Notre Dame offensive line named best through 4 weeks

Pro Football Focus has graded every college football offensive line in the nation a month in and you-know-who is rated first.

The first four weeks of college football have come and gone and as we turn our calendars to October, we look back a bit on the first month of the season of college football.

When you do that with Notre Dame a good place to look in terms of performance level is their offensive line unit.

Why?

Well, it’s not just because the program has developed into “O-Line U” in recent years but because this was the unit that was supposed to be the strongest of any for Notre Dame entering 2020.

Now a month in (just two games in this case) Notre Dame’s offensive line is graded by Pro Football Focus to be the best so far early on in this young college football season.

The Pro Football Focus writeup on the Notre Dame offensive line:

1. NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH

LT: Liam Eichenberg — 93.7 PFF grade
LG: Aaron Banks — 82.2 PFF grade
C: Jarrett Patterson — 91.4 PFF grade
RG: Tommy Kraemer  — 72.9 PFF grade
RT: Robert Hainsey — 88.6 PFF grade

The Fighting Irish came in at No. 1 in our preseason rankings, and they have certainly played like it thus far. On true pass sets (i.e., no play action, screen, quick throw, etc), The Irish have the highest-graded offensive line (88.5) in the country among those with at least 25 such reps. For perspective on how good that is, second place has a 76.2 grade. As you can find in CFB Premium Stats, the Irish offensive line is also the highest-graded unit in the run game.

Starting left tackle Liam Eichenberg leads the unit and is the highest-graded tackle in the country. He’s the only tackle to produce grades above 85.0 in both pass protection and as a run blocker. Center Jarrett Patterson also leads his position in PFF grade, while guard Aaron Banks and tackle Robert Hainsey each crack the top 10 at their respective positions. Guard Tommy Kraemer may not have a top-10 grade like his peers, but it’s still a solid mark relative to his counterparts. He has also allowed just one pressure in 2020.

Because of questions at running back coming in and injuries and a lack of production early on from the wide receivers, it’s more important than ever to get great results from the offensive line and through a pair of games its safe to say that Notre Dame is getting exactly that.

Joining the Irish in the top 5 were:

2. BYU
3. Appalachian State
4. Clemson
5. Marshall