Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Guard Chris Watt (66) and tackle Zack Martin (70) form a formidable left side along the offensive line, with center Braxston Cave (52) anchoring the middle. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND of the 1980s or 1990s, a team might throw 20 times per game. Today, 20 times per half is not uncommon — especially because plays such as the bubble screen or shovel pass are really considered "running plays." A slot receiver is also part running back, which is why senior Robby Toma works with the running backs under Alford. "It's not necessarily that Robby runs With the conventional offenses don't want to limit you either. "It doesn't mean everyone in our the inside zone extremely well; it's matching personnel so that we can move guys to different positions on the field," Kelly said. "Multiple for- mations that allow us to move the defense … where it opens up for [tight end] Tyler Eifert or someone else." Finding a role for Atkinson, po- tentially the top game-breaker on of- fense after returning two kickoffs for scores last season as a freshman, is essential. Martin said the coaches are mainly trying to help Atkinson into finding a niche rather than believing he must be a jack-of-all trades player at the hybrid position. "He has some stress I think of, 'If I can't do all these jobs [at slot or in the backfield, or out wide], they're not going to play me,' which we're trying to alleviate," Martin said. "We can just hand you the ball — but we www.BLUEANDGOLD.com offense is going to move around like [tight end Tyler] Eifert. If you can, though, it's nice to move kids and ask them to do different things. If they can't, when you go to Navy just settle in on, 'George this is what you've got, this is what you feel com- fortable with' and we'll keep pro- gressing from there." The Blue-Gold Game was some- tackle and Chris Watt at guard com- plements the leadership of fifth-year senior Braxston Cave — playing for his fourth offensive line coach (Harry Hiestand) — at center. The right side will be a "three for what of a template with Atkinson's 18 touches (15 carries and three catches) accounting for 178 yards, Riddick snaring eight passes to com- plement his five carries and Wood having two early 20-yard bursts be- fore sitting out most of the afternoon. Along with Toma, all can be used on reverses, shovel passes or mis- direction plays. Throw in some de- signed running plays for the quar- terback, and finally a defense can be spread enough where the vertical threat can become more prominent even without a burner flanked wide. this spring was the virtually limited news along the offensive front. The senior left side of the line with third-year starter Zack Martin at Maybe the best aspect on offense LEANING TO THE LEFT two" rotation, according to Kelly. Junior Christian Lombard has taken more control at tackle, while fifth-year senior Mike Golic Jr. and sophomore Nick Martin have been tag-teaming at guard, especially with Golic moon- lighting at center while Cave was re- covering from foot surgery last fall. Golic played the last four games of 2011 at center in place of Cave. He's stronger than Nick Martin, but the younger Martin is more athletic. If junior Tate Nichols proves to be one of the five best linemen while working at right tackle, it's conceiv- able that Lombard could line up at right guard, where he worked the first half of spring. The staff prefers to incorporate both zone and gap runs into the blocking scheme. "How much depends on how ef- fective they are," Martin said. "Coach Kelly has always believed in having gap and zone schemes. Hopefully we'll be good at both — it will be a nice mixture because it's tougher for the linebackers." ✦ MAY 2012 27