Spreading The Ball Around Should Boost The 2020 Pass Game

Notre Dame certainly needs to throw the football better in 2020, at least if it wants to finally start winning big games, get back to the College Football Playoff, and actually compete for a championship.

Yes, Notre Dame needs to run the football a lot better, which I have written about recently and will write about again. But as the numbers show HERE and HERE, the key to winning a championship is having an efficient and explosive pass game to go with a strong ground attack.

That burden now falls on the shoulders of first-year offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, who must develop a championship caliber pass offense without standouts Chase Claypool and Cole Kmet.

The bad news is the Irish offense lost two top-of-the-draft talents in the pass game. The good news is the Irish return a third-year starter at quarterback, all five starting offensive linemen and a relatively inexperienced - but very talented - group of pass catchers.

There isn’t one way, or a right way, to develop a dynamic pass offense. It’s about having smart coaches who are strong game planners, excellent game week teachers and a staff that has the willingness and ability to build the offense around the talents of the players they have on the roster. We’ll find out this season if Rees, run game coordinator Lance Taylor (who has an extensive pass game background), wide receivers coach DelVaughn Alexander, tight ends coach John McNulty and offensive line coach Jeff Quinn comprise that kind of staff.

I have some ideas about what the Notre Dame pass offense should look like in 2020 if the Irish want to take the next step with their throwing game.

The center piece of the pass game needs to be a strong desire to spread the ball around and not focus on one or two top players. To back up my point about there being no right way, this would not have been an argument I would have made in 2019. My issues in the pass game in 2019 were they didn’t incorporate Claypool and Kmet enough, especially during the first half of the season.

But this team will be different, and it requires a different emphasis. This article is part one of two-part series that explains why Notre Dame needs to spread the ball around more in 2020 from a big picture standpoint, and the specific benefits to the 2020 offense.

There are multiple ways to build a successful pass game. You can still have an alpha dog or two, but the deeper your group of weapons the better your pass offense will be. In 2019, 59.3% of Notre Dame’s total receptions were made by three players, and the figure was 59.0% in 2018, which is less than Alabama, who had 64.5% of their receptions made by three players.

It should be noted that two of Alabama’s top three pass catchers in 2019 will be first round draft picks, so to a degree it makes total sense.

Ohio State and Clemson have gone in a different direction in recent seasons. Only 49.7% of Clemson’s receptions were made by the top three players in each of the last two seasons, and it was just 51.7% in 2016. Ohio State’s top three pass catchers accounted for 51.7%, 50.5% and 43.6% of the total receptions since Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson arrived to run the offense.

Clemson had at least four players with 30 receptions in 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015. It played for the title in all four seasons. The one year it didn’t have that kind of balance, Clemson didn’t play for the title (2017).

Ohio State had at least four players with at least 30 receptions in the last two seasons and at least six players with 20 receptions in the last two seasons. The 2017 offense didn’t have three four players with at least 30 catches, but it did have seven players with at least 20 catches, and it had another wideout to catch just 18 passes (Johnnie Dixon), but he was fourth on the roster with 422 receiving yards.

Notre Dame has only had four players with at least 30 receptions three times in the last eight seasons. In two of those seasons (2018, 2012) the Irish went undefeated in the regular season.

Alabama didn’t make the playoff in 2019, but it played for the title in 2018 with an offense that spread the ball around a great deal more in the pass game. The top three Tide receivers accounted for 52.8% of the receptions in 2018, and five different players caught at least 42 passes. Only two Alabama players went over 40 catches in 2019.

Part of this is due to blowouts, but Notre Dame has certainly had its fair share of blowouts in recent seasons as well, especially in 2019.

In part two of the breakdown I will dive into specific ways spreading the ball around will benefit the Irish pass game in 2020.