SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Are they ready for their close-up?
Notre Dame’s offensive line decidedly wasn’t that last time the Irish faced Ohio State — in the 2022 season opener in Columbus, Ohio — a 21-10 come-from-ahead loss for Notre Dame and OSU alum Marcus Freeman in his regular-season head-coaching debut.
Eighteen games later, with a couple of new pieces, the Irish O-line finds itself angling for redemption as a central storyline in just the sixth visit from a Top 10 team to Notre Dame Stadium since the epic Bush Push loss to No. 1 USC in 2005.
“I’ve been extremely pleased with the play of our offensive line,” Freeman said on his weekly Thursday Zoom call with the media ahead of Saturday night’s clash (7:30 EDT; NBC) between the ninth-ranked Irish (4-0) and No. 6 Ohio State (3-0).
“I know we had high expectations coming into the season, but I think they’ve really done a good job of gelling as a unit. You’ve got two guys on the inside, between Pat [Coogan] and Rocco [Spindler], who were first-time starters four games ago, who have continuously grown.”
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They’ll all likely have to perpetuate that growth and have it show up prominently Saturday night for the Irish to end a five-game losing streak to the Buckeyes in the eighth-ever meeting between the two schools and the fifth straight in which both are top 10 teams.
In the last meeting — Sept. 3, 2022 — the Notre Dame offensive line helped produce the worst Irish pass-blocking grade (53.4) from Pro Football Focus of that regular season and including the first four games of this one. The run blocking was even worse. The 50.4 grade is the second-worst run-blocking grade (50.4) given to ND since PFF started its college film grades in 2014.
ND rushed for just 76 yards on 30 carries (2.5 yards per carry) in that game, and surrendered three sacks, but was missing then-fourth-year O-line starter Jarrett Patterson due to injury.
PFF’s blocking grades also factor in blocking from position groups outside of the offensive line. The top individual Irish pass-blocker in that game was a tight end, Kevin Bauman. The top run blocker was 182-pound wide receiver Braden Lenzy.
The last time the Irish front was manhandled to that degree was the last time two Top 10 teams met in Notre Dame Stadium, a 24-13 Irish setback to Cincinnati in Brian Kelly’s 12th and final season (2021) as head coach of the Irish (49.6 grade for both run blocking and pass blocking).
The film test has probably been kinder to the Irish offensive line than the eye test this season. All-America left tackle Joe Alt continues to look that part, and right tackle Blake Fisher has concocted stretches of dominance.
But the two newcomers at guard, Coogan and Spindler, have struggled with consistency under their third offensive line coach in three years, Joe Rudolph, and there are questions about whether returning starting center Zeke Correll is physical enough to hold up against elite defensive lines.
As a group, it’s been a better pass-blocking unit than run-blocking, despite the fact junior running back Audric Estimé ranks as the nation’s No. 2 player in rushing yards per game (130.2) and No. 3 in rushing yards per carry (8.27).
“There are always things you fix, that you work on, that you work to improve,’ Freeman said, “but coach Rudolph and that offensive line have done a really good job each week of having a great plan and improving and going out on Saturday and executing at a high level.”
Ohio State — in wins over Indiana, Youngstown State and Western Kentucky — has settled in as the nation’s No. 3 team in total defense coming into the game. The Irish are No. 4 in total defense, and offensively are the highest-scoring Notre Dame team in the first four games of the season (184 points) since 1914.
QB comparisons
It’s difficult to recall recent years games in which Notre Dame has faced a Top 10 opponent with a perceived advantage at the quarterback position, either in pedigree or performance.
That’s probably because it hasn’t happened very often.
Sixth-year Irish QB Sam Hartman has the edge in experience and stats (he’s third in the nation in pass efficiency) over redshirt sophomore and first-year starter Kyle McCord of Ohio State (12th), though McCord was the more-coveted recruit coming out of high school.
Here are the top 10 opponents the Irish have faced, home and away, since 2013 and the QB matchup in those games. The quarterback in bold is the one who finished the season with the higher pass-efficiency rating:
2022
Notre Dame (Drew Pyne) vs. Clemson (D.J. Uiagalelei)
Notre Dame (Tyler Buchner) vs. Ohio State (C.J. Stroud)
2021
Notre Dame (Jack Coan) vs. Oklahoma State (Spencer Sanders)
Notre Dame (Jack Coan) vs. Cincinnati (Desmond Ridder)
2020
Notre Dame (Ian Book) vs. Alabama (Mac Jones)
Notre Dame (Ian Book) vs. Clemson (Trevor Lawrence)
Notre Dame (Ian Book) vs. Clemson (D.J. Uiagalelei)
2019
Notre Dame (Ian Book) vs. Georgia (Jake Fromm)
2018
Notre Dame (Ian Book) vs. Clemson (Trevor Lawrence)
Notre Dame (Ian Book) vs. Stanford (K.J. Costello)
2017
Notre Dame (Brandon Wimbush) vs. Miami (Malik Rosier)
2015
Notre Dame (DeShone Kizer) vs. Ohio State (J.T. Barrett)
2014
Notre Dame (Everett Golson) vs. Arizona State (Taylor Kelly)
Notre Dame (Everett Golson) vs. Florida State (Jameis Winston)
2013
Notre Dame (Tommy Rees) vs. Stanford (Kevin Hogan)
Mixed signals
It figures that Ohio State reserve cornerback Lorenzo Styles would be minimal help in revealing Notre Dame’s defensive trade secrets, given he was a wide receiver for the Irish until the last couple of days as a corner before he announced his entry into the transfer portal in April.
But what about James Laurinaitis? He was ND’s linebackers coach as a grad assistant in 2022, before taking the same job for a bigger paycheck at his alma mater, Ohio State, this offseason.
“We try to change weekly,” Freeman said of the ND defense’s checks and signals. “We always look at our signals and look at some of the communication, and each week it changes. So, it would be no different this week. You have to continue to change things up.
“All your games are on TV. They can hear the checks on TV. You can see signals on TV. That’s part of the game of football that we constantly try to every week make small changes to keep teams off balance that might be hearing our checks or seeing our signals.
“It has less to do with Laurinaitis being on their staff and more to do with us continuously trying to keep our opponents off-balance.”
Shifted perspective
Freeman’s past connections to the team he’ll coach against Saturday night were a constant topic — by him and those around him — in the ramp-up to the OSU-ND matchup 12 ½ months ago.
This time?
Normalcy. Big-game normalcy, but normalcy, nonetheless.
“I think it’s just a different approach for everybody,” Freeman said. “We’re going into week 5 for us, week 4 for them, and you’ve got two good teams, and that’s the focus. It’s not about where I was or where I went to school or anybody else.
“It’s about preparing your team to face a really good Ohio State team. And I’m sure on the other hand, Ohio State has the same mentality. So, that’s where the focus should be, and that’s where I think it’ll stay.”
And through practices this week, that’s what Freeman has seen from his team so far.
“I told them the hardest thing to do is, really, as we get closer to the game, the noise gets louder,” he said. “And you start thinking of things that are outcome-driven that have nothing to do with us preparing for this game. And so, I’ve been really hard on them to make sure this week of practice … we’re very intentional in our practice habits and what we’re doing on every single play. I’ve tried to have a couple of periods in practice, where the music is really loud and we’re going fast just to make sure they’re able to lock in on this play, get lined up and execute.
“So, I’ve been really pleased with Tuesday and Wednesday practices. Now, we've got to have a great Thursday practice too.”
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