Can Notre Dame Get Christmas In September? Six Gifts For Irish Football

The 2007 Fighting Irish football season was arguably the worst in Notre Dame’s illustrious history.

However, many of the Irish faithful are optimistic about the 2008 season mostly due to a wealth of talented freshmen and 17 returning starters spread over both sides of the ball.

If 2007 was any indication, it takes far more than talent to win games as Notre Dame’s young and inexperienced team was plagued by inconsistency throughout the season. Without question, the Irish fielded more talent than Navy and Air Force but still lost to both.

Returning a host of starters should help, but coming off a three win season, winning seven or more games in 2008 would be a dramatic improvement.

So what will help Notre Dame field a competitive team in 2008? Some pundits have pointed to a weaker schedule that stacks-up more favorably than the gauntlet the Irish faced in 2007.

As discussed here, here, here, and here, more optimistic Irish fans (myself included) believe Notre Dame should win no fewer than 8 games in 2008. To achieve eight wins the Irish coaching staff and players should be focused on a small subset of things that can dramatically improve execution and scheme on both sides of the ball.

In other words, the Fighting Irish should be asking for their Christmas presents in September.

Offense

1. For the love of God, run the damn football.

For Notre Dame to be successful in 2008 they must commit to running the football. Simply put, a potent rushing attack is the most powerful offensive weapon in college football and the 2008 Fighting Irish are built to do it well. There is talent on the offensive line and in the backfield. Not all of it has reached its potential, but the building blocks for a productive running game reside in South Bend.

Running the football is advantageous for several reasons. There are fewer and less detrimental outcomes of a running play as opposed to passing play. It controls the clock, keeping the Irish defense off the field. It wears down opposing defenses such that 3-4 yard runs in the first half turn into 6-7 yard runs in the second half. It takes pressure off the quarterback. It is easier for the offensive line to execute, something imperative for Notre Dame’s young, rather inexperienced squad. It opens up the playbook by creating favorable down and distances and providing for effective play action. Lastly, running the football is the most proficient way to out-talent the opposition.

The Irish offensive line brings both “star power” and excellent size at each position. The projected starters (from left to right) are Paul Duncan, Mike Turkovich, Dan Wenger, Chris Stewart, and Sam Young. Reserve Eric Olsen may also get in the mix.

According to Scout these six linemen comprise an average ranking of better than 4 stars. As offensive linemen rarely achieve 5 star status, this is a pretty impressive group. Furthermore, they have good size. They average nearly 6’6” in height and 314 lbs in weight. The right side of the line in particular is 6’5”, 340 lbs (Stewart) and 6’8”, 330 lbs (Young).

In the backfield the Irish also boast size and strength. Much maligned fullback Asaph Schwapp is 6’0”, 261 lbs of pure muscle who is an excellent isolation blocker despite shortcomings in other areas of his game. Tailbacks James Aldridge and Robert Hughes are 6’0”, 222 lbs and 5’11”, 240 lbs respectively, giving the Irish plenty of power but not without surprising speed and agility. Throw incoming freshman Jonas Gray in the mix along with the speedy, more elusive Armando Allen and the Irish have a diverse and capable stable of running backs.

2. No more Chris Kuhar-Pitters.

Five Eight. Fifty-eight sacks. You almost have to try and let the defense sack you that many times, but that is how many sacks the Fighting Irish surrendered in 2007. That is more sacks than Notre Dame allowed the previous two years combined. Besides playcalling Fighting Irish fans may have lamented more over this offensive deficiency than any other.

A sack is like a penalty; it’s an insurmountable setback that kills an offensive possession. And this is especially true for a young and inexperienced team for two reasons.

First, it limits the play calling to plays-usually passes-that can overcome long down and distance situations. This, in turn, allows the defense to aggressively rush the quarterback, exacerbating the very problem that caused the situation to begin with.

Second, young and inexperienced offenses are naturally prone to inconsistent execution. Many offensive drives in 2007 stalled for the Irish because of one small mistake: a single zero-to-negative yardage play, a false start, a missed blocking assignment, etc.

These types of inconsistencies are more or less expected for a young team and, at times, will cause problems moving the ball. In other words, stringing together a series of plays with good execution and few mistakes is a significant challenge for a young team. But adding 58 sacks to the mix is absolutely devastating.

Blue-Gray Sky did a great analysis of the problems the Irish offense had in 2007 when trying to protect their quarterbacks. By and large the problem was a combination of poor quarterback and offensive line play. However, some blame should also be placed on the receivers since they didn’t get good separation against many opponents.

While quarterback Jimmy Clausen and the four returning starters on the offensive line have more experience, they aren’t by any means veterans and cannot afford to put themselves in long down and distance situations. This is especially true with the youth the Irish have at the skill positions.

Obviously a productive running game reduces the number of opportunities for sacks but Clausen must improve his internal clock, be quicker and more decisive when distributing the ball, and learn to move forward-rather than laterally-in the pocket.

Likewise, the offensive line must work better and more cohesively as a unit to prevent miscommunications and break-downs in assignments. Fortunately, these areas of play can be improved with more practice repetitions.

3. Get started on the right (read touchdown) foot.

In 2005 head coach Charlie Weis’ offense scored a touchdown on the opening drive an overwhelming majority of the time. This was instrumental to the success of the offense as it established confidence, set the tempo of the game, put the opposing defense on its heels, and gave the Irish defense some latitude to work with.

In 2007 the Irish offense rarely scored at all, let alone on the opening drive.

If the Irish offense can work to duplicate the opening drive results of the 2005 team, it will go a long way to helping win football games. Weis is notorious for always receiving the ball in the first half. When you score touchdowns a large percentage of the time this is an effective strategy.

But suffering a three-and-out on the opening drive is a momentum killer, and many times gives the ball back to the opposing offense with good field position. Weis and offensive coordinator Mike Haywood must work diligently to strike first and put seven points on the board. A field goal or shift in field position is good, but scoring a touchdown on the opening drive would help the confidence and swagger of a young and highly criticized offensive unit.

Defense

1. First (down) and foremost, stop the run; where there’s long down and distances, there’s hope.

Notre Dame’s defense is built to pressure opposing quarterbacks and play tight, man coverage. The secondary is talented, athletic, and rangy; ditto for the outside linebackers. And there’s no one better in college football at applying pressure on a quarterback than Jon Tenuta (more on this later).

All this is for naught, however, if the Irish can’t consistently stop teams from effectively running the ball on first down. Notre Dame has the defensive backfield to be tough against the pass. If the Irish can stop the run on first down they put themselves in great position to utilize the strength of their defense by forcing opposing offenses into long down and distance situations. From a defensive standpoint, long down and distance situations are like being able to run the ball effectively. It opens up the playbook and allows the defense to take risks.

But the Irish surrendered more than 185 yards per game on the ground in 2007 and lost their best defensive lineman and team MVP Trevor Laws to the draft.

To the credit of the defense, they were often on the field much longer than their offensive counterpart, but the Irish must become more stingy against the run, particularly on first down. This has to be the No. 1 concern for defensive coordinator Corwin Brown going into the 2008 season.

The Irish return three defensive linemen with significant playing time in Justin Brown, Pat Kuntz, and Ian Williams. All three are capable players if not asked to carry too much load, but none are game changers.

Brown is quick off the ball but is under-sized and will wear down against bigger, stronger offensive lines. Kuntz is a workaholic who never takes off a down but he lacks strength and athleticism. Williams is coming off a Freshman All-American season but still has trouble shedding blocks.

Behind these three are two outside linebacker turned defensive ends in John Ryan and Maurice Richardson. While Richardson is extremely quick and athletic, both he and Ryan lack ideal size for a defensive end in the 3-4.

There is no other position that freshmen will be counted on more than on the defensive line. The shortcomings of the Irish defensive line can be masked via a platoon system, playing multiple players at each position. The defensive linemen don’t have to make plays, per se, but they need to tie up the offensive lineman and let the linebackers run. Freshmen Ethan Johnson, Brandon Newman, Haffis Williams, and/or Sean Cwynar will be needed to provide quality minutes along the defensive front.

2. Be aggressive, B-E-Aggressive.

As history has proven, offensive and defensive schemes come and go. Currently the en vogue offense is the Spread. Like the Run-and-Shoot and West Coast offenses before it, the Spread first and foremost aims to make defenses defend the field both laterally and vertically.

While the West Coast and Run-and-Shoot offenses accomplished this mostly through play design and scheme, the Spread achieves this primarily through the use of personnel, frequently employing four and five wide receivers to get more speed on the field. This dictates the tempo of the game and allows the offense to impose their will, forcing the defense to read and react rather than attack. Once an offense accomplishes this, the defense is at a distinct disadvantage.

Consequently, defenses have evolved to use five (nickel) and six (dime) defensive back packages as well as base defenses like the 3-4 and 3-5 that get more athletic and quicker players on the field.

Schematically, these defensive adjustments correct the personnel mismatches that existed between the Spread and defenses like the 5-2 and, to a lesser extent, the 4-3. But the reading and reacting disadvantage still remains.

Enter Jon Tenuta. Weis and Brown need to learn from Tenuta and employ his style of aggressive defense that turns reading and reacting into creating chaos for opposing offenses.

Tenuta believes in “never allowing a quarterback to set his feet,” “getting downhill,” “playing on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage,” and “blitzing 80% of the time.” And in this day and age of offensive philosophy, his style of play is a welcomed commodity. His defenses at Georgia Tech were excellent, only surrendering a shade over 300 yards per game with players far less talented than those currently on the Irish roster.

Add to this the fact that there are far more “looks” and blitz packages in the 3-4 than the 4-3, and Brown’s base defense should meld nicely with what Tenuta brings to the table.

Weis and Brown need to turn Tenuta loose and let the Notre Dame defense, rather than opposing offenses, dictate the tempo of the game. They need to use the athletes they have at the linebacker position like Toryan Smith, Brian Smith, Kerry Neal, Steve Filer, Maurice Crum, and Darius Fleming to confuse, frustrate, and pressure the opposing quarterback. They need to let the defense fly around and create chaos. They need to let the front seven move, shift, and stunt because the secondary is good enough to cover for them. And they need to do it early and often.

3. Open the tackle-box.

It seems like forever since a Notre Dame defense tackled well and 2007 was no exception. Defenders frequently took poor pursuit angles, didn’t wrap up, and weren’t physical at the point of attack, particularly at the linebacker position.

This must change and the responsibility for this change rests squarely on the shoulders of the defensive coaching staff.

Granted, Brown and company were restricted last year by practices that didn’t allow contact, but good tackling fundamentals can be taught in drills as well. Regardless, the Fighting Irish cannot suffer through another season giving up significant amounts of yards after contact and/or whiffing in the open field.

The talent and athleticism is there at the linebacker position and in the secondary. The coaching staff needs to take that those talented athletes and turn them into football players.

Summary

If Weis and his staff can provide leadership, elevate the sense of urgency and physicality in the team’s play, and accomplish the six items above, the Fighting Irish should be competitive in 2008 and could win as many as nine games. The level to which they succeed in accomplishing this will go a long way in determining the current coaching staff's future with the Notre Dame football program.

For many reasons the 2008 season is a crossroads for Coach Weis and his staff. The Willingham recruiting excuses-as many and as valid as they were-are nearly exhausted and certainly don’t add up to 3-9. Only Weis and his staff are to blame for any remaining personnel deficiencies. The schedule is much more manageable than in the recent past, the team is young, but not entirely inexperienced, and the roster is loaded with talent.

To some, the crux of the problem for Weis is player development and motivation. The 2008 season for the Fighting Irish will be a good litmus test to this end.