Notre Dame Offensive Line Challenged By Heavy Blitzes This Spring

Irish center Zeke Correll and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph discuss the challenges of facing heavy blitzing in spring practice

Spring practice is in the home stretch for the Notre Dame football team. The Fighting Irish completed their tenth of 14 practices heading into next weekend's Blue-Gold Game spring finale. Notre Dame's offensive line is working on becoming a cohesive unit, something that won't fully fall into place until we get into August. 

Replacing two starters is a factor, and having to face a blitz heavy defense much of the spring has made getting on the same page much tougher, but there are also some benefits to it.

That type of pressure forces the Notre Dame blockers to be on top of their mental game.

"I definitely have a far better understanding of the game of football,” starting center Zeke Correll started. "My football IQ has gotten a lot better, and that’s come with studying the game, understanding the game, knowing where the ball is being run, understanding protections, seeing blitzes.

"Stuff like that will really help our offense and help this offensive line execute when we’re under pressure, especially because our defense likes to blitz every play,” he continued. "Being with these guys and seeing that from our defense is going to help prepare us for the season.”

The line about the Irish defense’s penchant for blitzing was matter of fact, but it stood out to everyone within earshot. The Irish like to bring pressure in year one of the Al Golden tenure, but things have been ramped up this spring, at least that's been the case in the two open practices the media has been able to view.

"It’s great seeing that,” Correll commented. "It’s just going to better prepare you for when you see it in a game. You’ll be like, 'Oh, I remember blocking that.' It becomes natural. It becomes a second sense to you. For us, seeing these blitzes has shown us what we need to improve on, especially when it comes to playing together – all of us just playing together. As spring ball has progressed, we’ve done a better job at working together, but we just have to keep working on it.”

Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph had his own thoughts about the heavy diet of blitzes this spring that have been thrown at his offensive line as he auditions left and right guards and looks for cohesion across the five spots on the offensive line this spring.

"I think there’s a good and a bad,” Rudolph said of the constant pressures. "The good to that is you have to be on your Qs; your communication, your execution. You have to play well, not only to help this guy play well but to survive practice. If you don’t play well enough you’re going to get the guy next to you beat up and worn out.

"Now, on the negative side, you can’t let a lot of things moving around, and guys dancing in and out, and three-man twists and games, you can’t get lost in the gray, and you have to find a way to physically execute your assignment through some of the most difficult movement patterns that you may see,” he continued. "You might see harder things in one day than you see in a whole year. But can you execute? Can you stay true to it? Can you find your landmark? Can you get your feet down? Can you do the little things that matter and not let it get gray. That’s where you learn whether someone can do the right thing at the right time at the heat of the moment. So it’s pretty good. Sometimes it can stunt some guy’s growth. You tend to teach the exception to the exception to the rule before you get to teach the rule. That’s a hard way to teach sometimes. But it’s what’s presented and that’s what you need to do.”

Golden’s defense had a solid 38 sacks and 42 quarterback pressures last season. Both solid numbers, but both also down from the 41 and 59, respectively, in 2021 under Marcus Freeman. Turnovers forced also dropped from 25 in 2021 to 15 last fall.

Whether the spring focus on blitzing by Golden’s defense is a sign of what’s to come this season or is just a part of the defense they are focusing on improving is yet to be seen, but it is still a daily learning opportunity for the offensive line right now.

"What we try to do is try to trust our eyes, trust our execution, we anticipate but truly execute with detail,” Rudolph explained. “And that's great. I think, going against this helps you the most to prepare you for what you got to have. Because you are going to get challenged in a million different ways. That's the positive of it. You better be on from a mental aspect. You better be on from the technique aspect. And you better be on five guys at a time and sometimes seven and eight with the tight ends and with the back. It challenges you, but it's a good challenge.”

Rudolph hopes to find out much more about all the candidates for the two guard spots as well as the rest of his line in the last week of practice. The first chance will be this Saturday (April 15) when the team holds a live scrimmage inside Notre Dame Stadium. The last will be the Blue-Gold Game, which will be the last live action for the team until fall training camp convenes in August. 

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