Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Spreading The Wealth the backs of Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray, who accounted for 21 of those scores. With Gray graduating and moving on to the NFL's Miami Dolphins through free agency, and Wood suspended for the first two weeks of his senior year, it was unclear how effective the Irish would be on the ground with senior Theo Riddick, who spent the previous two years at slot re- ceiver, leading the way. Eight games, 1,572 net rushing yards and 17 rushing Notre Dame ran the ball 433 times in 2011, collecting 2,085 yards and 25 touchdowns — mostly on touchdowns later, Notre Dame isn't merely strong running the ball, it's the program's identity under third-year head coach Brian Kelly. Whereas three Irish players registered at least 100 yards on the ground last season (then-sophomore quarterback Andrew Hendrix had 162), five have eclipsed the century mark this year with five contests remaining. Riddick leads the way with 525 yards and four scores on 114 attempts, Wood has compiled 467 yards and three touchdowns on 72 carries, sophomore George Atkinson III has put up 301 yards and four touchdowns on 37 totes, sophomore quarterback Everett Golson (with sacks eating into his total) had 145 yards and a score on 53 attempts, and sophomore Cam McDaniel owned 114 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries heading into the game against Pittsburgh. "We've got a lot of talent back there," Riddick said. That requires more carries to go around, which has been the case in the last four games of this season with 177 total rushing plays compared to 150 through the first four contests. "We've been running the ball all season," Wood said. "There's nobody on our schedule or nobody in After lining up in the slot the past two years, senior Theo Riddick has enhanced the back- field depth with his rushing, receiving and blocking skills. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA the country that we think we can't run the ball against. I don't care if they're [rushing defense is] ranked first, it doesn't matter; we're going to run the ball regardless." The Fighting Irish, ranked 33rd nationally in rushing (196.5 yards per game), ran the ball 36.08 times per game in 2011 and have pushed it to 40.9 carries per week this season. That number should continue to rise against Pitt, Boston College and Wake Forest, when the Irish will want to gain control early and pound the ball the rest of the way. When Kelly's offense needed first downs, it has gotten them 82 times on the ground and 68 through the air. In 2011, the Irish registered 162 passing first downs and 116 running the ball. "We wore Stanford down; they didn't really want to play anymore," Wood said. "Same thing with BYU. I started noticing their nose tackle wasn't coming off the ball as hard as he usually does. That's just credit to us blowing everybody off the ball, and the running backs sticking it in there and getting first down after first down. "Our O-line … it starts and ends with them. They're getting the push up front and it's our job to play off them. We've gotten the job done as a unit." — Wes Morgan