Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1293421
10 OCT. 10, 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Quarterback Play, Including Depth, Must Evolve By Lou Somogyi The first two games against outmatched Duke and South Florida revealed plenty of promising depth along both lines (especially defense), tight end, linebacker, and possibly even the secondary and running back. Notre Dame has consistently asserted itself against foes it is supposed to defeat the past three years. Been there, done that. Where the Fighting Irish appear most susceptible from advancing to the College Football Playoff a second time in three years is supreme quarterback play and a consistent vertical threat, or at least a 90-10 man at wide receiver with a 50-50 ball. Fifth-year senior Ian Book, a very good college signal-caller, lost his three "get out of jail free" cards with second-round picks Chase Claypool and Cole Kmet, plus slot Chris Finke. Establishing chemistry won't come overnight, especially because developing the ground attack was the point of emphasis in September. In October, honing the pass, particularly with a healthy Kevin Austin, for the raise-the-stakes November slate will determine how far it goes. Part one is Book must stay healthy and available, because the depth is about as unseasoned as its been in the Brian Kelly era, more so with No. 2 quarterback Brendon Clark unavailable versus USF. Part two is demonstrating that when defenses stack the line, Notre Dame can make them pay with the deep ball. Completing only 7 of 16 of passes thrown 10 yards or more in the first two games, per Pro Football Focus, hasn't inspired such confidence yet. It must start to in October for a strong November and December finish. Inexperienced Receivers Must Separate Themselves By Todd D. Burlage Blaming Ian Book for barely targeting his wide receivers has been a popular criticism from Notre Dame fans so far this season, and perhaps rightfully so. But dig a little deeper, and there's a good reason Book has relied mainly on his tight ends and run- ning backs through the air: Maybe it's because his wide receivers aren't achieving the separation needed to get open. Of the top five Irish pass catchers ranked by yard- age through two games, junior Joe Wilkins Jr. is the lone wideout. He's fourth on the team with 39 yards on four catches. Junior Braden Lenzy is the only other Irish wideout with more than 30 receiv- ing yards, and the entire position group has just 11 receptions for 110 yards — a day's work last year for wide receiver Chase Claypool. Book already had five touchdown passes to wide receivers through two games last season, but the third-year starter has only one scoring toss so far this year, a 17-yarder to senior Avery Davis in the opener against Duke. Both Lenzy and opening-day starter Ben Skowronek should be fully re- covered from hamstring injuries when the Irish return to action, hopefully, Oct. 10 against Florida State. And also expect junior wideout Kevin Austin — arguably the best playmaker in this unit — to be back next month when he recovers from a broken foot. To this point, however, all the different combinations of starters and depth chart shuffling at wide receiver suggest the Irish coaches still have more questions than answers surrounding this unit. Point ✦ Counterpoint: WHAT VULNERABLE AREA COULD KEEP NOTRE DAME FROM MAKING THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF? IAN BOOK BRADEN LENZY Tony Rolinski has spent the last 23 years working with Notre Dame stu- dent-athletes as an integral member of the university strength and conditioning staff. But none of his previous 22 years on the job provided Rolinski, 51, with more uncertainty than what 2020 has. Summers are typically the busiest time of the year for a college strength coach. It 's when student-athletes spend hours each day conditioning through the offseason to ready their bodies for the season. COVID-19 kept Notre Dame students off cam- pus and wiped out all of the spring and most of those summer workouts this year, forcing Rolinski — the head strength and conditioning coach for men's basketball and hockey — to get creative in trying to keep his athletes fit from a distance. Blue & Gold Illustrated caught up with Rolinski to discuss the challenges he faced during the months when the Notre Dame campus was closed. BGI: How difficult was customizing workouts for all the guys scattered around the country? Rolinski: "It's easier with basketball because you only have 12 guys. But you have four new guys coming in — and those four, you really don't know them yet. "You ordinarily meet them in the summer time, get to know them and find out what they need to work on. This summer was just an entirely dif- ferent way of doing things." BGI: How were you able to deter- mine what the individual workout plans needed to look like without being around the guys? Rolinski: "Once we found out what equipment they had access to, we would just develop the program from there. Some guys, I had to send strictly body-weight workouts because that's all they had. Some guys had a rack, or some dumbbells and kettle bells. "One thing I told all of them is that from a condi- tioning standpoint, just look right outside — there's a treadmill right outside of everybody's door." BGI: What was your level of satisfaction, when they returned, with what the guys did on their own at home? Rolinski: "Our guys did a really good job. My biggest challenge with them coming back was knowing that when they did, they were going to want to go 100 miles an hour. "We took the first four weeks and basically broke it down like it would be post-season train- ing. We would introduce some exercises that we hadn't done in awhile, see where everybody was and try to find a baseline to start from." BGI: How much did the layoff set you and your training staff back? Rolinski: "From my standpoint, for basketball, it was almost a blessing. These guys play 12 months out of a year on an unforgiving surface, and their bodies never have a chance to heal. We had more than enough time when we got them back to get them into shape. It's a marathon not a sprint. "Physically, I was never worried about getting these guys ready to play basketball, so we took our time." BGI: For you personally, how nice was it to fi- nally get the guys back on campus and work with them in person? Rolinski: "Our summers are almost our busiest time of the year. The kids are here, they take a couple of classes and it's a big training block for all of our athletes. And now, I don't need to write all of these on-line workouts. "I'm not a computer guy. Getting on a computer, and talking on Zoom and FaceTime, that's not me. I was born in the 60s, grew up in Pittsburgh in the 80s, I want to get my hands on these guys." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With… NOTRE DAME HEAD STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH TONY ROLINSKI ROLINSKI