The 2020 Notre Dame offense featured the most veteran line in school history in terms of number of career starts returning (114), a bevy of tight ends and the first third-year starting quarterback in head coach Brian Kelly’s 11 seasons.
Yet it was also replete with a litany of inquiries.
Can the Irish better assert physicality along the line?
How will first-time coordinator Tommy Rees — a Fighting Irish quarterback himself from 2010-13 with 31 career starts — fare as the play-caller?
Would fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book, and the overall corps, succeed against the upper-tier defenses?
Who might emerge as a centerpiece in the wide-open, five-man “backfield by committee”?
Can more game-breaking speed, especially at receiver, be involved in the lineup?
What will the unit’s identity be now and in the future, or will it change with the personnel?
Some were answered affirmatively, while others remained open to debate.
Among 127 teams that played in the Football Bowl Subdivision this year, here were Notre Dame’s final NCAA placements in the most notable categories on offense:
Rushing Offense: 24th — 211.1 Yards Per Game
With the most veteran returning line in school history, strength at tight end and a rebuilding wideout corps, Notre Dame’s 2020 identity centered on physicality with the running attack.
The output on the ground was the second-highest in the Kelly era, behind the 269.5 mark in 2017, and 32 yards more per game than last season when it was 45th in this category.
Greatly aiding the efforts was the emergence of sophomore Kyren Williams (1,125 yards rushing) and freshman Chris Tyree (496) at running back, and the ad-lib skills of Book (485).
Passing Offense: 58th — 237.4 Yards Per Game
Team Passing Efficiency: 43rd — 141.9 Rating
The 2020 group joined 2015 as the only ones in the Kelly era to average more than 200 yards both rushing and passing throughout the season.
The team pass efficiency rating dropped 23 spots from last year while the Irish spent most of the first half of this season attempting to cobble together a reliable and trusted receiving corps. In the past three years, Book’s pass efficiency dropped from 17th in 2018 (the highest by anyone under Kelly) to 24th in 2019 and to No. 33 this past year.
Similar to scoring offense, the passing efficiency has to be much higher in order to compete with the nation’s elite programs. Among the other College Football Playoff teams, Alabama's Mac Jones was No. 1 with a ridiculous 203.1 efficiency rating, Ohio State’s Justin Fields No. 10 and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence No. 12 — and all likely will be first-round picks.
Total Offense: 26th — 448.5 Yards Per Game
Other than his first season at Notre Dame in 2010, every offense in Kelly’s 11 years averaged at least 412 yards, although that is more about efficiency than merely numbers.
The highest output under him was the 466.4 by the 10-3 outfit in 2015.
Scoring Offense: 30th — 33.4 Points Per Game
Last year’s 36.8 figure (13th in the country) was the highest in Kelly’s 11 seasons.
A glaring disparity still exists in this category with the elite programs. They are generally in the 42 -to 48-point range. This year it included Alabama (48.5), Clemson (43.5), Oklahoma (43.0) and Ohio State (41.0).
In their eight defeats since 2017, the Irish averaged 13.1 points, and never tallied more than 20. Can they too someday reach the 40-point mark — and at least average 24 to 30 versus top-five teams?
The single-season school record remains 37.6 — set 52 years ago by Ara Parseghian’s 1968 outfit.
Turnovers Lost: 43rd — 11 (8 Fumbles, 3 Interceptions)
When including bowl games, Notre Dame’s 11 turnovers this year not only matched last year’s total that was fifth in the country, but also tied the second fewest in a season by the Irish, behind only the 10 by the 11-1 unit in 1993.
The reason for the lower ranking is because of the amount of games, which makes this data highly misleading. The top seven in this category played five or fewer games, where the Irish played 12. Of course, a team is going to have fewer turnovers with five to eight less games played!
The only team that had 12 games this season and fewer turnovers than Notre Dame was Brigham Young with nine.
Third-Down Conversions: 8th — 49.1 Percent
A huge improvement from last year’s 40.2-percent mark that ranked 65th. A prime reason was Notre Dame thrived in third-and-short situations much better this year after going a disappointing 24 of 52 (46.2 percent) on third-and-three or less in 2019. Look for an upcoming story on Notre Dame’s upgrade in that category.
Freshman sensation Michael Mayer at tight end (team-high-tying 42 receptions for 450 yards) was a particularly popular target, among others, on drag routes.
Red Zone Offense: 102nd — 76.7 Percent (46 of 60, with 35 TD and 11 FG)
No single area anywhere on the team had a more precipitous drop after finishing 10th last year when it scored 51 times in 55 chances (92.7 percent) — with 42 of them touchdowns.
Part of it is that in five cases late in the game this year, Kelly and Co. took a knee in the red zone or opted not to score (field goal or touchdown) because the outcome already was sealed.
Had the Irish opted to do so and kicked at least a field goal at the end, then they would have been 51 of 60 for an 85.0 percent mark — which would have placed them in the top 50 instead of 102.
If an offense can score a touchdown at least 70 percent of the time in the red zone, that’s a good benchmark and more pertinent. For example, two of the three other CFP teams this year saw Clemson score touchdowns 70.5 percent of the time in the red zone, while Ohio State was at 63.6 percent. Notre Dame was at a more modest 58.3.
Alabama was at a ridiculous 78.0 percent in touchdowns scored in the red zone — and that’s part of why they were in their own league this year.
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