As the dust settles on the last games of the 2019 season, taking (with video!) a look at Notre Dame’s advanced stats in the Camping World Bowl win over Iowa State. The Irish dominated the key categories of explosiveness, efficiency, and creating and converting scoring chances. But things were closer than they appeared in the first half and there were interesting new tendencies under interim (potentially new?) offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.
A pivot to video! I’m experimenting with this format for bigger games, providing the same advanced stats you know and love but with the ability to focus and expand a bit on the most interesting and under the radar parts of the game – let me know any feedback in the comments! There are some things to iron out and (ideally, these videos would land more in the 6-8 minute range) but went longer providing explanations for this first one.
Great video – I think it really works in this form, though it may be harder to debate points down here in the comments without the ability to copy/paste 🙂
In other numbers/rankings news, ND finished #12 in the AP poll: https://apnews.com/APTop25CollegeFootballPoll?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP_Top25&utm_source=Twitter
Whoever voted for Oklahoma ahead of Alabama should be stripped of their ballot. I think there’s a good argument that Oklahoma should have been the lowest-ranked of the 2-loss P5 teams.
i agree, it would be nice to have the charts in the article, but the video presentation was excellent!
IDK how much work it is to write up an article, but if you’re looking for feedback, a video/write-up would probably be my preferred format. Most of the time I read these at work, and I can’t really watch a video here.
Or maybe you’re my boss, trying to get me to actually do some work for a change.
Yeah, I’m only on here at work. Reading is much easier. Maybe bullet points of the stats?
it is indeed me Mikey, get back to work and I’ll need those TPS reports by noon.
Thanks gents, either way I end up typing up some rough bullet points and producing the same graphics so if I go down this road next year will include the cliff notes + images along with the video!
Awesome. Glad to see that money I’ve been paying Burger all these years is going to a great responsive team.
https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1217188468578816000
It’s Rees as OC. Really hope he’s just been quietly sitting on some good new ideas for the last couple years, I guess?
Putting positive vibes out there to ol’ Back-shoulder Tommy. Hopefully he does a great job.
Even if Rees is a stud, he’s been an actual coach like 2 years. He isn’t going to bolt for another OC role. He can contribute a ton and you can bring in some hot name who is a stud recruiter.
I feel like every time we are excited about a season, we are disappointed, and every time we are more reserved we do great. So maybe this hire is to drastically lower everyone’s expectations?
I don’t really understand this. Rees is a hot-name. He’s interviewed for multiple power 5 OC spots this summer. The absolute hottest name, Joe Brady, left college football completely for the NFL. The next hottest name, Joe Moorhead, just got fired from head coaching at Mississippi State where he had the #74 scoring offense this year and #69 last year. As an OC he had exactly one year of a top 20 offense while at Penn State that happened to line up with Saquon Barkley’s final year there.
Mike Denbrock, zero top 20 offenses since heading to Cincinnati. Did we totally miss out on beating Colorado State out of Joey Lynch with his one career top 20 offense and a (now former) head coach who’s on the hot seat despite Joey’s efforts? Tim Albin has the best run of any current OC/playcaller doing more-with-less in the Group of 5, the issue being he’s been OC for Ohio University for 15 years. He’s certainly not an up-and-comer, high-energy recruiter. Is that the upside we missed out on?
Zak Hill – Furthest east he’s ever been is Idaho. Shawn Clark – Got a head coaching gig. Kendal Briles – Was involved in the Baylor rape cover up.
I can’t promise Rees will do an excellent job, but he’s a motivated, smart, Notre Dame guy who’s going to give the job his entire soul and has the support of all the current players. I’m excited to see our high-ceiling offense next year reporting to a high-ceiling OC.
What OC jobs has Rees interviewed for? I certainly hadn’t heard of any, but I don’t follow the national picture like I once did.
What makes you say Rees is a high-ceiling OC? What evidence do we have either way? I presume he is or BK wouldn’t have promoted him, but that’s not based on anything really.
A straight promotion to Rees, means we are hiring someone who is not going to be a coordinator, seems logical to assume that means a lesser coach than someone qualified to be OC. Sure, maybe Rees is the best candidate, but seems like there could have been better ways to improve the overall coaching staff, and in particular I would like to bring in a stud recruiter. I would have loved to see a co-OC type situation where we give Rees added responsibilities and bring in some hot position coach or great smaller time OC. Who knows if that is possible, but it seems reasonable at surface level, and it probably would have made a better top to bottom coaching staff.
Rees reportedly interviewed for the Oregon and Northwestern OC positions.
Wow. Good for him.
I guess in the end, I know that Rees is going to have a huge influence whatever his title, and I didn’t think there was any chance he’d leave after 2 years, which may have been wrong. So I’m more disappointed that we did announce a new coach who I am very excited about, whether it was an OC or just a position coach, than I am disappointed in Rees as OC.
I guess we will now greatly overanalyze this game for what it portends for the future, if anything.
Great job on this Michael, I liked the video but bonus bullet points would always be appreciated.
Great timing with the announcement today of Rees’ promotion. We have 8+ months to harrumph it, but I don’t think his audition in the bowl game could have gone much better. And the continuity/chemistry/relationship with Book (not to mention Kelly) make this a good hire for 2020, IMO. Beyond that, I suppose we’ll see.
Thanks as always! For feedback, I’m actually a bigger fan of the text posts rather than the video, since I like to read at my own pace rather than watch videos (also easier to read while on the bus to work). Great work as always though and appreciate what you do for the site!