Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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at right guard as a freshman, he ap‑ peared more comfortable there. Even in August, Kelly said Elmer was play‑ ing too much like a guard at tackle with his steps and balance. He had played left guard during spring, but was shifted to tackle in August be‑ cause classmate Mike McGlinchey was not yet deemed ready for a full‑time role there. Wi t h h i s 6 ‑ 5 ½ , 3 1 5 ‑ p o u n d w i d e body, Elmer pro‑ vided more surge or oomph in the interior rather than dealing with speed rushers on the pe‑ rimeter. • Lombard was moved out to right tackle. Why? Lombard started all 13 games at right tackle for the 12‑1 Irish in 2012. The reason he aligned at guard in 2013 was to make room for rising star Ron‑ nie Stanley at right tackle to get the five best linemen on the field. • Martin was shifted to left guard to team with Stanley. Why? Recovering from MCL sur‑ gery last November and reportedly bothered by other maladies, Martin had much on his plate by making the line calls, snapping the ball and deal‑ ing with linemen right over him. "You create a left side now that's very visible and then a big athletic right guard in Steve Elmer," Kelly said. • Hegarty shifted to center. Why? Hegarty was the No. 1 cen‑ ter the last three games of 2013 when Martin suffered an MCL injury early in the BYU game, and he excelled there in the spring while Martin was rehab‑ bing. However, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand also had him aid the line calls at guard. "Matt's got his hands full taking care of his own position, so we'll give him some help in there," Kelly said. "It will allow him to keep his eye on essen‑ tially snapping and execution. Nick will assist in making a lot of calls." Hanratty is the first guard option off the sidelines, and McGlinchey has the same role at either tackle spot. "What we were looking for more than anything else is we wanted to be able to be more physical inside," Kelly said. "You have to move some pieces around, you have to give some‑ thing up to get something. Next year maybe there are guys ready to play those positions and we move them back … we felt like we needed to get better and more physical inside‑out." CAN IRISH COMMIT TO RUN? Far and away Notre Dame's best rushing team since 2002 was the 12‑1 squad in 2012 that had a 202.5‑yard av‑ erage during its 12‑0 regular season. Interestingly, Notre Dame had a dif‑ ficult September that year running the ball, totaling only 20, 20 and 13 points against Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan while accumulating merely 52, 122 and 94 yards on the ground, respectively — and then the bye week came. Thereafter, Notre Dame aver‑ aged 234 yards rushing over the final "WE KNOW WE'VE GOT SOME GOOD PLAYERS. WE HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHETHER WE HAVE THEM ALL IN THE RIGHT PLACE." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE