Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 9, 2021 19 ans that are playing their butts off as we go through this transition." That said, Kelly considers his group of four young tackle prospects more tal- ented than any in the country, and he predicts the quad squad will be starting together in seasons to come. "Each one of them is at a different stage in that development," Kelly said. "They're not all ready, but when they are, we're going to be talking about, 'Man, that Notre Dame line, they're as good as anybody in the country,' and that's going to happen." Senior Irish captain and third-year starting cen- ter Jarrett Patterson — the lone returning starter from the standout Irish 2020 line — remains the only reliable member up front so far. But building an entire run game or pass-protection strategy around one player, especially a center, isn't a formula for success, which was cringe-worthily obvious through Notre Dame's first four games. Patterson warned not to expect any magic solution or a quick-fix improvement plan, and that only practice repetition and live-game experience will bring the young players and the entire unit to where it needs to be. "The past two and a half years of starting, every time we play someone, they al- ways have a different look, something dialed up that we haven't seen on film before," Patterson explained of his learning curve. "That expe- rience helps and really just repetition during practice." Kelly and all of his line- men insist the problems up front aren't as worrisome as the sta- tistics and eye-test suggest, explaining after the 32-29 Toledo tussle that better technique and improved communica- tion are at the core of the cure. "We don't feel like we're in a bad po- sition on the offensive line," Kelly ex- plained. "We have to be cleaner and better in communication across the board with whether it's a tight end that's in protec- tion or a back, or a quarterback in terms of identifying who he has to throw off of." Simple enough, but the analytics re- main hard to ignore. Through its first four games, Notre Dame's quarterbacks were pressured on about one-third of their dropbacks — per Pro Football Focus — and about one-third of those pressures came from an unblocked defender. A n d n ow o n e - t h i rd o f t h e way through the regular season, Notre Dame entered its game last weekend against Cincinnati ranked 122nd in rushing of- fense (80.0 yards per game) and 128th in sacks allowed per game (5.25) out of 130 FBS teams — not a good combina- tion for an O-line — and its 2.3 yards per rushing attempt ranked 128th in the country. For comparison — while understand- ing that some growing pains were ex- pected after four members of the 2020 O-line landed on 2021 NFL rosters to begin the season: Liam Eichenberg (Dolphins), Aaron Banks (49ers), Robert Hainsey (Buccaneers) and recently re- leased Tommy Kraemer (Lions) — Notre Dame finished 24th last season in rush- ing offense (211.1 yards per game) and 61st in sacks allowed (2.17 per game). Development aside, rushing produc- tion in 2021 is down 131.1 yards per game and sacks allowed are up 3.1 per game from last season, roughly a 60-percent depreciation in each category. "It's one of those things where we just have to be patient and work through the process," Kelly said. "And some guys are holding down the fort for us as we grow up." And as a graduate student in his sixth year of college football, Madden con- curred. "When you break down the film, it's not like we're way off, it's just the lit- tle things," Madden suggested. "We're overthinking it and putting too much pressure on ourselves. Just go and play ball, because at the end of the day, it's just football." ✦ "Each one of them is at a different stage in that devel- opment. They're not all ready, but when they are, we're going to be talking about, 'Man, that Notre Dame line, they're as good as anybody in the country,' and that's going to happen." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY ON HIS YOUNG OFFENSIVE LINEMEN Notre Dame's offense line has had difficulty creating room to run for junior running back Kyren Williams. After managing a meager three rushing yards against Wisconsin, the Irish were tied for 122nd nationally out of 130 FBS teams with an average of just 80.0 rushing yards per game. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER