Notre Dame Has Several Options To Handle Wide Receiver Injuries

The Duke Blue Devils have one of the best pass defenses in college football right now, and Notre Dame will need to thrive in the pass game with a deleted unit. Notre Dame has a bit of a mash unit at wide receiver right now, and the offensive staff will need to find answers heading into this matchup.

Notre Dame was already without veteran Matt Salerno and Kaleb Smith, with Smith dealing with an offseason shoulder injury and Salerno going down after two games. Junior Deion Colzie missed the Ohio State loss with a knee injury that required surgery, and he is now out for an extended period of time.

The team's leading receiver - Jayden Thomas - went out of the Ohio State game with a hamstring injury, and he's now questionable for the Duke game.

That leaves Notre Dame with four healthy receivers from the original rotation, and the depth behind that group now consists of talented freshman Braylon James and freshman walk-on Jordan Faison.

If Thomas is going to miss this game the Irish will need to find some answers, but the good news is there are plenty of good options to get the Irish through this matchup in ways that can lead to success.

WIDE RECEIVER OPTIONS

Adding James into the rotation would give the Irish another talented player in the mix, but based on what the offensive staff seems to value, it's unlikely that a raw player like James - talented as he may be - will be the plug and play replacement should Thomas miss the game, or be limited.

It's unlikely that James will step in and take the reps that are lost with Thomas, or the backup snaps that are there once the replacement for Thomas gets more reps with him out.

Based on what we saw against Ohio State, the odds are that Rico Flores Jr. will simply slide into the starting boundary position role. Flores is an advanced young player and he's already second on the team in targets (18), but he's not really a dynamic one-on-one player, and that has been an issue in the boundary against the Power 5 opponents this season.

An option the Notre Dame staff should strongly consider is sliding sophomore Tobias Merriweather - the starter at the Z position - into to the boundary (X) position. Merriweather isn't as strong as Thomas or Flores, but he provides the most impact talent at the boundary position in this contest. This is especially true against Duke, who plays field-boundary with its corners. The Blue Devils play three corners in rotation, and at times the boundary receiver will be matched up against 5-10, 178-pound Chandler Rivers, and that's a matchup Merriweather has the best chance to take advantage of.

It would also allow Notre Dame to get Merriweather more targets, which is needed.

Notre Dame's most steady wideout has been freshman Jaden Greathouse, and the team's most explosive wide receiver has been senior Chris Tyree. Right now that duo rotates, and the result has been Tyree playing fewer snaps. Tyree is averaging just 15.8 snaps per game, and Greathouse is playing more while averaging 17.6 snaps per game.

A smart option in this game would be giving Greathouse some more action on the outside. If it were up to me, I'd move Greathouse to the field outside position (Z) and allow Flores to get time at both outside spots (X, Z). That would give Tyree more snaps in the slot, and they could also have a few snaps with Greathouse in the slot, but that position could be filled by other players as well (see below).

Finding ways to get more snaps for Merriweather and Tyree would be good for the Irish offense. I'll have more on the numbers in a breakdown to come later in the week, but simply put, those two players are far more explosive than the Thomas, Greathouse and Flores trio.

Merriweather and Tyree have been targeted just 20 times this season, but they are averaging 19.9 yards per target and 24.8 yards per reception. The trio of Thomas, Greathouse and Flores has been targeted 53 times this fall, and they are averaging just 8.9 yards per target and 13.9 yards per completion.

There is an nice balance between those two groups, but ramping up the usage for Merriweather and Tyree would make a lot of sense, and this type of movement - while Thomas is out - would also allow the talented young freshmen to continue getting more action. Greathouse was primarily an outside player in high school, where he was one of the most prolific pass catchers in Texas High School history, so he can certainly handle playing on the perimeter.

TIGHT END OPTIONS

Notre Dame has played a lot of multiple tight end sets this season. In fact, in 264 snaps with Sam Hartman in the game, Notre Dame has had at least two tight ends on the field for 123 snaps (46.6%).

Obviously, when the offense is in 12 and 13 personnel alignments they only need two wide receivers on the field, and sometimes only one. In those personnel groups its much easier to work the wide receiver rotation, and it takes some of the snaps pressure off the wideouts.

So far, Notre Dame has used Holden Staes either as the replacement tight end with starter Mitchell Evans out (Central Michigan), or as more of an H-back role. He has spent a lot of time attached to the line in some fashion. That can continue against Duke, but the Irish staff must use him more as a weapon in the pass game, along with Evans.

It seems when one tight end is a factor in the pass game the other is not, and that could - and should - change this weekend if Thomas is out. More pass concepts out of the 12 personnel looks would make sense, and doing more to move Staes around - including outside of the box - would give Notre Dame some interesting wrinkles it can use in the pass game, while still maintaining the ability to add extra gaps on the edge in the run game.

I could even see some 13 personnel looks with Cooper Flanagan in the game, which would then allow the staff to move Staes outside to get in some interesting matchups on the perimeter, depending on how Duke decides to matchup personnel wise against the 13 personnel adjustments.

RUNNING BACK OPTIONS

Notre Dame has used 15 snaps with at least two running backs on the field this season, and that was ramped up against Ohio State. An option for the Irish staff is to do more 20 and 21 personnel, which gets a second back on the field.

Freshman Jeremiyah Love could be an interesting pass game option out of these looks, as could sophomore Jadarian Price. I'm not just talking about lining them both up in the backfield together - or with another back (Audric Estime) - I'm also talking about possibly moving them outside into some slot and outside looks where they can run routes in space (quick game, crossers, wheels, etc) but also be used in the screen game.

Notre Dame has run the tunnel screen quite a bit, with Greathouse being a favorite target. It would be interesting to see if they could get a bit more juice out of that play with a player like Love or Price getting that look when lined up in 21 or 20 personnel looks.

Of course, the ideal situation - if Thomas is out - is to use a bit of all of these alignments to get the offense rolling through the air. There are plenty of weapons, the staff just has to be willing to make some adjustments to the current alignments, be a bit creative with its personnel groups, and find some new ways to get the ball to the talented skill players against a really, really good Duke pass defense.

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