Notre Dame (5-1) kicks off the second half of its schedule on Saturday when the #11 ranked Southern Cal Trojans (6-1) come to town.
The Irish ground game has fueled the offense through six games, averaging 308 yards per game. Part of building the offense and improving the offense is diving into the numbers and finding out what areas are strong and where improvements can be made.
NOTE: The overall numbers won’t match the official statistics. Any run that isn’t impacted by an offensive penalty (like holding) is counted when evaluating a plays success. Plays where the offense takes a knee at the end of a half or game are not included.
Let’s begin with the overall breakdown of the ground game:
A few things stand out about these numbers. First, it is obvious the impact the quarterback runs from the pass game have had on the overall run game. Brandon Wimbush had 15 scrambles for 222 yards (14.8 average) and three touchdowns while Ian Book had 6 scrambles for 41 yards (6.8 average).
The ability for the quarterbacks to scramble – combined with sacks – neutralizes the impact the pass game can have on the overall run game numbers. Notre Dame’s scrambles and sacks accounted for a 6.9 per play average while the called runs also accounted for 6.9 yards per play.
Keep in mind that Notre Dame’s 32-yard gain on the fake punt against Miami (Ohio) is not included in these totals. All the numbers in these breakdowns are called runs with the offense.
The directional run balance in Chip Long's offense has also been impressive. It would be understandable if Long wanted to design the majority of his ground game behind his elite left side of Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson, but Long has rightfully tried to balance out his play calls as much as possible.
Notre Dame has been more effective running to the left (7.6 per rush) but at 5.8 yards per rush the right side of the line has still been quite good. Consider that Notre Dame's potent 2015 offense averaged just 5.6 yards per rush overall and its 2012 offense averaged just 4.9 yards per rush overall.
Early in the season the Irish had a heavy boundary run option, but the numbers ended up around 60 percent boundary and 40 percent field through six games, which is a good ratio that limits teams from predicting where the ball is going to go.
A look at how Notre Dame’s run game shakes out by personnel groups:
A personnel group refers to the specific skill players that are one the field. A formation with one back, two receivers and two tight ends is a different personnel group from a formation with one back, three receivers and one tight end.
Notre Dame has primarily used 11 and 12 personnel groupings this season. When looking at personnel grouping numbers, remember that the first number is always the number of running backs on the field and the second number is the number of tight ends on the field. The number of receivers aren’t listed, but if you subtract the number of backs + tight ends from five (how many skill players teams have on the field at a time) you get the number of receivers.
To look at examples of Notre Dame's personnel groupings CLICK HERE to see the breakdown that was done after four games.
Notre Dame's 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end, 3 receivers) continues to be the top grouping used, with the Irish running 52.3 percent of its run plays from it. The 12 personnel group (1 running back, 2 tight ends, 2 receivers) has been used 40.4 percent of the time.
In past seasons the 11 personnel number was closer to 80 percent, so this is yet another example of good balance in the run game. The pass game numbers are similarly balanced, so there is no run-pass tendencies from these alignment.
When all of Notre Dame's multiple tight end alignments are taken into account the Irish offense has more than one tight end on the field 45.1 percent of the time.
Notre Dame averaged 7.2 yards per rush out of its 11 personnel and 6.6 yards out of its 12 personnel, so it has been clearly effective in both groups.
A look at how Notre Dame's offense has faired based on its backfield alignments.
The article discussed above, which you can again read HERE, shows the different backfield alignments.
Notre Dame will line its running backs up in an offset alignment (the back to either side of the quarterback in a shotgun formation), in a pistol alignment (the back directly behind the quarterback in a shotgun formation) and in the I formation with the quarterback under center and the back directly behind him.
Notre Dame’s most-used backfield alignment is with the backs in an offset look (63.4 percent). It has also been Notre Dame’s most effective alignment, averaging 7.6 yards per play, and all of Notre Dame’s runs of 60 or more yards have come from an offset alignment.
Notre Dame has been more efficient from the pistol (fewer negatives, fewer runs of 2 yards or less) but it has not been as explosive.
Notre Dame’s under center numbers are understandably lower, as it is primarily a short yardage situation. Notre Dame did rip off a 59-yard touchdown run from under center against Miami (Ohio).
In the next breakdown we will look at how each back and quarterback has performed this season in the run game.
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