Some football notes for a Friday …
-Air Force returned to practice today and began installing its game plan for the Armed Forces Bowl.
The Falcons will face Houston on Dec. 31 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth.
Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said his team actually started working a bit on Houston last Saturday in anticipation that the Cougars would be their bowl opponent.
“We thought it was a little bit of a coin flip,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun said right now the Falcons have “too much” installed at this point and will “pare it down” once the coaches figure out what schemes they think will work best and which ones the Falcons can best execute.
-Sophomore quarterback Tim Jefferson practiced and, like last weekend, showed no ill effects of the bruised ribs he suffered in the Falcons’ season finale at BYU on Nov. 21.
-Sophomore quarterback Connor Dietz, who missed the Falcons’ last four regular season games with a broken bone in his right (throwing) hand, was at practice without a cast on the hand. He didn’t participate in full-speed drills but did some throwing on the side.
“He’s coming along,” Calhoun said.
When asked what Dietz had to show him in practice to be considered ready to play in the bowl, Calhoun said: “Just practice consistently. Be firm enough in practice and fast enough and be able to handle the ball consistently enough. If he can get to that point, then, yeah, you’d consider it, but he’s got to be to that point. But he’s still got a little time too.”
-Freshman outside linebacker Alex Means (foot) will not play in the bowl. “We just want to make sure he can do all of his work in the winter in the weight room and then be able to go through spring ball,” Calhoun said. “He’s a guy that really, really needs spring ball.”
-Junior slot receiver Kyle Halderman (knee) still is questionable for the bowl game.
-I mean, I guess the No. 1 pass offense vs. No. 1 pass defense matchup makes the Armed Forces Bowl fairly intriguing. But this intriguing? Pete Fiutak of FoxSports.com ranks the bowls from worst to first. And you won’t believe where he has Air Force-Houston. (Note: He does write that Air Force beat Houston last season in the Armed Forces Bowl).
-Coming tomorrow: My Heisman ballot.
Wow, I feel a lot better about that Armed Forces Bowl last year. To think, all this time I thought we lost. Wow, I’m so happy
Jake-
1) The #1 Pass Offense vs #1 Pass Defense angle will certainly be drummed for the game, but unfortunately I feel it is a little misleading (see BYU, and games against Army and Navy won’t hurt that stat.) Do you think it can hold up against Keenum?
2) Are you able for a moment to put on your ND hat and weigh in on the hiring of Kelly? His handling of his departure from UC makes Bzdelik look like a saint. The guy can certainly coach, but I’m surprised there isn’t more concern about his ‘intangibles.’ I can’t figure out why everyone says this guy is media savvy, well-liked, etc., when his history seems to suggest otherwise. Edsall seemed like a better hire.
The BYU game was a little misleading. We were playing with our third string quarterback and still put up 21 points. BYU was playing dirty too with a lot of face masks that were not called.
I think it is funny whenever ND wins two in a row, the sportswriters immediately put them in the top 25.
Phil -
While you feel better, I feel embarrassed. I’m going to have to run a a bunch of corrections in the paper — I wrote in all my stories about the bowl that Air Force lost.
Scott -
1) It’s going to be a pretty big challenge. In addition to BYU, Minnesota and TCU moved the ball fairly effectively against AFA. But the Falcons did something wrong in their preparation for the Cougars, according to Air Force coach Troy Calhoun, something I’ll be writing about in the lead-up to the bowl game.
2) Kelly is the guy I thought they’d end up with, and I think he’s a solid hire — as good a hire as they were going to be able to make, considering the state of the program since Lou left.
Once the pie-in-the-sky candidates like Meyer were out of the picture, Kelly seemed like the best choice.
The No. 1 thing I like is he’s been successful at every stop he’s made. As someone pointed out to me recently, the guys who’ve had success at ND have been guys who’ve had success at other major Division I college programs. I like that he’s coached in the Midwest. I like that he seems to be able to unearth players who can compete at a high level who were overlooked by other programs (he did it at Cincy, though admittedly, the restrictions at ND are of a totally different nature — namely academic). And it doesn’t hurt that he’s an Irish Catholic guy.
At the same time, it makes me a bit nervous that ND has another offensive guy and a spread offense offensive guy at that. I’ve always thought ND has been at its best when it plays a blue-collar style of football — excellent running game paced by a mean offensive line; tough defense; and a handful of game-breakers to make some vertical plays when other teams load up on the run (The 1998 team is a perfect example: Standout line led by Andy Heck and TIm Grunhard, a run-first quarterback in Tony Rice, a stable of backs including Tony Brooks, Rodney Culver, Mark Green and Anthony Johnson, and playmakers Rocket Ismail and Ricky Watters on offense; and a play-making defense led by Ned Bolcar, Chris Zorich and Pat Terrell that came up with six turnovers in the 31-30 victory over Miami. Don’t get me started on this team)
Anyhow, it’ll be interesting to see how he does. Yes, it’s tougher for ND these days with the academic standards, the fact that almost every team plays most of its games on national TV now and the fact that people who remember the last national championship team fondly are my age and older.
But Weis proved you still can get talent to Notre Dame — Jimmy Clausen is an early first-round pick, Golden Tate likely will win the Biletnikoff Award, and I think Michael Floyd will end up being better than him. And I think the right coach can win there. We’ll see if Kelly is that guy.
(And as for how he handled leaving Cincy — that’s always going to be awkward. And I’m not sure he could do worse than calling a team meeting and telling his players he was undecided before getting in his car and driving to a reception with his new team that had been scheduled a couple days earlier.)
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