Notre Dame Halftime Spring Summary: Offense
With seven starters to replace on offense, four of them along the line, that side of the ball is experiencing perhaps the most overall upheaval in head coach Brian Kelly’s 12 seasons at Notre Dame. Still, the unit has four building blocks so far in 2021:
• The running back situation should be a strength with the return of the top three players there who in 2020 combined for 1,920 rushing yards, led by Kyren Williams’ 1,125.
That is the most returning rushing yardage at the running back position for the Fighting Irish from the previous year since Lou Holtz’s final season in 1996.
• After becoming the first freshman to lead (or tie) Notre Dame in catches last year with 42, tight end Michael Mayer is already a bona fide All-America candidate.
• The 2018-19 starting center Jarrett Patterson will start somewhere along the line, after recovering from November foot surgery. Where is to be determined more likely in August after the rest of the unit settles in.
• Fifth-year senior slot receiver Avery Davis is the leader of the wideout corps after snaring 24 passes last year — or 17 more than anyone else returning from that unit. That doesn’t necessarily mean he will be the prime target in 2021, but he does provide some proven week-to-week performance unlike anyone else.
Meanwhile, the four primary inquiries at the halfway point are:
Will Wisconsin graduate transfer Jack Coan seize the starting job at quarterback?
How will the offensive line shake out?
Who will be the new emergences at wideout?
Is the offense going to maintain its physical, multiple-tight-end identity?
Coan Shaped
It would still be a shock if, barring injury, it would be anyone else other than Coan at the throttle for the opener with his 18 career starts, which easily trump the 25 snaps Drew Pyne had as a freshman last year.
At 6-3, 220 Coan provides a more stout frame than the 5-11½, 194-pound Pyne. As a former star lacrosse player as well, Coan’s mobility also might be overlooked.
“Jack has been what we thought when we got him,” Kelly summarized. “Here's a guy that's played a lot of Big Ten football, played in the Rose Bowl, sees the field very well, stronger arm probably than I thought, and sees the field exceedingly well, especially from the pocket.
“He’s a guy that stays in the pocket, hangs in there, throws a ball, delivers it and manages himself extremely well.”
Kelly added that Pyne has progressed “very well” and freshman early entrant Tyler Buchner probably has made the most progress because he had the most learning to process — “tremendously smart. … You tell him something in a meeting and his recall is quite amazing.”
What’s My Line?
Those waiting for a definitive, concrete answer on what the starting line will be for the season opener at Florida State Sept. 5 will likely be frustrated. It could even be a fluid situation after the opener, a topic that was addressed during the weekend.
Patterson is a certainty to start along the line, but will it be at center, where he was the top man the past two years, or elsewhere?
Most of the linemen have been cross-training at multiple spots in an effort to find the five best, and Kelly already hinted that fifth-year right tackle Josh Lugg likely will move inside to guard come August, which is why popular belief holds that Patterson will be stationed at a tackle spot for which he was originally recruited.
Left tackle has been of particular intrigue with sophomore Tosh Baker and early enrollee freshman Blake Fisher both receiving reps with the ones. Could one move over to right tackle if he is one of the best five, or would it be like a tag-team partnership every second series or so like it was in 2017 at right tackle with sophomore Tommy Kraemer and freshman Robert Hainsey?
Zeke Correll has been exclusively at center, where he started two games last season, but it’s not a fait accompli that he will be the starter there because Patterson is a known commodity at the spot.
“At this time, I don't think Zeke has given us anything other than what we saw last year, where he started doing a nice job, but we're not closing our minds towards any combinations on that offensive line,” Kelly summarized this weekend.
Beyond ‘The P Word’
No position has been more prolific with the “P word” — potential — the past few years than receiver.
Former top-60 receiver Javon McKinley came to the forefront last year in his fifth season after snaring only 11 passes his first four, and now the Irish are banking on at least a couple of members of the four-man senior class — Braden Lenzy, Lawrence Keys III, Joe Wilkins Jr. and Kevin Austin Jr. (sidelined this spring after two foot surgeries in 2020) —to prosper after combining for a modest 49 receptions through three seasons.
Even when Kelly noted after the first week that Lenzy and Keys have been impressive, he cautiously emphasized the caveat that there is “an asterisk next to it … they have to be consistent.”
And for the fan base demanding that 2020 five-star recruit Jordan Johnson become far more active, Kelly did throw the following bone earlier this month: “What I’m most impressed with Jordan is what he’s doing in the classroom right now. He has really turned the corner there. You can see that confidence showing itself on the football field.”
How much this contingent moves forward in actual production as opposed to potential will help dictate what the identity on offense will be in 2021.
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_,and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.