Rockne's Roundtable

Ben Councell and Anthony Rabasa, too. ! We have way too many talented defensive players to not see some WOW from them.

I must totally disagree about Grace. I rewatched the game looking only at defense and Jarrett was terrible. He was completely outmuscled by offensive linemen and could not separate himself from them at all. He was overpowered physically virtually every play. The only thing that he did well was run hard pursuing when the ball went the other way, but he rarely arrived on time. He needs a tremendous amount of increased strength and weight and must learn how to get off a blocker. When he wasn't on the ground, he looked like he was super glued to the offensive linemen. How could you have an inside LB who gets destroyed at the point of attack and and can't get away from a blocker. Moore looked far more ready to play at the collegiate level than Grace.

I have to admit that I'm also a bit baffled by when Moore was barely mentioned by the staff this spring, or not with the same excitement as Grace. The five I put on there were based on 1) the evaluation of the staff based on this spring and 2) their chances of getting on the field in meaningful situations this year after barely seeing any action, if any, in 2011.

Maybe they're trying to light a fire under Moore because he might have to be the successor to Te'o, but it would seem uncharacteristic of them to do that through the media.

Either way, I look for Moore, Grace, Rabasa and Councell to all be regulars on special teams.

Defense wins games - this group should be able to win games as long as the offense does not put them in bad situations with turnovers as we all saw last year. Protect the football on offense and let the defense lead the way.

The key for us on Defense will most likely boil down to the health of the secondary. If AC, JS, BJ, ZM all remain healthy(Especially for "big games"), it will exponentially help our chances of success.

I too am not seeing the Grace over Moore evaluation. And Im glad to see Rabassa get mention, he is for sure gonna see the field in meaningful ways sooner than later.

I asked Bob Diaco a couple weeks ago where Moore stood and why he was slipping out of the two deep. It seems like Moore doesn't show a day-to-day consistency that allows the staff to trust him.

Diaco: "Kendall’s doing a nice job. He’s gotta work on his consistency and his preparation. We believe what we see. If the player is consistent and accountable and doing the right things then we have an expectation that when it comes to a critical down that we have an expectation that he’s going to do the right thing and be accountable. And if not, then we believe that too."

Ironman: Grace is a redshirt freshmen so he is really a soph. That means that he is still young, but he was overwhelmed play after play. His performance certainly did not justify the accolades that have been written about him. He could still be a very good player, but he needs more strength.

He did hustle, so I can see how he would look good in non contact practices.

Interesting Diver Dan.

It sure seems that there are a few players(Moore, Nix and Ishaq), and whoever else hasn't been mentioned, that aren't giving 100% on every play. Why is that??

Are they lazy, not focused, tired, distracted or don't really care, which is it?

Diaco's approach with his players is very similar to some of us fans approach with the team, "we'll believe it when we see it."
I'm a firm believer that you play like you practice. and if you take a few plays off in practice and you'll do the same in games.
All I know is that championship teams don't take any plays off.