Fee Fi Foe Film: Notre Dame Comment Count

Ace

PREVIOUSLY: FFFF—Notre Dame vs. Purdue

Notre Dame enters their contest against Michigan with an unblemished record and one of the year's most impressive victories—a 20-3 thumping of Michigan State in East Lansing—to their credit. Despite breaking in a new starting quarterback, the Irish have impressed on both sides of the ball, meaning we get another September full of "Is Notre Dame Back?" headlines and, on a more positive note, another hyped up matchup with the Wolverines.

Before I get into the film breakdown, let's take a moment to enjoy this quote from the ND-MSU game. Kirk Herbstreit dropped this gem while discussing the answer to the game's trivia question (Brady Quinn holds the ND-MSU record for most passing yards in a game from the '05 MSU overtime victory):

"That was the 'Bush Push' year in '05. That was a great year for Notre Dame."

The new standard for a "great year" for the Irish: A 9-3 season most easily identified by a soul-crushing loss. Delightful.

Anyway, on to the breakdown.

OFFENSE

Spread, Pro-Style, or Hybrid? Brian Kelly is one of the coaches most synonymous with the spread offense, though he's not as much of a pure system guy as Rich Rodriguez or Dana Holgorsen. Kelly adjusted his offense back when Cincinnati went from statuesque pocket passer Tony Pike to scrambler Zach Collaros, and he's done much the same with the transition to Tommy Rees and Everett Golson—ND throws in a fair amount of under-center plays and is more run-heavy than Kelly's Cinci outfits.

Basketball on Grass or MANBALL? Basketball on grass—the Irish running game almost entirely consists of inside and outside zone.

Hurry it up or grind it out? Right in the middle, actually. Notre Dame's adjusted pace last year was 47.9%, just a tick below the national average (50%, obvs).

Quarterback Dilithium Level (Scale: 1 [Navarre] to 10 [Denard]): Golson earned the starting nod in large part because of his mobility—he's at his best when throwing on the run or making plays with his feet. He showed off his wheels against MSU, escaping the pocket and getting the edge on a six-yard TD run in the second quarter. Brian Kelly doesn't give Golson much in the way of designed runs, but he's dangerous when he breaks the pocket—I'll give him a 7.

Dangerman: Tight end Tyler Eifert finished second to Michael Floyd in all three major receiving categories last year with 65 catches for 803 yards and five touchdowns, and he's started the year with eight receptions for 120 yards and a TD. As noted by The Only Colors, Eifert is basically a wide receiver now—he lines up on the outside or in the slot, and if he has his hand in the dirt—rarely, at this point—it's as an H-back. He gives Golson quite a security blanket at 6'6", 251 pounds, and is a tough matchup for defensive backs and linebackers alike.

Quite surprisingly, Eifert didn't record a catch against Michigan State, but I don't expect we'll see that replicated going forward.

Zook Factor: The Irish punted on 4th-and-7 from the MSU 48, which earns some Zook points, but with a first-year starter at QB against a great defense that's pretty understandable.

[The rest of the breakdown after THE JUMP.]

OVERVIEW

Notre Dame spreads the field a fair amount, going with a lot of four-receiver sets (with Eifert as a receiver, not a tight end—Troy Niklas and Ben Koyack split time there) run mostly out of the shotgun, though they'll also go under center, especially in short-yardage situations.

The offense thus far this year has largely been tailored for Golson; passing plays often involve a rollout to cut down the number of reads and add the threat of the scramble, and as mentioned above there's more running from under center to take the pressure off the quarterback. Golson looks far more comfortable throwing on the run—usually to his first read—than he does when standing in the pocket; he threw some pinpoint strikes when rolling out, but also sailed multiple bubble screens over his receivers' heads. Golson also overthrew a couple of deep passes down the seam, including a first-quarter throw that should've gone for a touchdown, and missed a couple open receivers—Notre Dame's first touchdown came when he rolled out and threw across his body to the opposite side of the field even though Robby Toma was wide open down the near sideline.

Kelly has tried to make things easier on his quarterback by calling for a lot of short crossing routes underneath—Toma and T.J. Jones do a good job of getting open and finding room for YAC. Deeper passes mostly went to the perimeter, usually when Golson rolled out. He did try to hit a few passes up the seam but didn't find much success, mostly due to inaccuracy.

Running backs Cierre Wood—fresh off a two-game suspension—and Theo Riddick found little room to operate in ND's zone running game, forcing the Irish to get creative to produce yards on the ground. They do this by utilizing speedsters Riddick and George Atkinson III on jet sweeps from the slot, hitting the edge in a hurry. Atkinson also caught a shovel pass after going in motion from the slot that picked up a decent gain. The Irish also found success with misdirection, which I'll detail in the play breakdown section.

The offensive line had its fair share of struggles against State. The right side of the line consistently gave up pressure off the edge on passing plays, exacerbating Golson's pocket presence issues—he's prone to scrambling too early and pulls the ball down even when there's room to step up, reset, and make a throw downfield. Starting guard Mike Golic Jr. is a bit undersized at 6'3", 295, and he got pushed around on the interior on a few inside zone runs. The offensive line does a solid job of getting to the second level, though center Braxton Cave foiled a potential touchdown by failing to block a soul on this perfectly drawn-up screen pass:

Good lord, man. Hit something.

Michigan's lack of a dominant interior D-line presence and Notre Dame's lack of interior push should offset. Given ND's tendency to go for quick hitters on the edge and rolling out Golson the key for the line will be contain, contain, contain. Frank Clark and Jake Ryan should be able to generate a pass rush against the Irish tackles, which is critical in limiting Golson. Having a sure-tackling safety in Jordan Kovacs eases a lot of concerns about ND taking a short pass and breaking it long.

PLAY BREAKDOWN

With so many called rollouts for Golson, Brian Kelly has to find a way to prevent defenses from getting too aggressive and flooding one side of the field. He took advantage of MSU's overaggressive pursuit with a nifty sprint counter to Atkinson:

On the snap, the entire offense save the receivers sprints out to the right before Atkinson stops and heads back in the other direction, pulling the defense to the near side. Both receivers to the bottom of the screen go into routes, making this look very much like a rollout pass right until the moment Atkinson reverses field and takes the handoff. Michigan runs a similar play, though with a less exaggerated move by the running back, so the defense should be familiar with this look.

Notre Dame again utilized misdirection to catch MSU playing the rollout two plays later, this time with a throwback screen:

The defense has to make sure not to overpursue against this Irish offense, especially at linebacker. While Joe Bolden and James Ross have seen a lot of playing time the last two weeks, I'm not sure they'll see much action this weekend—both are very aggressive, but still learning, and this is not the game to go tearing off in the wrong direction.

DEFENSE

Base Set? 3-4. A couple good primers on ND's base defense are over at Her Loyal Sons and One Foot Down. Short version: DC Bob Diaco will throw out a traditional 3-4 look, but quite often will take his "Cat" linebacker—essentially a rush end—and put his hand in the dirt.

Man or zone coverage? Rather surprisingly, considering the injury woes in the secondary, Notre Dame played a lot of man coverage against MSU. They usually run mostly Cover 2 and Cover 3, however.

Pressure: GERG or Greg? Much more Greg than GERG, Diaco brings heat from a variety of looks, and usually rushes at least four—if not five or six—on passing downs.

Dangerman: Superstar MLB Manti Te'o really needs no introduction; he's arguably the best linebacker in college football. Te'o is exceptional against the run, covers the field sideline-to-sideline, and also is very solid in coverage. There will be multiple plays on Saturday in which you expect to see a runner break free, instead watch him get mowed down for little gain, and after seeing who made the tackle state, "Oh, right, Te'o."

OVERVIEW

The strength of the Notre Dame defense is up front; Te'o is the headliner, but ND's defensive line is one of the best in the country, and they limited Le'Veon Bell to just 77 yards on 19 carries. In a 3-4, all the defensive linemen must be stout against the run, and the Irish have that in nose tackle Louis Nix III (more on him later) and ends Stephon Tuitt and Kapron Lewis-Moore.

Tuitt was a five-star in 2011 while Lewis-Moore has started for much of the last three seasons; both weigh in around 300 pounds and can play inside or rush from the edge. On passing downs, Diaco often takes Nix out of the game and puts Tuitt and Lewis-Moore on the interior, utilizing a variety of stunts to generate a pass rush.

Aside from Te'o, the linebacker to watch is Prince Shembo, the "Cat" linebacker who often plays down on the line. He had nine tackles (two TFL) and a sack against the Spartans and was a terror on the edge all night, routinely beating the MSU tackles to get in Andrew Maxwell's face. Taylor Lewan should hold up against him just fine, but he'll be a big test for Michael Schofield when lined up against the right side of the Wolverine line.

The linebackers do a great job of filling in the gaps left by the defensive line, helped by the ability of Nix and Tuitt to draw double-teams with regularity. Michigan hasn't been able to generate an interior running game so far this year, and frankly I don't see it happening against Notre Dame.

Where Michigan can take advantage of the Irish, however, is in the secondary. Notre Dame already was forced to start true freshman KeiVarae Russell and converted wideout Bennett Jackson at corner, and now safety Jamorris Slaughter is out for the season after going down against MSU—he'll be replaced by sophomore Matthias Farley, who moved to safety from wide receiver this spring.

Edge tackling was a huge issue for ND against Purdue, and while that improved against MSU there were still problems—safety Zeke Motta saved a couple of touchdowns with desparation tackles on the perimeter. Motta will have to do the same to keep Michigan from springing a couple of big plays on Saturday, and he's also tasked with making sure nothing goes over the top of the inexperienced Irish secondary. That won't be easy, as both Russell and Jackson got turned around when forced into man coverage against MSU—a consistent pass rush and the inexperience of Maxwell and MSU's receivers kept passing yards down, but the going gets tougher against Denard and Michigan's receivers.

PLAY BREAKDOWN

My video editor is currently deciding to freeze when I load the MSU-ND game, so you'll  have to settle for stills. The player I'd like to highlight is Louis Nix, the key to Notre Dame's success against the run. Watch him single-handedly blow up this running play when State decides to single-block him. Here's the look at the snap, with Nix lined up over MSU's center, Travis Jackson:

Nix gets a stellar jump off the snap, coming into contact with Jackson before Tuitt (end at the bottom of the screen) even gets his hand out of the dirt:

State is trying to run a simple dive play, but there's a big problem—Nix drives Jackson two yards back, directly where the play was intended to go, by the time Bell receives the handoff:

Bell is forced to stop his momentum and bounce it outside, where the play should be stopped for no gain:

Motta comes down when Bell bounces out, and sets up to make the tackle:

If Motta was Jordan Kovacs, the play would end right here, but he biffs the tackle—again, tackling on the edge is an issue for ND—and Bell is able to turn this into a five-yard gain. Still, Nix single-handedly blew up this play, and those nervous about the play of Michigan's interior line so far this season should not be optimistic about Fitz Toussaint finding room to maneuver in the middle.

Comments

NFG

September 19th, 2012 at 3:43 PM ^

On the counter, the slot receiver takes a route that very well coincides with down field blocking. But with that being said, keep an eye out on a play action counter with that slot reciever being wide open. (Like Roundtree against ND in 2010) Hopefully our safeties can pick up on that once they see the QB rollout and read the play better than MSU's secondary.

Franz Schubert

September 19th, 2012 at 4:07 PM ^

Im not convinced the ND D-line is really as good as its being made out to be. MSU has serious offensive line issues just as they did last year. When I consider that Central Michigan held Leveon Bell to the same production as ND, im skeptical as of now.

ChiBlueBoy

September 19th, 2012 at 4:24 PM ^

Thus far, MSU has beaten CMU and Boise (whose only win thus far is against a turrible Miami (NTM)). CMU is the only team MSU has scored at will against. MSU will, of course, play out of their minds against us, as they do every year, but I think this might be a down year for Sparty in general. OTOH, that doesn't mean that the ND D-line isn't good. It means that it may not have been tested yet. Our O-Line has shown up well in pass protect. I have concerns about non-Denard running, however. This game may test just how good our pass game is. If it shows up, ND will have a tough time stopping it, methinks.

Keith

September 19th, 2012 at 5:00 PM ^

Boise St. has played two games, one of which was a close loss on the road against a solid team, one of which was a predictable blowout of a terrible team at home.

Trying to categorize Boise State's season with their "only win" is a little ridiculous; implying they are bad due to only having one win when we all know they lost to MSU in Week 1 is silly.

ChiBlueBoy

September 20th, 2012 at 8:06 PM ^

I never said that Boise is bad, or even implied that. If I implied anything, it's that they are an unknown quantity. You claiming that they lost to a solid team is a bit of circular logic. My point is that we don't know how good MSU is yet, and it seems quite possible that this is a down year for them. The Boise win does not yet prove otherwise.

MGoLogan

September 19th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^

Yeah I'm right there with you.  Calling ND's defensive line "one of the best in the country" is quite a stretch.  They are better than last year, but I would not call them one of the best.  MSU has a very suspect OL and the lack of a passing game allowed ND to consistently stack the box with 8, sometimes 9 players.  Purdue runs a similar offense to UM and was much more successful than MSU at moving the ball.  This should be a very good game, but I would not read too much into Notre Dame's defensive performance against MSU.

Enjoy Life

September 19th, 2012 at 4:29 PM ^

In the ND games I watched (Purdue & MSU), their pace was sloooooooow.

Whatever happened to the "up tempo" and "please NBC don't let commercials upset our pace of the game"??

Sten Carlson

September 19th, 2012 at 5:57 PM ^

Although I dislike Kelly, I think he's a pretty good football coach, and he's adept at keeping the opposing defense off balance.  He does this, from what I've seen, by utilizing misdirection very well, and making the defense think one thing, then doing another.  Where ND has struggled, again from what I've seen, is when Kelly gets a little bit predictable -- but, that can be said of most coaches

I think my biggest concern in defending the Irish this year is whether or not Michigan's DL can stop the most basic of running plays with any consistency. Last year, I felt like ND was moving the ball at will against us, they just couldn't stop turning the ball over, and eventually Michigan's offense got it in gear. With all indications pointing to a less productive DL, even though the DL in last year's game wasn't "there yet, ND could simply just pound the rock all game with some success.

One of the things that I love about Mattison is that he's not going to let that go unchecked for very long without sending help. That's always a give and take, especially with an offense like ND's where Kelly isn't afraid to throw the ball.

I hope we have a "coming out party" for Michigan's DL and things finally "click" with them. Add to that, a big hope that our young and talented LB's show that they're really "getting it" as well. Defensively, however, I am not expected a whole heck of a lot -- bend don't break would be just fine with me.

turtleboy

September 19th, 2012 at 6:03 PM ^

I think our game against Air Force was a great practice run for our defense to line up against ND. Misdirection, a mobile quarterback, and runs outside were in abundance, and were likely more disciplined than what Michigan will see on Saturday, though I agree Kelly draws up some pretty good schemes.

Sten Carlson

September 19th, 2012 at 6:21 PM ^

I agree turtleboy!  I think both the AF and Bama games should be "good practice."  What I am really hoping for is that the technique that the DL is coached up on has sunk in, and that what was saw against UMass was a combination of a bit too much thinking, and perhaps a bit less than 100% effort because they thought UMass was going to be a pushover.  It seems to me that it's just a matter of time -- via repetition and coaching -- before everything clicks for the DL.  Further, they've had to adjust their scheme several times already, but they should have to this week, with the exception of Golston being more mobile than the UMass QB.

 

triangle_M

September 19th, 2012 at 9:13 PM ^

Yeah but last year the coaches said it took until Illinois, 10 games into the year, before they said they were playing Michigan defense.  Hopefully there is not that kind of learning curve here, second year in the system and all of that.

I can 't be the only on thinking that other than Kovacs, I have yet to see playmakers emerge on defense.  Countess is out, Campbell has been unimpressive and although Floyd is playing well the rest of the secondary is still a big question mark.  Linebackers are promising but only Ryan has come up clutch. Its probably a fans crutch to need one, a playmaker, when a team performance should suffice.  The Team . . .

Zok

September 19th, 2012 at 10:49 PM ^

Kelly had a quote this week along the lines of:
"Two years ago they gashed us on the run; last year they got big plays in the passing game. We need to just minimize the big chunk plays this season".

This makes me think they are not going to blitz but instead try and take a page out of the Bama book and avoid blitzing and contain te running game with their DL. I think ND really thinkstheir front 4 can cause havoc on its own. This will aloe them to protect te back 4 some while teo cleans up at LB underneath.

Should be an interesting chess match. I hope Borges dials up so east short stuff for denard early.

Sten Carlson

September 20th, 2012 at 12:31 PM ^

Yes, it will be an interesting chess match.

I said before that I thought ND go all Narduzzi on Saturday, but I am rethinking my position after reading what you, and others have proposed.

If there was any team that could have blitzed, still contained, and played tight coverage, it was Bama.  But, they didn't.  With the relative weakness of ND's defensive backfield, I agree that Kelly is going to everything he can to protect them. 

I have a gut  feeling that Borges is going to show his brilliance on Saturday.  Obviously, Denard and the boys are going to have to execute, but it all starts with a good plan.

Mike420GoBlue

September 19th, 2012 at 10:59 PM ^

This one had me rolling! Think of what he's thinking, as he's...doing...ah whatever the hell he believes that was. He's probably thinking "wait till coach sees the film on this, how fast I am, the running back can't pass me!" Possibly singing to him self "la do da la da di da le la" What his teammates thought when they saw the film, with his big ass out for a stroll, he looked at the running back like " HEY DUDE! Come here often?" I hope he makes me laugh like this on Saturday