reminds me of Kelly with special teams
by grablifebythehorns (2016-05-16 09:27:37)

In reply to: Face Offs  posted by Domer65

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Agree wholeheartedly that ND needs to focus on this. Whether it does or not remains to be seen. If we don't win the majority of faceoffs it's pretty simple in that you'll have less possessions and less scoring chances (holding everything else even). Frustrating to say the least since I feel we have an elite offense. I am wondering if this would be the year for us to break and win the title through since Duke and Denver are eliminated on our side of bracket. As lifelong ND fan I fear the worst to come. More heartache (i.e football, hockey, men's and women's basketball falling short despite having some elite teams). Hope I am wrong. I will be in Columbus next weekend bleeding blue and gold. Go Irish!

The Kelly analogy may not be apt here
by flanner96  (2016-05-16 22:44:34)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

When we lost the title game in OT in 2010, off the draw, Corrigan said something to the effect of "I should have had a wing come down" meaning he should have had someone in position to get in Costabile's way so he didn't have a clear path to the goal.

I don't have data to back it up, but after that game, our faceoff philosophy started to change. Now, our wings crash down hard on the ball almost all the time. It's one of the reasons we defend so well-- we're already in our ride right off the faceoff, so even if the other team gets the ball, they're already under pressure. If you ask me, Corrigan has adapted his face off outlook to get the most out of his players and neutralize guys like Ben Williams and Baptiste (to an extent). That adaptation hasn't shown up in our football coach's special teams playbook.