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We begin our offseason breakdown of the 2017 season with the offense. To start, we are going to take a look at Notre Dame's offensive personnel groupings, formations and backfield alignments from the offense, which was in coordinator Chip Long's first season.

Let's begin by looking at Notre Dame's personnel usage.

The numbers for the personnel groupings determine how many players at certain positions are on the field. Assume there is always five offensive linemen and one quarterback on the field. That means there are five other skill players that will include running backs, wide receivers and/or tight ends.

The first number refers to how many running backs in the grouping and the second number is how many tight ends are on the field. The number of receivers will be however many spots there are down from five.

For example, in 11 personnel there will be 1 running back, 1 tight end and 3 wide receivers

In 21 personnel there will be 2 running backs, 1 tight end and 2 wide receivers.

These numbers are a dramatic shift from what we saw the previous two seasons, which were dominated by the 11 personnel grouping. Notre Dame was in 11 personnel almost 90 percent of the time during that span.

Not surprisingly with Long - who is also the team's tight ends coach - the Irish were in two tight ends or more 37.2 percent of the time this season. It was in one tight end personnel 62.8 percent of the time.

This personnel diversity made it harder for opponents to get a read on what Notre Dame would do from week to week, especially in the run game. Long did a good job for most of the season mixing up which personnel groupings would carry the day in each game, and within each personnel grouping he did a good job mixing up the formations and variations of formations that were used each week.

The only time Notre Dame was heavy with its one tight end personnel was later in the season when backup tight end Alizé Mack was banged up. Mack missed all of the NC State game and all but one play of the Stanford game. In those two games Notre Dame was in a one tight end personnel grouping 70.3 percent of the time and a multiple tight end set just 29.7 percent of the time.

In Notre Dame's other 11 games it was in a one tight end grouping 61.2 percent of the time and a multiple tight end grouping 38.8 percent of the time.

Notre Dame showed good run-pass balance out of all its personnel groupings as well. The Irish weren't unnecessarily run dominant in its multiple tight end sets and it wasn't unnecessarily pass heavy in the one tight end sets.

Notre Dame ran the ball 59.3 percent of the time from its multiple tight end alignments and passed 40.7 percent of the time.

Notre Dame passed the ball 51.8 percent of the time from its one tight end alignments and ran the ball 48.2 percent of the time.

Below are what each personnel grouping looks like, beginning with the groupings that have one or no tight ends.

11 personnel remained Notre Dame's top grouping, but it was used far less frequently than previous seasons, which was discussed above.

In this grouping Notre Dame has one back, one tight end and three receivers. Notre Dame ran the ball more out of this grouping than it had in past seasons.

There are a number of formations that Notre Dame can use from this, and most of them are designed to spread the field. Occasionally Notre Dame would tighten the alignment (also called bunch) in order to gain some advantage, but more often than not the Irish 11 personnel was used to space things out.

Notre Dame used a lot more two-back formations this season. It used two-back groupings on 68 snaps in 2017, compared to just 11 snaps in this grouping in 2015.

The most used two-back alignment is the 21 personnel group, which has two backs, one tight end and two receivers. In this clip you see both backs in the backfield, but often Long would line sophomore Tony Jones Jr. outside in a receiver alignment.

At times Jones would stay outside and other times he would then motion into the backfield to get a look like we see above.

Notre Dame's other two-back alignment is its 20 personnel, which has no tight ends and three receivers on the field. In this grouping Notre Dame will often put the second back outside of the box, like you see above.

This grouping allows Notre Dame to get more speed on the field.

Next lets look at Notre Dame's multiple tight end groupings.

Notre Dame's second most used personnel grouping this season was its 12 personnel group that had one back, two tight ends and two receivers on the field. The Irish offense was in this grouping 34.3 percent of the time this season.

In the clip above you see both tight ends lined up on or near the line, but when Mack was in the game Notre Dame would often put him outside in the slot, which created a bit more spacing.

Notre Dame used its 13 and 14 personnel primarily in its short yardage and goal line situations. 13 personnel meant there was one back, three tight ends and one receivers.

In the 14 personnel (below) the one receiver would come out and a fourth tight end would come in the game.

Freshman tight end Brock Wright served as the fullback in these groupings.

Notre Dame used a number of different formations within each personnel grouping. We saw Notre Dame use a wider variety of formations this season, which made the offense more effective.

It would take far more time to describe the diversity of Notre Dame's formations, but this graph gives a simplified snap shot. Notre Dame had eight different formations it used outside of the goal line more than 40 times. It used a power look from 14 personnel near the goal line.

Within each formation there are variations that present different looks for the defense and force it to defend Notre Dame differently.

Notre Dame's most often used formation is the Trey formation, which is a 3x1 alignment where the tight end is attached to the line of scrimmage. It will have two receivers outside of the tight end to that side and will have one player backside.

The two personnel groupings most often used for this formation are 11 and 12. In the screenshot above Notre Dame is in 11 personnel. It also aligned the second tight end (H) in the slot where the Z is lined up when it called this formation from 12 personnel.

At time Notre Dame would have both tight ends attached, one to a side, and the two receivers would both go to the strongside of the formation.

The single receiver to the backside often resulted in that receiver getting one-on-one matchups. Both of Notre Dame's late game long throws to Miles Boykin against LSU were out of the Trey formation, and Boykin got one-on-one backside both times.

Notre Dame’s most often used 2x2 formation is the Deuce formation, which attaches the tight end to the backside of the alignment. The two personnel groupings most often used with this formation are 11 and 12.

The clip above shows it out of 11 personnel, but the second tight end will also replace the Z or W, depending on the call, when it lines up in Deuce out of 12 personnel.

Notre Dame mixed up runs to and away from the tight end out of Deuce. When it runs away from the tight end it uses the tight end to secure the backside or to lead the quarterback on keeps to his side. It will use the two receivers for screens or quick throws to protect the backside on runs to the tight end.

The Doubles formation is the second most used 2x2 alignment, and it is primarily run out of the 11 personnel grouping, although 12 will also be used. This alignment allows Notre Dame to spread the defense out a bit more, which opened up several big runs this season when defenses would vacate the box.

Notre Dame would often motion the tight end around in order to get him into good blocking angles for the run game, but it would also call read zone runs that allowed Notre Dame to get numbers advantages in the box.

Notre Dame’s second most used 3x1 formation is the Trips look. It is largely an 11 personnel formation, although it will occasionally call it out of 12 personnel. Notre Dame would use this formation similar to how it used doubles, but it gave the defense a completely different look to start. It would move the tight end around, but also used it to gain numbers or leverage advantages to the trips side.

It also created one-on-one opportunities to the backside, much like it did in Trey.

When it used 12 personnel Notre Dame would often line up in a bunch formation, which you can see below.

Notre Dame’s Twins formation was used primarily out of 12 personnel but also occasionally used it out of 21 personnel, lining up both backs in the backfield.

The second tight end (H) would move all over this formation, depending on the call. Here he is lined up in a wing alignment, but he would be inside the box to the strongside or weakside, which gave unique blocking angles

The Duo formation is similar to Twins, but it would obviously spread teams out a bit more. The tight end in 11 personnel and the second tight end in 12 personnel would line up in the box for the same reasons he moved around in the Twins formation.

Depending on how the tight end lined up this formation was also used to in similar fashion to the Trey and Deuce formations, but with the tight end off the line it allows him to move around more and block at different angles.

This is a 3x1 formation with the tight end backside. Notre Dame likes to use this formation to run its screen game and read zone concepts. The three receivers side was primarily used to run screen or quick game routes on the backside of the run concepts.

Notre Dame would occasionally bunch these three receivers down and it would also motion the W receiver to the backside, ending up in a Deuce look.

This is the primary 2x2 alignment out of 12 personnel. The advantage of this alignment is it evenly spaces out the offense, forcing the defense to decide whether it wants to balance out its own look or play one side as the strength.

Being balanced like this with a tight end to either side, Notre Dame could then react accordingly with a simple run game check to a tight end but away from the side the defense treats as the strength.

At times Notre Dame would line up the second tight end in a wing formation, which allowed him to move around pre-snap to gain a numbers or leverage advantage to the motion side.

Empty is self-explanatory, it empties out the backfield other than the quarterback.

Notre Dame used this a lot less under Long than it did in the previous system. The Irish lined up in an empty look 63 times in 2015 but just 18 times in 2017.

When the term "wing" is used it refers to a tight end (or second tight end) lining up off the ball and just outside the tackle or other tight end.

The Over tag refers to the tight end going “over” to the other side of the formation. It creates an unbalanced or overloaded side, which gives Notre Dame a numbers advantage.

Here Notre Dame is lined up in a Trio formation but the Over tag causes the tight end to go to the Trio side instead of being on the backside like normal.

Notre Dame will line its running backs up in a variety of ways. It will use one of two offset alignments, the Pistol look, it will use a split backfield and it will even put the running back in an I formation with the QB under center.

Offset - 613 snaps
Pistol - 177 snaps
I - 79 snaps
Split - 25 snaps

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