Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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your base. What expands it is answers for different things. "When you go into unpredictabil- ity — in other words, a new defensive coordinator — your call sheet may ex- pand a little bit because you want some answers for things that you may not have seen or had not seen on film." Two aspects in particular have played key roles in the game-day possibilities' expansion, though both tie into the run game. First — and this has been true all season long — Notre Dame is led by senior quarterback Everett Golson, a threat through the air and on the ground which the Irish lacked last season. Last year's starter, Tommy Rees, served the offense admirably, but he was nowhere near the athlete Golson is, and the op- posing defense feared neither his deep ball nor his legs. They fear both with Golson. Secondly — and more recently — Notre Dame's run game has finally coalesced into a genuine menace to opposing defenses. In the two games preceding the bye — a 50-43 victory over North Carolina and the 31-27 loss to the No. 2 Seminoles — sophomore running back Tarean Folston took 38 carries for 218 yards, an average of 5.7 yards per carry. The Irish totaled 376 rushing yards in the two contests, a two- game high to date. Golson chipped in 104 yards on the ground, and that in- cludes 19 yards lost on four sacks. "All of us would obviously love to be running for 250 yards a game, or more, but with juggling those guys around and trying to get the combination right, it takes some time for that to gel to- gether," Denbrock said of his offensive line which was reshuffled three games into the season. "We've done a nice job of sustaining blocks, especially in the Florida State game, better than we have at any time up to this point in the year. "That helps our confidence moving forward, and obviously it helps as a play caller. We're at our best when we have the ability to run it and throw it — the threat of play action and things we do off of play action." Those play-action threats would be fangless if not for a bona fide ball-carry- ing threat, and Folston stepped into that role five games into the season. Den- brock wishes he knew what took the team's leading rusher so long to fill that void, but he'll take better late than never. "I wish we could bottle the answer to that, because I'd give it to the rest of the guys on the team we're waiting for to step into roles," he said. "I think it's just a matter of him seeing the need and saying, 'You know what, this is my time. I'm going to step up and get this done.'" With a multi-talented signal-caller, an offensive line finding its chemistry and a running back finally looking to utilize that line, the Irish offense has begun to find its groove. Denbrock feels his charges are far from their potential, even after gaining 470 total yards against Florida State. "I have a lot of confidence in the skill players, really all the players on the of- fensive side of the ball, and what I feel like we can become," he said. "We're still a work in progress. Our guys be- lieve and understand that there's more there. "It's a good situation to be in, with them understanding we've got to con- tinue to improve." That high ceiling comes, at least in