There are numerous matchups between No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 14 North Carolina State that will be intriguing.
Among them, the Irish are No. 6 nationally at running the ball (317.9 yards per game) while the Wolfpack are No. 6 at stopping the ground attack (91.3). NC State protects the football — No. 1 in fewest turnovers with three (zero interceptions) — while Notre Dame has made a living off generating takeaways with 17, tying it at No. 8 while also placing No. 4 in turnover margin.
In such contests, special teams often can be the difference. It was last year when the Wolfpack defeated Notre Dame 10-3 on a fourth quarter blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown, resulting in the Irish later adjusting their punt protection alignment.
The kicking game will be vital again, especially with NC State 5-9, 187-pound return man Nyheim Hines, also the team's top running back.
Hines is one of four players in ACC history with two 100-yard kickoff returns in his career, and he has 2,077 kick return yards already in two-and-a-half years. In his most recent game, Oct. 14 at Pitt, Hines scored both NC State touchdowns in the first quarter on a 92-yard punt return and an 83-yard run, en route to a 35-17 win after a 14-14 halftime tie.
Possibly the fastest college football player in the nation last season was USC’s Adoree Jackson, who returned both a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns against the Irish in a 45-27 win. Hines ranks as one of the elite speedsters this season, finishing third in the 100 meters of the 2017 ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a personal record of 10.34 seconds.
Irish head coach Brian Kelly has issued a mandate to his senior punter Tyler Newsome.
“We can't out-kick our coverage,” Kelly said. “Fifty-five yard punts are not good for us. We can’t stretch out our coverage units where we give big space and field for a guy like this. We need 4.5, 4.4 hang time. I’ll take 38 to 42 [yards on a punt], and give us great coverage opportunities. The punting is going to be really key in this game with a dangerous return man.
“When it comes to kickoffs, that’s an area we haven’t been great at, we’ve just been okay. We have to be better there and we’ve worked hard on that … We’ve got to look to put the ball in tough positions directionally where we can get down there and keep him bottled up.”
Notre Dame’s special teams haven’t done anything spectacular through seven games, but they also haven’t done anything that beats them, as they did last year that helped lead to five of their defeats, including allowing a school record five touchdowns via the kicking teams. That meets first-year special teams coordinator Brian Polian's initial criteria of “do no harm." Nevertheless, a little extra boost might be needed in the final five regular season games as the stakes rise.
Last week against USC, junior Chris Finke returned three punts for 34 yards, which nearly matched his 46 yards (on 13 returns) in the first six games.
“I’d say that there’s more there,” said Kelly regarding special teams impact. “Our punt return game was better. I think Chris is feeling more comfortable back there. We haven’t been called upon in the field goal game, but I think we’re really solid there. We’re going to be called upon to hit some key field goals here during the year.
“Seven games in, there’s still a lot of room there. Clearly we’ve got players on that team that are going to have to come through sooner or later for us, and we feel good about it.”
It will need to if a special (teams) year is to continue.
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