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How Brian Kelly feels about Notre Dame’s continued offensive line concerns

This isn't an easy fix.

Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn can't snap his fingers and have his unit play better. It doesn't work like that. Quinn knows it. Head coach Brian Kelly knows it. And Kelly knows where Quinn is mentally with the ever-exasperating level of play of the Notre Dame offensive line.

"I've known Jeff for over 30 years," Kelly said. "There's nothing that I don't know about Jeff. He takes it harder than anybody else. He's got to keep working with his group like he has every day. We got to get our best players playing their best. We'll keep coaching them."

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The players themselves aren't oblivious to the narrative that has been assigned to them via outsiders who watch Notre Dame every Saturday and have been able to see that this year's Fighting Irish offensive line isn't as dominant as those in years past by any stretch.

"I don't think we need other people to tell us that we can be better," graduate student right tackle Josh Lugg said. "We watch the film ourselves. We always understand that everything we do we could be better at."

The question is, how much better? Notre Dame has completed one-third of its regular season. How much can truly change in the final two-thirds? Again — this isn't as simple as snapping fingers or flipping a light switch. The sample size is substantial enough to put a label on what this Irish offensive line is.

Kelly himself might have done so without fully meaning to.

"We are who we are," Kelly said in reference to the offensive line.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football head coach Brian Kelly
Kelly and the Fighting Irish have issues on the offensive line, surrendering 21 sacks through four games. (Chad Weaver/BGI)

Does that mean Notre Dame is the team that has given up more sacks (20.0) than every team in the nation except for one? Does that mean Notre Dame is the team that has rushed for fewer yards per game (80.0) than every team in the nation except for seven?

No, that's not what Kelly meant when he said what he did. Like any head coach, he expects those numbers to improve and most likely firmly believes that they will. But there might be more truth to what he uttered in those five words than he'd like to admit.

A full solution savior isn't walking through the doors at the Gug this fall. Notre Dame has what it has personnel-wise. Don't like the way graduate student Cain Madden has played at right guard? Well, there's a reason he hasn't lost playing time yet. Freshman Rocco Spindler and senior John Dirksen clearly aren't viewed as better options by the coaching staff if they haven't been given the opportunity to replace Madden.

Think junior Zeke Correll isn't fit to start at left guard? Junior Andrew Kristofic has graded worse (53.3) in his 33 offensive snaps than Correll (58.2) in his 259 offensive snaps according to Pro Football Focus.

Of course, there's been the problem of starting a third-string left tackle. Sophomore Tosh Baker played a huge role in Notre Dame allowing six sacks to Wisconsin. Kelly said he's hopeful sophomore Michael Carmody will be back from his ankle sprain to start at left tackle against No. 7 Cincinnati on Saturday, but there's more to bettering the discouraging sack totals and turning around the bleak rushing output than upgrading from a third- to second-teamer at that position.

This Notre Dame team, despite its 4-0 record and consensus top-10 ranking in the Associated Press Poll (No. 9) and Coaches Poll (No. 7), has serious issues on the offensive side of the ball. Kelly is not naive to them. But he is not giving up on correcting them either.

“From a production standpoint, it's everybody,” Kelly said. “It’s the quarterback. It’s our tight ends. Everybody has got to be on the same page. ... The O-line is always going to get the scrutiny, and that was kind of my point. But this isn’t just, ‘Let’s throw the O-line under the bus.’ Everybody has got to pitch in here. Coaching, players — we’ve all got to get better, and we're committed to doing that.”

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