Opportunity Awaits Jeff Quinn And The Notre Dame Line

Line coach Jeff Quinn has an opportunity to silence critics by having a big year on and off the field.

Notre Dame needs to go into the 2020 season thinking about winning a national championship. Shouldn’t that be the expectation at this point? Brian Kelly enters his 11th season as the head coach at Notre Dame, and the Irish have gone 33-6 the last three years.

Kelly wasn’t hired to be really good, he was hired to restore Notre Dame to its championship form. The program is much, much closer to that today than it was when he was hired. Kelly and Notre Dame are light years beyond the program he inherited.

But Notre Dame has come up short in the games that have mattered throughout his tenure, and a championship still eludes him, but that is something the Irish should look to change in 2020.

The key to Notre Dame winning a title is for the offensive line to play at an elite level, but the Irish line hasn’t come close to playing that caliber football the last two seasons. In my analysis much of the blame for that is on line coach Jeff Quinn.

Quinn has been nothing but first-class in every interaction I’ve had with him, and every person I speak with inside the program says nothing but great things about him as a man. He’s personable, he’s engaging and he’s been extremely loyal to Kelly the last three decades.

But when it comes to developing the offensive line the last two seasons, Quinn has come up short. My criticism of him as a coach has been sharp and to the point, he’s simply not getting the job done.

But here we are, Notre Dame is looking to finally get over the hump, and Quinn holds the ultimate key to Notre Dame having the kind of offense it needs to compete for a title. 

On and off the field, the next calendar year is a tremendous opportunity for Quinn to establish himself as a top coach, and it is an opportunity for the Irish line coach to make my criticism of him the last two seasons look mighty foolish.

EXPERIENCE + TALENT SHOULD = ELITE PRODUCTION

There have been a lot of “reasons” provided in an attempt to explain why Notre Dame's line play has not been up to standard the last two seasons. Injuries and inexperience are the primary “reasons” provided by Kelly for the lack of success. But in the next breath Kelly will then contend that his team could “run the ball when needed.”

But the fact of the matter is Notre Dame has not been good enough running the ball the last two seasons, especially in big games, and if the Irish want to compete for a title it needs to run the ball when it wants to, and it needs to want to run the ball a lot more than it has the last two seasons.

All the pieces are in place for the Irish to have a line capable of leading that kind of ground game.

There can be no experience excuses in 2020. Notre Dame returns all five starters from its 2019 line, and it returns 114 career starts. All five expected starters have at least 13 career starts.

Left tackle Liam Eichenberg and right guard Tommy Kraemer both have 26 career starts, right tackle Robert Hainsey has 25 career starts, left guard Aaron Banks has 19 career starts and center Jarrett Patterson started all 13 games in 2019.

When Hainsey went down with a season ending leg injury, then sophomore Joshua Lugg was thrust into the starting lineup. He now returns with five career starts under his belt, giving the line six players with starting experience.

Returning experience doesn’t always mean you’ll be effective. Experience without talent doesn’t equal great production. Quantifying talent in this kind of article can be a challenge. I can tell you that film analysis of the team the last two seasons shows top talent, but the results don’t back that up.

That is where the discussion about the job Quinn has done the last two seasons can go in different directions. If you believe the Irish have talent you’ll be disappointed by the recent performance. If you believe the Irish lack the talent of other top programs then you probably will be more willing to accept the substandard results.

I believe Notre Dame has the talent and depth to have one of the top four or five lines in the country. The film shows that, and the recruiting rankings also show that. Recruiting rankings are certainly not the end all, and I’ve made that case a number of times. But Notre Dame has landed its top targets for much of the last five years, and unless both the Irish staff and all the recruiting services are way off, there is plenty of talent on the roster.

Kraemer was a five-star recruit and the No. 26 player in the country according to the 247Sports composite rankings. Eichenberg (No. 80) and Hainsey (No. 84) were both Top 100 recruits, and Banks was ranked No. 166. Patterson was graded as a four-star recruit and Lugg was ranked as the No. 120 player in the country.

On the bench, the vaunted 2019 class returns with a year of experience in the system. Center Zeke Correll was ranked as the No. 95 player in the country, offensive tackle Quinn Carroll was ranked No. 118, offensive tackle Andrew Kristofic was ranked No. 183 and guard John Olmstead was ranked No. 185.

Notre Dame also welcomes offensive tackle Tosh Baker (No. 99) and offensive tackle Michael Carmody (No. 145) this summer.

That is five Top 100 recruits and 11 Top 200 recruits on the roster, and nine have at least one year of experience under their belt. 

There is more than enough talent on the roster to put together one of the nation’s best lines. If you think my judgment might be misguided, consider that Pro Football Focus ranks four of Notre Dame’s five returning starters among the Top 30 returning blockers in the country next season. No other team in college football can match that, and only three programs had more than one (Kentucky, BYU, Air Force).

Coach Quinn will certainly have a lot of weapons to work with as he looks to prove me wrong, and if we’re being honest, I would enjoy breaking down that film week after week.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Quinn did a fine job developing the pass blocking by his line. According to Pro Football Focus, the Irish line allowed 21 fewer pressures in 2019 than it did in 2018, although it allowed the same number of sacks/hits on the quarterback (17).

At times in 2018 the Irish line struggled to handle twists and stunts in the pass game, but in 2019 the line showed much better cohesion, which must be attributed to a group that is better prepared and coached. Quinn deserves credit for that, and success in 2020 will be continuing to build on what the line achieved last fall in pass pro.

But success at Notre Dame isn’t about being good in one area, and the Irish must become a far more effective running team. Notre Dame had solid overall numbers on the ground this past season, averaging 179.0 yards per game while ranking 29th nationally at 4.92 yards per carry.

The problem is the Irish feasted on inferior competition, but when the competition was tougher the run game struggled mightily. Over the last two seasons, Notre Dame has rushed for just 110.1 rushing yards per game against the seven opponents that ranked in the Top 40 in rush defense, averaging just under 3.5 yards per carry.

Numbers like that will not be good enough and do not stack up against offenses trying to compete for a title. You can read more about that analysis HERE.

Success for Notre Dame in 2020 will be thriving in pass pro, but also providing the offense with a dominant rushing attack.

That means being more physical at the point of attack and moving defenders off the line instead of catching, something the line struggled with in 2019.

That means being able to open up room to run in “must have” downs like short-yardage situations on third and fourth down.

That means being able to run the ball well enough against the better opponents on the schedule to keep them honest, taking pressure off quarterback Ian Book and the pass game.

That means being better prepared to handle run stunts and line games.

That means not having to rely on quarterback scrambles and jet sweeps to pad the rushing numbers.

OPPORTUNITY FOR AN EPIC RECRUITING CLASS

Former line coach Harry Hiestand landed some outstanding recruiting classes during his six seasons at Notre Dame. But as good as classes like 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 were, Notre Dame has a chance to put together a 2021 recruiting class that could be the best yet.

Notre Dame already has a commitment from Avon (Ind.) High School offensive tackle Blake Fisher, who Rivals ranks as the No. 18 player in the entire country. That’s a great foundation to build around, but a lot more is needed.

It’s an outstanding season for prep linemen, and Quinn has put the Irish in the mix with a number of other elite offensive linemen. Notre Dame is expected to host no fewer than five Top 100 offensive linemen the weekend of March 22nd. There are other top linemen that Quinn is pushing to get on campus.

Fisher will be one of the linemen in attendance, but if Quinn can add at least two more prospects from that weekend he’ll have a chance to put together one of the nation’s best line classes. If he can finish with more than that this offensive line class could be truly epic.

With the potential for success on the field this season, and the opportunity that awaits Notre Dame on the recruiting trail, Coach Quinn has a chance to not only silence critics such as myself, but he has a chance to emerge as one of the nation’s premier line coaches.

That is what is needed to push Notre Dame past its final obstacle.