Friday Five: Opening the door for offensive line experimentation
I wrote last week Notre Dame’s offensive line situation requires patience before a shakeup.
Then Saturday happened.
In a 32-29 win over Toledo, Notre Dame struggled to block a Mid-American Conference front seven for large parts of the game.
Furthermore, Irish junior running back Kyren Williams has been hit at the line of scrimmage on 67.6 percent of his carries this year, tops among Football Bowl Subdivision players with at least 25 rushes. Sophomore No. 2 back Chris Tyree (57.1 percent) would rank 10th if he had enough carries. Save for a few fleeting moments, they haven’t received adequate blocking.
One wonders if head coach Brian Kelly and Notre Dame’s staff feel it is time to explore other lineups. Sure enough, Kelly said Notre Dame will rotate players on the interior offensive line Saturday against Purdue. That’s not exactly shuffling, but it qualifies as experimenting.
Guards Cain Madden and Zeke Correll need in-game rest, he said. Junior Andrew Kristofic will be the first player in for them, Kelly said. Freshman Rocco Spindler would be next, followed by senior John Dirksen.
Madden and Correll have also had bumpy starts to the season. Notre Dame’s offensive line troubles warrant an in-game look at other options. Perhaps the front five will be a liability all season, but if so, there shouldn’t be many unexplored potential fixes. (A Jarrett Patterson move to tackle is an exception).
If there’s a good time to tinker with the offensive line, this weekend’s game against Purdue fits. Boilermakers All-American defensive end George Karlaftis is a load to handle, but this week is best for exploring solutions because:
• Even with Karlaftis, Purdue had just one sack (by a linebacker) and nine tackles for loss in games against Oregon State and UConn. Karlaftis has 11 quarterback pressures, and defensive tackle Branson Deen has nine, but no one else has more than three.
• The upcoming games against Wisconsin, Cincinnati and Virginia Tech’s defenses are even less friendly situations for an offensive lineman’s first taste of high-leverage action.
Notre Dame might find its current starting five (minus injured left tackle Blake Fisher) is still its best bet. But when Toledo’s defensive front proves difficult to handle, optimism for significant in-season growth takes a hit. And experimentation is easier to justify.
2. Jack Coan’s role in pass protection
I’m not going to say the offensive line has pass protected well. The eye test doesn’t lie. But Coan’s pressure-to-sack percentage makes it look a little worse. It’s one drawback of his limited mobility.
Coan has been pressured on 31.3 percent of his dropbacks, per Pro Football Focus. Ten of those have turned into sacks, and another was a scramble for zero yards PFF counts as a sack. That’s 42.3 percent, the second-worst pressure-to-sack rate among FBS quarterbacks with at least 15 dropbacks under pressure.
Coan requires strong protection to operate at his best, but he also must feel pressure better than he has through two games. In 2019, Coan was sacked on 23.1 percent of his dropbacks under pressure. That still ranked 17th-worst out of 102 quarterbacks, but it’s an appreciable difference from his current rate. Lowering that 2021 figure closer to 2019 levels would help the whole offense.
(Bonus stat: Ian Book, at 8.4 percent, had the lowest 2019 sack-to-pressure rate among those 102 quarterbacks).
3. Rylie Mills and Jayson Ademilola
If you asked me at the end of fall camp to guess the snap count for sophomore defensive tackle Rylie Mills through two weeks, I would’ve said 40. His dominant outing in one practice open to reporters was not a camp outlier. It was hard to think he wouldn’t be a consistent presence, even if he didn’t start.
His 25 snaps so far this year is well below my estimate, and likely everyone else’s. He has produced two pressures and one sack in that time.
The thing is, the man in front of him has been just as effective. Starting senior three-technique defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola is second on the team in pressures (seven) and one of six Irish players with double-digit tackles. He’s in a three-way tie for second in “splash plays” (sacks, tackles for loss, pass breakups, interceptions, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries, third/fourth-down stops and goal-line tackles).
The explosive plays Notre Dame’s defense has allowed grab attention, and rightfully so considering their role in two claustrophobic victories. The defense has, though, still created consistent havoc, save for the last 20 minutes of regulation against Florida State.
Right now, the Irish’s havoc-generating ability is keeping the damage at bay. The defense can’t afford to be without its most disruptive players for too long. Ademilola has been one. He’s averaging 52.5 snaps through two games. That’s way higher than normal for Notre Dame’s starting interior linemen. Perhaps too high. Mills can be disruptive too – and ease the load on Ademilola.
(Another bonus stat: junior linebacker JD Bertrand is the leader in splash plays, with seven).
4. Deep passing
Notre Dame’s ability to generate a deep passing attack was at the forefront of offseason discussion.
Yet it’s on the back burner now, thanks to the offensive line concerns and allowing too many explosive plays on defense.
Those downfield questions appear to be answered. Senior wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. has seven targets on passes that traveled at least 20 yards downfield. He’s more than halfway to 2020 leading receiver Javon McKinley’s downfield target total of 13 and has matched Ben Skowronek’s seven such targets from last year.
Of course, there are more aspects to vertical success than receivers, but that position was not Notre Dame’s strength in 2020.
Offensive line problems are a hinderance to throwing deep, though.
In response, Notre Dame might have to lean further into play action throws as a source of deep completions. Per Pro Football Focus, Coan is 11-of-18 passing for 180 yards with one touchdown on play action this year. The touchdown was the 37-yarder to Austin at Florida State that came on a third-and-one play. Notre Dame lined up with three tight ends, faked a handoff and tossed to Austin, who was the only player running a route.
“Jack is really good at pushing the ball vertically,” Kelly said. “A lot of the play-action passes for us have been pushing the ball down the field.”
5. Kick returns
Notre Dame has one kick return for 19 yards and one punt return for 4 yards. That’s with Tyree and Williams as the kick and punt returners, respectively.
In the opener at Florida State, Tyree fair-caught two kickoffs that looked returnable, including one at the end of regulation after the Seminoles tied the score at 38. Kelly was asked about the kick return game (or lack thereof) Thursday and offered a perspective I didn’t consider during the games.
“We lost some key return men to injury, so I chose to fair-catch those balls in lieu of not taking anything less than the 25-yard line on the fair catch,” Kelly said. “We want to continue to work toward being a better return team.
“Once we are able to develop the new personnel on this group, we’ll feel a lot better about our chances to be a real solid unit.”
Kelly is referring to Tyree’s blockers. Three players on the field for Notre Dame’s first kick return at Florida State — senior linebacker Shayne Simon, sophomore tight end Kevin Bauman and senior linebacker Paul Moala — suffered significant injuries that game. Bertrand was out there too, but not against Toledo. He is an indispensable piece at a suddenly thin position, so risking a special-teams injury isn’t wise.
Notre Dame’s kick return unit had the same 11 players against Toledo, but three were freshmen in their first college game: safety Justin Walters, running back Audric Estime and defensive end Kahanu Kia. We’ll see if Kelly wants to burn their redshirts for special-teams use.
In that context, it’s understandable why Kelly doesn’t fully trust the blocking yet.
I’m not sure that’s a strong enough reason to shut down returns to this level of scarcity, though. At some point soon, Tyree needs freedom to use his open-field ability, especially if shaky run blocking continues to cap his impact on offense.
(Bonus stat No. 3: None of junior Jay Bramblett’s nine punts have been returned).
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