Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/259072
BY ANDREW OWENS E ver since the 42-14 shellacking Notre Dame endured at the hands of Alabama in last year's BCS National Championship Game, Irish head coach Brian Kelly has made it no secret that the pro- gram's top personnel priority has been to build championship-caliber depth. Heading into year five, mission ac- complished, Kelly says. "I really like the fact that this has come together and the fact that it really represents … the one thing that you're looking for, and that is depth across the board," Kelly said at his National Sign- ing Day press conference Feb. 5. "Eighteen of these recruits were in the top 15 in their position group, and that's what we were trying to achieve in this class." When combining this year's 23-man haul and last year 's 23-player group that finished No. 5 nationally accord- ing to 247Sports, the Irish seemingly filled a number of needs while at- tempting to assemble a more complete roster. In the 2014 class, Kelly said, it began with attracting talent along the offen- sive and defensive lines. "The offensive line really stands out in this class, and then having some re- ally good players across the board for us," he said. Included in the offensive line haul are four four-star recruits that Kelly praised for their foot quickness. "This year we lost some key starters, and we had to play a true freshman, and then we had to play some guys that had not had any experience at all," Kelly said. "We were in a position that we needed to really augment that position across the board. "They all have the ability to run block and pass protect. We like our guys to move, whether we're running zone schemes or gap schemes, screens, all those things. You're going to see that there's an athletic component to all of these guys." On the other side of the ball, Notre Dame signed six defensive linemen (not including three-star Kolin Hill, who projects more as an outside line- backer with the Irish). Two in the group were offered in the final month of recruiting. DEVELOPING DEPTH The goal of building up the offensive and defensive lines was achieved