Midweek thoughts about the Notre Dame football program, its recruiting efforts and college football.
AREAS WHERE IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT IS NEEDED
Notre Dame heads down to Athens, Ga. this weekend for a matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs. It’s a game between a pair of Top 10 teams, and two programs that hope to make it back to the College Football Playoff.
The Fighting Irish have outscored their first two opponents by a 101-31 margin, but if Notre Dame is going to have any chance against Georgia there are areas where the squad must improve, and improve in a hurry.
1. INTERIOR OFFENSIVE LINE MUST GET BETTER – Notre Dame’s offensive line was expected to be a strength of the team, but thus far it has not played up to par. It hasn’t been bad, but there is way too much talent in the group for it not to be much better than what we’ve seen in the first two games. Against Georgia, the unit must be on top of its game.
The offensive tackles have played well up to this point, but the interior of the line has been disappointing. Far too often the big men up the middle have caught blockers and absorbed contact instead of driving the defense off the ball. That’s played a role in the inability of the offense to run effectively between the tackles during the first two games. It’s certainly played a bigger role than anything the first two opponents have done.
Right guard Tommy Kraemer is moving better and clearly in better shape, and he was solid in the opener against Louisville, but Kraemer took a step back against the Lobos. Far too often he failed to fire off the ball, played with poor pad level and didn’t finish. Notre Dame needs Kraemer to play with more power and fire against the Bulldogs.
Left guard Aaron Banks has been sloppy in each of the first two games, mixing in powerful blocks with bouts of poor footwork, missed assignments and overall bad technique. Banks has the tools to be a truly elite player, but he has to mature his game in a hurry. Notre Dame cannot afford to have a veteran player making the mistakes and having the misses we’ve seen from Banks in the first two games.
