Many say it, and it seems to be true: if they’re talking about the O-line, that’s no good. And lately, not many people are talking about it at ND. The Duche has done a good job, folks.
One of the biggest question marks out there pre-season was ‘CAN the ND O-line get better?’. Wasn’t even ‘will’, just CAN. Well, they can, and they have.
Frank Verducci came in with a big task, and he’s been up to the challenge.
“It was a concern when I got here, because I know they were like — for lack of a better term — abused,” Irish offensive line coach Frank Verducci said. “It was like they’d been locked in the closet. They did have issues that were very evident in their approach. Just little things they would say, you could tell they were damaged goods in some way.
“So the first thing you try to do is build up their confidence — if you do these techniques, if you buy into this, good things are going to happen.”
Good things have happened.
Is our O-line amazing? Nope. But they’re serviceable in the running game. And when you have all-american caliber players at WR (multiple), TE and QB, and a decent and deep squad of RBs, that’s good enough. And it’s a HECK of a lot better than the past few years (coughcoughgoodlord2007lordylordylordycoughcough).
A few stats to highlight the improvement in some areas, and, well, slim improvement in others. Note: Sacks, which distort all of the rushing stats (especially 2007), are included.
Rushing Yards Per Game/Yards Per Carry:
2004 – 139/3.3
2005 – 160/3.6 +15% and +9% increases respectively
2006 – 136/3.9 -15% and +8% respectively
2007 – 75/2.1 -45% and -46%. UGH.
2008 – 119/3.3 +58% and +57%. 08 wasn’t great, but it was a vast improvement over 2007.
2009 – 148/4.0 +24% and +21%.
2009 is showing marked improvement in our running game, and we’re finally ranked about average nationally (58th rushing attack or so). Again, not amazing, but not bad either. With a passing attack like ours, this is pretty solid.
Also note that ND has just gotten into 4 yards per carry territory, which is generally where elite teams fall (maybe a bit higher, but we’re knockin on the doorstep). Weis hasn’t had a 4 YPC year yet at ND, though he came close at 3.9 in 2006. (Not coincidentally, the last year we were any good.)
What’s surprising to me is that our Sacks Allowed Stats actually aren’t looking great this year, and there’s actually a slight decrease in performance vs last year. You’d think that with another year under their belt, and a better fit with the coaching staff, and a decent run game to take some of the pressure off Jimmy, etc that the Sacks Allowed numbers would improve. Nope. And it’s also strange because it doesn’t FEEL like we’re getting sacked a lot. And we’re not, a lot. But more than last year.
Sacks Allowed per Game and National Rank follow:
2006 – 2.31 ranked 89th
2007 – 4.83 and DEAD LAST
2008 – 1.69 and 51
2009 – 2.13 and 68
Really? We only gave up 1.69 sacks per game last year? That’s MUCH better than I thought we were. I guess a lot of that perception about ND having sack issues last year was just hangover from 2007 when OH MY GOD DON’T LOOK OH YOU LOOKED THE HORROR THE HORROR!
It was so bad.
So ND currently sits in the lower 60’s in ranking, at just over 2 sacks allowed per game. 2 ain’t bad, but I’d like to see us get under 2 again by the end of the season. It’s a reachable goal, especially without any more USC-caliber defenses on the schedule.
The boys up front are largely running low, under the radar now. That’s a good thing. Let’s see if they can get just a little bit lower.
How low can you go, boys? You want to be a Limbo Star or what? Keee keeee keeeee keeeeee!
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