Notre Dame football: Areas that demand upgrade

[Brad]

Excerpt, link is below:

1. QB Numbers

Passing Efficiency isn’t a long-time reliable indicator of teams that get to the BCS and win at that level, but it sure was last season.

Eight of the 10 BCS teams ranked in the top 15 nationally in that category. Of the stragglers, Oklahoma was 25th and Big East champ UConn was 112th. The Irish were 59th.

With Notre Dame, it gets a bit more complex than simply a first-year quarterback improving in year 2, that is if Kelly follows through on the notion of employing a change-up quarterback (Andrew Hendrix or Everett Golson) to complement Dayne Crist or Tommy Rees, as Florida did with Chris Leak/Tim Tebow during its 2006 national title run.

Starter Leak ranked 23rd nationally in passing efficiency for the Gators that year, but freshman Tebow’s contributions elevated that standing to 14th as a team.

Tebow was also a big part of the run game, finishing the 2006 season as Florida’s second-leading rusher. Overall, Leak accounted for 212.3 yards per game in total offense, Tebow 59.1. Finding the right ratio of playing time and the right circumstances to employ the change-up QB is where art meets science in the equation.

It’s also important to note, that Florida quarterback tandem had a wonderful safety net in the Gator defense, which ranked no lower than sixth nationally in any of the four major defensive categories.

2. Rush defense

It’s still the top predictor of teams that land in the BCS and win games there. From 2005-09, only seven of the 48 teams that landed a BCS berth in that span didn’t have a rush defense ranked among the top 25 nationally. Two of those were Weis-coached ND teams that collapsed on the big stage in large part because of that deficiency.

In 2010, seven of the 10 BCS entrants were among the top 27 rush defense teams. And in four of the five BCS matchups in 2010-11, the team with the better rush defense prevailed. The only exception was the Oklahoma-Connecticut mismatch, though both teams in that game were statistically inferior to ND (Connecticut 51st, Oklahoma 58th).

The Irish finished 50th in rush defense, a significant climb of 29 spots from their standing at the end of October.

For those who wonder about how viable ND’s competition was in the four game stretch of Utah-Army-USC-Miami, here are some comparables:

nþUtah averaged 165 yards a game and 4.9 per carry against everyone but ND; 71 yards and 2.7 against the Irish.

nþArmy averaged 273 and 4.7 against the rest of its schedule; 135 and 3.1 against ND.

nþUSC averaged 217 and 5.3 against the rest of its schedule; 74 and 2.6 against ND.

Miami averaged 190 and 4.9 against the rest of its schedule; 87 and 3.5 against ND.

3. Total defense

Auburn (60th) became the first team in the BCS Era (1998-present) to win the national title with a total defense ranking lower than 25th. And only four of the 10 BCS teams ranked in the top 25 in total defense in 2010.

Anomaly? Perhaps.

The Irish improved from 77th to 50th in total defense nationally during its four-game win streak and 62nd to 23rd in scoring defense.

4. Rush offense

If Kelly was on the fence about what a strong running game could mean when he arrived, he’s jumped off now.

The Irish, ranked 92nd nationally in rush offense in 2010, were 7-0 in games in which they outrushed their opponent and 1-5 in the games in which they didn’t. Overall, ND is 27-0 since the start of the 2005 season when winning the running game battle.

From a BCS perspective, Auburn and Oregon were fifth and fourth, respectively, in the national rush offense rankings. Five of the eight other BCS teams were in the top 25.

Preseason No. 1 Oklahoma was 83rd in 2010, which would have seemed to make the Sooners a less-likely choice to open the 2011 season as the nation’s top-ranked team.

5. Turnover margin

Notre Dame improved from 81st to 51st in this category over the last four games of the season, tying the Irish with the lowest-ranking BCS participant in turnover margin, Arkansas. Auburn finished 33rd. The rest of the BCS field ranked in the top 20, with seven of them in the top 11.

The Irish played three turnover-free games in 2010, two of which (Utah and Miami) came during the season-ending surge. Since 1985, the final season of the coach Gerry Faust Era at ND, the Irish are 57-4-1 in games in which they don’t commit a turnover.

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[DELdaBull]

Let's whip 'em!!!!