As despondent as I am

by Dylan, Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 09:28 (5341 days ago) @ Jay

and I am totally despondent, considering that I am going to deliberately avoid an ND game for the first time in my life, I think we need to keep our heads and keep an eye on those things that are truly measurable.

These past two games pretty much defy explanation. When was the last time ND committed nine turnovers (I'm not really counting the last one since it didn't matter) in two games? I know our brains are wired to seek out patterns (this is why I often wonder if my ipod is sentient), but sometimes those patterns are phantasms.

I think we need to step back to August 2010 and revisit the questions we were asking then and see how we stack up. I don't think "We need to not turn the ball over 5 times a game" was anywhere on that list. I do think that the things ND fans wanted to see were:

- Improved play on OL
- Improved play on DL
- Improved DL recruiting
- steady progress in the running game
- More physical play, in general
- program building (through depth, cultural changes, etc)

15 games in, I think Kelly's made strides in all areas, frankly. I'd have liked to have won more games, of course, but I like where we are now a lot better than where we were at the end of Ty's first season. I don't have that "smoke and mirrors" feeling. Quite the opposite. I think there is an excellent team somewhere in there, it just needs to emerge. What's preventing that emergence is the $15MM question, but I don't think it's tied into the maladies we were looking to cure before Kelly got here.

And while there are no excuses, there's been some pretty weird, unpredictable shit that's happened, from a rash of key injuries to multiple deaths (!) around the program. It's no wonder we're staggering. Despite all that, I do see signs of life and the laying of a foundation, and that's the most important thing for the long-term health of the program.