Brady Quinn on ND Recent Success

Despite having attended Notre Dame - Mr. Quinn really showed intelligence and nailed it with that accurate observation.  Their schedule recently has been pathetic.

And I will just add - To Hell With Notre Dame!

I mean... they did beat Clemson once. Missing their star QB, but P5 teams take advantage of injuries to other teams all the time too.

It doesn't matter, and he's just taking a shot at Kelly. They've played and beat good teams. I hate when people blame a schedule for a teams success. I'm not gonna go over their whole schedule, but they beat some good teams. 

ND's schedule this year was an absolute snoozefest.  Only two ranked opponents - Wisconsin and Cincinnati.  A big reason Brian Kelly became their winningest coach* is that he watered down their schedule considerably.

*If we overlook games vacated due to academic fraud

This is all very much “don’t hate the player, hate the game” situation. I’ve had no problem with ND having gotten into the playoff the last few years. Their performance in the playoff isn’t a factor in their entry, so pointing to a game after the decision is made is meaningless. A lot of teams not named Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State are going to get blown out in the playoff. In the end, the committee chose them. You could argue/speculate it was because of ratings, but I think they’ve always made a fair case in getting in. While I totally buy their ACC affiliation helps them in that pursuit, hats off to them for being strategic. What they did on the field has been good enough in the eyes of the committee. Please, let’s change it so everyone has to win a conference championship to get in, so everything doesn’t come down to what a bunch of administrative professionals in a conference room think, otherwise tip-of-the-cap for doing what they needed to do to make the playoff. 

I don't know if I agree with Quinn there. Notre Dame in the ACC just needs an upset win over Clemson a couple of those years which I think it could have done. 

I fully believe Independence has HURT Notre Dame, not helped it. Having so little continuity of schedule from year to year leaves you open to being upset by a team that you should beat on paper. Everyone at BYU talked about it when they first went independent, how hard it is to deal with 7-10 new opponents every year. 

Other than USC/Stanford/Navy, Notre Dame's schedule is a grab bag every season. They have to game plan for 9 different teams every single season, most of whom are gunning for them because it's always a big nationally televised game. It's untenable. But like most things with Notre Dame, the school puts the competitiveness of its team secondary to making money. The checks from NBC cash, so they intentionally hamstring the team to keep the money flowing.

Now with the expanded playoff, they're even willing to foreclose on the opportunity to ever get a bye week in the playoff just to keep getting that NBC money. They've run their coach off because they won't invest in basic facility things like a team dietician that every other major program has. It's kinda pathetic.

Just how we caveat talking-heads from ESPN talking about Big Ten/12/PAC, we should note here that Quinn works for FOX and ND is contracted with NBC and ACC with ESPN

I saw this and thought that it was intended to be a slight toward the now former coach.  He was only successful because he wasn't pressed by any quality teams consistently.  I am a cynic though and that would be what I would say, most likely.

It would be interesting IF Notre Dame does make the playoff and then goes on to LOSE to MICHIGAN.

ND has been a huge beneficiary of USC being down almost every year since Pete Carroll left, FSU being down for the last 5-6 years, Stanford being down for the same amount of time, Clemson being on the schedule maybe once every few years, and playing against an otherwise very weak ACC and Navy team. 

Now, is it ND's fault that those other programs aren't any good? Of course not. Play the schedule in front of you. But that doesn't change the overall point. They get exposed thoroughly when they actually get to the CFP. 

ND could be taking a huge hit in the coming years now that Riley is heading to USC. Now depending on who ND hires they may be able to counter, but if they don't knock that hire out of the park, this could turn into another Pete Carroll situation where USC just flat out dominates the rivalry for a decade. Once he gets that team up and running it could be a while before ND smells the playoffs again. 

If I was a ND player or fan, this would piss me off the most, and I imagine 2 loss Ohio State will get in the CFP before ND this year.

That's why Brian Kelly is in for a rude awakening at LSU. Still can't believe he would leave such a cush job. 

ND feels a bit like how MSU benefitted from PSU/UM struggling in the early 2010's.  Once PSU and UM started winning 9-10 games a year on the regular MSU's success cratered, and I assume if USC rebounds under Riley we'd see the same.  It also helps that Stanford started to fall apart the past couple of years; that was another team that gave ND trouble under Harbaugh/early Shaw.

ND is a good football program but they've benefitted immensely from weak scheduling and peers being down a bit.

https://www.theonion.com/brian-kelly-admits-he-never-actually-believed-in-god-1848143090?utm_campaign=TheOnion&utm_content=1638376682&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=twitter

Brady Quinn is just trying to fire up his alma mater for their game this weekend against..  (checks the schedule..)  Nobody!

I love Brady Quinn. Not ashamed at all to say it.

He's 100% right and is exactly the answer that went through my head as i read this title and clicked the link. Half their fault and half not, their schedule has been butt for years. They play 5 ACC games a year, and that generally means 4 MAC teams and maybe Clemson and/or whatever FSU is that year. Stanford has sucked for a while. USC has sucked for a while. They don't play us or MSU anymore. Half joining the ACC is their fault, all the rivals still on their schedule sucking isn't. But either way they have had a joke of a schedule lately and anyone paying attention has noticed theyve been overrated.

He’ll always be Mr. Sacramone to me.  And that’s not meant as an insult.