Notre Dame: 2020 Offense Preview

Irish Breakdown takes its first look at the 2020 Notre Dame offense

Notre Dame had one of its best offensive seasons in the Brian Kelly tenure in 2019, but as has become the norm over the last decade, the unit came up small in the biggest moments.

Under the guidance of former coordinator Chip Long, the 2019 offense had its best season under head coach Brian Kelly in points per game, pass efficiency, red zone offense and red zone touchdown offense. It was the third best season in yards per rush attempt.

The Irish have some huge shoes to fill after losing wide receiver Chase Claypool, tight end Cole Kmet and running back Tony Jones Jr. to the NFL, but there is a great deal of talent returning.

We are going to kick off our analysis of the 2020 season by taking a big picture look at the offense, which must get to a higher level if the Irish are going to get back to the College Football Playoff and be competitive.

Let’s begin by looking at Notre Dame’s 2019 statistics and national ranks:

Starters Returning: 7
Returners With Starting Experience: 14

STRENGTHS

OFFENSIVE LINE IN TALENTED AND DEEP

Notre Dame returns all five of its primary starters from 2019, and a late season injury to right tackle Robert Hainsey allowed classmate Joshua Lugg to make five starts as well. The Irish line returns a combined 114 career starts, which is an extremely high number.

All five starters have the talent to play in the National Football League by the time their college careers are over, and the depth chart is filled with younger players with similar skills.

Among the veterans, left tackle Liam Eichenberg is getting some first-round NFL Draft hype, and it’s justified. Hainsey and right guard Tommy Kraemer, if healthy, could also translate strong senior seasons into high NFL Draft selections.

Left guard Aaron Banks is incredibly gifted, but a lack of consistency, conditioning and a spring injury should result in him being challenged by Lugg, another talented blocker with the talent to potentially play in the NFL.

Center Jarrett Patterson showed promise as a first-year starter, and the expectation is that his game improves in his second season as a starter.

Notre Dame should once again have one of the nation’s top pass blocking units, but line coach Jeff Quinn needs to do a much, much better job of getting his unit to handle the run game more effectively. Developing depth among the talented, but young, backups must also be a focus of fall camp.

BOOK HAS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

Quarterback Ian Book returns with 23 career starts, and Notre Dame is 20-3 in contests where Book was the starter. He was also instrumental in Notre Dame’s Citrus Bowl victory at the conclusion of the 2017 season, but he came off the bench in that contest.

Book put up some impressive numbers in 2019, racking up 3,580 total yards and accounting for 38 touchdowns. Now essentially a third-year starter, Book needs to take his game to a much higher level.

So what does that mean? I can tell you what it doesn’t mean, and that is putting up “impressive” numbers. Book’s stats are misleading, but I’ve broken that down before and it doesn’t need to be rehashed again, at least not in this space.

What this means is Book needs to start making more money plays in the big games. He has the combination of arm and athleticism to be a game changer at the collegiate level, and Book has shown that ability against inferior opponents.

If he can play with similar effectiveness and poise against Clemson, USC, Wisconsin and Louisville that he shows against opponents like Navy, Bowling Green and Boston College he can facilitate an offense that has the talent and potential to be one of the nation’s best.

ABUNDANCE OF SKILL PLAYERS IN THE PASS GAME

Notre Dame doesn’t return a great deal of proven experience, at least from the standpoint there is no one on the roster that has proven he can be “the guy.”

But what the offense does return is arguably the deepest and most athletic group of pass catchers Notre Dame has had in a very long time. There is also a decent amount of experience coming back, although most of that experience came in 2019.

Notre Dame returns a combined 102 catches, 1,348 yards and 13 touchdowns to its roster. When you include Northwestern grad transfer Bennett Skowronek the Irish offense returns 212 career catches for 2,765 yards and 21 touchdowns.

There is size, there is speed, there is vertical ability, there are one-on-one standouts, there are players that can do damage after the catch. There is no excuse for Notre Dame not to have a dynamic passing game in 2020 when you consider what returns up front, at quarterback and with the deep and athletic group of pass catchers.

SCHEDULE SETS UP NICELY

Notre Dame will face a number of talented defenses in 2020, but overall the schedule isn’t filled with a lot of proven and talented defenses. Clemson will be very good and Pittsburgh should also be strong on defense.

Wisconsin had the 9th ranked defense in the country from an efficiency standpoint in 2019, but they must replace their two best defenders, by far. But the Badgers should still be quite good.

After that there’s a bit of a drop off.

Notre Dame plays five teams that ranked between No. 78 and No. 110 in defensive efficiency last season. Notre Dame faces seven opponents that ranked outside of the Top 50 in defensive efficiency and another (Navy) was ranked 48th.

AREAS OF CONCERN

FIRST-YEAR COORDINATOR MUST GROW UP QUICKLY

Notre Dame has the talent to have one of the nation’s best offenses in 2019, of that there should be little doubt. The man in charge of taking that talent and turning it into production is first-year coordinator Tommy Rees.

The opportunity in front of Notre Dame is such that Rees can’t afford to have growing pains, especially in the big games. Kelly hired former Rutgers offensive coordinator and long-time NFL assistant John McNulty, who gives another veteran mind to help Rees along. Run-game coordinator Lance Taylor could also be a big influence on the offense in 2020.

If Kelly is right and Rees is the anomaly the Irish will be outstanding on offense this season.

OFFENSE MUST “WANT” TO RUN THE BALL MORE

Kelly has made a number of head scratching comments regarding his run game, including a comment about his team being able to “run the ball when we want to.” Last season the Irish rushed for just 179 yards and combined for just 93 yards on the ground in the two losses.

If you go back at Notre Dame’s three losses in the last two seasons, the offense averaged just 60.3 rushing yards per game. That’s just not good enough if you want to be an offense that competes for titles.

Over the last two years the run game hasn’t been close to good enough to be part of a championship caliber offense, and you can see the numbers for yourself HERE.

Simply put, if Notre Dame wants to be an elite offense it needs to “want” to run the ball far more effectively, especially in the big games against the best opponents.

BACKS MUST STEP UP

Part of that will be a largely unproven group of running backs stepping up. Notre Dame will have five scholarship running backs on the roster next season, and the Irish need at least two of them to emerge as legitimate factors in the offense.

Figuring out a way to get incoming freshman Chris Tyree involved in the offense needs to be a top priority for the staff, but Tyree won’t be a featured back in year one. That means the veterans must enhance their game and at least two players need to seize hold of their fall opportunity and force their way onto the field.

The returning experience and talent up front combines with the explosive ability outside to take a lot of the pressure off the backs. They need to play hard, be efficient and limit mistakes. If they do that there’s enough ability there to do damage on the ground, which will force defenses to pay them respect.

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