Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1028333
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 24, 2018 5 FAN FORUM OVERDUE PROCESS Head coach Brian Kelly will turn 57 on Oct. 25. There have been only two other head football coaches who have worked at the school beyond age 56. Dan Devine has just turned 56 when he stepped down at the end of the 1980 season. Devine guided Notre Dame to a national title in 1977. Lou Holtz was 59 when he turned in his resignation in 1996. Holtz guided Notre Dame to its last na- tional title in 1988, and is the most re- cent of the of the famous Notre Dame coaches, following Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy and Ara Parseghian. For the above mentioned trio, Notre Dame was their last stop. For Holtz it was not, as he coached at South Carolina from 1999-2004. I have been a Notre Dame football fan all my life. I just wanted to share this history — and hopefully Notre Dame will get a national title in 2018. They are long overdue for one. Go Irish! Robert P. Sposato Jr. Norwalk, Conn. SCOREBOARD WATCHING The Michigan game ball went to Brandon Wimbush. That's okay, but it should have gone to the new video scoreboard. It was brilliant when the giant video board told the story about the 1988 Michigan game when the crowd noise was so loud that the referees asked Lou Holtz to quiet the crowd. It then showed Lou waving his arms to try and reduce the crowd's noise level. Then in very large letters the video board said: LETS DO IT AGAIN! And they did — and they kept it up. I have never heard a Notre Dame crowd that loud for that long ever in all the games I've seen. Ted Wolfe '57 Via the Internet FROM THE WEBSITE After a hard-fought 24-16 win over five-touchdown underdog Ball State Sept. 8, there was much hand- wringing about the quarterback position — especially trying to force Brandon Wimbush to become a pocket passer — and the offensive line. Here was a small snippet on BlueandGold.com: GoldIrishGold: Come on coaches, either change the damn offense and the game plan or get Ian Book in there and let Wimbush run a few designed runs and/or deep throws. Irish400: I understand players are going to have games better than others but Wimbush's highs and lows seem to be very far apart, which leads to games like Miami last year. Notre Dame cannot be a play- off team with that type of inconsistency. … The defense being on the field for 97 plays is not sustainable and that is a direct result of poor play and play-calling on offense. IrishChippewa: Two interceptions weren't his fault and the offensive line was, well, offensive. Clearly, offensive coordinator Chip Long used this as a practice and not a real game. I can promise you the coach- ing staff is not reacting like the fan base right now. 2-0! Bigteve79: The saving grace for this season is having beaten what is likely the most physically talented team on the entire schedule in Michigan. If ND beats Stanford and Virginia Tech — teams that are VERY beatable, as USC showed —the possibility exists for a 12-0 season because there isn't a team with the talent of Georgia or even another Michigan left on the schedule. Dhighducheck: Virginia Tech looks very beatable to you? On the road, Saturday night, with Kelly's track record? I don't know what you have been drinking, but I need some of that. Irishvan: Track record ... like at Oklahoma and beating Michigan State last year on a prime time Sat- urday night game by 20? NDorBust: I'm more worried about the OL right now. They played awful, leading to Wimbush forcing throws and bad decisions Joemontana: I blame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn and especially Long for trying to turn Wimbush into something he is not (pocket passer, do not run, read coverages, etc.). Let Wimbush be Wimbush — he is what he is. Savvyandsassier: Wimbush has done nothing to deserve demotion. He's just been himself and we're 2-0. How much better on the whole is Book going to make us, even trying to look at it from that angle? Probably not that much. I just hope that with Wimbush as the guy that we're able to really maximize what he does well and play to his strengths. The coaches are going to have to earn their keep this year with some savvy game-planning. Maloy49: We need both Wimbush and Book. We don't beat LSU last year without Book. I assume there will be some more games like that this year after watching the Ball State game. At the same time, we don't beat Michigan without Wimbush. BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Blue & Gold Illustrated / Letters P. O. Box 1007 Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com Notre Dame Stadium's video scoreboard, added in 2017 as part of the Campus Crossroads project, has added a new level of excitement and enthusiasm to the games from the stands. FILE PHOTO