Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1418303
54 OCT. 23, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T he Fighting Irish offensive line started the season performing at a level much lower than folks in South Bend have been used to of late. Notre Dame is deemed by many to be "O-line U," after all. But it's been play- ing like anything but that during the 2021 season. Notre Dame hasn't been this bad at running the football during head coach Brian Kelly's time at the school. It's not even close. Notre Dame ranked No. 124 nationally in rushing yards per game (80.8) after the first five contests of the season. That's the worst ranking the program has had in that statistic since Kelly's first season in 2010. The Irish still ran for 126.2 yards per game that year, which checked in at No. 92 in the country. Notre Dame accumulated at least 150 yards per game on the ground in all 10 seasons from 2011-20. The Irish eclipsed 200 yards per outing in three of those campaigns. Notre Dame hasn't quite been this bad up front in all of Kel- ly's years in charge of the program. The numbers don't lie. This year is an anomaly in the worst way. Here's a startling statistic: according to CFB Film Room, Notre Dame was the only team in the country going into Week 5's slate of games with a negative yards- per-carry average (-0.2) before contact, excluding sacks. That means junior run- ning back Kyren Williams and sophomore Chris Tyree haven't had a fighting chance to get beyond the line of scrimmage on the bulk of their carries this season. Williams averaged 5.3 yards per carry on 211 attempts last season. His clip dropped to 3.8 on 77 attempts through the first five games of this season. Tyree averaged 6.8 yards per carry on 73 rushes last season, but that number has been more than cut in half to 3.2 yards a tote on 32 tries through the first five games of this season. These numbers alone are enough to show Notre Dame has not been able to move the line of scrimmage in a posi- tive direction. But to hammer the point home, let's include sack statistics in the argument. Only two FBS schools — Southern Miss and Akron — allowed more sacks than Notre Dame through the first five games of the season. That's not good company. Irish quarterbacks were sacked 22 times in that span. The most sacks a Kelly-coached Notre Dame team has ever allowed was 30. The 2021 unit is well on its way to setting a new high (low) in that regard. Through five games, Pro Football Focus (PFF) has dinged the offensive front for 55 pressures allowed (quar- terback sacks, hits and hurries), which were the 17th-most in the country. Seven of the lines that have given up more have played an additional game. The outlet has graded the team at 57.3 on the year overall in run blocking, which tied for 98th of the 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Kelly's aware of the numbers. He's got a better-than-first-row seat to what's been going on between the white lines. The coach was recently asked by a re- porter if offensive line coach Jeff Quinn should take some heat for the offensive line's woes. "I think any criticism like that is to- tally unfair," Kelly said. "Look, everybody has a job to do. Everybody takes this ex- tremely seriously. It's their livelihood. "All of my coaches, whether a posi- tion group is not performing up to their level, they're examining all of that. They put in 77 hours this week. There's no stone unturned. Everybody is doing ev- erything they can to get the best out of their unit. "As I told our guys, we are responsible for putting our best guys on the field and getting the most put of them. So if we've got to be smarter and we've got to be able to put them in better positions, then so be it. That's what we'll do." At this point, though, it's hard to imagine Notre Dame turning things around on the offensive line, given half the season is over and there have not been many signs of progress. ✦ GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA Notre Dame is on pace to finish with the fewest rushing yards per game and most sacks allowed during head coach Brian Kelly's 12-year tenure. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Offensive Line Struggles Continue Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com