Notre Dame’s two-minute offense sparked benched starter/unexpected rescuer Jack Coan and lit the wick on a 32-29 comeback win Oct. 9 at Virginia Tech.
Coan led a pair of scoring drives in the final four minutes, both played at a higher tempo out of necessity. Notre Dame saw his comfort in those moments and at that pace and decided to stick with it. The Irish weren’t in position to ignore possible answers at quarterback anyway. Sure enough, they rolled out the up-tempo offense from the first snap of Saturday’s 31-16 win over USC.
“Having that high tempo offense, we talked about it in our meetings today, we have it when we need it, so why go away from that?” junior running back Kyren Williams said. “Having that tempo creates a sense of urgency as an offense that we have to go get things done.”
Notre Dame ran 71 plays, right near its average per game, but the nature of the plays it ran changed. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees called fewer longer-developing passes and more RPOs with simple and quick run/pass reads. The goal was for Coan to get the ball out fast.
He did. Coan’s average release time was 2.5 seconds, right in line with his 2.47 seconds against Virginia Tech and at least 0.1 seconds faster than any of his first five starts. His season average snap-to-pass time is 2.68 seconds. Coan’s average depth of target (ADOT) versus USC was 7.2 yards, well below his season average of 9.9.
The quicker he unloaded the ball, the better he played. He was 14-of-16 passing for 131 yards with a 3.6 ADOT when he threw a pass within 2.5 seconds of the snap. When he held it for 2.5 seconds or longer, he was 6-of-12 passing for 58 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
The quick-strike throws weren’t overly explosive, but they were efficient and averaged 8.2 yards. Notre Dame had just one passing play of 20 or more yards — a 29-yard screen to freshman wide receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr. But the lack of negative plays and efficiency made up for it. Notre Dame’s expected points added per pass (EPA) was .366, its highest since Week 2 vs. Toledo.
Notre Dame’s first drive is a fitting example, even if it ended with zero points after graduate student kicker Jonathan Doerer missed a field goal. The Irish traveled 74 yards on 12 plays before the miss. A play-by-play look:
