Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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one or maybe even two more defeats were added to the predictions. To be clear, minus senior signal-caller Tommy Rees, the Irish might not have won five games, if that. Yet the four-year union between Rees and head coach Brian Kelly has almost been like an arranged marriage. On paper, there regularly seemed to be better candidates to run the offense (Dayne Crist, Andrew Hendrix, Golson and even Gunner Kiel), but circumstances always led Kelly back to Rees, who maximized his skill sets to the fullest. Outside of Alabama's A.J. McCarron, college football offenses are reliant more than ever on electrifying, dualthreat quarterbacks, from Auburn's Nick Marshall (1,759 yards passing and 1,023 rushing) to Oregon's Marcus Mariota (3,412 yards passing and 582 rushing). Even Kevin Hogan at Stanford (314 yards rushing) and Connor Shaw at South Carolina (511 yards rushing) for traditional drop-back passing specialist Steve Spurrier provide a bona fide running dimension. With Rees (minus-62 yards rushing), there were limited options, especially in empty backfield formations in the red zone, where the Irish struggled again, finishing the regular season 100th after placing 70th last season. Notre Dame has not eclipsed a 30-point scoring average in any of Kelly's four seasons. We're not saying Notre Dame needs a Marshall or a Tony Rice-like (198789) option quarterback, but a legitimate rushing threat — sort of like Golson and his 298 yards rushing in 2012 — likely would better facilitate the overall spread attack. It Came To Pass All things considered, this has to be considered the greatest pass-blocking team in Notre Dame football annals. The Irish finished second to Toledo in sacks allowed (eight in 390 drop-backs), and offensive line coach Harry Hiestand's crew seldom missed an assignment or were out of place. The flip side is it may have come at the cost of establishing a powerful ground attack, which remains tantamount in becoming a championshiplevel unit. In the final BCS standings, the lone team in the top 11 not to average at least 210 yards rushing was Michigan State, which produced a respectable 182.2 yards per game. It's probably not a coincidence that last year's 12-0 regular season was the only one in the last 13 at Notre Dame the Irish averaged more than 200 yards rushing, but this year it fell back down to 149.3, most notably 96, 138 and 64 in losses to Michigan, Pitt and Stanford, respectively. There is what we call "Stanford Envy" in many Notre Dame followers in that the Cardinal the past five years has become the model of what the Irish used to be in their glory days: physically dominant with the run while seldom having to pass more than 25 times per game. The onus was repeatedly placed on Rees in 2013 to save Notre Dame. Physicality is not something of which this team is devoid, and it has often demonstrated imposing such will the past two years. But when a team is so good in one area (pass blocking), it's tough to be as proficient in the other (run blocking) to consistently develop that physical identity.