Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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CHALK TALK BRYAN DRISKELL Kelly's ultimate goal is to build a bal- anced offense, one that can attack teams with equal efficiency and explosiveness on the ground and through the air. That level of balance affords the coaches the opportunity to tweak the game plan and emphasis on a week-by-week ba- sis, depending on the weaknesses and strengths of the opposition. Through five games in 2015, Notre Dame has played with such balance and the result is an offense on pace to be Kelly's best in South Bend. READ CONCEPTS Notre Dame implements a number of post-snap read concepts that are in- tended to isolate a specific defender or to attack a defensive weakness. It has a variety of run/run concepts built into its offense. In this instance, the quarterback makes a read off of a specific defender. Based on what the defender does post- snap, the quarterback will either hand the ball off or pull the ball and run it himself. Notre Dame's two most prom- inent run/run concepts are the zone read and the power read. In the zone read, the quarterback will read a backside edge defender. If that defender squeezes down inside, the quarterback will pull the ball and run outside to that side. If the edge player stays back, the quarterback will hand off to the running back. In the power read, a running back or a wide receiver in motion will run a jet sweep action with the wide receivers blocking on the perimeter. The quarterback will read the edge defender on the side the back or re- ceiver is headed. If the edge does not work to the outside to handle the jet sweep, the quarterback will hand the ball off. If the edge player tries to con- tain the outside, the quarterback will pull the ball and become the ball carrier responsible for running the power look. Kelly has also implemented a num- ber of run/pass read concepts. In these looks, the quarterback is reading a line- backer or perimeter defender, and also taking a count of how many defend- ers are lined up between the offensive tackles and within five yards of the line of scrimmage. His read will determine whether he hands the ball off to a run- ning or pulls the football and throws it to a wide receiver or tight end. The offensive line and back will ex- Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has developed his own version of the spread offense. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA