Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Notre Dame Packs A Pistol The pistol formation won't be the foremost weapon in Notre Dame's 2013 offense, but it is expected to be part of its arsenal. The pistol is a hybrid between the quarterback taking the conventional direct snap from center and the traditional shotgun where he is lined up seven yards behind the center. In the pistol formation, the quarterback lines up only four yards behind the center, while the running back is three yards behind the quarterback instead of adjacent to him in the shotgun. The primary purpose is to enable the running back to run downhill perhaps a little more. "When you are in the shotgun, you limit some of the runs that you have," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "… [The linebackers] can't offset one way or the other based upon the back. It also helps a little bit with your back working coast to coast in protections." Kelly said he ran a little pistol his first season with the Irish, but he now wants to incorporate it a little more because of the personnel on hand. Former Nevada head coach Chris Ault, a forefather of the pistol, spoke at Notre Dame's coaches' clinic this spring. "[Junior running back] George [Atkinson] is a guy that I wanted to get downhill," Kelly said. "He ran downhill very well in high school, and we felt like the pistol could fit him very well. Not just him, but we felt like it was something that could benefit us moving forward." Some opinion holds that a running quarterback is a necessity to run the read option from the pistol. However, even the Denver Broncos incorporated the package for Peyton Manning, whose forte is not mobility. In college, Alabama also has employed the pistol as an auxiliary element during recent championship runs with Greg McElroy (83 yards rushing in 2009 and minus-12 yards rushing in 2010) and A.J. McCarron (minus-22 and minus-10 yards rushing the past two years). Thus, it's not like Tommy Rees suddenly has to become a running threat. "They don't need to run the read [-option] part of it," Ault told Michael David Smith of NBC Sports. "We ran the power, the gap, the counters, the zones, the outside stuff. … The most important thing there is you can run any offense you've been running." The element that needs to be resolved for Notre Dame is sorting out all the plays from shotgun or conventional snap to see which are executed best in the pistol. Another purpose is to hinder the opposing defense from knowing what the tendencies of the Irish are in the shotgun or in the direct snap by running those same plays from the pistol. "You can do all the plays — [but] are they as good? Is the timing as good?" Notre Dame offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Chuck Martin said. "Just to say, 'Yeah, we can run a power play from the pistol just like we can from direct snap' — is it as effective a play? Is a back hitting the hole at the right time? Holes open and close pretty quickly, so you're still sorting through that." The pistol will have some on-the-job learning, which is why it can't be the main course of the Notre Dame offense, but a good side dish. "How much we use the pistol will be determined really for us in terms of game plan week to week," Kelly said. "We just think it's another piece that we can use to get some downhill runs."