CBS Sports: Notre Dame Offensive Line Should Be The Nation's Best
CBS Sports ranked its best playmakers at each position, and the Notre Dame offensive line made the list.
Every position had just one player, except for the offensive line. The Fighting Irish, who return six players with at least six career starts, are expected to have one of the nation's best fronts. CBS Sports believes it should be the best.
"Offensive lines aren't exactly playmakers, they're play facilitators. With that said, let's give this award to a Notre Dame unit that is loaded with returning talent. Tackles Robert Hainsey, Liam Eichenberg and Josh Lugg, guards Aaron Banks and Tommy Kraemer and center Jarrett Patterson all return with significant experience off an injury-plagued unit both toward the end of last season (Hainsey and Kraemer) and at the start of the abbreviated spring practice (Banks). That offensive line helped the Fighting Irish win 11 games and average 6.3 yards per play a year ago. If they're going to get back to the College Football Playoff, it'll be up to the big guys up front to get the job done."
This isn't the first time the Notre Dame offensive line earned this kind of high expectation. Back in January, Pro Football Focus ranked its 30 best blockers heading into the 2020 season, and four Notre Dame starters made the list, a number no other team could match.
Notre Dame's line had a decent season in 2019, but it wasn't to the level needed in a few key games, and the run game never played to its potential.
The combination of talent and experience is why there is so much being placed on the shoulders of the line. There should be little doubt the unit has the talent to live up to these lofty expectations, and that should be the standard for the Notre Dame offensive line.
Whether or not the unit gets there remains a question, and it's a big year for offensive line coach Jeff Quinn. If he can develop the unit into the nation's best group, or even one of the two or three best units, he will silence the critics.
More important, that kind of success from the line will be just what the Notre Dame offense needs to play championship caliber football.
For Notre Dame to be a legit title contender it needs a lot of things to go right, but there can be no doubt that it must be dominant in the trenches. When you go back and study the best Notre Dame teams in the last several decades, strong line play was an integral part of that.
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