Solid?....or a house of cards?....We shall see!...

Just like I tell my clients...it takes a lifetime of planning

and saving to retire properly...but only a few bad

moves makes everything come CRASHING down!

This can be said about anything....life, sports...etc!...

So...are we a house of cards...or are we a FORTRESS?..

A house of cards looks pretty...but you take out the right 

card, at the wrong spot, and CRASH!

Now a FORTRESS....you remove a brick....and the 

others around it take the force and remain strong!

You've heard me in the past talk about "concerns"...

The offense is not really a concern....You might say,

"hey, redshirt freshman QB...No Floyd?..." 

Not an issue!...Too many weapons...too much experience,

and are you ready for this....COACHING!

COACH MARTIN!

This guy took Harrison Smith...and created

"1st Round Draft Pick Harrison Smith"

I really don't think ANYONE realizes how good a coach 

this guy really is....SIGN HIM AND ALFORD to 

long term contracts....NOW!

Special Teams?....this might be the first 

year in a while that they

 are actually "SPECIAL"

We got this:

On Kickoff return...one of the FASTEST players

in the country!...

and this...

The ESPN number 1 athlete in the country on 

punt returns!

Now onto what wins CHAMPIONSHIPS!

DEFENSE!

This IS an area of concern...

CORNER!

This is where things get interesting!...

NEXT MAN IN

That's been Kelly's motto since arrival in South Bend...

He proved it works with Tommy Rees....like it or not

when your starting QB gets hurt and your TRUE freshman 

finishes up the season 4-0 with wins at night at USC,

and Miami in the bowl...you can develop talent!

I really like Tommy Rees, don't get me wrong..but 

Tommy has a ceiling that Everett at this point 

looks like he doesn't!...

So...NEXT MAN IN...meet the corner position!

KeiVarae Russell

Number 9 Athlete in the country according to Rivals!

He took his talents to South Bend over...

Stanford,Oregon,Cal,Boise,Washington and a 

HUGE list of others!

6'0 195 and waiting to be tested!

So can we be a FORTRESS or are we house of cards?

Let's talk about corners!...

I reached out to a former asst. coach I know that 

coached D1 and asked his opinion about young corners.

"You can always protect a corner with a safety.  You can't 

protect a safety with a corner.  No need to move 

Slaughter!  Plus a corner can really be protected by 

an experienced LB and deep with safety.  That only 

leaves fades in certain zone coverages, if they can run 

vertical then they should be okay...if they turn their heads!"

"Only other route is an out, but lets hope they can break on 

it, especially the squat corner"

What this translates to?...our OTHER STRENGTHS!

LB-SAFETY-D LINE

Sound familiar?...one brick breaks?...what happens?

Now....on to another reason my worries are starting 

to diminish!....BODY LANGUAGE!

Does this guy look worried?...NO!

Does he look nervous?...NO!

Why?...I think he knows what he has now!

I was talking to my buddy Mike Franck (GIGA)

Mike is a unique guy...not only did he WAY out 

kick his coverage when he married....but

this is his father in law!...

So....you know how much fun we are gonna have

with this dude next year tailgating!...

He and I were talking about ND...

When he pointed out Kelly's body language!

He hit the nail on the head!...PERIOD!...why is he 

not worried!....He expounded:

"1 week till Navy, Navy isn't going to throw the ball more 

than 15 times max.  Purdue isn't staring Muave so no threat there,
MSU has a new QB and WRs and it's week three so they 

will be more apt to make mistakes than most people are thinking.

UM, D Rob is going to use his feet first against us, not his arm. 

Then a bye week."

"Then we have Miami who is just going to be horrible,  and 

Stanford replacing the best QB they have EVER had then 

your first REAL QB threat...BYU"

So Mike and I agreed...By then...2 MONTHS!

If you can't develop a "decent" corner by then...you need to

TAKE A LONG LOOK IN THE MIRROR!

Cause you might not be the guy!

This is not my worry....but these are the FACTS of our 

situation...so where do we go from here?

I have 120% faith in Coach Kelly and the staff and 

players he's put together at Notre Dame!...

My money is on Kelly making this place a:

FORTRESS

In closing...

This is year 3....

LET'S GET IT ON!

GOD BLESS and GO IRISH!