Rockne's Roundtable

Jason, do you see the departures of these guys affecting recruiting negatively?

Hinton I'm ok with but Warriner was a huge loss... Any idea who might be replacement???

Warriner is going to Nebraska. The Big Red Machine just got one hell of a line coach (and offensive coordinator).

I learned to coach the O-line from the staff at Nebraska (Tenopir et al) so at least this doesnt sting as much as if he'd gone somewhere else. He coached up our line into something pretty darn good, I guess Pelini wants to get Nebraska back to being a physical team.

My guess is that Warinner decided to leave when he was not promoted to OC.

both are apparently going to OSU per the footballScoop.

^^^^^ this ^^^^^^

Ham, you do have to wonder if Molnar's departure was just sort of the first domino to collapse that whole side of the ball. For a coach (Kelly) who came in touted highly as an offensive mind, we've yet to see a complete package on that side. Seeing these coaching changes, one has to wonder if maybe all the pieces weren't in place from a philosophy standpoint to manufacture the kind of success he was used to seeing there. Scheme and play-calling during the game was on Kelly with input from Molnar, but day-to-day prep to execute those things had to come from the position coaches. I'm not willing to say there was tension or bad blood or mismanagement, because I can't possibly know what was happening there, but we could all infer that the product on the field was not what Kelly hoped for or talked about when he addressed those things with the media. I think we are also hearing that there were some disagreements from a recruiting standpoint, especially where Molnar was concerned, which means some sort of personnel philosophy wasn't always in line from the top down. I hate to see Warriner go, as the O-line grew leaps and bounds with him, but one has to hope that perhaps this opens the door for even more consistency and success from the offense.

Kinsiah, those are reasonable inferences to be drawn, but we can only speculate right now. But, as you say, there have been some signs which suggest the possibility that not all were on the same page.

Agreed on Warriner, nc. Tough loss. But, it looked like he was being passed over for OC, so clearly Kelly was looking in a different direction, and for whatever reason, might have felt more philosophically compatible with Martin than Warriner.

Move Alford back to Rb coach( he is as good or better than Hinton) and hire a top notch Offensive line coach.

I must agree with other posters in that the loss of Hinton is nothing big, I know the inroads he had with the state of Ohio. But I think we have as good a coach for the rbs already on the staff, Alford. Now I do not know where he is going to be coaching at next year but he is sticking around and that makes me awful happy. Thank you for the kind words that you left us with Hinton, you were right ND is special, and I hope you enjoy the "football factory" that you are getting into. (Your words not mine.)

The Warriner loss is the one that hurts. I do not know what kind of recruiter he was but man he had the oline clicking except for the last two games, not quite as dominating. I have no inside info but I must ask the same question as Ham, was something going on with the offensive staff? It was a Jekyll and Hyde year, who knows. Or is this the result of a perceived snub in not getting the o-coordinator job? I do not know.

What I do know is that Notre Dame is starting to pay its assistants better, I believe that started under Weis. And we have alot of talent for whoever is next to coach, so I believe Kelly is sitting in a pretty good spot to be looking for a new oline coach.

Do we hold on to mahone, Russell and OL guys?