The Back Corner Fade

It was there. The opportunity for the Irish to pull an upset for the ages was within their grasp well into the 4th quarter, but in the end, talent and overall depth came to the forefront ,and the Notre Dame once couldn’t finish when the lights were at their brightest. 

Does that mean I’m angry, given up on the season, questioning the decision to hire Marcus Freeman, etc? Not hardly.

Like most of you, I’m proud of the effort and the fact that the Irish showed up to play, were not outcoached, and held potentially one of the better offenses we’ve seen in the last decade to 21 points. The offense? Yeah, there’s some issues there. The line was a major disappointment, the WR’s were basically nonexistent, and the play-calling was questionable to say the least. 

The old axiom “a team usually improves the most between their first and second games.” That sure as hell didn’t hold true against Toledo last year. Let’s see if it’s a little better against Marshall this year.

What did we learn this past weekend?

I couldn’t tell if the Georgia Bulldogs are just that damn good or Oregon is really that bad. The first seven drives all ended up with trips to the paint for the Dawgs and they could have named the score. I almost felt bad for new Oregon coach Dan Lanning. He looked helpless on the sideline. Don’t feel too bad there Dan, other than that school one state to the west, Georgia is going to do that to a bunch of teams this year.

Navy Football is in complete shambles at present. They’ve been on a downward track for the last few seasons, but losing to Delaware in Annapolis? Wow. The Hens also beat Coach Ken with a first-year head coach. Navy and Coach Ken really need to consider parting ways. The program is stale and both parties could probably use a fresh start. That all being said, they’ll probably be a pain in the tail for at least a half when the Irish visit them later in the year.

Can someone tell Mac Brown that you are more than welcome to get in someone’s way and play a little defense now and then? They gave up 40 points and 380 yards…..in the 4th quarter alone to Appalachian State. No disrespect to Appy State, they’re a fine non-P5 school, but that’s all sorts of pathetic. Because of their Flying Circus offense, they’ll be in the majority of the games they play, but there’s no way they’ll ever be anything more than an 8 win, fun team to watch.

The polar opposite of UNC are the Iowa Hawkeyes. I’m sure that the folks in Iowa City will be talking about that hard fought 7-3 win over “SD State” for years. That SD State is not San Diego State, but South Dakota State (in all fairness, they are a very good FCS team.) The 7 points, 2 safeties and a FG. Iowa’s offense has been offensive for years. This was a whole new level.

Congrats to our old friend, Clark Lea starting the season 2-0. Granted the wins are against Hawaii and Elon but 2-0 is 2-0.

What else went down this weekend? Not really much else….oh, wait a second there was that game in the Superdome on Sunday evening. Welcome to Louisiana, Foghorn Kelly, Southern gentleman! Nothing like winning over the fan base by losing to a very average (albeit improved) FSU team, and doing so in dramatic fashion. Undisciplined football and dumb penalties, special teams mistakes, and offense for the first 50 minutes of the game looked like your local Pop Warner team. They also maybe have wanted to try to get their potential first round pick, Kayson Boutte, the ball more than two times. As I write this, rumor is Boutte is already looking to transfer. But hey, at least you got your new cafeteria, Brian.

So, what do we have to look forward to this weekend? Not a lot of “must see” games, but some that should wet the whistle.

Alabama heads to Austin so Nick Saban can add another former assistant coach’s skull to his trophy case. Bama is loaded, as usual, and Texas is trying to get in the conversation of being relevant again. The Horns are led by Texas HS legend Quinn Ewers who took $2 million from OSU, saw that he wasn’t going to play anytime soon and came back home. Can Ewers, who looks like the bass player from “Gimme 3 Steps,” a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band that has opened for Mike Frank’s boys, beat the mighty Tide? Uh, no. Bama 38-16.

Kent State heads to Oklahoma to go and get their heads lopped off by the Sooners. Why is this even remotely interesting? The Flashes first 4 games this year: at Washington, at OU, Long Island, at UGA. I hope that they can field a team by October after that murder’s row. This much I know, the women’s cross country or men’s water polo team will eat well on the road at Ball State for the sacrifices the football team made.

Good one up in Provo as Baylor heads up to take on the Cougs. Dave Aranda has done a great job rebuilding the Baylor program, and BYU has an experienced, mature football team with some serious beef up front on the offensive line. Aranada’s calling card is defense, against BYU’s offense. Should be fun. Baylor 23-20.

I hate talking about the same team on back-to-back weeks, but Florida’s win against Utah was very impressive in Billy Napier’s debut. Now they get to welcome in Kentucky, who over the last few seasons is that “sneaky good” team in the SEC, and this year isn’t any different. If you haven’t watched Gator QB Anthony Richardson, please do. He’s going to be a special player by the time he’s done. UF 27-20.

Finally, in South Bend, Marcus Freeman makes his home coaching debut as the Irish entertain the Marshall Thundering Herd. This game had the potential of being much more interesting if Herd running back Rasheen Ali was playing but he has taken a leave of absence from the team. I watched him a few times last year and he was damn good.

This game doesn’t scare me per say, but the ghosts of Ball State and Toledo past have me concerned that this has the potential to be a “Tums Special” into the 4th quarter. If it was Kelly still coaching this team, I’d really be worried as his team played down to the level of a non-Power 5, especially after a big game the week before. We have no clue what Freeman’s team will do against a lesser opponent. 

I suspect the offensive line will play much better this week (I’m guessing practice with Harry Hiestand this week won’t be much fun), and the offense to play much better as a unit in general. If the defense does what they did for the first three quarters this past Saturday, Marshall won’t have a prayer.

I believe Marcus will have the boys ready to go and this one will be over by the “1812 Overture.” Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, and Matthew McConaughey can’t help you now, Marshall. ND 35-13.

Beat Marshall.