Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Keep 'Em On The Run of them is the ability to run the ball with productive consistency. Despite the advent of much more sophisticated and advanced Some cornerstones of championship football never change. One passing attacks, including the spread offense, in the past few decades, head coach Brian Kelly has been well aware that grind- ing out the tough yardage — especially to help finish a game — is essential. Since 1946, 18 Notre Dame football teams finished in the As- sociated Press top five. Seventeen of them eclipsed 200 yards rushing per game. The lone exception was first-year head coach Ara Parseghian's 1964 team that finished No. 3 — and it averaged 190.9 yards rushing per contest to finish 19th nationally in that category. That was the year senior John Huarte won the Heisman Trophy while becoming the first Irish quarterback to surpass 2,000 yards passing in a season. Running the ball with proficiency doesn't guarantee you will be a championship contender, but the inability to do so almost assures that you will not. A powerful rushing attack has been a centerpiece of champion- ship-contending Notre Dame teams, but the turn of the century has seen Notre Dame "modernizing" its attack. In the six seasons from 2006-11, the Irish averaged only 138.9 yards rushing per game and became known as more of a finesse operation. In Kelly's first season (2010), the Irish didn't rush for more than 196 yards in any game. This season during the 8-0 start, Notre Dame has averaged 196.5 yards per game on the ground. And lest one think that running the ball remains old-fashioned, consider the last five national champions: • Last year Alabama averaged 214.5 yards rushing, while No. 2 men. Golson is "night and day" better at his pre-snap checklist ac- cording to Cave, which means the Irish expect to start trimming seconds away from their time be- tween snaps in an effort to put more points on the board. Teams that speed up, LSU was at 202.6. The 2009 Crimson Tide, which also finished No. 1, had nearly an identical 215.1 mark rushing. • The 2010 title game had both Auburn (284.8 yards rushing per game) and Oregon (286.2) in the top five in rushing output per contest. • 2008 champion Florida averaged 231.4 yards per game on the ground, while runner-up Oklahoma was at 198.5. • In 2007, No. 1 LSU finished with a 211.1 rushing average, while runner-up Ohio State was at 196.9. The game has evolved and changed … but great defense and the ability to run the ball remain timeless. though, run the risk of playing the proverbial hare. Sustained suc- cess seems to come at a slightly slower pace. Among the top 10 teams in the BCS rankings heading into the final month of the season, only Oregon keeps its possession-to-plays ratio under 25 seconds. The three teams that move slower than Notre Dame in that group are Kan- sas State (30.32), Ala- bama (31.01) and Flor- ida (31.33). Two were ranked higher than the Irish in the last poll of October and the third, Florida, spent much of the first half of the sea- son right next to them. "It's not that we want — Lou Somogyi to run different plays. We just want to run one and get up on the line and run another one," Martin said. "We can do the same things just trying to get some