So Mustain came in for USC’s injured QB and Rees came in for ND’s injured QB. Hmmmm …..

Mustain was a five-star HS recruit. You need to talk to some ND fans about whether there’s any excuse for Rees ever beating out a 5 star HS recruit. There must have been something wrong with your coach – maybe you fire him.

So Notre Dame caught a break when its first year coach was forced to play an 18-yr old pure freshman at QB on the road against USC. That really is funny. Maybe – just maybe – USC beats ND this year with an NFL-bound four year starter at QB against ND’s redshirt freshman. But after that – you can forget it. If you have any doubts – look at 2010. That was Rees. Now you are looking at Golson, Kiel and Zaire. Good luck, Trojans. LOL

Breaks!!

They caught a break when Barkley couldn’t play against you guys two years ago in the Coliseum. With Barkley out, that’s the only win in how many years?

I wish them well, but since they are not the Fighting Irish off years gone by, they need to dummy down the schedule just a tad.

Although some ND fans have difficulty learning the lessons of history, there are others who also have a tough time with logic.

History shows that a different “era” is not what matters. The Notre Dame football program was poor in the 1960s when it had poor coaching, and it was poor again in the 1980s with poor coaching. The bad programs back then were turned around with good coaching – not as a result of the football era that existed at the time, but as a result of a change in coaching. That is part of the problem being an ND fan. Constant refrain that Notre Dame can no longer compete because of academic standards or changes in the game she cannot keep up with – her glory is a thing of the past. The precise same things were said in the 1960s and 1980s – Notre Dame can no longer compete with the football powerhouses. Not only is clearly true for Notre Dame – it is clearly true for all other programs. Florida, Alabama, LSU and USC all floundered under poor coaches and all then rebounded under good coaches. Those schools will remain as powerhouses so long as they have good coaches – and Notre Dame is no different. All of the top programs fall under poor coaching – all of them.

8 wins “at the very best.” “Mediocrity is the new normal.” Really? Why? Because of what happened to Davie, Willingham, and Weis? “Different team, different coachs [sic], different times.” Either the results achieved by other teams, other coaches, and at other times is logically relevant or it is not. That’s where the difficulty with logic kicks in for some fans. The Davie, Willingham and Weis regimes have very little in common with Kelly’s program. The only real relevance of those past three coaches is that they have lowered fan expectations, which is what jimbo is really expressing.

And there again is the connection to 1988 – after 5 years of Faust and Holtz’s first two years of trying to right the ship – fan expectations were very low then as well – very close to what you hear expressed by many of todays’ fans, as exemplified by jimbo’s sentiments. What is difficult for fans to understand is the impact that coaches like Faust and Weis can have on a program. Coaches with no experience or understanding concerning the need to physically develop HS kids into college football players.

Fans cannot seem to appreciate what it says about the state of a program, player development and fundamentals to have Clausen in his 3rd year as a starter, combined with Tate, Floyd and Rudolph and still go 6-6. They cannot connect the dots as to why Weis was able to win in his first two years, but was not able to win after that. Whatever failings of Davie and Willingham had – they had the basic competence to develop HS football players into college football players. The precedent for what Kelly inherited from Weis is what Holtz inherited from Faust, and precedent for how long it takes to turn that around is Holtz taking three years. On paper, Holtz inherited a lot of talent from Faust – but it was not well developed.

8 wins at best? To say that we win 8 at best is to say that we are not as good as last year. Notre Dame is clearly better than last year. We dominated Michigan for 3 Qs on the road with Tommy Rees and lost in the last minute, but we cannot beat Michigan at home with Everett Golson? Really? Would not “at best” include beating Michigan? And if we can beat Michigan – clearly we can win “at least” 10. And if we could beat USC on the road in 2010 with freshman Rees, before USC’s depth was impacted by sanctions and with 2 additional years of superior player development, and Golson with a full year of experience under his belt – including on the road against Oklahoma …

Finally, something needs to be said about Stoops, who is held up as some super coach. Last year, with an NFL quality QB in his 3rd year as a starter, and having a team that he fully recruited and developed — Stoops went 9-3 with losses to unranked Tx Tech and 22 ranked Baylor, in addition to State rival OK St. And that’s what ND fans pine away for? Really?

I want to see ND beat OK this year – but anyone thinks Stoops on a different plane than Kelly – let’s see how Stoops does in 2013 coming to ND and breaking in a new QB with Golson in his second year. I can tell you already how that one will turn out. Stoops’s team is going to get schooled.

To be perfectly honest, what happened in 1988 has zero to do with 2012. That is part of the problem being an ND fan. Constant comparisons to the past are completely useless. Different team, different coachs, different times, different era. I still say 8 wins at the very best. Mediocrity has become be the new normal at ND. Sad to say but the facts are the facts.

Great points Dan. Also, ND has not caught any breaks in BKs tenure. I have a feeling ND is due for a few “lucky” breaks.