Fuller
Notre Dame handled last year's Conference USA champs, Rice, with relative ease last Saturday, averaging nine yards per play in a 48-17 win. Everett Golson returned from last season's suspension with a huge performance. What does it mean for this weekend's game? Read on to learn about the ND offense.
Spread, Pro-Style, or Hybrid? Spread-to-pass. This is Brian Kelly's offense, after all. Thanks to Seth, this section now also covers personnel in a handy diagram. Returning starters are highlighted in their team color, the player's bubble is smaller if he hasn't been on the team for three years, and a player's name is in bold if the returning starter at that position is available—in this case, RB Cam McDaniel is in bold because Amir Carlisle, who split starts with McDaniel and a couple other backs in 2013, has moved to the slot (click to embiggen):
As you can see, the Irish have an experienced line, but their skill position players are relatively green, especially when considering Golson wasn't on the team last year.
Basketball on Grass or MANBALL? The Irish ran mostly inside and outside zone, with a little bit of power tossed in to keep the defense off balance. They were at their best running behind the excellent RG/C combo of Christian Lombard and Nick Martin.
Hurry it up or grind it out? Notre Dame plays at a relatively slow pace, especially for a spread; they had an adjusted pace last year of 36.6% compared to the national average, per Bill Connelly. That number is slightly deceiving, as ND usually gets to the line with plenty of time on the play clock, then makes pre-snap adjustments from their formation; they can pick up the pace when it's necessary.
Quarterback Dilithium Level (Scale: 1 [Navarre] to 10 [Denard]): I'll give Everett Golson a solid eight on this scale. He did a stellar job of feeling and avoiding pressure in the pocket, he knew when to bail out and when to just step up, and he scored three touchdowns in the red zone, two on plays that weren't designed to be QB runs. Here's the designed run, a draw they ran a few times successfully:
Golson finished with 58 yards on 11 carries with sacks removed, and a few of those carries were marginal gains when pressure flushed him out of the pocket. Michigan is going to have to be very disciplined when they rush the passer or Golson will make some big plays on his own.
[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the breakdown.]
Dangerman: Golson is the obvious answer, but the QB is covered so much in these posts that I'll point out a pair of Notre Dame dangermen: Lombard and Martin. Their superlative combo blocking was the primary reason the Irish rushed for 281 yards on 7 YPC, as Lombard handled his assignment with such ease that Martin had a really easy time getting a quick chip on the DT and then getting his hat on a linebacker, something he did quite well. They'll provide a big test for both Michigan's DTs and Jake Ryan, the latter of whom is going to have to improve on his performance against ASU—he'll be seeing plenty of Martin at the second level.
Zook Factor: A 4th-and-4 punt from the 50 in the early going—which went for a touchback—was the only thing that really qualified here, and against Rice it's tough to blame Kelly for going a little conservative.
HenneChart: Charting ended after the Irish went up 38-10 moments before the fourth quarter. Golson had a great day with just a couple of errors. His downfield success rate is hurt a bit by a few decisions to scramble for short gains when that wasn't entirely necessary—otherwise, there was only one bad decision and one really terrible throw:
| Opponent | DO | CA | MA | IN | BR | TA | BA | PR | SCR | DSR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwestern | 2 | 11 (3) | 1 | 3x (1) | 1 | 4 | -- | 2 | 3 | 65% |
The INX came on a quick out by the tight end that Golson threw high and inside; the throw was there if he put it outside, and instead it should've been a pick and perhaps a touchdown the other way. The bad read was a minor one in which he ignored an open pop pass to the TE in favor of scrambling into pressure that wasn't immediately there, getting a very minimal gain instead of a decent chunk of yards. Outside of those, he looked really sharp—here's one of the DOs:
That was one of a couple post routes that he executed perfectly.
OVERVIEW
Formation chart:
| Formations | Run | Pass | PA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gun | 18 | 20 | 5 |
| I-Form | -- | -- | -- |
| Ace | -- | -- | -- |
| Pistol | 3 | -- | 2 |
Yes, it's a spread. Notre Dame ran just about everything from the shotgun, with the exception of a couple inside zones out of the pistol and a slick little play-action they ran off of that to TE Ben Koyack—lined up as an H-back—leaking out of the backfield:
The Irish got a touchdown on their other PA pass out of the pistol, a simple streak to Will Fuller that went for 75 yards.
Even as they started blowing out Rice, Notre Dame stuck mostly to setting up the run with the pass, and passing more than running in general:
| Down | Run | Pass | PA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 10 | 9 | 5 |
| 2nd | 9 | 5 | 1 |
| 3rd | 2 | 7 | 1 |
Golson really made the offense effective in this game. His pocket presence looked to be well ahead of where he was at two years ago, and his ability to extend plays led to a few huge gains and one would-be long touchdown that bounced off backup receiver CJ Prosise's chest.
The mitigating factor here is, of course, Rice, which lost a good deal of what was already a bad pass rush a year ago, though they did return most of a solid secondary. Their coverage was mostly good, but their defensive backs eventually had a hard time keeping receivers from coming open as Golson time and again bought extra seconds to throw. Coaching hurt here, too, as for some completely unknown reason the Owls played man free coverage when ND had the ball on their 47 with ten seconds left in the first half; one of Rice's corners stumbled and Prisise broke wide open for an easy touchdown.
None of Notre Dame's receivers looked overly dangerous, though at 6'4", 215 pounds, Corey Robinson will be a tough guy to jam at the line—he showed he can use his body well to box out smaller defensive backs on his lone, 25-yard catch in this game. Fuller has nice speed and Carlisle, the former running back, is dangerous after the catch, but none of these guys are the all-around threat that suspended WR DaVaris Daniels provided last year.
While McDaniel started at running back and did decently well with his carries, I was more impressed by sophomore RB Greg Bryant, who made nice cuts and displayed a good feel for running behind zone blocking on his way to 71 yards on just eight carries. Bryant might have had more playing time if not for a couple blown assignments; that included him running the wrong way on a designed inside zone (I think) near the goal line—Golson had to pull the ball down himself, and since he's Everett Golson against Rice he then scrambled into the end zone from four yards out.
I was impressed with the interior of ND's line, especially the right side, both in pass protection and (especially) run blocking, but they had some issues on the edge, especially with new left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who started all 13 games at right tackle last year. This is not good:
Stanley got beat to the inside in similar fashion on a few other runs, and generally looked uncomfortable in space. On the other side, sophomore right tackle Steve Elmer—who filled at at RG for Lombard when he went down for four games last year—gave up Rice's lone sack on a pure speed rush around the edge; Golson didn't have a chance to avoid the pressure. ND backs also blew a couple blitz pickups, so Michigan should be able to turn up the heat a bit on Golson in a way that Rice—which finished 92nd in adjusted sack rate last year—simply could not.
PLAY BREAKDOWN
Notre Dame ran a nice overload passing concept that showed off both Brian Kelly's coaching acumen and the improved passing of Golson. Here's the initial formation with the routes diagrammed:
This route concept is a great way to overload zone coverage; in this case, it also works against man, as the Irish roll the pocket towards the three receivers and away from a corner blitz by Rice. Switching camera views since the broadcast one doesn't show the routes, you can see that Rice's linebackers have to step up out of respect for Golson's running. The out route by Koyack clears space underneath, while Carlisle (#3) works in acres of space on his corner route—the safety to the near side is in man coverage but has yet to enter the screen:
You can see at the bottom right corner of the screencap above that Will Fuller, the outside receiver, is just off the screen running a deep hitch. Carlisle takes advantage of the safety having to go a long way to get to the play, running a corner route over the top of Fuller's hitch:
Yes, the safety is in pursuit, and still out of the screen. You can see that Golson has already planted—quite impressively, since he was rolling to the left as a right-handed passer—and released the ball. He drops a dime over Fuller's man and away from the safety, who closed pretty impressively on Carlisle:
If the deep corner hadn't come open, the crossing route run by the lone receiver at the top of the screen was coming open underneath. Nice play design, equally nice execution.
Video:
Notre Dame is going to test Michigan's corners, and Golson looks like he's a far better passer than he was as a redshirt freshman. The big question here will be whether or not Michigan can generate more pressure than Rice—and, just as importantly, contain Golson while doing so.