Midweek Musings

Thoughts on Notre Dame football, its recruiting efforts and college football.

Thoughts on Notre Dame football, its recruiting efforts and college football.

AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT - OFFENSE EDITION

Over the next three weeks my team portion of the Midweek Musings will discuss areas where the Notre Dame offense, defense and special teams must improve in 2020, and areas where changes should be made. This week let’s focus on the Notre Dame offense.

With five starting offensive linemen, quarterback Ian Book and a deep group of talented skill players set to return the Irish offense is poised for a big jump in production next season. On paper, the unit coming back is poised to be the best of the Brian Kelly era, but that will only happen if the Irish can improve from what it was the last few seasons.

The numbers the last three seasons were quite good, especially in 2019, but to be a truly elite offense we need to see the Notre Dame offense not only beat up on bad teams, but to move the ball and score on the better teams on the schedule as well.

Better QB Play In Big Games — This goes beyond criticism of Ian Book, this is a Notre Dame problem that existed long before he arrived. When you look at Notre Dame’s last four strong seasons (2015, 2017-19), the overall numbers are excellent, with the Irish going 33-6 in those seasons. But when you dig deeper into the numbers you see the Irish are still mediocre to poor against top teams.

From 2015 to 2019, Notre Dame is just 4-8 against opponents that finished the season ranked in the Top 15. Since the beginning of 2017, when the “turnaround” began, the Irish are just 4-4 against Top 15 teams.

There are many reasons for that, but if the Irish are going to turn things around in the “big games” it will require better quarterback play. In those 12 games, Notre Dame quarterbacks (DeShone Kizer, Brandon Wimbush, Book) have competed just 55.7-percent of their passes, averaged just 214.6 passing yards and have a passer rating of 123.40. Irish quarterback have thrown 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in those games.

It should be noted that three of those wins came with the least efficient passer of that trio, with Wimbush winning two of those games in 2017 and another in 2018. The reason is he could overcome his passing issues with dynamic running.

Kizer's issues were a bit different. Notre Dame actually moved the ball well against Clemson, Stanford and Ohio State in 2015, but the defense was the unit that struggled in big games. Things have turned around a bit the last three seasons, and it's now the offense that struggles most in big games.

Simply put, if Notre Dame is going to take on opponents like Clemson, USC and Wisconsin and come away with a victory the quarterback will have to play better.

Run Blocking Must Get Better — Notre Dame’s run game has been wildly inconsistent the last two seasons. The overall numbers have been good, but against the top teams on the schedule they have struggled. Georgia and Michigan both held Notre Dame to less than 50 rushing yards, and four times last season the Irish were held to 105 rushing yards or less, something that had not happened at Notre Dame since 2014.

Part of this is Notre Dame is just not physical enough in the run game. They will push around inferior opponents, but the way the line is taught to block, especially up the middle, there are constant struggles to get movement against the better run defenses on the schedule. It's not a lack of toughness or power from the blockers, it's about technique and how they are taught to play.

For further statistical evidence of these struggled CLICK HERE.

If Notre Dame is going to reach its full potential as an offense it needs to create an offensive line that is well coached, aggressive, physical and one that delivers punishment. The run game must be able to get going against everyone. We have not seen that the last two seasons. It must be corrected in 2020.

With players like Robert Hainsey, Liam Eichenberg, Tommy Kraemer, Aaron Banks, Jarrett Patterson, Joshua Lugg and the talented 2019 group of linemen there is simply no excuse for Notre Dame to have anything but an elite offensive line in 2020.

Spread The Ball Around — At times in recent seasons we’ve seen the offense unable to spread the ball around much. There were times that was out of necessity, as the skill positions lacked the depth of talent for that. At other times it was more of a play-design issue or a quarterback decision making standpoint.

Notre Dame’s offense has worked best in recent seasons when the ball gets spread around. I’m all about making sure your top players are getting plenty of targets, but too many times in recent seasons the Irish have tended to narrow down the receiver rotation way too much, and the ball doesn’t get spread around nearly enough.

In the last four seasons, Notre Dame has had three, four, three and three receivers with at least 300 yards receiving for the season. During that same stretch Clemson had five, four, four, six and six. Ohio State had five, six, seven, three and three. Oklahoma has had three, five, six, four and five. Despite having a pair of 1,400-yard receivers this season, LSU still had a total of five receivers with at least 300 receiving yards.

Notre Dame will have a lot of weapons on offense next season. Expanding the rotation and spreading the ball around will make the offense much more difficult to defend and will help limit the slumps we’ve seen from the unit in recent seasons.

Mix Up The Tempo — Notre Dame absolutely must do a better job of mixing up the tempo. I am not saying they need to go fast all the time, but I do think being a faster paced team would be beneficial. At the very least, Notre Dame must be willing to mix things up and push the tempo at times.

By going at a relatively average to slow pace, Notre Dame allows the defense to get lined up, make calls and adjustments, and mix up their looks. It also allows opponents to get a good read on the snap count, another reason the run game can struggle against opponents with better coach and/or better talent.

If Notre Dame is willing to push the tempo it will limit how much opponents can do and further create confusion and mistakes for defenses.

2020 CLASS READY TO GET ON CAMPUS

Well, part of the class anyway.

Notre Dame's early enrollees from the 2020 class are ready to show up this weekend. They will begin classes and winter workouts next week.

I will have more on each player this weekend, but here's a quick look at each of the eight early enrollees.

Jordan Botelho, Drop End — The Hawaii native is someone I expect to make his presence felt early and often during spring practice. Botelho plays with an intense motor and should be able to make an early impact.

Jay Brunelle, Wide Receiver — Brunelle made big strides as a senior, jumping up to a four-star grade on my board. He'll need to get stronger and continue developing his technique, and getting on campus early helps with that.

Alexander Ehrensberger, Defensive End — I'm really curious to see how Ehrensberger looks from both a physical and technical standpoint. He's one of the biggest wild cards Notre Dame has signed, but the staff loves his upside.

Ramon Henderson, Cornerback — Henderson needs a lot of work from a technical standpoint, so getting on campus early gives him a much-needed head start. He certainly has the length (6-3) and speed, now he has to learn the position.

Rylie Mills, Defensive End/Tackle — Mills will likely start his career at strongside end, where his length and power will add good depth to the position. I'm curious to see how quickly he lets it loose, because his size and talent are impressive.

Caleb Offord, Cornerback/Safety — I still don't know what position Offord will end up at Notre Dame, but I expect him to start off at cornerback. We will see early on if he has the feel for the position to stick.

Drew Pyne, Quarterback — Getting Pyne on campus early is even more important now that Phil Jurkovec has transferred. Sort of the forgotten man in the class, Pyne is a smart, competitive and accurate quarterback that will pick things up quickly.

Xavier Watts, Wide Receiver — Watts is a natural football player with a lot of skill, but he needs weight room work and must learn the nuances of the position. Getting him on campus early was huge because it gives him a chance to get a much-needed head start in both areas.

Both of Notre Dame's graduate transfers - safety Isaiah Pryor and wide receiver Bennett Skowronek - will also be at Notre Dame for the spring.

CLEMSON vs. LSU SHOULD BE EPIC

The College Football Playoff will have its sixth title game on Monday night when Clemson and LSU square off, and it could be the best yet. These two teams are very similar in many ways. The mascot for both teams is a Tiger and the stadium for both teams are nicknamed “Death Valley.” Both teams also elite offenses led by elite quarterbacks, with LSU checking in at No. 2 nationally and Clemson No. 5 in the Fremeau Efficiency Index.

It seems the common sentiment is that LSU is going to manhandle Clemson, at least that’s what I keep reading and hearing. I was on a radio show last night and I was asked essentially if Clemson had a shot to win it. I get it, I really do, this is an outstanding LSU team that is battle tested.

But Clemson’s offense is no slouch either. LSU leads the nation in scoring offense and total offense, but Clemson ranks No. 4 in scoring offense and No. 3 in total offense. Both are explosive, both have elite quarterbacks, both have outstanding wide receivers and both have good, but not great, offensive lines.

Who plays the best defense will likely determine who wins this games, and that is where Clemson has the advantage.

LSU has a quality defense that ranked 28th in scoring defense and 29th in total defense. The FEI ranks the Tiger defense 14th in the country, but during the season we saw that this LSU defense can be scored upon.

Texas shredded the LSU defense (530 yards, 6.2 YPP) in a 45-38 road victory for the Tigers back in September.

Florida racked up 457 yards (5.4 YPP) and scored 28 points in a game that was tied 28-28 in the fourth quarter.

Alabama scored 41 points (8.0 YPP) in a 46-41 LSU victory in November, and a week later Ole miss hung a 37-spot on LSU while racking up 614 yards of offense (8.7 YPP) in a 58-37 loss to the Tigers.

LSU did a great job dominating a poor Georgia offense, and shutting down Oklahoma was an excellent defensive performance, but Oklahoma isn’t Clemson, not this year.

Clemson played just three Top 30 offenses this season (Ohio State, Louisville, North Carolina). In those three games the Tigers gave up 23, 20 and 10 points. Ohio State moved the ball on Clemson in the first half, racking up 16 points and 296 yards (7.2 YPP), but behind coordinator Brent Venables, the Tigers made adjustments and held the vaunted Buckeye offense to just seven points, 220 yards and 5.0 YPP in the second half.

This is why ultimately I am picking Clemson to win the game. I believe its defense will be able to make more stops in a game that I expect to be mostly a shootout.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Notre Dame's ability to produce dominant offensive linemen during the Harry Hiestand era is truly amazing. Not only did Hiestand produce four first-round picks, a second-round pick and a third-round pick during his tenure, each of those drafted linemen went on to become starters.

Three of the five offensive linemen on the 2019 NFL All-Pro team were former Notre Dame players that were coached by Hiestand.

FILM TO WATCH

Defensive line coach Mike Elston is already working on putting together another strong defensive line class. He already has Rivals100 defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio committed in the 2021 class, and he's looking to add at least one more top lineman to go with him.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be sharing film of some of my favorite DL on the board for Notre Dame. I'm going to start with a player that is a bit of a mix between former Irish standout Julian Okwara and Aaron Lynch.

He is Keanu Koh from Vero Beach (Fla.). Check out his film.

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