They were national semifinalists last season. They are the No. 3 team in the nation. They beat Detroit 16-8 on Saturday at the Loftus Sports Center in the final scrimmage before the start of the regular season.
But Irish coach Kevin Corrigan said Notre Dame is not a good team.
"We're just not very good," Corrigan said bluntly after the scrimmage.
Corrigan said he saw problems with Notre Dame's performance every place he looked.
"I can't think of one single area that I feel like we played at the level that I think we should be playing," Corrigan said. "I couldn't be less satisfied with the quality of our performance."
A week after traveling to Orlando, Fla., for a pair of scrimmages to kick off the spring semester, the Irish scrimmaged for 75 minutes against the Titans.
Notre Dame broke out to a 6-3 lead by halftime and extended its advantage to 10-5 after four quarters of play. The teams took the field for an extra fifth quarter of action and the Irish exploded for six goals before Detroit scored a trio of goals to conclude the action at 16-8.
Detroit struck first when sophomore attack/midfielder Brandon Beauregard found the back of the net just 32 seconds into the game. The teams alternated goals, and Irish senior midfielder Ryan Foley scored with 1:57 left in the first quarter to tie the game at 2-2.
Notre Dame opened the second frame with three straight goals, capped off with a score from junior attack Ryan Mix on a feed from Foley.
Irish junior midfielder Jim Marlatt began the second half with a goal to make it 7-3 just 59 seconds into the third quarter. Roughly nine minutes later, Marlatt drove to his right, jumped and fired for his second goal of the quarter to extend the Notre Dame lead to 10-5.
Irish sophomore attack Kyle Runyon spearheaded the Notre Dame offensive effort in the final 15 minutes as the Irish built a 16-5 lead. Detroit then responded with three goals, two of which were scored by freshman midfielder Dylan Swanson.
Despite the prolific offensive onslaught, Corrigan said the Irish played poorly in every facet of the game.
"I couldn't even begin to list it," Corrigan said when asked what was the worst part of his team's performance. "It's a race for No. 1 when it comes to that. But more than anything else we didn't handle the ball well. We're fundamentally unsound. We don't communicate well. We don't work hard enough. We're not physical enough. I don't know, the list could go on."
With two weeks to prepare for the season opener against Duke on Feb. 16, Corrigan said he needs to be a better coach, and he needs every member of his squad to step up.
"I look for all 46 guys," Corrigan said. "We just have to pick it up. I have to do a better job first and foremost. If we're this bad, then I'm not doing a good job so it starts with me."
Corrigan said the scrimmage's main objective was to prepare the team for Duke. Though he wasn't pleased with Notre Dame's performance, Corrigan said the win over Detroit was another step toward being ready for the Blue Devils.
"It's another day of work, but it's another day where we found out that we've got a lot of work to do," Corrigan said.
Notre Dame will be back in action Feb. 16 to take on Duke in Durham, N.C., in its season opener.
Contact Mike Monaco at jmonaco@nd.edu
