Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/762987
22 JANUARY 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI N ot even the worst pessimist or cynic could have envisioned a 4-8 result for the 2016 Notre Dame football team. Ranked No. 10 in the preseason Associated Press poll and coming off a 10-3 campaign with a No. 11 finish, the Fighting Irish were legiti- mate aspirants to post back-to-back 10-victory seasons for the first time since achieving the feat three years in a row from 1991-93 with 10-3, 10-1-1 and 11-1 ledgers. There were at least two reasons why it was considered a bona fide goal in 2016. First, head coach Brian Kelly was in his seventh season, and seem- ingly hitting his stride. Back in the summer of 2015 — when he believed he had assembled his all-around best and deepest team — he was adamant that Notre Dame was on the cusp of becoming a "program" that reloads rather than one that needs to rebuild. "We are going to be in this position every year for a number of years be- cause we've built the depth with the program necessary to roll out another great group of players the next year and the year after," Kelly told Blue & Gold Illustrated in the summer of 2015 when his Irish were projected as po- tential Playoff material. "As long as we continue to recruit the way we've recruited, and develop our players, we'll be in this position every year." Second, despite losing stalwarts such as linebacker Jaylon Smith, wide receiver Will Fuller, defensive line- man Sheldon Day, and offensive line- men Ronnie Stanley and Nick Martin from the 2015 edition, the 2016 sched- ule was deemed, on paper, one of the more favorable, as opposed to formi- dable ones at Notre Dame in years past. Only USC in the season finale (Nov. 26) was classified as a probable favorite over the Irish, or at least the one team with more talent. Among Notre Dame's first six op- ponents, none finished above .500 and five were below it — possibly unprecedented in school history. T h e re a f t e r, e x c l u d i n g S o u t h - ern California, it was two military academies (Navy and Army West Point) the Irish are always expected to vanquish, two inconsistent foes at home that had to adapt to new head coaches (Miami and Virginia Tech), and a Stanford team that was visiting Notre Dame after getting walloped in back-to-back weeks by Washington (44-6) and Washington State (42-16) — plus would lose 10-5 to Colorado the week after playing Notre Dame. A worst-case situation on paper was … maybe 8-4, while 7-5 would be classified as a football cataclysm. Consequently, 4-8 was incompre- hensible, and would qualify as one of the five or six worst seasons in school history, especially when it was so unexpected. Nevertheless, there were numer- ous individuals who merited recog- nition for their play: TOP PERFORMER OFFENSE: Junior Quarterback DeShone Kizer Like Paul Hornung for 2-8 Notre Dame in 1956 or Jimmy Clausen for the 6-6 Irish in 2009, Kizer experi- enced the frustrating dichotomy be- tween impressive individual data and poor team success. Kizer's 3,397 yards of total offense (2,925 passing and 472 rushing) were the fourth most in one season by an Irish player. Kizer finished his ca- reer with 5,589 passing yards and 981 rushing yards. TOP PERFORMER DEFENSE: Fifth-Year Senior Nose Guard Jarron Jones When Jones was in the zone — as he was especially against Stanford and Miami — he was extremely ef- fective as not only an anchor in the middle but also a playmaker one year after missing the entire 2015 regular season with a knee injury. He demonstrated enough flashes (including 11 tackles for loss) over a longer duration and with greater stamina to work himself into a po- tential pick in the first three rounds of next spring's NFL Draft. MVP OFFENSE: Junior Left Guard Quenton Nelson A case could be made that if quar- terback Malik Zaire would have com- fortably been "The Man" and run Kelly's offense like he did against LSU in the 2014 Music City Bowl or versus Texas in the 2015 opener, Notre Dame might have been better than 4-8 even without Kizer. However, we don't want to think about where the offensive line would have been without the presence of Nelson, a consistent mainstay. Pro Football Focus graded Nelson as the nation's third-best offensive lineman at the midway point of this season (final grades have yet to be issued), and SI.com (Sports Illustrated) named him a second-team All-American this December. MVP DEFENSE: Senior Strongside Linebacker James Onwualu Who would have guessed that the senior captain, who played wide re- ceiver as a freshman, would record more tackles for loss (11.5) and sacks (three) than Butkus Award winner Jaylon Smith did last year with nine and one, respectively? More of a situational player in 2015, Onwualu had to be a jack-of- all-trades this season while playing the second-most snaps (728) on de- fense. He was built like a safety yet had to sometimes line up as an un- dersized defensive end. He had the most tackles for loss, was second in passes defended (five) and was third in overall stops (75). Behind the scenes, he and fellow se- nior captain Isaac Rochell were in- strumental at not allowing the locker room to get too fractured during a tumultuous campaign. Like a Matthias Farley (2012-15), Diamonds In The Rubble Like in any other year, the 4-8 season produced some standout efforts Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer accounted for 3,397 yards of total offense and 34 touchdowns en route to team MVP honors. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA