From a 4-8 season to being ranked third in the first installment of the playoff rankings, this has been a heck of a year for the Irish so far. After being on the hot seat following a poor season last year, Brian Kelly has shown his prowess as a football coach by building not just a winning team, but a winning staff. After the disappointing 2016 season, Kelly hired Chip Long to run the offense and Mike Elko to run the defense. Having these two men on the Irish sideline has made a humongous difference.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Irish have improved immensely.
This success has been due in large part to the improved defensive line and pass rush. While Mike Elko says that scheme is irrelevant to him, the preference for this Notre Dame defense seems to be running a variant of a 4-3 defense with Drue Tranquill playing a rover position. In this position, Tranquill sometimes lines up as an outside linebacker in a 4-3, but often plays man or zone pass defense in a 4-2-5 set. This versatility has enabled Notre Dame’s defense to thrive. The Irish’s multiple looks are evidenced by various plays pulled from the past two weeks.
This set came on Notre Dame’s first defensive play of the game. Darnold was unable to handle the bad snap and the Irish recovered, likely due to the stacked front.
As you can see from all of these instances, Notre Dame loves using multiple defensive sets and lining Tranquill up in different places.
Outside of the much improved defense, Josh Adams and Brandon Wimbush have been great running the ball. Josh Adams has ran the rock 132 times for 1169 yards, good for 8.9 yards per carry, and 9 TDs. Wimbush has 89 totes for 529 yards and 11 TDs, already breaking the single season record for most rushing touchdowns by a Notre Dame quarterback in history. Adams 1169 yards puts him 5th in the country, with less carries than everyone above him. It’s obvious that Chip Long wants to run as much as possible as Notre Dame has went from 93rd in the nation in rushing attempts in 2016 to 18th this year. The Irish are averaging 318 rushing yards per game, good for 5th in the country and up from 93rd in 2016. The only four teams ahead of Notre Dame in rushing yards this season are traditional option teams.
Much of this running success can be attributed to the offensive line. On the left side of the line, Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson are both future top 15 picks in the NFL Draft that may be the best single side of an offensive line that I’ve ever seen. These two together are nasty, but the rest of the line isn’t too bad either.
This unit ranks among the best lines in the country in almost every category, making them a complete unit, especially blocking for the run.
So far this year, the Irish have wins over USC, NC State, and Michigan State, all by large margins of victory, with their only loss being a one point defeat at the hands of the #1 Georgia Bulldogs. Still remaining on the schedule, Notre Dame has Wake Forest, Miami, Navy, and Stanford. None of those teams are pushovers by any means and are probably all top 50 teams in the country.
While I’m not sure if Notre Dame will win out for the rest of the season and make the college football playoff, I can still tell you that they are a very good team. The remaining schedule is a challenge and it is very likely that Notre Dame could drop one of these games, but it is also within the realm of possibility that they win out and make the CFP.