Ian Book Feels Notre Dame Offense Trending Up

It's Clemson week and that means Notre Dame will face a fierce pass rush from Brent Venables. 

Notre Dame wasn't bad in pass protection during Saturday's 31-13 win over Georgia Tech, but it wasn't the standard Jeff Quinn's unit set in previous weeks. 

Head coach Brian Kelly wasn't concerned, but he knows his offensive line will need to raise their game this weekend. 

"There were times that Ian had to escape," Kelly said. "18-for-26. He had time on a number of third downs. When you're 10-of-15 on third-down, you're not looking to chase anyone down, saying the quarterback didn't have any time to convert third downs. Can we be better? Absolutely. Probably not going to be the first thing I'm chasing down is our protection issues against Georgia Tech. There's other things we have to get better at across the board.

"They some penetration and we missed a couple of opportunities down there, but by and large, it really didn't jump out at me when I take notes on the sideline."

Quarterback Ian Book was pleased with how his offense performed over the weekend, but he wants the Irish to clean up the flags. 

"We haven't peaked yet," explained Book. "Coach Kelly kept talking about it. Keep ascending your game week in and week out. Just keep going up and up. 

"He challenged us with Pitt and we were able to do that and throw the ball around. Guys on the perimeter made some huge plays and we were able to do that today. We took another step forward and there are some plays we want back. We definitely hurt ourselves. We'll go back to the drawing board and get that fixed." 

The Fighting Irish controlled the game against Georgia Tech and the game was never in doubt, which is what Kelly wanted to see from his team heading Saturday's top-five showdown. 

"It's just about getting better every week," Book said. "It is about just getting the win - there is no doubt about that, but we want to win in a dominant fashion. We've known this Clemson game is on the schedule and we're here now."

There is also no question Book has started to sharpen his game as the Irish offense has found a little consistency with its receiver rotation. 

It's still not an ideal situation with Kevin Austin Jr. and Braden Lenzy out with injuries this week, but Book feels the offense is trending in the right direction.

"I worked on a lot of things," stated Book. "One of the main things was timing and knowing where guys would be at the right time. We've been able to get better at that every week. I feel more comfortable with those guys on the perimeter.

"The other one was just bringing juice to this offense and keep rolling. We know what we can do. We hurt ourselves a few times and we understood that Georgia Tech's a really good football team, but we felt we could drive up and down the field. We would get down there and we would make a mistake that would hurt ourselves.

"I'm glad I've had a few good games under my belt and I'm ready to keep going. I've got a lot more work to do, though." 

Kelly has also emphasized starting fast in 2020. Notre Dame scored on its first offensive possession on Saturday and while it took 15 plays, Book was pleased with the offense battling early adversity. 

"At the end of the day, the last two weeks, we've scored on our first drive," said Book. "It took a while. This team is gritty. We had a penalty and had to get a few third downs. We took up a lot of time to go down and get a score on our first drive. 

"I think Coach Kelly wants is the next possession - keep scoring. It's not just one and done. You have to do it for the first and second quarter. You have to keep your foot on the gas."