What I Hope to see in the Citrus Bowl

More Opportunities for Young Players

So much has happened since then, so it’s easy to forget that Mike McGlinchey had his first career start in the Music City Bowl versus LSU back in 2014. That was a breakout game for him and the rest of the offensive line as a whole and it gave a glimpse of what was to come during the rest of his time wearing blue and gold.

I’m not sure if there will be any situation like that for this match-up with LSU, but I do think there will be an opportunity for freshman Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa to play a big role in this game beside Jerry Tillery at defensive tackle. He might not jump ahead of Jonathan Bonner for his starting job in his final game for Notre Dame, but it would not surprise me if MTA ended up playing more snaps than Bonner.

Time has to be earned in the practices leading up to the game by the young players, but I would love to see some freshman skill players like CJ Holmes, Michael Young, Cole Kmet, and Brock Wright see the field in more situations as well. Even if they don’t crack the lineup in base packages on offense, this is the time to design some plays for them to potentially catch LSU by surprise after not seeing much on film from previously.

Holmes in particular would be an intriguing option because of his ability to line up the backfield and catch the ball. Getting him one on one with a linebacker on a route is exactly the kind of thing he can excel at. I’d love to see that from him in this game and beyond.

More Distribution to the Running Backs

This isn’t a call for more carries for any back in particular. It’s simply a call for more touches for Josh Adams, Dexter Williams, Tony Jones, Deon McIntosh, or Holmes. Notre Dame has Jones, McIntosh, and Holmes have receiver skills. Williams is not known for his hands, but he is a dangerous player in space. Adams was the most productive offensive player against Georgia because of what he did as a receiver. And yet, they were only targeted 28 times this season (19 catches).

I’m all for running the football as much as possible, but LSU has one of the better run defenses in the nation. With the way Brandon Wimbush has thrown the ball, they will definitely elect to load the box to stop the run as well. That doesn’t mean Notre Dame should limit the touches to the backs when they do that, though.

Chip Long needs to get all of them more involved in the passing game and there is no better time to start than against LSU.

More Havoc

I don’t want to downplay what Mike Elko accomplished with this defense this season. Even though there were some depth issues and some areas where the personnel wasn’t where it needed to be, he turned around a group that was in the bottom ⅓ of defenses into one that was ranked in the top ⅓ of just about every statistical category.

The best should be yet to come with the majority of the defense coming back and one area where they can hopefully make a leap in this bowl game and in 2018 is by creating havoc. That means sacks, tackles for loss, forced fumbles, interceptions, and pass breakups. They were much better this season than the one before Elko arrived. The defense improved from 102nd in the nation in Havoc Rate to 60th.

That’s a step in the right direction, but not close to where anyone wants them to be. His defense at Wake helped win their bowl game against Temple with 4 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, 4 passes broken up, 2 forced fumbles, and an interception last year. It was their most disruptive performance of the season. We haven’t seen a game from the Notre Dame defense this season that has been that disruptive. This match-up would be a perfect time for it occur with players like Julian Okwara, Daelin Hayes, Khalid Kareem, and Te’Von Coney leading the way.