Film Don't Lie | RPOs vs USC

I’m not quite sure why, but for some reason, Notre Dame has been hesitant to embrace RPOs the last couple of seasons. This game against USC signalled that this might be changing with Notre Dame’s quarterbacks pulling the ball and choosing the pass in the run-pass option plays eight times against the Trojans.

Brian Kelly mentioned this important detail in his Monday press conference:

“You saw we were reading the box for the first time this year. Our run game now was predicated on what the box looked like. We hadn't done that up to this point and it was really effective. I would tell you that there'll be more to come.”

Doing that helped lead to Kyren Williams’ longest run of the day, but it also led to Notre Dame deciding not to run in certain situations and take what the defense was giving them on the perimeter.

Forget the fact that they took too long to get to this point and embrace that this should make the offense more successful. There’s so much on offense that has to do with math and taking advantage of numbers in the running or passing game. Notre Dame did that in this game.

This play there are in 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends) and USC essentially has eight in the box to defend the run. Rather than take their chances there, Jack Coan sees that the corner is in off coverage against Kevin Austin (4) and there are easy yards to be had. They complete the out for eight yards instead of grinding away for a couple inside.

That big gain for Lorenzo Styles Jr. on the screen was also an RPO. Notre Dame has trips to the boundary and USC doesn’t have enough players to defend there. Avery Davis (3) doesn’t even have someone to block because the Trojans don’t have enough players there.

The run action sucks in the linebackers and freezes the nickel backer (35). Styles’ speed doesn’t allow those players to catch up and that combined with a great block by the tight end creates a big play.

Here they are on a drive where they need to score to put the game away. It’s an obvious run down with it being 2nd and 1. They could easily give to Kyren and convert, but the right call is to throw the bubble to Davis. If Austin sticks with his block longer, this might have even broken for a big gain.

If the perimeter blocking from the receivers gets better, then we’ll start to see more big plays like the one Styles had.

But it’s not about big plays. It’s about taking the easy plays and forcing defenses to defend the entire field.

These plays are there for Notre Dame. They have been there. They simply haven’t taken advantage of it, but that changed this week and it sounds like it’s going to continue the rest of the season.