Stacking Up The Notre Dame Offense vs South Carolina Defense

Notre Dame will look to finish the 2022 season off on a strong note, which means beating South Carolina in the Gator Bowl. The No. 21 Fighting Irish are two point favorites over the No. 19 Gamecocks. If Notre Dame is going to earn the win the offense will need to step up.

We continue our breakdown of this contest with a look at how the Notre Dame offense stacks up against the South Carolina defense.

Notre Dame Rush Offense vs South Carolina Rush Defense

Advantage: Notre Dame

This is one of the biggest mismatches of the game, at least on paper. It doesn't help that South Carolina will be without Zacch Pickens, its best defensive lineman, while Notre Dame has its entire backfield and entire starting offensive line playing in this game.

Notre Dame averaged 204.4 rushing yards per game in the final nine contests, but the Irish were a bit boom or bust. Notre Dame racked up over 200 yards in six of those nine games, but in two of the other three they were held below 100 yards. Teams that have slowed down the run game have had to do so by overwhelming the Irish with numbers in the box.

Notre Dame has a talented three-man running back room that is hard to contend with when the line is going well. Audric Estime is the hammer, Logan Diggs is the shifty runner and Chris Tyree, when used properly can be the home run hitter. Diggs and Estime combined for 1,557 yards while averaging 5.3 yards per carry. Both had multiple games of over 100 rushing yards, and Tyree had multiple games with over 100 yards of offense.

What will be interesting in this game is whether or not Notre Dame uses quarterback Tyler Buchner in the run game. That is a major strength of Buchner's game, and if South Carolina loads the box the way other opponents did you could see Buchner pulling the ball and getting outside for big plays. But Buchner also missed 10 games after suffering a shoulder injury while running.

South Carolina allowed six different opponents to rush for at least 200 yards, with Florida (374) and Arkansas (295) topping that list. The Gamecocks rank near the bottom of the national rankings from both a yards allowed and yards allowed per attempt average. Simply put, if Notre Dame is going to win this game it needs to dominate this matchup.

Notre Dame Pass Offense vs South Carolina Pass Defense

Advantage: Even

This matchup is a wash on paper, with Notre Dame having the edge in yards per attempt, yards per completion and touchdowns, while South Carolina has the edge in yards and a slight edge in efficiency. Notre Dame has a big advantage when it comes to sacks allowed against South Carolina's ability to pressure the quarterback, which isn't good.

It's a challenge to look at this matchup based on what players they will both be without, and that led me to actually consider giving the Irish advantage, but there are still too many uncertainties.

Notre Dame will be without All-American tight end Michael Mayer, while the Gamecocks will be without starting cornerbacks Darius Rush and Cam Smith, who all opted out to begin focusing on the NFL Draft.

So who holds the edge now? That's a good question, and it will have a major impact on the outcome of this game. Without Mayer you can expect the Gamecocks to focus most of their attention on stopping the run. That means Buchner and the Irish wideouts will need to step up in a big way. We saw flashes of the wideouts emerging late, but they'll need to be at their best against the Gamecocks.

Based on how he played late in the season it would appear Deion Colzie is on the verge of a breakout, and Notre Dame also returns talented freshman Tobias Merriweather for this game. The Irish also need sophomore Lorenzo Styles to step up and look like the guy he was last year in the bowl game when he went for over 100 yards against Oklahoma State. If they can play well you can expect to see sophomore Jayden Thomas take some of the routes that Mayer thrived on.

When Buchner was the starter the line failed to give him much time to throw. That shouldn't be an issue against South Carolina unless they bring a lot of overload blitzes. For Buchner, the key will be making quick decisions, being accurate with his throws and playing with a bit more urgency than what we saw from him in his firs two starts.

Notre Dame Scoring Offense vs South Carolina Scoring Defense

Advantage: Notre Dame

Notre Dame dominates most of these statistics, and in the two areas where South Carolina has an advantage its miniscule. South Carolina has struggled to stop teams from scoring all season, and it has been fueled by a bad red zone defense and a just as bad third-down defense. The one thing South Carolina has done well is force turnovers, but the Irish have done a relatively good job of protecting the ball.

Notre Dame has been mediocre as a scoring offense most of the season, and that needs to change against the Gamecocks, who have given up at least 30 points five times this season, with Georgia (48), Arkansas (44), Florida (38) and Tennessee (38) all going for at least 38 points.

The Irish need to get off to a fast start and get some momentum, and if they do this game could get entertaining for Notre Dame fans.

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