How Notre Dame found its offensive identity in time for Ohio State
Entering last season’s matchup with Ohio State, no one knew what Notre Dame’s identity on offense was. That included Notre Dame.
With a new head coach, a new quarterback and the leading receiver and leading rusher from the prior season gone, Notre Dame didn’t know what it could do well. It showed on Sept. 3, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. The Irish managed 253 total yards and were shut out after halftime and they lost 21-10.
“I think going into last season, you had some questions on what was our identity,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said. “This is game one, right? What was our identity on offense? Similar to this year, game one. You don’t know until you face an opponent.”
This year, with the Buckeyes coming to town, Freeman, offensive coordinator Gerad Parker and company know what they’re capable of.
Having a quarterback of graduate student Sam Hartman’s caliber helps. The over-the-top passing game is a much larger part of the offensive attack than it was last season. But thanks to strong run blocking on pro-style gap concepts and junior running back Audric Estimé’s refusal to get tackled, the name of the game for the Irish isn’t one play or another right now.
It’s not a hurry-up, air raid system, and it’s not a Big Ten West-style, “3 yards and a cloud of dust” slog, either. It is, as Freeman puts it, complementary football.
“We’re not gonna go rapid speed,” Freeman said. “I don’t wanna go up tempo and go as fast as we can. … We’re not gonna throw deep balls every play, right? It’s complementary football.”
Hartman’s presence is a huge factor in Notre Dame’s ability to do that. As Parker said earlier this week, “It all starts with the quarterback.” But that quarterback, as he often does, pointed to the strengths around him as reasons the offense found an identity that works four games in.
“We have an unbelievable O-line that I have a lot of confidence in,” Hartman said. “Our running backs have all been playing incredibly well. Tight ends have been doing great, and outside, I mean, we’ve shown we have some explosive capabilities and the ability to spread the ball around when we need to and be able to run the ball when we can.”
Notre Dame has shown the ability to adjust its game plan as necessary, as it did in Week 2 against NC State.
The Irish came out looking to run the ball, but the Wolfpack played extremely aggressively and loaded the box to stop it. On third-and-long early in the game, created by unsuccessful run plays, NC State blitzed and Hartman had no chance.
Parker adjusted, spreading the team out and passing more on early downs. Later, once the Wolfpack backed off, he went back to the run. When NC State rekindled its aggressiveness, Hartman threw 3 touchdown passes off of play action.
“If you look at offenses and look at things as seasons grow, you hope you put on tape for our group and our players put on tape the ability to develop strong tendencies,” Parker said. “You want to keep building strong tendencies and then, of course, grow because of our tendencies and still make it hard enough for people to fit us properly, cover us properly and all those things it takes to get through a year successfully. “
Notre Dame will look to make it as difficult as possible for an extremely talented Ohio State defense to lock onto a single tendency and make life difficult for Hartman and/or Estimé. If the first four games are an indication, the Irish can do that.
Tonight, they have a chance to prove it.
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