Film Room: Breaking Down Notre Dame's Ideal Receiving Corps
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chip Long and wide receivers coach DelVaughn Alexander have impressed me the last two seasons with their ability to build their receiving corps around the specific skillset of the wide receivers and the quarterback who is throwing them the ball.
When you pop in the film you see a big difference between the 2017 and 2018 pass offense in regards to routes emphasized with the various positions and how they lined up the wideouts.
Let’s start by showing Notre Dame’s primary offensive personnel group and the base way the wideouts line up:
The three primary wide receiver spots are the W, the X and the Z. They line up field/boundary in most instances. Field refers to the wide side of the field and the boundary refers to the short side, which is shown above.
The W receiver primarily goes to the boundary while the X and Z receivers primarily go to the field. This isn’t always the case, but it is how they line up the vast majority of the snaps.
Despite the ability of Long and Alexander to tailor the offense to the wideouts they’ve had, that doesn’t mean they don’t have an ideal skillset at the various positions, and the various positions require somewhat unique skills. At the very least the different positions need certain skills to shine more at one spot compared to another.
With their first recruiting class pushing for more action this spring and the staff working on building their third full haul, let’s take a look at what the ideal skillsets are for each position, and players that best fit those positions.
IDEAL TRAITS - ALL SPOTS
One thing to keep in mind is that Long and Alexander are absolutely set on playing the best players. If the depth chart is such that the projected number one X or W isn’t one of the three best receivers they will move players around and get their best players on the field, so that must always be remembered, and we saw that the last two seasons.
There are also traits that Long and Alexander desire at wide receiver regardless of the specific position fit. Here are those traits that they desire for each spot:
--- Speed – This isn’t a must and we’ve seen the staff pursue players who aren’t burners, but it’s a skillset that is preferred at every spot.
--- Playmaking Skills – When running an RPO offense the ball will get out to every receiver position, and the staff desires a player at every spot that can make plays with the ball in their hands. That might have been the skillet most sorely lacking in the starting lineup in 2018.
--- Top-Notch Ball Skills – Tracking the ball down the field and making contested grabs is a must at every position.
--- Versatility – While they want certain traits at each position, when recruiting the staff prefers wideouts that can play multiple spots.
--- Length – This is at the bottom of the priority list, and if a player shines in the first three areas they will look past a lack of length, but in a perfect world the staff wants players that have the first three traits and also bring length to the game. But as we see with Frankfort (Ill.) Lincoln Way East athlete AJ Henning in the 2020 class and both Braden Lenzy and Lawrence Keys III in the 2018 class, if a guy lacks length but brings speed and playmaking ability they will gladly push for him.
Now let’s look at the three positions.
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