Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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46 JUNE/JULY 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W hat is a balanced offense? Often, the interpreta- tion is that it's the ratio of runs to passes. For example, a team that keeps 59 of its 70 plays in a game on the ground would not be defined as a well-balanced offense. Conversely, a team that has 35 running plays and 31 passing plays would be classified — from a per- centage standpoint — as much more balanced. For the record, the team that ran 59 out of 70 times was the Notre Dame squad that won the national title in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl with a 34-21 victory over West Virginia. Tony Rice completed 7 of 11 passes for 213 yards. Meanwhile, the run- ning game accounted for 242 yards. Conversely, the team that ran 35 times and passed 31 was Notre Dame again — this time in the 10-9 defeat to Colorado in the 1991 Orange Bowl. Now, which was the better balanced offense? Last year's Irish offense was, statisti- cally, the most productive in 22 seasons. Its "best balanced" game was against Stanford when it ran 42 times and passed 38. The Cardinal handed Notre Dame its lone defeat of the season. The objective of these observations is to serve as a tie-in for our feature on the philosophy of the Lou Holtz offense. It has been one of the most success- ful in college football history, but also one of the more misunderstood. There seems to be an opinion that because Holtz keeps the ball on the ground 70- 80 percent of the time, his offense lacks balance, is predictable and restricts his quarterbacks from getting maximum production. Ah yes, maximum production. That is like "balanced offense." Is that based on how many times a quarterback passes, or how productive he is when he passes? One quarterback completes 28 passes in a game for 370 yards; another com- pletes 14 for 154 yards in the same con- test. Who had the better game? Statistically, it's no contest. The for- mer — Florida's Shane Matthews — posted much prettier numbers than the latter, Notre Dame's Rick Mirer, in the 1992 Sugar Bowl. But as to who was more efficient, Mirer won hands down. Matthews had to throw 58 times, so his offense aver- aged only 6.4 yards per pass attempt (anything under 7.0 is good for a de- fense). Mirer threw only 19 times, which led to an 8.1 average per attempt (any- thing above 8.0 is outstanding for the offense). Mirer's offense scored 5 touch- downs; Matthews' 2. "Well, that's because Holtz had a run- ning game to go with it" someone might say. Bingo! That's the whole point. It had the option, play-action and power game, so Florida didn't know what to defend anymore. Had Mirer thrown 30-35 times, the power game might not have been as effective in the fourth quarter. Florida's Steve Spurrier — an- other proven, talented head coach — also had a potentially strong running game with 1,000-yard runner Errict Rhett. But there was little attempt to get him involved even though Notre Dame was susceptible to the run that year. When you practice the many offen- sive packages that Holtz does, the indi- vidual numbers might not sparkle. The goal is not to get maximum numbers from one player but maximum effi- ciency from each while keeping the defense off balance. When you think about it, the Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan is the type of talent who could score 50 points virtually any night. But the team play would suffer, and so would the Bulls. That's not restricting his talent; it's maximizing the team's ability. By scoring "only" about 30 per game, Jordan allows everyone else on the team to get involved and create a lot more problems for an opposing defense. Perception is a funny thing. When Holtz arrived at Notre Dame, he had the reputation of an "option coach." Yet his quarter- back at Minnesota, Rickey Foggie, threw for only 70 yards less than Steve Beuerlein did the same year — on 42 fewer completions! That's the result of the system that allows the quarterback to succeed be- cause of five different packages em- ployed during the course of a game. But if one works consistently well, there's no need to unwrap the others. Save it for another day. However, perception is unlikely to change. Maybe Holtz might some day be rec- ognized as an offensive genius when his team averages 339 yards a game, aver- ages 3.0 yards every time it runs the ball and scores seven, seven and six points in three losses. Those were the 1992 totals for Bill Walsh's Stanford Cardinal despite the presence of a veteran line, a proven quarterback and couple quality backs in Glyn Milburn and Ellery Roberts. Yes, Bill Walsh is one of the most knowledgeable coaches to ever run an offense. Here's hoping that Holtz re- ceives his just due some day in that cat- egory as well. ✦ BEST OF THE FIFTH QUARTER ✦ LOU SOMOGYI ✦ JULY 1993 More To Balanced Attack Than Meets The Eye EDITOR'S NOTE: The late, great Lou Somogyi possessed an unmatched knowledge of Notre Dame football, and it was his mission in life to share it with others. Those of us at Blue & Gold Illustrated would like to continue to provide his wis- dom and unique perspective from his more than 37 years covering the Fighting Irish for this publication. Former head coach Lou Holtz's offensive approach proved to be quite successful during his time at Notre Dame. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS