Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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SEASON KICKOFF: RUNNING BACKS After spending time at both running back and slot receiver during his first three seasons in South Bend, senior Theo Riddick — who has compiled 1,145 career yards from scrimmage — appears to be tailor-made for the Notre Dame offense's new hybrid position. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA keep their backs from slipping into defined roles during the offseason because the tweaked offensive attack will run best this fall if they can keep defenders guessing. "You really don't know where it's going," Alford said. does, but both can be effective from the same position in the same play call if needed. The last potential problem that Alford has to deal with is "Who are you going to try to lock down? [Tight end Tyler] Eifert? Then you've got Theo over here and Cierre in the middle or vice versa. You can't take everything away. It's like any other offense, you try to get as many playmakers on the field as you can at the same time." Learning to do everything may have been more of a challenge for Alford than it was for any one of his players in par- ticular. The former running back has coached backs and receivers during his three previous years, but never both at the same time. He was a little concerned when he first heard his new job descrip- tion last spring. "It kind of took me back a little," he said. "How is this going to work? But now that we've been in it through the spring and into the summer I love it." Alford initially worried about teaching a whole new skill set to a long list of players who all had different strengths and weaknesses. His solution was to teach concepts rather than assignments. That way his players could understand how their job fit in the greater scheme on each play and make it work with their specific skills. Senior receiver Robby Toma might not run a play the same way Atkinson www.BLUEANDGOLD.com WE CAN MOVE THEM ANYWHERE ON THE FIELD AS WELL AS PLAY THE RUNNING BACK POSITION." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY RECEIVER, THE SLOT POSITION. "WE'RE GOING TO PLAY ALL OF OUR BACKS. WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ALL OF OUR BACKS, THEY'RE PLAYING WIDE keeping his stocked shelf of playmakers placated. To truly keep defenses guessing it will be difficult for a player like Wood to get his typical 20-plus touches every Saturday. Many running backs say they need that constant stream of carries to get into the flow of the game. The normally talkative Wood has been uncharacteristically muzzled this year — he hasn't been available for an interview since March — but by all ac- counts Notre Dame's trio of backs have all fully bought into the new system. Alford dealt with a similar problem Hughes, and Wood and Riddick as incoming freshmen. His response now is the same as it was then. His job isn't to make people happy, it's to win football games. In short, deal with it. "This isn't happy camp," he said. "One guy may not get when he arrived at Notre Dame in 2009 to coach a backfield that featured Ar- mando Allen, James Aldridge, Robert 30 carries in a game on consecutive games. The ultimate goal is to put the team in the best position to win. And in doing so, everybody will get theirs. "Everybody will eat. If we're doing what we need to do and having success, that probably means everybody is get- ting a piece of the pie." ✦ PRESEASON 2012 45