Early Season Byes Aren't Always Ideal For Notre Dame's Opponents
Having a bye week to prepare for Notre Dame?
It’s an overrated advantage if it’s early in the season.
See how the games ended up for Toledo and Wisconsin.
Cincinnati, Notre Dame’s opponent on Saturday, had an extra week to prepare for the Irish. Next week, Virginia Tech will play the Irish after sitting out this week. USC, North Carolina and Virginia also have bye weeks before they play Notre Dame.
An early bye week could be considered a disadvantage for teams. Why? If you have an inexperienced offensive line, a new defensive coordinator with a new system, and a new quarterback, you need all the game repetitions you can get. That’s the position the Irish (4-0) were in this season. Even though progress isn’t always linear, Notre Dame is definitely better.
They’ve had to develop depth at quarterback because of injuries, their offensive line, while not good, certainly has held up enough in crucial moments and their defense has become dominating. It wasn’t dominating in games against Florida State and Toledo.
All of this could’ve been delayed if the Irish had a week off in September. An October bye week is a better time to rest. By then, players that are banged up can get a breath. And they have at least a month of games finished. Notre Dame has its bye week on Oct. 16. That’s halfway through the season. It’s the best way to do it.
Notre Dame receiver Braden Lenzy said he’s used to opponents trying to get an extra week of preparation in against the Irish.
“I think when you go to Notre Dame, you understand when scenarios are just never going to be in your favor,” he said. “I think this has happened every year I’ve been here. So, it’s obviously intentional. Whatever. I’ve only lost two regular-season games. It hasn’t had too much of an effect so I’m not concerned.”
Lenzy said it’s hard to know what kind of an effect the bye week will have for the Bearcats.
Of course, they’ll have new wrinkles on both sides of the ball and they might be fresher but all that is difficult to measure. Both teams will add new looks. It’s part of the progression of a season.
“In my mind, the first couple of weeks is when you make the hugest jumps,” Lenzy said. “I don’t know what goes into choosing a bye week. I see the benefits and negatives of it. For a team like Cincinnati, it might be more fresh but it won’t have the game experience. There is a positive and negative there.”
Lenzy said that he saw the greatest improvement in the passing game between the Purdue and Wisconsin game.
His point was that multiple receivers made catches from two different quarterbacks. It means that the options for passing the ball to different receivers are expanding.
“This past game, I think at one point, it went to Avery (Davis), then Kevin (Austin), then me, then Joe (Wilkins Jr.), then Mike (Mayer),” he said. “We were just tossing it around. I just remember it being, like “Dang, I never would’ve thought we’d have five different targets to five different receivers in such a short time. I think that in itself is something Notre Dame hasn’t seen in a while.”
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