:: Notre Dame Football ::
Fighting Irish defense prepares for young Boston College offense with explosive running game
Boston College brings an unpredictable offense into Notre Dame Stadium with skilled positions dominated by freshmen and sophomores, including sophomore running back Montel Harris, who just rushed for 264 yards and 5 touchdowns against North Carolina State. In a 52-20 blowout win for the Eagles, Harris averaged nearly 10 yards per rush against the Wolfpack.
The Eagles, and Harris, have seen their rushing numbers and offensive totals all over the map. What can be assumed, however, is that Boston College and their new offensive coordinator will bring what they think are their most innovative game plan tailor-made to Notre Dame, which might include having one or both of their freshman quarterbacks in the two-deep trying to throw on the Irish to see what happens.
Boston College, 5-2 on the year against a wildly varying quality of opponent, has averaged 329 yards per game on offense, ranked only 97th in the FBS/Div. I-A. However, while their passing game has only been averaging 171 yards per game, ranked 106th out of 120 teams, the Eagles have rushed for 155 yards per game, ranked 51st nationally.
But as mentioned above, both the overall offensive numbers and rushing output for Boston College has varied widely.
In a close win over Florida State and the blowout win over North Carolina State, Boston College had over 400 yards of offense, ran the ball 38 and 43 times respectively, significantly more than the number of passes thrown, and the Eagles totaled 284 and 293 yards rushing as a team.
Against Florida State, Harris had 184 yards rushing, around 7 yards per carry, and then there was the 264-yard explosion against North Carolina State.
But in a 48-14 loss to Virginia Tech two weeks ago, BC only gained 78 yards rushing, and Harris had only 43 yards rushing, with Harris averaging a little less than 4 yards per carry. Against the Hokies the BC play-calling was more balanced, with 29 rushes and 28 passes. The Eagles only had 163 yards total offense against the Hokies.
And while Harris is a top-15 rusher nationally, Harris's individual rushing yardage has been up and down all year, with him only rushing for 13 yards in a loss to Clemson, averaging only about a yard per rush, 13 yards net on 12 rushes.
Irish Defense Looking to Bolster
Meanwhile, the Irish defense, after facing high-powered Southern Cal and helping Notre Dame take the game to the wire, has plummeted in national statistics for overall yardage surrendered. Notre Dame's defense is now 104th, giving up around 420 yards per game. The pass defense is near the very bottom of the rankings for passing yardage surrendered, 117th out of 120 teams in the FBS/Div. I-A, giving up 283 yards per game. With respect to passing efficiency defense, which effectively adjusts for the number of plays involved, credits interceptions, and so forth, Notre Dame is 96th.
But the numbers are somewhat exaggerated to begin with, given that, as compared with teams in the top-25 rankings in the polls, Notre Dame plays what has quietly turned out to be one of the toughest schedules in the country.
And Notre Dame's defense against the run is stronger than their pass defense, ranked 63rd, giving up 136 yards per game.
In their past four games, the Notre Dame defense has given up less than four yards per rush, 3.9 to be exact.
Against Southern Cal, with their previously high-powered rushing offense, Notre Dame kept the Trojans somewhat below their average rushing yardage, as well as their average yards per carry. Against their own tough slate of opponents, before playing Notre Dame, the Trojans averaged 208 yards per game rushing, 5.5 yards per carry. The Irish held Southern Cal to 121 yards on the ground, 3.9 yards per carry, a pretty solid day for the Notre Dame rushing defense against one of the country's best teams.
And Notre Dame did that against a Southern Cal team with a high-powered offense across the board, while Boston College has not thrown the ball for extensive passing yardage.
Notre Dame also shut out Nevada in their season opener, who are now the #1 rushing team in the country.
Perhaps more importantly, the Irish defense has come through in the clutch, and tends to play harder as the game goes on.
Unless the Eagles start lighting it up through the air, the Notre Dame-Boston College game could provide another interesting yard-stick for just how tough, strong and athletic the Irish defense actually is man-for-man against the run.
While Notre Dame has been troubled with some missed tackles on occasion, when Notre Dame has given up big plays, including gashing runs up the middle earlier in the season, it appeared the defense was not necessarily out-muscled or out-manned, but rather out of position.
So another interesting question will be whether historically blitz-happy Assistant Head Coach Jon Tenuta, tasked with defensive play-calling this season, will focus more on building up uniform strength across the box to stifle the run.
Also interesting is the emergence of freshman linebacker Manti Te'o as a leading tackler in recent games when he got his first true starts where he also played more extensively. Against Southern Cal, fellow linebacker junior Brian Smith and Te'o co-led the Irish in tackles. Meanwhile other fellow linebacker sophomore Darius Fleming is among the top-15 nationally in tackles for loss. And the defensive line has been stepping up its tackling productivity in recent weeks as well, including sophomore defensive end Kapron-Lewis Moore, senior linebacker-turned-defensive end John Ryan, junior nose tackle Ian Williams, and sophomore defensive tackle Ethan Johnson.
It seems as if Notre Dame's defense has its share of young starters as well.
Young Eagles
As mentioned above, Boston College's skilled positions on offense are dominated by underclassman. Both quarterbacks on the depth chart, Dave Shinskie and Mike Marscovetra, are freshmen (both also 6-4, incidentally). At halfback, Harris is a sophomore and his back-up is a freshman. The starting fullback is a sophomore (with a junior back-up). The tight-end is a freshman, with a sophomore back-up. The two starting wide-receivers, however, are seniors, and the starting interior linemen are mostly upperclassmen, with the exception of a sophomore at left guard.
The young starting quarterback has not thrown for extensive yardage, but has a respectable middle-of-the-pack quarterback rating, with 9 touchdowns to 4 interceptions, completing 54% of his passes. Against North Carolina State and Florida State, in each game he had two passing touchdowns and no interceptions. But against Virginia Tech, he had the reverse, two interceptions and no touchdowns.
Big Right Side of the Line to Bolster BC Running Game
While not as big as Notre Dame's offensive line, the Boston College interior line has its share of heft. While the left half of the line and the center are around 290-295, the right guard and right tackle are both listed at about 325. Both tight-ends in the two-deep, however, are only around 245, but on the other hand, the starting fullback is as big the tight-ends, around 245 himself. So it might be interesting to see what kinds of formations the Eagles run out of against the Irish, and the effectiveness of the tight-ends as blockers.
New Coaching
In addition to Boston College having a new head coach, a largley defensive coach promoted from within to replace an outgoing head coach with offensive emphasis, and that new head coach has hired a new offensive coordinator.
First-year Boston College Head Coach Frank "Spaz" Spaziani has been with the Eagles for 13 years as an assistant coach (technically, he was listed as interim head coach for a bowl several years back, between coaching changes). But while Spaziani coached running backs for two years at BC a decade ago, Spaziani spent the past 10 years as a defensive coach, indeed a highly effective defensive coordinator whose defense last year was near the top nationally.
New Boston College Offensive Coordinator Gary Tranquill was hired this year by Spaziani, and as mentioned above, the outgoing head coach was an offensive coach. So there definitely is a new and different hand at the helm of the Boston College offense.
Tranquill, with 40 years of coaching experience at the college and professional level, most recently was a quarterbacks coach in NFL Europe in 2007, with his previous stint being five years as offensive coordinator at North Carolina during the first half of this decade.
Spaziani was promoted after Boston College fired their previous head coach, Jeff Jagodzinski for talking to the New York Jets against the wishes of Boston College. Jagodzinski ended up as offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In any event, the outgoing head coach was an offensive coach, who this year is now absent from the program. And the current offensive coordinator is a new hire by the current head coach, who has been chiefly a defensive coach in recent years.
Conclusion
Despite the relative youth of the Boston College offense, the game has huge institutional memory implications, and Boston College undoubtedly believes it can beat Notre Dame until proven otherwise. And it could be easy to underestimate the Irish defense.
With that said, Notre Dame is better on defense than is fully appreciated, plays harder as the game goes on, looks for game-changing plays. And Notre Dame is actually, perhaps deceptively, a bit hard-nosed against the run, especially when it focuses on the run and focuses on a particular back.
Look for Boston College to possibly surprise people by testing the waters throwing on Notre Dame a bit, and for Tenuta to decide whether he wants to take the bait, posed by the youth situation, to blitz the freshman quarterback, even if that means rolling the dice and risk, at various times, hitting pay dirt or being out of position.
Look for the Irish to hold the passing at least somewhat in check, especially if they can get to the young quarterback, and possibly stuff the run. If the Eagles can't throw, it's going to be tough sledding for Boston College.
Boston College had big days offensively against North Carolina State and Florida State, but if they have to rely on the run against Notre Dame they might discover themselves hitting a wall.
Because of the dynamic at work, and how the Irish defense is balanced, and the actual athletic ability man-by-man for the Irish, the defense is going to surprise people going up against a team with a young quarterback that needs the run and might not be able to get it this time.
Keywords: Notre Dame Football, Fighting Irish, Jon Tenuta, Brian Smith, Manti Te'o, Defensive Line, Boston College Football, Boston College Eagles, College Football, Football, Irish Defense, Eagles Offense, Running Game, Rushing Defense, Passing, Pass Defense
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