Tag: offensive line U

Notre Dame’s top five offensive lineman since 1992

Happy #NationalLinemanAppreciationDay to all who celebrate. Who are your top 5? #ThankALineman

Depending on who you ask Notre Dame is known as being “Tight End U” or “Offensive Line U”.  Some will even tell you that it’s in fact both as the Fighting Irish football program has turned out incredible talent at both positions for decades and decades.

If you weren’t aware, and I’m guessing you most likely weren’t, April 18 is known nationally as National Lineman Appreciation Day.

From LinemanAppreciationDay.com:

National Lineman Appreciation Day is a time to express our utmost appreciation to the great men and women that work so hard for us every day. It’s our honor to celebrate the hard work, innovation, and dedication of Electrical Lineworkers. #thankalineman

Although it isn’t intended for linemen on a football team, we’ve decided to take the opportunity to show some appreciation for a few of the best offensive lineman Notre Dame has ever had.

I would be lying if I said I could begin to fairly evaluate offensive linemen from before I was watching football so here is my list of top-five Notre Dame offensive linemen since 1992.  When the list of those left off is as good as this one will be, that tells you just how much talent Notre Dame has had on the offensive front historically.

247Sports: A Super Team would Consist of an Notre Dame Positional Group

An Irish positional group is included as part of a super-team of units across the country.

This should not come as much of a surprise to anyone, especially from the school that hold’s the mantle of Offensive Line U, that Notre Dame’s group of 5 road graders would be named among the best in the nation. As 247Sports continues their preview of the upcoming season, Chris Hummer chose the Irish offensive line as his group when building a super team.

The talented group of linemen all return boasted by some impressive stats they as a group accumulated last season. Pro Football Focus was very high on “all five Irish starters return off a unit that ranked 13th nationally, per PFF College. Notre Dame was particularly good as a pass-blocking group, ranking second nationally in PFF’s grading system.” Those numbers equal a very formidable group heading into this season.

Of the five returning starting offensive linemen just one, guard Tommy Kraemer, didn’t make PFF’s top 30 returning offensive linemen. The rest of the group, tackles Liam Eichenberg and Robert Hainsey, guard Aaron Banks and center Jarrett Patterson combine to make the best group in the country.

There was some negative about the group however, as they we not particularly great as a run-blocking unit. Hummer noted that “Notre Dame finished a respectable 28th nationally in yard per carry last season. But that’s a little misleading. The o-line finished just 62nd nationally in line yards per carry – a Football Outsiders stats that gives the line credit on a percentage basis depending on the length of the run – indicating much of the Irish’s rushing success was due to running backs creating chunk runs instead of the line consistently creating holes.” If that is the one issues with the unit, then the Irish are in great shape. Run-blocking can be seen as a mentality, one that former Irish star Quenton Nelson has plenty of. If this current line can get that nasty streak going, there is no doubt in my mind they can fix their perceived run-blocking issues and be the best group in the country.

Sports Illustrated Declares Notre Dame the New Offensive Line U

Sports Illustrated “crunched the numbers” and as much as I appreciate the work and effort to do so, can’t you just kind of look and figure that out?  All you really had to do was watch with your eyes open.

Notre Dame has been known as Tight End U to anyone paying attention in recent years, something we tracked back to the late-eighties earlier this week.  Notre Dame fans are aware of it but the nation was reminded today that it’s not just Tight End U, but also Offensive Line U as Sports Illustrated just said as much.

It really doesn’t take much thinking to figure it out.  You know the names – Nick and Zack Martin, Ronnie Stanley and Quenton Nelson.  These guys aren’t just Notre Dame guys made the NFL, these are the best of the best and All-Pro players.

Sports Illustrated “crunched the numbers” and as much as I appreciate the work and effort to do so, can’t you just kind of look and figure that out?  All you really had to do was watch with your eyes open.

Sports Illustrated used a point system to put this all together that was based off of the number of draft picks each school had and the level of play those players exhibited in the NFL.  Notre Dame didn’t have the most but the abilities of those there were far-exceeded any other school.

Now let’s just hope this year’s group takes a step in the run game to perform near that level in 2020.