Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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CHALK TALK BRYAN DRISKELL the 2015 season, Kelly and Hies‑ tand kept Stanley on the left side despite having plenty of time to make the switch if the blind side was important. CREATING A DOMINANT SIDE By moving McGlinchey to the left side, Notre Dame also creates a much‑needed dominant side of the line. Having a tandem the staff can depend on early in the season and in vital situations is important to the offense, in both the pass game and the run game. McGlinchey will join junior Quen‑ ton Nelson — an 11‑game starter at left guard — on the left side of the line. There were times during the 2015 season when Nelson was the team's best run blocker, and there were times when that designation belonged to McGlinchey. By pairing them together, Notre Dame has an opportunity to establish a dominant side of the line, while the right side — which must find two new starters to play with new start‑ ing center, junior Sam Mustipher — develops cohesion. With both Nelson and McGlinchey having a full year under their belt, developing teamwork should hap‑ pen relatively quickly. This works well for Notre Dame, far better than requiring each veteran to mesh with a newcomer to the starting lineup. RUN-GAME BENEFITS Establishing a dominant side of the line is crucial to Notre Dame's run game. The offense's top play — the inside zone — greatly benefits from having an established and physical duo on the line. Notre Dame can run the zone right behind that pair, or it can do what Hiestand prefers, which is to run the inside zone away from the dominant side. Notre Dame likes to get its runners to cut back, which puts great impor‑ tance on the backside zone blocks. In 2012, Notre Dame ran the inside zone away from Martin and left guard Chris Watt more often than they ran behind those two. The Irish also like to attack with the outside zone, and this is a concept the staff prefers to run at their two best blockers. Success to the outside requires a tackle and guard that are athletic enough to reach defenders to their outside, quick enough to get to the second level when uncovered, and powerful enough to get strong lateral movement against defensive linemen. Nelson and Stanley were the duo that Notre Dame liked to run outside behind in 2015, but that combination will likely be McGlinchey and Nelson in 2016. As long as McGlinchey can get comfortable playing left handed, the combination of him and Nelson could eventually lead to them becoming Kelly's dominant one‑two punch. ✦ Bryan Driskell has been a football analyst for Blue & Gold Illustrated since April 2015. He can be reached at bdriskell@blueandgold.com.