Here's a nice article from Blue and Gold breaking down the defense:

http://www.blueandgold.com/content/?aid=8728

I found it interesting that Coach Kelly feels Louis Nix doesn't need to come in and be a factor right away, especially with ND's recent failures on the Dline.

Either he thinks the failures have been more relating to prior defensive scheme and coaching up or he doesn't want to throw him in the fire off the bat and have the kid lose confidence.


...and they have Teo on the inside, which is great news. Let him flow to the ball without having to run across half the fiield if they go the other way.

I know it's early, but does anybody have an idea of what the 2-deep on both sides of the ball will look like under Kelly?

^^^^Good question. Your guess is as good as mine.

QB- Crist, Montana
RB- Allen, Gray
FB- Paskorz, Narvaez
WR- Floyd, Goodman
WR- Kumara, Evans, Toma
TE- Rudolph, Ragone
LT- Romine
LG- Stewart
C- Wenger
RG- Robinson
RT- Dever

Front Seven- KLM, Johnson, Wiliams, Neal
Te'o, B. Smith, Filer/Fleming
CB- Walls, Blanton
S-H Smith and Jamoris Slaughtor

Just my guesses

^^^ Sorry, I forgot that Mikey is doing med school next fall, so I don't know who the back-up will be a fb

Do you really think Montana is the backup QB?? Crist's knee better hold up...

who is montana?

Joe Montana's oldest son, Nate. He was a walk-on up until this past season when he played a year of Junior College fb to get some game experience. He has rejoined ND.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/ncf/news/story?id=4813389

ccrunner609 wrote: Montana's son didnt have very good stats at that JUCO school. Man if he has to play, ND prolly wont win a game.

which is why I said Crist's knee better hold up.

I'd have to think one of the incoming freshmen will eventually move up there. Rees is already enrolled so he will have the advantage over Hendrix but who knows.

with crist I'll call for a 8-4 Irish campaign. without him, it's up in the air.

LT- Matt Romine, Lane Clelland
LG- Chris Stewart, Chris Watt
C- Dan Wenger, Mike Golic Jr.
RG- Trevor Robinson, Andrew Nuss
RT- Taylor Dever, Zach Martin
TE- Kyle Rudolph, Mike Ragone
WR- Michael Floyd, John Goodman
WR- Duval Kamara, Deion Walker
WR- Shaq Evans, Tailer Jones or Theo Riddick (Said he may move him here)
RB- Armando Allen, Cierre Wood (said he was moving Riddick so one of them wouldn't be standing by him on the sideline.)
QB- Dayne Crist, Tommy Rees (I think Hendrix has the best upside, but Rees is the most college ready and is enrolling early. Montana will never pay a meaningful down.)

DE- Ethan Johnson, Sean Cwynar
NT- Ian Williams, Tyler Stockton
DE- Kapron Lewis Moore, Hafis Williams
OLB- Brian Smith, Steve Filer
ILB- Manti Teo, David Posluzny
ILB- Anthony McDonald, Carlo Calabrese
OLB- Darius Fleming, Kerry Neal
CB- Gary Gray, Darrin Walls
CB- Robert Blanton, Jamoris Slaughter
FS- Danny McCarthy, Chris Badger
SS- Harrison Smith, Zeke Motta

FS-

Crist's knew will be fine, it already almost is

Thanks, guys.

I can't wait to see Danny McCarthy play.

steel_curtain wrote: LT- Matt Romine, Lane Clelland
LG- Chris Stewart, Chris Watt
C- Dan Wenger, Mike Golic Jr.
RG- Trevor Robinson, Andrew Nuss
RT- Taylor Dever, Zach Martin
TE- Kyle Rudolph, Mike Ragone
WR- Michael Floyd, John Goodman
WR- Duval Kamara, Deion Walker
WR- Shaq Evans, Tailer Jones or Theo Riddick (Said he may move him here)
RB- Armando Allen, Cierre Wood (said he was moving Riddick so one of them wouldn't be standing by him on the sideline.)
QB- Dayne Crist, Tommy Rees (I think Hendrix has the best upside, but Rees is the most college ready and is enrolling early. Montana will never pay a meaningful down.)

DE- Ethan Johnson, Sean Cwynar
NT- Ian Williams, Tyler Stockton
DE- Kapron Lewis Moore, Hafis Williams
OLB- Brian Smith, Steve Filer
ILB- Manti Teo, David Posluzny
ILB- Anthony McDonald, Carlo Calabrese
OLB- Darius Fleming, Kerry Neal
CB- Gary Gray, Darrin Walls
CB- Robert Blanton, Jamoris Slaughter
FS- Danny McCarthy, Chris Badger
SS- Harrison Smith, Zeke Motta

FS-

Nice break down of a possible depth chart steel. As I mentioned on my initial post, ND is loaded at linebacker. I wish they had that kind of depth on the defensiveline.

There are a frew possible changes: will they play Smith and Motta play linebacker? I think a combo Slaughter and McCarthy at safety would be nasty and getting Smith and Motta's speed at linebacker would be sweet, especially p;aying against spread teams.

Notre Dame sucks.

karen lotz wrote: Do you really think Montana is the backup QB?? Crist's knee better hold up...

I'll cry. I will honestly dig a hole and cry. If thats the case the offensive line had better be NFL pro bowl material.

CinciX12 wrote: Notre Dame sucks.

All of this is awesome. Except for the tinnnny detail that I have pictures of Notre Dame Stadium, Touchdown Jesus, and Joe Montana on the wall in front of me.

So technically I was making fun of how you molest your students. Just come out and admit it, get the rehab process started.

cc, you don't post anything that a person with the intellect higher than a gym teacher would call "facts;" you post a bunch of bogus shit about mythical recruiting classes and then you, like the others on here ripping Notre Dame, try to make a prediction based on those "facts." You are a lot better than sleeper though, that motherfucker is demented.

Notre Dame is loaded at RB, TE, WR, and LB. Everywhere else, cross your fingers. They've got talent but no depth in the trenches, and safety and quarterback lineups might as well be drawn from a hat. I'm not too sure about moving Riddick to receiver, he has the potential to be a stud in the backfield in 2011. But it worked for the Irish when promising young running back Ricky Watters moved to receiver in 1988. I guess that means the Irish will be national champions...... :s

CinciX12 wrote: All of this is awesome. Except for the tinnnny detail that I have pictures of Notre Dame Stadium, Touchdown Jesus, and Joe Montana on the wall in front of me.

So technically I was making fun of how you molest your students. Just come out and admit it, get the rehab process started.

lol

It's fairly simple, try and wrap your brain around this on your next snow day: stop looking at Rivals, Scout, and ESPN, and start looking at which schools offer the prospect. Look at Andrew Hendrix, he committed to Notre Dame, but according to the omniscient internet he had offers from Ohio State, Florida, and Tennessee among other powers. How about Matt James, offers from Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, and Florida. Tai-ler Jones had offers from Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia. Louis Nix had an offer from Florida. Prince Shembo had offers from Virginia Tech and Tennessee. Alex Welch had offers form Ohio State and Oklahoma.

If my thinking cap is on correctly, I would have to presume that their respective coaches think they're good enough to play there. And all of the schools I just listed are national powers on a yearly basis (Tennessee being the only arguable exception lately, but their recruiting class was tremendous before Kiffin took a shit on them so to garner an offer you'd have to be good).

You have never once provided proof for the "facts" you present. Facts without proof are, well, not facts at all. There is a correlation between how good you are and who offers you. If you're very good, and very good program offers you 95% of the time. If you're mediocre, very good programs have a habit of not offering you a spot on their team. See how that works?

Let's keep this train rolling along and maybe will get two birds with one stone. If very good players (very good programs giving them offers makes them very good players...see how I did that?) are offered by very good programs and yet still choose Notre Dame......well, that must mean in their eyes Notre Dame is still relevant. Holy shit look at that. One day sleeper may realize (it's doubtful though) no one gives a shit whom he finds relevant and irrelevant, people care whom national recruits think are relevant; and judging by the recruiting classes, Notre Dame is still relevant in the eyes of the people that actually matter.

^^^^Good post. Unfortunately your waisting your time trying to convince that knuckle head of anything. I made a list of several players who received multiple offers from big time programs, even OSU but that just flew over his head.

Is Walls really only a junior? Seems like he has been around for YEARS..and that's not a good thing.