Angels and Demons

Of course we are going to win today and send off another senior class to their NFL and car selling careers.  We are the angels in this scenario.  Here is photo of the ND Band from last week.

A quick wrap up on the trip to Pittsburgh.  We were blessed with some pretty nice weather and some pretty nice football.  Was troubled to see Prosise hurt but Josh Adams stepped up nicely and we should be able to rest Prosise this week if needed.  The depth on this team keeps paying off this year.  Very impressed with how we put a whooping on a pretty good Pitt defense.  Kizer continues to impress with his poise and play making; the kid can make all the throws and yes he can run.  Remember Zaire?  Seems like a century ago.  Fuller is coming back next year and he will destroy all ND receiving records if he stays healthy.  And he will stay healthy because no one can touch the guy.  Besides being fast and a great route runner, he is pretty good after the catch also.  What an incredible weapon.  And though he stands out in the receiving corp, the other guys are pretty good too.

The offense is looking great.  The defense?  Still scratching my head.  Schmidt has definitely lost a step and I wonder if the coaches are too loyal to him in the middle.  Love the kid but we have Grace and Morgan in the wings.  Smith is all over the field and makes up for mistakes elsewhere, but what happens if he jumps to the NFL next year.  The line has not had the consistent pressure I would like to see (some exceptions for Day and Okwara) but of course losing Jones in the off-season was a killer.  Dbacks have been inconsistent in coverage and tackling.  So all in all we just have not clicked on defense.  We have a couple weeks to get it all together and we better because Stanford is looking scary.

As for the College Football Playoff, we are sitting pretty at #4 and the conventional wisdom puts us in the playoff if we win out.  The committee has certainly been unpredictable and all these "big" games for other team in November could help someone sneak ahead of us.  I don't see it.  But I did find myself in the unusual and distasteful position of cheering for USC again last night to keep our strength of schedule up there.  Thank you Trojans.  The big game today is Baylor vs. Oklahoma.  I am picking Oklahoma for no particular reason besides they are the only Big12 team with a defense. 

On to today.  Looks like we will enjoy our SIXTH home game with good weather; absolutely amazing.  Maybe it is a sign that this is the season!  Anyway, Wake Forest should not provide too much of a challenge although I am sure a few things will go their way. Have you noticed how many trick plays are being used against us this year including fake or on-side kicks?  A sign that our opponents are over matched and it was nice to see us stuff the flea flicker at Pittsburgh last week.  So today we win big and maybe head home early.  Should be a good day to see some of the subs play and see what they can do like Wimbush.

ND 50, Wake Forest 14

GO IRISH!

The Godfather