps and is not picky about who he throws to.  Stanford has 18 different players with a reception this season, including one by Andrew Luck himself.  Seven receivers have 22 catches or more and 10 different players have caught a pass for a touchdown. 

Although Stanford’s offense gets all the press, their defense has had a good season as well.  Their defense has racked up 33 sacks, 80 tackles for a loss, four interceptions and 14 fumbless recoveries. 

The Game will be on 8pm at Shamrock Jacks.

A Win is a Win!?

At the end of the day it worked out in the win – lose column, as the Irish improved to 8-3.  Remember, this team started 0-2 and has won 8 of 9 since.  Now, the Irish will prepare for Stanford.  Boston College always seems to play Notre Dame tough; better than most teams in their situations.  Most teams with losing records who are expected to lose to the Irish come out fired up and put pressure on Notre Dame at the start of the game.  Usually, the adrenaline wears off, the players settle in, the coaches make adjustments and the Irish pull away to a comfortable win.  On Saturday, the Eagles kept pushing and held firm to keep the Irish on their heels. 

That’s not to take away for Notre Dame’s defense, as they did have five tackles for a loss and one sack, but Boston College’s offense could not get on track in the second half (10 consecutive incomplete passes at one point).  If they had just a little bit more success, the Irish may have ended their senior day game with a loss.  I can assure you Andrew Luck will not have that issue next week. 

Offensively, it started out as if it would be an outstanding afternoon for Rees and the crew.  The Irish’s first offensive series went 80 yards on 8 plays for a touchdown by Jonas Gray.  Outside of scoring, the Irish had a decent day:  Cierre Wood had 92 yards to get over 1000 for the season, Michael Floyd had 10 catches for 92 yards and David Ruffer had his best game of the year making 3 field goals of 40, 41, and 27 yards.  On the stat sheet, the Irish dominated the numbers a little more than a score of 16-14 may reflect.  Notre Dame doubled B.C. in rushing 161 yards to 80, led in passing yards 256 to 170 and converted 8 of 19 third downs compared to the Eagles’ 3 of 13.

There were some issues on offense Saturday.  The Irish had no passing touchdowns (Brian Kelly tried blaming it on the weather during his post game interview).  That is not a huge issue, but it is magnified by having only one rushing touchdown on the opening series.  It’s not that they did not have opportunities but they did not capitalize.  Jonas Gray went out with a knee injury that did not look good.  Not that the offense could control it, but their starting field positioning was awful.

Special teams actually looked almost decent.  Without Ruffer’s three field goal game, the Irish lose, period.  Ben Turk did a solid job and George Atkinson’s one return for 17 yards was respectable.  The punt return game is still non-existent with unnecessary fair catches instead of attempting a return. 

The bottom line is that the Irish won and have one more win than last year.  However, Stanford will not be as lethargic on offense as Boston College was.  If Gray does not play Wood can carry the load himself, but it would not be the same offense.

Not for nothing, Brian Kelly said when asked about Tommy Rees’s play “He’s 12 and 2, did you know that?”  Thumbs up to Troy N for making the last tackle to end the game.

Catholic Conflict - Boston College

Notre Dame plays Boston College Saturday afternoon and there is no reason to think that the Irish will lose.  However there is a reason that games are played and no one say let’s just skip it because everyone thinks we’re going to lose.  At 3-7 the Eagles aren’t coming into South Bend as a big threat but after knocking off North Carolina State 14-10 last week and winning 2 of their last 3 (including a win over Notre Dames previous opponent Maryland) they are on as good of a roll as they can be this season.  Last year Notre Dame went into Alumni stadium and beat the Eagles 31-13, I doubt Boston College will fare any better coming into South Bend.

With all of that being said Boston College is a Division I ACC Conference team and deserves some respect.  Offensively 6’3” 212 lb sophomore quarterback Chase Rettig is having a decent year for a second year player on a 3-7 team.  On defense it starts and finishes with junior linebacker Luke Kuechly, who is considered as a mid first round pick if he were to enter this year’s draft.

Between injuries and not needed to keep starters on the field the whole game to win I except to see young guys and non-starters getting playing time again this weekend.

Robby Toma did a good job last week against Maryland covering for the injured Theo Riddick.  It was a good example of Brian Kelly’s “next man in philosophy”.  Robby had seven catches for 73 yards, both career highs.  Toma started against Army and USC last year due to injuries and will get an opportunity to crack the starting lineup on a regular basis next year in his senior season.

We will continue to see Freshman Stephon Tuitt who has gone in for Kapron Lewis-Moore.  Tuitt has played in eight games this season but has only started three.  Along with Super Freshman Lynch who has gone in for injured Ethan Johnson, Stephon can use this playing time to tune his skills for the future on the defensive line.

One position we will not see a lot of new faces is at running back.  Either Wood or Gray could be a standalone starting running back carrying for most teams.  Having them rotating on each series will keep them fresh and lessen the chance of injury.  George Atkinson III is seeing a little action at the end of games and that will probably continue this week.

These guys are following in the footsteps of last year’s “next man in” players; Tyler Eifert in for Kyle Rudolph and Tommy Rees for Dayne Christ.  Another thing to remember this is the last game some of these Irish players will ever have at Notre Dame Stadium.

Getting the job done.

Let’s go in reverse.  The Ugly; both teams’ uniforms.  I almost had a seizure when the teams took the field.  The Bad; Beating up on a 2-7 team may be expected but Maryland may be the best 2-7 team out there.  Notre Dame’s punt return is still a no threat with too many fair catches

There was a lot of good on Saturday night.  First off I am finally happy with Jonas Gray getting his first 100 yard rushing game (136 yards / 6.5 yards per carry) after being close several times this season.  It was however a pretty balanced scoring attack for the Irish.   Three rushing TD’s (by two running backs), two passing TD’s (by two receivers), an interception for a TD (57 yards) and a field goal (52 Yards).

The Irish offense looked good and the numbers support a good distribution of the ball.  Overall Notre Dame racked up 212 yards rushing with an average of 4.6 yards a carry, 296 yards passing with an average of 9.9 per completion.   Going 10 for 16 on third downs kept drives going and by going 1 for 1 on fourth down kept the Irish perfect on fourth down conversions.  In addition to Gray’s rushing Wood had 99 yards with a touchdown.  Tommy Rees utilized seven receivers for a total of 30 receptions and 296 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Defensively again the Irish shared the work load, Notre Dame had a total of 71 tackles by 26 different players, none of which had more than 6 themselves.  Lo Wood had a gift in the form of pass thrown directly to him which he proceeded to return for a touchdown.

The players and coaches should feel good and observe the 24 hour rule Kelly has instituted to morn a lose or celebrate a win move on to the next opponent. 

What to expect.

What to expect, watch to watch for and what to hope for.

Irish fans should expect a win at the very least, but how it happens remains to be seen.  I expect that the best match up to watch this Saturday will be between Maryland’s offensive line and Notre Dame’s defensive line.  The Irish faithful should not have to hope for but need to hope for its front seven win that battle (especially the running game), because if they do, everything else should easily go Notre Dame’s way.

Although upperclassmen with injury issues such as Manti Te’o and Ethan Johnson are expected to play, their time should be limited.  This is Johnson’s first game in a while and he does need to get in some “knock off the rust” reps.  I look for underclassmen to get in some meaningful work and have a chance to shine.  What Notre Dame can’t have and what we all need to hope for is no more injuries. 

I expect that at 2-7 and becoming bowl eligibility out of Maryland’s future, playing the Irish at Fed Ex field may be enough motivation to get the Terps fired up enough to get and keep them motivated.  I hope to watch the Irish load up on highlight film plays and statistical numbers for the season.