Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Ben Koyack By Andrew Owens There have been a number of (positive) drastic changes in on-field play at Notre Dame this year, but one departure from what we've been accus- tomed to in recent seasons is playing out: the lack of consistent tight end production. Let's get this out of the way from the start: Notre Dame would not have eked out a 17-14 win against Stanford without senior tight end Ben Koyack's dramatic fourth-down catch in the end zone to give the Irish the game-winning score. Regardless of how the remainder of this season plays out, that play will go down in Notre Dame lore. Outside of that catch, however, Koyack has yet to leave his mark on this offense like many expected this season. To be clear, he is not the incredible talent of recent tight ends Troy Niklas, Tyler Eifert and Kyle Rudolph (who is?), but that is no knock on Koyack. Notre Dame does not depend on the tight end position as it has at times in the past under head coach Brian Kelly, but Koyack demonstrated in 2013 that he could be a valuable target, par- ticularly on third downs and in the red zone. It wasn't until October that he heated up with three touchdowns in four games (and fell a yard short of making it four in five games), and it would come as no surprise if he paces the passing offense for a couple straight weeks at some point in November. Sheldon Day By Douglas Farmer To say Sheldon Day is set for a breakout second half of the season is not to say he has not per- formed admirably in the first half of the campaign. The junior defensive lineman most certainly has. His 24 tackles through six games don't to complete justice to his stellar play. But he can do even more. Coming into the sea- son, Day was expected to be the defensive line's primary threat, chasing quarterbacks around the backfield a few times each game. With pre- decessors Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt off to the NFL, Day's explosiveness and experience were supposedly needed for the defensive line to pose any threat to an opposing offense. Instead, he had zero sacks through the season's first half. Oftentimes, a breakout comes after many close calls. It is essentially odds balancing out, and Day is due for that. He may not yet have pulled down a quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, but he has eight quarterback hurries to his name, as well as 4.5 tackles for loss. In 2013, Day notched a total of 0.5 sacks, one quarterback hurry and 5.5 tackles for loss. He is a quarterback slip or misstep away from topping all of those numbers. Sacks will come, especially in defensive coordinator Brian Van- Gorder's aggressive defensive scheme. At that point, Day's loud November will over- shadow all. His outstanding second half will render his first half moot. Point ✦ Counterpoint: WHICH PLAYER IS SET FOR A BREAKOUT SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON? Listen to the discussion in this digital exclusive KOYACK DAY