#18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Season Preview

Notre Dame 3-4 Middle Linebacker Mante Te’o leads the Fighting Irish defense.

Offensive Outlook: Dayne Crist enters his senior campaign and is considered to be a legit starter at quarterback.  Crist had the gunslinger arm coming out of high school.  Crist threw for 2,033 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, and 7 interceptions.

Two things he did not have during the Weis tenure that he has improved on now are his accuracy and his awareness.  Crist improved his awareness under Brian Kelly during his first season as the full time Notre Dame starter last season.  Brian Kelly believes Dayne Crist’s throwing accuracy when firing the football has made tremendous strides.  If this is true then the Irish are due for a big year in terms of offensive production when Dayne Crist is on the field.  Crist posted a 59.2 completion percentage for the Irish so Notre Dame fans hope Kelly is right about Crist’s accuracy making strides because most quarterbacks complete around 60 percent of their passes.

Crist is a pocket passer who needs time to read plays.  Crist has a very high football IQ.  Despite this he is not a winner.  Crist went 4-5 for the Irish in 9 games before suffering his second injury against Tulsa.

Dayne Crist’s durability is the only major question. Crist suffered 2 season ending injuries.  One injury came during his sophomore year against Washington State where Crist tore his ACL.  Crist suffered another season ending knee injury to Tulsa last season.

Irish fans should not be too worried if Crist gets injured.  The Irish have one of the better backup quarterbacks in the country in Tommy Rees.  Rees went 4-0 during 4 starts as a freshman.  Rees first appeared for Notre Dame when Crist got injured.  Rees came into the Tulsa VS Notre Dame game after Crist threw 2 passes before getting injured.  If you count Tommy Rees’s gameplay against Tulsa he has thrown 12 touchdowns to 7 interceptions in 5 games.  Rees guided Notre Dame to an upset road win against the USC Trojans to wrap the regular season up for Notre Dame.  Rees had a completion percentage of 61 percentage.

Rees achieved a historic feat by becoming the first freshman quarterback at Notre Dame to lead the Irish to a Bowl Game Victory.  Tommy Rees winning a bowl game as a freshman quarterback at Notre Dame was impressive, but it was not the most impressive quality about this accomplishment.

What really stood out was how Rees performed against a Miami Hurricanes secondary with NFL talent on it.  The Hurricanes secondary featured cornerback Brandon Harris a potential 2011 first round pick at one point, cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke who I considered to be a 2011 sleeper, and 2012 strong safety prospect Ray Ray Armstrong.

In the 2010 Hyundai Sun Bowl Tommy Rees guided Notre Dame to a 33-17 victory over the Miami Hurricanes in the contest.  Rees went 15/29 throwing 201 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns, and no interceptions in the contest.  Despite the fact that Rees had a career low 51.7 completion percentage Rees showed he had the composure to pick apart a legit college secondary with future NFL talent on it.

Rees has never lost a start going 4-0 as a freshman despite the fact that he needs more experience and seasoning while Crist has made tremendous progress recovering from his injury.  The problem with Crist is he has the same problem that Jimmy Clausen had before he went to the NFL.  Clausen could not win games in college and that translated to the NFL.  The same thing could be said with Dayne Crist.  If Notre Dame is 1-2  or 1-3 with Crist as the starter do not be surprised if Brian Kelly hands the starting job to Tommy Rees for the duration of the regular season.

Notre Dame’s offensive line features 4 pass blockers who can buy the quarterback more time.  The main attraction in terms of the pass blockers are the Notre Dame offensive tackles.

Bookend tackles Zack Martin and Taylor Dever can protect Crist buying him more time in the pocket.  Martin plays left tackle while Dever plays right tackle.

Looking at the interior offensive line Notre Dame has center Braxston Cave and left guard Chris Watt as their top pass blockers.  Right guard Trevor Robinson is Notre Dame’s standout run blocker who opens up the running lanes.  Notre Dame’s interior offensive line even has some depth.  Backup center Mike Golic Jr. will step in and start should an injury occur on the offensive line.  Golic Jr. is the son of ESPN radio personality Mike Golic.

Notre Dame has some quality playmakers for their quarterback to throw to.  Michael Floyd is the clear cut #1 receiving target.  Floyd has the size and the hands of a flanker possession receiver.  Can Floyd stay out of trouble?  That is my main question with Floyd.  Notre Dame has a secondary receiver besides Michael Floyd in Theo Riddick who is a possession receiver with great speed.  Riddick may be undersized, but he’s Notre Dame’s version of Mike Wallace due to his outstanding speed and soft hands that make him an effective possession receiver.  Notre Dame does not need to worry about tight end Kyle Rudolph’s departure.  Tight end Tyler Eifert will be able to take his place.  Eifert is one of the top 2013 draft prospects at tight end.  I am anxious to see how Eifert adjusts to becoming the primary tight end with Rudolph gone.  Eifert gained some experience when Rudolph was injured.  I am just wondering if this is the year where Eifert emerges as another Notre Dame tight end and becomes a legit receiving target who stands out heading into 2012 next season.

Despite being a secondary back to Armando Allen Jr. until the Navy game where Allen suffered a season ending injury Wood saw extensive action as a secondary back.  Wood had 119 carries for 603 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns which was greater production than what Armando Allen Jr. provided with his 107 carries for 514 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns.  Cierre Wood showed his ability down the stretch filling in for Armando Allen Jr. when Notre Dame ended the season on a 4 game winning streak.  It would not surprise me to see Cierre Wood exceed the 1,200 rushing yard mark if he gets 200+ carries.

Notre Dame even has some quality special teams players.  Both kicker David Ruffer and punter Ben Turk display pinpoint accuracy when kicking the football.  Notre Dame’s special teams can improve by getting more kicking power out of their special teams players.  Improving the kicking power on Notre Dame’s special teams would allow the Irish can improve their field goal ratio and their ability to punt the football long distances.

 Defensive Outlook: Notre Dame’s defense ended the season on a very high note heading into 2011.  During Notre Dame’s final 4 games including their Sun Bowl win no team managed to score more than 17 points against Notre Dame’s defense.  The Fighting Irish defense surrendered a combined total of 39 points during their final 4 contests.  I know this sounds crazy, but if Notre Dame’s defense plays like they did to end the season in 2010 in 2011 keeping opponents to under 20 points on offense they have the ability to make a BCS Bowl Game while surprising a lot of nay sayers who doubt this Notre Dame football team.

The strong suit of this defense is the 3-4 linebackers and the cornerback play.  Notre Dame is led by 3-4 middle linebacker Mante Te’o.

Te’o can play anywhere in a 4-3 scheme at the WILL, MIKE, or SAM role or you can make him a 3-4 middle linebacker.  Te’o was a weak side linebacker who recorded 63 total tackles during his freshman campaign.  When Notre Dame shifted to the 3-4 his total tackles doubled as he recorded 133 total tackles.  In fact, Teo recorded more solo tackles 66 during his sophomore year than the 63 total tackles he posted as a true freshman. The same thing can be stated about Teo’s assisted tackle total.  Te’o recorded 67 assisted tackles during his sophomore year while only recorded 63 total tackles as a freshman.  Te’o posted 9.5 tackles for a loss so there is no denying the talent that Te’o has.  Te’o is a true blue collar 3-4 run stuffing inside linebacker that coaches dream of building their defense around.

Te’o is one of three underclassmen middle linebackers who could go in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft. The other two linebackers are Arizona State middle linebacker Vontaze Burfict and Boston College middle linebacker Luke Kuechly.  Burfict was a 5 star recruit out of high school and was listed in the top 10 in some 2012 NFL Mock Drafts.  Burfict looks like the clear cut #1 middle linebacker at this point.  With Arizona State’s easy schedule its hard for me to believe that Burfict will lose that ranking.

I expect Burfict to be the top middle linebacker taken next April unless a season ending injury or a poor performance during his junior year occurs.  Burfict is criticized for his cheap shot hits now and then.  If there is a middle linebacker who pass rushes like Ndamukong Suh and lays heavy hits on the quarterback like James Harrison who can stuff the run while dropping back in zone coverage you know you got a special prospect.  Those are the qualities that Arizona State’s Burfict brings to the table.

Boston College plays Notre Dame in South Bend on November 19th where Kuechly and Te’o will attempt to wow NFL GM’s with their run stuffing ability and play recognition skills on defense.  The Boston College VS Notre Dame game could decide which linebacker between Kuechly or Te’o deserves to go higher in the 2012 NFL Draft should both linebackers choose to forgo their senior seasons of college football by declaring for the NFL Draft.

The other linebackers who help Te’o operate this 3-4 defense are Carlo Calabrese and Darius Fleming.  Calabrese is the the 3-4 middle linebacker who plays next to Te’o.  Darius Fleming is Notre Dame’s top pass rusher.  Fleming led the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in sacks.  Fleming recorded 6 sacks for Notre Dame.  For a team with an inexperience defensive line 6 sacks is not too shabby.

Despite losing cornerback Darrin Walls Notre Dame has two other corners who can step in.  Senior cornerback Gary Grey and junior Robert Blanton can anchor the Notre Dame secondary.  Grey is a pure coverage corner who excelled against #2 wide receivers.  This season Grey goes up against each teams #1 receivers.  Lucky for Notre Dame there is not a true #1 wide receiver that they play against this season.  Chris Owusu was a #2 target behind Ryan Whalen.  Grey covered Owusu last season.

Robert Blanton is a hard hitting run stuffing corner who can press well when the opposing quarterback snaps the football.  Blanton used his hard hitting ability when blitzing the quarterback as a nickel corner.

This year Blanton will be more of coverage corner.  Blanton covered speed burning slot receivers last season.  This season Blanton will cover that secondary receiving target so if he gets beat in coverage more this season that will be the main reason why.

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco needs to work on two things in order for this Notre Dame defense to be more successful.

The first thing he needs to work on is helping his defensive lineman win the battle in the trenches against the offensive line.  The linebackers and cornerbacks are ready to succeed in Notre Dame.  A nice pop from the defensive line to give the pass rushers a quicker path to the quarterback could lead to more turnover chances and opportunities to convert turnovers.  Getting that extra pressure on the quarterback due to the defensive lineman winning the battles in the trenches could be the major difference in creating a scoring opportunity or allowing a scoring opportunity on defense when going up against a premier quarterback like Stanford’s Andrew Luck who torched Notre Dame in South Bend last season 37 to 14.

The second thing Notre Dame could improve is the pass rush.  Notre Dame’s leading sacker generated only 6 sacks.  While 6 sacks may not be bad for your lead pass rusher its not sack artist material that makes pocket passer quarterbacks quiver and quake in fear.   Notre Dame’s pass rushing needs to be tuned.  Notre Dame can improve their pass rushing by using freshman 3-4 left outside linebacker Prince Shembo as a pass rusher to bolster the defense or use making sure sure Fleming records double digit sacks this season.

 Projected Record 8-4 (Independent Conference Champions): Notre Dame opens the season with South Florida before two tough games one on the road against Michigan and a week 3 home contest against Michigan State.  The Fighting Irish host USC after defeating them on the road.  I am certain USC is looking for revenge after getting slapped in the face suffering a home loss to Notre Dame.  The Irish wrap up the season against Stanford on the road.  Last year the Irish hosted Stanford and got schooled.  This Notre Dame team is more mature than they were at the beginning of last season so things could be different.  I would not count on that as long as Stanford signal caller Andrew Luck and Cardinal blue chip left tackle Jonathan Martin are both healthy.