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2 Headed Monster……And then what?
Welcome to Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Positional Hot Takes. As a reminder to all of the readers, this is HEAVILY driven by you and comments are strongly encouraged. The thought here is to bring in your HOT takes only as this is the off season. The payoff will be much longer, but these pages will live in perpetuity (big word) for you to tell your friends, family, and strangers that you, “called it”. Since this isn’t geared towards specific games, I will go position by position with my own takes.
A key position that will look very different than a year ago is the running back room. Notre Dame lost Audric Estime to the NFL and Gi’bran Payne to unfortunate knee injury. Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love are the most experienced, and Devyn Ford has recently been switched back to RB after a short hiatus at safety. Closing out the room are talented Freshman Aneyas Williams and Kedron Young. All in all, this is a very strong group with a diverse skillset and Coach McCullough will creatively get the entire group involved. It is also worth noting that having an elite rushing quarterback in Riley Leonard will only give more running room to the backs.
Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love both exceed 1,000 all purpose yards
Emphasis here is on all purpose yards. It is no secret that these 2 are the top dogs on the team, but have very different styles of play, which will likely get them both on the field at the same time. Denbrock has also shown an affinity for getting his playmakers the ball in space (watch LSU for 2 minutes). I expect him to lean heavily on Love in the pass/screen game while Price gets more true carries between the tackles. Another reason why I am bullish on these two exceeding 1,000 yards is they are both home run hitters. Love is one of the most explosive players on the team and Price is heading into the year fully healthy and ready to be a bell cow. Finally, Riley Leonard is a HUGE threat running the ball and will be respected in the zone read concept. This will ensure bigger holes and opportunities for guys getting the ball as opposed to taking a zone read from Drew Pyne or Sam Hartman.
Every Running back scores 2 or more touchdowns
Losing Gi’bran Payne opened the door for the two freshman to get carries throughout the year. The schedule also offers some soft opponents which will all but guarantee more touches for those 2. Additionally, Payne was the short yardage back and great in pass pro….Devyn Ford will likely insert himself early in the year in this role, and likely will be rewarded with some touches near the goal line. Finally, the coaches are hoping for a playoff run this year….they will not try and run Love and Price into the ground. The offensive staff will also want to get the youngsters touches early, as this could (theoretically) be the longest season in Notre Dame history. Games like Stanford, Army, Navy, and NIU should get these guys going, especially in the 4th quarter.
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