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Level 1
Re: By the Numbers: Notre Dame Football Outscores Wisconsin 28-3 After Halftime
The biggest areas of growth for this team are going to be the OL and DL. Both units have the talent to become among the very best in the country, and right now, they clearly are not.
The OL looked like the typical Rudolph mess to start the season, but it was remarkably better in the second half. That’s a really encouraging sign. The difference from years past is that, this time, he actually seems to have the right players in the right spots, and there’s so much talent in that room that it should be almost impossible to screw up. If this group stays healthy, I don’t see how it doesn’t develop into the best Notre Dame OL we’ve seen since Heistand.
The DL has ridiculous talent and depth as well. Partridge is new, and he’s working with Ash again, so I’d give that group until somewhere around midseason before it really starts to hit its stride. There’s simply too much talent there for it not to become a dominant unit once the players have had more time with Partridge.
To me, Notre Dame won’t fully arrive as the best team in the country until those two lines start dominating the way they’re capable of. When that happens, the ceiling for this team is about as high as it gets.
"Put a Riddell on somebody and be the most physical team in the country until the whistle blows."-
Level 2
Mildly frustrating it seems every year they realize they picked the wrong winner of a battle
And that even predates Rudolph. Remember 2021 when the line almost fixed itself overnight once they inserted Alt? Seems like it happens almost every year along the offensive line. Once Absher was in, the line settled and the running game started to gel a little.Frankie V
Webmaster/Writer UHND.com-
Level 3
Re: Mildly frustrating it seems every year they realize they picked the wrong winner of a battle
The handling of the OL in 2021 was unusually incompetent. After Fisher went down, they worked through Carmody and Baker before finally turning to Alt. At LG, it was arguably even worse. Zeke Correll, who was a good center, spent roughly the first six games playing obviously out of position at guard before they finally replaced him with Kristofic. Once those changes were made, the line got significantly better. The first half of that season was an absolute nightmare up front.
The frustrating part is that some of these things seem so obvious to lay observers that it shouldn’t be this difficult for professional coaches to get them right, and it certainly shouldn’t take half a season to figure them out.
Knapp is a guard. Lambert is a tackle. It’s not rocket science.
"Put a Riddell on somebody and be the most physical team in the country until the whistle blows."-
Level 4
Seems like they outsmarted themselves
Basically, could have just kept 4 of 5 starters exactly where they were and called it a day. Instead, 4 players either made their first career starts overall or a start at a new position. The results looked like a line that was comfortable early on too. I do think long term Knapp has to be a guard if he wants to play on the next level though so I can see them sticking with him there.Frankie V
Webmaster/Writer UHND.com
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End of conversation