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37-0 to FSU??? Could this get any worse!?

Oh, yes. It could get much, much worse with a loss to a much improved Navy team. An obvious prediction--if we fall to the Middies on Saturday, Notre Dame will be looking for its next head coach--immediately.

In my opinion, the best sign of a good coach is the ability to adjust. Down seasons are going to happen to every coach, but progress can usually be seen in a struggling team that is well coached. Where is the progress in this year's Irish?

I think Ty is a very hands off guy. He likes to let his kids figure things out on their own. So far this season, they have not figured out much. How he is able to sit back and watch them fail so miserably is beyond me. It has been difficult. This team played horribly against FSU, but fought to the end on Saturday, and that is a step in the right direction. They flat out gave up against Michigan and USC.

I think Trev Alberts summed it up best (I can't believe I just said that). Iowa and Florida were two teams that needed to "reload" this season. They are very young teams with a lack of experience. Look at where the Gators and Hawkeyes are now and where they were at the beginning of the season. Alberts is right. We all knew Ferentz was a great coach, but look at what he had to replace at Iowa. As for Zook, he catches a lot of heat, but his Gators have been very impressive considering all the talent he had to replace, and he is starting a Freshman at QB.

There is no explanation for this team's lack of progress this season other than poor coaching. Anything else is an excuse.

Quick commentary on your discussion regarding ND's recruiting of current BC players. The fact of the matter is that both schools are in on at least a dozen players each year (along with Syracuse, Penn State, Pitt, UVA amongst others). As a graduate of both schools, I know ND offered Will Blackmon, Horace Dodd, Justin Hinds, Keith Leavitt, Augie Hoffman, Tom Martin, Shadu Moore, and Jim Unis. Regarding the ND offense, my two questions to TW would be:

With a rookie qb and o line, why are we not going to more max protect-rb's and te's staying in to block.

Where are the reverses, bootlegs and wr screens to get our two great receivers more touches?

I think if you take a closer look at my comments, you will see where I am coming from. When I named two BC commits that we wanted in my article, Nick Larkin and Dorien Bryant, I was referring to the ones that slipped away. I said there were two in last years class that I could think of. I was referencing 2002 specifically. That didn't mean in years past we hadn't offered others. To buttress my point, though, let's say if there were 2-3 kids that we wanted who ENDED UP at BC each year, then 2-3 per year, times 4 or 5 years would be 8-15. There are typically 80-85 scholarship players on a roster. So, in that sense, and given how many targeted prospects BC and ND share in common each year, there are very few kids on BC's roster that we wanted and didn't get. I am well aware that Tommy Z, John Sullivan, Travis Thomas, and several other ND commits were pondering BC. They should have had BC on their lists. It is an excellent program. And, as BC has sustained success, and recruited like a machine, they may start to win more of these battles. Also, BC has won four of the last five against ND.

Games are won on the field, not on TheInsiders.com. Enough said.

In regard to the offense, I think one of the few adjustments we have made this year was to incorporate more double tight end sets for max protection, and to aid in our running efforts. Has it helped? I think some. Since the adjustment, it does seem as though BQ has had more time to throw, and has seen less time on the turf. I think we have all harped endlessly about the short passing game. There are numerous ways to get McKnight, Stovall, and Holiday touches, but we have not been doing it consistently. We do not take advantage of the mismatches our 6-5, 6-3, and 6-2 receivers create when they line up against smaller DB's (especially in man coverage). If we would like to know how to do this, it would be as simple as watching USC film. The Trojans put on a clinic two years in a row against us. They should have charged admission.

Unfortunately, until we have a set plan of attack on offense that maximizes our talent, we will continue to underachieve.

Todd, i live in eastern pennsylvania and i am a member of the whitehall and schuylkill county ND fan clubs. back in the late 80's and early 90's when lou holtz was in his hey day his recruiting coordinator was vinny cerrato. vinny made it a point to be at our annual club picnic, he got to know the local high school coaches and knew about all the top players in our area. he recruited rocket ismail, ricky watters, tim ruddy among others from our neck of the woods. in the last few years under both davie and willingham it seems that we are just blown off when we invite coaches to our events. just this past summer ohio state signed jon skinner (2nd in his class academically) offensive lineman from mt. carmel area. jon did not even receive a letter from ND. penn state signed greg harrison (also a good student) another top rated lineman. harrison's school got a call from ND after he had already given his verbal. i just have to wonder does ND have a recruiting system in place or do they just subscribe to lemming or emfinger's service?

And…

I too would like to see TW succeed as I would any head football coach at ND. However, you never mentioned the lack of recruiting, and the inability of TW and his staff getting top rated prospects to commit. This is the most scary part of this current staff. It seems they are being beaten in the living room as well as on the field.

I have been critical of our "national" recruiting, and lack of a base. It is disheartening that we don't hit the midwest/Pennsylvania hard like we used to. I loved hearing that these great athletes we had came from our neck of the woods, not Florida, Texas, and Cal. I wish I had more time to investigate this further, but my initial thought is that Ty and Co. do not seem to recruit our traditional recruiting areas very hard, or make enough offers to kids in these areas. Certainly there are Notre Dame "guys" to be found everywhere, but I firmly believe any program needs a solid recruiting base to depend on. I think it also would help any program to have a recruiting coordinator who was not a position coach or offensive/defensive coordinator.

Holtz came to ND with a very exact/understandable plan to succeed. The jury is still out on what exactly Ty is doing. It is a mystery to me, and a whole lot of other people.

Say what you want about Gerry DiNardo at Indiana. He has a tough job that I surely wouldn't want. But, in his first two years as coach, he has visited EVERY high school in Indiana--no matter what division. That kind of dedication to grass roots recruiting is what lays the foundation for a winning program, and keeps it on top. Coaches like to be paid attention to, and their influence with football players is crucial. I don't feel like Ty and Co. pound the pavement. That hurts us over the long haul.

Ty's first recruiting class, minus Rhema McKnight, was mostly Davie's kids. His first true class was last year's--six or seven of those kids have already seen PT--and the class was arguably one of the best in the nation. This year I feel we will sign 12-15 kids, and although they will be less heralded, they will be an important class because they will fill holes, and add much needed depth for the future. I think this class will be regarded in four or five years as an excellent one.

Last year we experienced some lulls during the recruiting year, and finished with a bang. Let's see what happens in January and February before we label this class a disappointment. I have been critical of our overall recruiting strategy, yes, but the results, so far, have been very solid.

That said, this staff does not seem to "get after it" like others--namely Michigan, USC, and FSU--three teams that handed it to us this year. If you do not love recruiting, you have no place coaching college football--or any college sport for that matter--at any level.

It seems to me that ND is being out coached each week. I mean, the defensive game plan from last year's USC thrashing was so good that we just had to try it again this year! Give me a break, if you are going to go down like that wouldn't you at least TRY some other things?

I think more than anything else, this team lacks confidence. Part of that is the coaching staff's fault (poor game planning, play calling, etc.) for not trusting this team to go out and kick ass, and part of it is the players are feeling sorry for themselves (you reap what you sow). They need a spark. Maybe it comes from the coaching staff being more ambitious in their game planning, maybe it's a BIG hit in a game, maybe it's a kick off return for a TD--something will happen that will get the emotional level up.

However, if this staff does not take the hand cuffs off this team, and come up with some creative, aggressive strategies, these players will neither realize, nor play up to their potential. In any sport, if you do not challenge your team from week to week, they will get bored and play flat. That is a fact. This point is getting moot, though. If this staff was capable with coming up with something vaguely impressive, it would have happened by now.

I have to disagree with you on one thing. ND does not have the athletes that the schools on our schedule have. They are one step slower than everyone else and it shows.

I refuse to believe that our players are not as talented. Our DB's are very fast. Dwight Ellick was the 100 meter state champion in Florida. When you are out of position, or tackle poorly, you will look a step slow. Oklahoma beat Texas this year by five touchdowns. Was Texas, who consistently signs many extraordinarily talented and fast players, less talented? No way. Texas looked a step slow, because they were out of position on defense and did not tackle well. They also did not execute on offense. Their game plan on both sides of the ball was also very vanilla (read: lame). The Longhorns were out coached by Stoops and Co. Period. Sound familiar?

You talk a lot about offense. Great teams are made of great defenses. I hope that he recruits better on defense in the next couple of years than offense. Take a look at OU. They have had an efficient offense to get them moving in the right direction, but their defense is what won the National Title for Stoops, and if he wins it again, it will be no different. One more thing is that Ty must still have a running game first, pass second. No running game, they will not win.

I talk so much about offense because it is this inept offense that has caused this defense to essentially give up in a few games. It is human nature: why am I busting my ass if the other guys can't get their s**t together? Additionally, on many occasions, the offense has not done enough to win the game, or take advantage of favorable situations set up by our D. Your defense will eventually lose faith. And I think ours has done that.

In regard to OU, yes the D won the championship game, but the offense was able to outscore FSU. Also, the OU offense does not generally have a problem scoring points from week to week. Yes, there have been tight games when the D has to come up big, but for the most part the OU offense has been able to score. We cannot say that about ND. Furthermore, in regard to the Irish, when the D has had an off day, the O has never been able to return the favor (save the WSU opener) and out score our opponent.

Defense wins championships, yes, but offense wins games. You must win enough GAMES to play for a CHAMPIONSHIP. In my opinion, your defense should "have your back", so to speak, but very few teams who rely heavily on defense, and consistently lack offensive production, are able to sustain success for eleven or twelve games in college football. Ohio State had an excellent defense last year, but when they desperately needed a score (Purdue, Michigan games--OT at Champaign), or the defense wavered, the offense was able to come through somehow.

I don't disagree with you necessarily, but let's be honest. You cannot win 11 or 12 games 3-0. I think your thoughts on having a team be able to POUND the ROCK are right on, though!

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