With the return of its starting quarterback, four offensive line starters, two top wideouts and a lot of young depth the Irish offense is expected to improve this season. But just how much? After making big picture team predictions yesterday, the Blue & Gold Illustrated staff makes its predictions for the Irish offense in 2019.

1) Ian Book will finish higher in pass efficiency than last year despite lower in pass completion percentage, but Phil Jurkovec will still start at least one game — Book’s pass efficiency ranked 17th last year, easily the best in the Brian Kelly, and this year he will be near the top 10. His pass completion rate will drop from the school single season record of 68.2 last year to 65.7 this year, but the yards per attempt will go from 8.4 to nearly 9.0 with more deeper balls and yards after catch. Jurkovec will take more than 200 snaps this year as he prepares to become the starter in 2020.