Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME talking blockers is not their overall size or the number of sacks they've allowed, but how often they've been on the field. Anecdotally, an experienced offensive line is the foundation of a successful football team. For the How important is it to have an experienced offensive line? The most common statistic cited when CHARTING THE IRISH most part, that has held true for the Irish during the past decade. Notre Dame's only two 10-win seasons since Tyrone Willingham took over in 2002 have featured a starting quintet with more than 75 starts among them heading into the season opener. A sudden drop or rise in the number of starts almost always led to a similar effect in the win column. In 2003, the Irish graduated four of their starters, going from 76 starts to 21. That year the team's win total dropped from 10 to five. Two years later when the offensive line went from 50 starts to 90 starts, the wins jumped back up to nine. The only major outlier in this pattern is Charlie Weis' final year in South Bend. His team had four returning starters on the line for a total of 82 starts, but the Irish record stayed stagnant at 6-6. It should be noted that the offense was actually ranked eighth in the country that season. Notre Dame's problem in that era came on the opposite side of the ball. A good offensive line has been important for Notre Dame in recent years, but it doesn't appear to be an essential element to reaching the next level. Last year's top-10 finishers in the Associated Press poll had an average of only 57.5 starts on their offensive lines to start the season. Seven of the 10 started at least one player with no experience heading into the season. Recent history would tell us that Notre Dame's 65 returning starts in the group this year will keep the Irish right around eight wins, which is what most prognosticators are projecting this season. Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 O. Line Starts 76 21 50 90 91 46 48 82 36 63 63 Wins 10 5 6 9 10 3 7 6 8 8 ? Ranking 108 90 81 10 23 119 65 8 61 35 ? Fifth-year senior center Braxston Cave has started 22 games in his Notre Dame career, including nine last year before having his season cut short due to a foot injury. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA 2011 Top 10 Team Offensive Line Starts Alabama LSU Oklahoma St. Oregon Arkansas Southern Cal Stanford Boise St. South Carolina Wisconsin 77 45 62 54 42 26 50 78 70 71 backer Jerry Groom was listed with the most playing time at Notre Dame in a single season with 465. Groom actually is second to 1955 lineman Jim Mense, who played an extraordinary 531:50 during Notre Dame's 8-2 season in 1955. BGI regrets the error. In Blue & Gold Illustrated's 160-page Football Preview mailed in July, 1950 All-America center/line- CORRECTION www.BLUEANDGOLD.com PRESEASON 2012 13 — Dan Murphy Total Offense