re: ND fan here

Good point. I don't follow the SEC as closely as anyone on this board.

I'll push back on my always winning games with more talent a bit here. Having the more talented team week in and week out in the SEC west may be a bit more than just recruiting. LSU can head into the season with the 2nd best roster but maybve they're a few injuries away from being less talented than AnM or whoever. That is a legit concern from a LSU fans perspective.

At ND, Kelly has found a way to work around injuries. ND lost two of their top three defensive players this year, including Hamilton who should be a top 10 pick next year. Had several injuries on the offensive line, including our second most talented player on the offense overall, and still found a way to win games.

Is that b/c of coaching or is it bc ND's schedule turned out to be worse than expected? Probably both. ND had a stretch where they played wiscy, cincy, va tech, USC and UNC. All those teams were top 15 in preseason except va tech, if I'm not mistaken. None of them outside of cincy lived up to expecations and that is the game ND lost. Can we still call it a good job to get them to 11-1? Probably. Is it gonna blow your hair back? No.

SEC west is a different animal. Ole Miss and AnM have closed the gap with talent. Bama is bama. Who the hell knows what's going on with Auburn. THe pirate is good for a few upset every year at Miss St. Love Leach by the way. I'm sure that'll get me a lot of street cred on this site. I'm not sure Kelly can keep this up at LSU given the current makeup of the SEC west. It's just a trend that I have noticed and I think it's worth mentioning.

Very true. You don't see many french hyphenated names on teh backs of anyone outside of LSU.

I think ND has had one player from LA in BK's tenure - Jerry Tillery. Was a highly rated player so it was a shock to all of us. I think there were some things with him that made him more of a cultural fit at ND than LSU...I'll leave it at that.

I think we have a receiver committed this year and he should be a decommit within a week or so.

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Winning a close game against Toledo is inexcusable but you have to dig a bit deeper to understand the circumstances. ND's offensive line was an absolute disaster. RT is playing injured, LG and RG are new, LT was 4th string true freshman.

They looked like hell the first five weeks of the year and still managed to win four of five, including a win against Wiscy. I understand they are not some great team but they are always solid.

At the end of the day, ND is in a rebuild year and went 11-1. ND has more talent than about 80% of their schedule and tehy win about 90% of the time.

LSU has more talent than everyone and went 6-6. Again, I'm not criticizing you. My point is that some coaches lose a lot of games despite having more talent. Kelly doesn't. Does that mean, he's great - no. But it's something that LSU fans should be optimistic about.

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The o-line at LSU next year will have some young talent but be fairly thin and inexperienced. And the schedule in the SEC West is unforgiving.

While Cincinnati was your toughest opponent and Wisconsin your second toughest, who was the third? Toledo or Purdue?

Not saying anything is wrong with it, but Notre Dame is always off to a good record but loses to the better teams on their schedule, none of whom are as talented as the 3rd toughest team on LSU's schedule.

BTW, great posts and insight. I just always view ND as a paper tiger who really only has to game plan for 2-3 teams on their schedule all year.

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yes, he'll be fine in the heat. Just make sure you clear the fields during a hurricane.

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Toledo was awful man. Third best team was purdue and then unc.

2017: ND lost to Georgia at home
2018 ND undefeated and loses to clemson in playoffs.
2019: ND loses to georia in athens and michigan in ann arbor (absolutely awful loss).
2020: Clemson in acc title game and bama in playoffs.
2021: Cincy at home (another bad loss).

All of these teams outside of Michigan or cincy would have been LSU's toughest opponent this year, in large part b/c bama is down. Just my opinion.

You are knowledgeable CFB fan.

Evident in your insight.

Same here with Saban and Meyer, with the same level of disrespect for Meyer for many reasons. But none of those reasons will ever be identifying and developing the QB position.

"outside of southern cal and those kids are mentally weak"


ELI RICKS

I grew up with Jerry. He was a die hard ND fan since we were little. He's also a genius

BTW, great posts and insight. I just always view ND as a paper tiger who really only has to game plan for 2-3 teams on their schedule all year.

No problem. Here is something to consider when you're looking at ND's schedule. I get that ND appears to be soft at first glance and this year was down year for their schedule, without question. However, ND can't control the fact that FSU and USC are dysfunctional. Those are two big time programs that should provide ND an opportunity to win a big game. Just didn't work out. The other thing is that ND played 7 opponents coming off of bye weeks this year, if I'm not mistaken. The ACC does it intentionally to frick with us. Tough to beat half your opponents when they have an extra week to plan and heal.

The other thing is something that is hard to explain and may come off as a dig against the SEC but that's not my intent.

Years ago, ND went with a death by a thousand paper cuts model - play all power five teams except navy b/c we just have to play frickin navy and USC, and then play average P5 schools 10 times. Hope USC is good so you can get a quality win and then take care of the average to slightly above average P5 teams on the schedule. Compare that to what the SEC did - schedule a couple FCS teams, a mediocre out of conference game, beat up on shitty teams in conference and then strap it up for three big time games.

No point in arguing which approach is more difficult, the SEC model has proven to be better for optics and ND has slowly adpted that approach. Moving forward, we have 5 ACC schools, USC, Stanford, Navy and two shite teams and a big name. Next year, we have USC, Ohio State and CLemson. In 2024, we ahve AnM, FSU and USC. They're trying to schedule big time games. These teams have to live up to their name, though.

Moving forward, the amount of money flowing into the SEC west is making it harder and harder to beat up on shitty in conference teams. I think that is a valid argument from a SEC West team regarding scheduling. The SEC east can't make the same argument. Top to bottom they're mediocre, at best. Georgia can coast on that side unless napier can turn them around quick. Heupal may be able to do something at TN but jury is still out.

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I do not like his style of running on offense. Slow developing and too much lateral movement. Even with a great offensive line, it makes it difficult to run against high quality defenses with speed.

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Could this be a function of the speed of the players as opposed to the the offensive play design? If its the former then there will be no problem at LSU.