Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1105789
26 MAY 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY BRYAN DRISKELL W hen offensive line coach Harry Hiestand departed for the NFL following the 2017 season, he left a loaded roster for his replacement Jeff Quinn. Youth, inexperience and a key injury kept Quinn's first line from playing with consistency, but the group showed promise. A late-season beatdown of Florida State is evidence of the unit's poten- tial. Notre Dame ran for 365 yards that November evening. It domi- nated a FSU defense that was giving up just 111.1 rushing yards per game, and one that held Clemson to just 120 yards on the ground and 3.6 yards per attempt. What Quinn's unit needed most was to mature this offseason, espe- cially after losing captains Alex Bars and Sam Mustipher. We won't know just how good the unit will be until games start in the fall, but it has been arguably the most consistently pro- ductive unit on the team throughout the spring. That improvement began in the winter, and the emergence of junior right tackle Robert Hainsey and se- nior left tackle Liam Eichenberg from a leadership standpoint has been key. "Even when we got right back from the bowl game that whole group has taken ownership," offensive coordi- nator Chip Long explained. "A lot of those guys were lucky. Robert Hain- sey, Tommy Kraemer, young guys Senior wideout Chase Claypool emerged as Notre Dame's top offensive player during the spring. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA Spring Overview: OFFENSE Productive performances from the line and receivers were primary themes