More Big Plays Abound for Notre Dame?
Winning is fun. I know that’s not breaking news, but sometimes it gets forgotten that winning ugly is still pretty great. The 2012 Notre Dame team is a perfect example of that. It wasn’t always pretty, but 12-0 in the regular season was fun for fans no matter how they got there.
But you know what’s even more fun? Big plays.
Will Fuller scoring a 75 yard touchdown against Adoree Jackson on the first play against USC. CJ Prosise going for 91 against Georgia Tech. Brandon Wimbush out running Harold Landry to the corner and then taking it 65 to the house versus Boston College. Josh Adams putting the nail in NC State’s coffin with a 77 yard dash.
If you hate explosive plays on offense, then you probably hate puppies and ice cream. Or you’re a defensive coordinator. But if you’re not a DC, then you love seeing dynamic athletes making big plays on offense.
Those kinds of plays in 2015 and 2017 helped make those two offenses become more fun than any of the other six that played for Brian Kelly. They were not only fun, but extremely productive. The 2015 offense finished 6th in yards per play and the ‘17 version finished 21st. That was largely due to the fact that they were explosive.
In 2015 the Irish finished 10th in isoPPP, a metric created by SB Nation’s Bill Connelly, that measures explosiveness on offense. Last season they also finished 10th in that same category. It could be argued that the amount of big plays they produced were as important as anything else they did in helping them win 10 games in both of those seasons.
Those plays don’t happen if you don’t have the personnel to create them. If Notre Dame is going to continue to be dynamic on offense in 2018, then they’ll need players to emerge as consistent big play threats.
Wimbush proved he could be one as a runner last fall (nine games with at least one run of 20 yards or more). With no Adams (basically a kajillion big plays), there will be some asked to fill the void that he left.
The good new is that there isn’t a shortage of candidates.
Dexter Williams
An injury and some inconsistency with other parts of his game meant Williams was not a constant in the backfield last season. When he did play, his burst and breakaway ability was on display. He averaged 9.2 yards per carry. He's capable of creating something out of nothing like did on this highlight reel run against Syracuse in 2016.
Whether he is the featured back or not, they’ll need him to do more of that this season.
Miles Boykin
Currently in the middle of a dominant spring, Boykin is not exactly a burner, but we’ve seen him make big plays like the one that no one will forget against LSU in the Citrus Bowl. That kind of ridiculous one-handed catch and run isn’t something that he’ll likely duplicate, though.
If Boykin has the breakthrough that everyone expects him to have, then his big plays are often going to involve him winning 50/50 balls down the field. If he’s thriving in that area, then teams may look to match up against him with size rather than speed.
Chip Long may try to move him around like they did against Miami (OH) as well. The Redhawks tried to have a linebacker run with Boykin down the field with him. The end result was this.
Michael Young, Lawrence Keys III, and Braden Lenzy
I’m lumping these three in together because we haven’t seen them do it at the college level, but they all have the explosive traits that can translate to big plays. Young didn’t get to show any of that in his brief playing time as a freshman, but he showed that potential as a prospect and during practices.
Keys and Lenzy can both fly down the field. Whether one or two of them can do enough to contribute that as a freshman is yet to be determined. But they should all be options that Long and the staff can potentially design plays for to help Notre Dame’s offense remain explosive in 2018.