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Navy - Notre Dame, 2012 [TOUTING IS FORBIDDEN AND WILL LEAD TO PERMABANS: #205 #628]
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I was quite bored, so I decided I'm going to preview each team in the build up to this, position by position
Starting with Notre Dame and Quarterback position.
They will probably scrape into the preseason polls as one of the top 25 teams in the nation, but you get the feeling that if Notre Dame were in a better situation at the Quarterback position, then they would be an entirely different monster. Brian Kelly may not be short of potential at the position, but right now – actually, make that ever since he arrived in South Bend – he has been lacking consistency under centre. This spring, all eyes have been on the four-way competition to be named starter and it’s not hard to imagine that Kelly will be flipping a coin en-route to Dublin.
Tommy Rees (above) is contestant number one. Rees will not blow you away – he’s not athletic, he doesn’t have a big arm and he won’t pick up yards on the ground. It’s for these reasons that he is not the most difficult Quarterback to defend against. Combine this defensive advantage with some poor decision making on Rees’ behalf and you have a guy who committed 19 of Notre Dame’s 29 turnovers last year. With Brian Kelly having announced that the starting job will go to the Quarterback who protects the ball the most – closely followed by Rees throwing 3 incompletions and an interception in his first 5 attempts during the Spring Game – you begin to worry about his chances this year. Getting arrested for public intoxication, and then assaulting the arresting officer probably wasn’t the best method of improving those chances. Having said all that, Rees does have 16 starts under his belt with 12 of those ending in victory. That experience is priceless for Rees, because his competition for the starting job have a combined total of zero starts for the Irish. Rees understands the playbook, and despite his problems with turnovers, he is incredibly well adept at reading defences and was responsible for some hugely impressive drives last year. He will, however, know all too well that being named starter is only half the battle. Rees began 2011 on the sidelines after Dayne Crist was entrusted with the starting job. That lasted all of 2 quarters of football – safe to say that if Rees does start this year and doesn’t live up to Kelly’s ball protection standards, he will be benched.
Who would benefit if that comes to pass? Andrew Hendrix (above) most likely. Having seen some game time last year, Hendrix is – in theory – the best Quarterback on the Irish roster as things stand. He has a lot of the qualities that Rees lacks – he’s athletic, has a big arm and is a genuine ground threat if the aerial play breaks down. And that latter quality is very important in this debate considering the head coach. Kelly has always had a preference for Quarterbacks who can offer him something in the ground game. At Central Michigan, Kent Smith contributed 269 carries for 794 and 17 touchdowns in his 2 years as a starter under Kelly. When Smith graduated, Dan LeFevour took over and contributed 132 carries for 521 yards with 7 touchdowns in Kelly’s final year before taking the reins at Cincinnati. There, Ben Mauk and Zach Collaros carried on Kelly’s success with mobile Quarterbacks on either side of the Tony Pike era. It’s a favoured mould that Kelly leans towards for his signal callers, and in that regard Hendrix could easily appeal to his coach’s bias. He has shown flashes of this in his limited game time, but like Rees he has struggled with inconsistency. However, that is something that can be fixed with time, and is more forgivable in Hendrix given the smaller sample size of snaps he has taken.
If it’s not Rees or Hendrix starting come September, then it will be Everett Golson (above) – the token joker in this deck of cards. Heck, if rumours are to be believed and Brian Kelly is as impressed with Golson as they say he is following the Spring Game (11/16, 135 yards, 2 TD), then there’s a good chance that Golson is being pencilled in as the starter already. A highly-rated and recruited dual threat Quarterback who redshirted his freshman year in 2011, Golson appeared to struggle with accuracy in Spring but his breakout performance in the Blue-Gold Game has fans taking note. His ground game is easily the best among the group, and his ability to make big throws won’t have been lost on Kelly with some frighteningly fast freshmen receivers on board. The big problem is getting Golson up to speed on the playbook as Kelly prefers his offences to play with a high tempo.
Of course, this Quarterback controversy is really only concerned with the upcoming season. Gunner Kiel (above) is inevitably the future in South Bend having flipped his commitment from Indiana to LSU to Notre Dame, much to Les Miles’ well-publicised disdain. Admittedly, having been compared to Peyton Manning does not immediately ring true with Kelly's penchant for mobile playmakers but when a five star recruit and the number one rated pocket-passer in the country falls into your lap, you tend to look past such preferences. Besides, those comparisons merely lend credit to Kiel’s aerial talents and should not serve to discredit his ground abilities – he reportedly runs a 4.65 40-yard dash. Besides, Kelly has had success with Tony Pike at Cincinnati when it comes to your prototype pocket Quarterback. Kiel only enrolled it Notre Dame in January so it’s unlikely he will see too much game time this year if any at all – he could redshirt the year to return as the starter in 2013.
Verdict: Tommy Rees' inconsistencies and legal troubles will cost him his starting role. Andrew Hendrix should be named starter, with Everett Golson threatening to take over at some point during the season (which probably will happen given Notre Dame's horrendous schedule). The QB role in South Bend this year really boils down to three tasks - 1) Keep defences honest while you 2) hand the ball off to stud RB Cierre Wood, all the while 3) keeping the seat warm for Gunner Kiel.0 -
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Notre Dame running backs:
If Brian Kelly is having headaches over his Quarterback situation, then he might just be looking at his running back depth chart to ease the pain – Notre Dame are loaded with talent in the backfield. With such uncertainty at Quarterback and now at Wide Receiver following the graduation to the NFL of Michael Floyd, Kelly should look to his four-headed monster in the backfield to carry the Irish through this season.
Cierre Wood (above) is one of the stars of the show on offence in South Bend. Wood had a fantastic breakout year last season, rushing for over 1,100 yards and 9 touchdowns with an impressive 5.1 yards per carry average. He proved himself to be a great playmaker – now he is primed to take the jump to elite status with NFL scouts taking note. His quickness and agility is already at that level, and his ability to make lightning fast lateral cuts is a joy to behold. Of course, none of this is of any use to Notre Dame if Wood didn’t know when and where to use these talents, so perhaps his most important asset is his decision making. His patience and timing bring the best out of his physical abilities, and he uses this to make countless defenders miss tackles. Wood is equally adept as a pass-catching option out of the backfield having notched 27 receptions for an average of 7 yards each time last season. There’s no question he will be the feature back for Kelly, and there’s equally no doubt that if Notre Dame have a good season, Wood’s efforts will be at the heart of it.
Theo Riddick (above) is the prototypical jack-of-all-trades at Notre Dame. Having started out in the backfield as a freshman, Riddick made the switch to wide receiver in his sophomore year where he posted back to back 40 reception / 400+ yards / 3 TD seasons. For his senior season, Riddick returns to the running back depth chart, but that may only be on paper. Sure, Riddick will get his share of carries but his versatility will allow Kelly to use him not just at tailback, but also as a slot receiver and even out wide should the situation dictate, not to mention his return skills on special teams – think Dexter McCluster for Kansas City in the NFL, or Danny Woodhead for New England were he half a foot taller. Having been a productive starter for 2 years now, it would be naïve of us to think that Kelly is relegating Riddick to back-up status. Rather, Kelly is simply looking for more ways to get his most athletic playmakers on the field at the same time. Quarterback’s just love a player they can make a quick throw to, who will return pad their Quarterback’s stats with their playmaking ability. Riddick is that player, so expect him to contribute significantly on offence this year. He could well be the eventual starting Quarterback’s best friend and safety blanket while receiving from the slot and out of the backfield.
George Atkinson III (above) is the proverbial lightning in a bottle. We had RG3 and his highlight reel last year, but now it’s GA3’s turn. Okay, so he might not be at the level of the 2nd overall draft pick yet, but Atkinson is one of the most exciting prospects in South Bend. He was the undoubted star of the show in the Blue-Gold Game this spring as he ran for over 100 yards, and his sporting pedigree cannot be questioned – he is a track and field star at Notre Dame and the son of George Atkinson Jr. – a Super Bowl winning Safety and Kick Returner for the Oakland Raiders back in the 70s. There are only 2 problems with GA3, and they happen to be pretty significant ones at that. He needs to protect the ball more – we’ve already established that Brian Kelly values ball protection more than anything this year, and will not have been impressed with Atkinson’s two fumbles in the spring game (although you can lay the blame for one of them with Tommy Rees). Second, Atkinson is practically non-existent as a pass catching threat out of the backfield which limits the amount of plays Kelly can draw up for him. However, he just happens to be one of the most thrilling kick return specialists in all of college football, racking up over 900 return yards and 2 touchdowns last year. GA3 has the ability to make the Aviva Stadium rock on the very first play of the game this September. (Fun Fact – Atkinson gained national attention in 2010 while playing for Granada High School following a 60 yard punt return TD while racking up 206 rushing yards and 3 rushing TDs against Castro Valley. What was so impressive about this? Well, he only carried the football 5 times that night…)
Amir Carlisle (above) rounds off the four big names in the Irish backfield. A high-profile transfer from rivals USC, Carlisle averaged over 6 yards per carry for the Trojans last year. He also proved himself as a capable pass-catching option, snagging 7 receptions for 41 yards and the only TD of his freshman year. His flashed his potential in USC’s 42-17 rout of Colorado, averaging 9 yards per carry on 10 carries. Word is that USC were very upset to lose the young running back, who was desperate to relocate so he could be closer to his father who is currently working as Purdue’s director of sports performance. The bad news is that Carlisle broke his ankle in workouts back in March so does not have the same preparation that those above him on the depth chart have. However, he should be ready to roll come September and he proved at USC that if given the carries, he will pay it back with positive yardage. Carlisle is one to watch in South Bend.
Verdict: Notre Dame are blessed at the running back position. Cierre Wood is the feature back, and will get the vast majority of carries in Dublin. We will see a lot of Theo Riddick aswell, although most of that may be out of the slot with the occasional carry or end-around. As for GA3, it would be great to see him take some hand-offs but we might have to make do with his kick returns, but then again, that could well be what we're all talking about on here later that evening.0 -
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