The 2016 Notre Dame offense depth chart shows quite a bit of turnover and a bit of shuffling versus the 2015 depth chart. Some very big names have moved on, without a clear answer to how their production will be replaced; some other names have moved around or will be relied on more this year than in years past. We’ll take a position-by-position look at what the changes could mean for Notre Dame’s football fortunes in 2016. We’ll take a look at the defensive side of the ball tomorrow.
2015 WR1: Will Fuller
2016 WR1: Torii Hunter
With all apologies to Torii Hunter, who is a tremendous athlete and a freshly-minted captain, replacing Will Fuller is perhaps the biggest question mark on offense. That’s due not so much to to uncertainty or lack of production on Hunter’s part, but to how extraordinary Fuller was last year. He ran around and away from anyone who tried to cover him man-to-man, forcing defenses to double cover him and fitting the very definition of a player that opens things up for other players. Can Hunter have that same kind of impact? Many expect Hunter to have a season similar to TJ Jones’s in 2013, but I think Hunter is much more of a deep threat and is much more effective after the catch than Jones was. He won’t be Will Fuller, of course, but he doesn’t necessarily have to be to make this offense hum.
2015 WR2: Chris Brown
2016 WR2: Equanimeous St. Brown
Brown was compact, physical, and a pain in the behind across the middle of the field. St. Brown profiles as more of a vertical threat and is quite a bit bigger, but may not be as physical. On the other hand, his high school highlight reel featured several plays where he demolished a defender on a run play. On the other hand (again), that highlights the uncertainty here – we don’t have much college-level film on St. Brown, as he played a limited role last year, hurt his shoulder late in the season, and hurt his other shoulder in the spring. Since the day he signed his letter of intent the coaching staff has raved about his combination of size (6’4″) and speed (purported sub-4.5 40); if he can flash that speed to give the Irish two true vertical threats on opposite sides of the field, and if he can show the physicality he showed in high school in the run game, he can bring a lot to the offense. A push with Chris’s production would be a win here.
An added element to consider here is that Chris Brown was a tremendous leadership presence for last year’s offense. The sophomore St. Brown almost certainly won’t replace him in that sense, so it will be interesting to see where that leadership comes from in 2016. Hunter, as a newly minted captain, seems like an obvious potential source.
2015 WR3: Amir Carlisle
2016 WR3: CJ Sanders
Amir Carlisle had a bit of a mixed bag over his time in South Bend, missing time to some very unfortunate injuries and seemingly never quite getting in a groove in the offense or on kick returns. CJ Sanders made essentially no impact on offense last year – a lone catch for zero yards to go with zero carries – but returned a kickoff for a score against Stanford and a punt for a score against UMass. Believe it or not, he was Notre Dame’s first-ever freshman to accomplish that in one season and only its fifth player overall (joining Joe Heap, Raghib Ismail, Allen Rossum, and Vontez Duff). Like St. Brown, he really separated himself on the depth chart late in camp and looks ready to assume a much bigger role. Look for an increase in production out of the slot in 2016.
2015 LT: Ronnie Stanley
2016 LT: Mike McGlinchey
Ronnie Stanley is obviously a tremendous loss, but the Irish replace him with last year’s starting right tackle and, very possibly, another top ten overall NFL draft pick. Stanley was better than McGlinchey is in pass protection, but McGlinchey is probably better than Stanley was in the run game. In fact, with McGlinchey and left guard Quenton Nelson forming arguably the most dominant tackle-guard combo in the country this year, expect plenty of runs to the left side from the Irish offense. The prediction here is that Notre Dame will just keep on rolling.
2015 C: Nick Martin
2016 C: Sam Mustipher
Actually… This may be the actual biggest question mark on offense. While he’s not Will Fuller, we’ve seen some good things from Torii Hunter and we have some solid evidence on which to base our confidence. Mustipher has seen only sparse action – 40 snaps last year, mostly in mop-up duty – and he has to replace Nick Martin, who before injury was going to start at center for the Houston Texans this year. As a rookie! Similar to Hunter, Mustipher doesn’t need to be the player his predecessor was, but how well he steps into the role could go a long way in determining how smoothly the offense moves. Look for good things from a guy who would make former Irish center and mechanical engineering major Tim Ruddy proud – with a similar mix of attitude and intelligence, the computer science engineering major should be able to grab the reins in 2016.
2015 RG: Steve Elmer
2016 RG: Colin McGovern
Steve Elmer was a favorite target of fans’ ire, but he was also a three-year starter and a solid if unspectacular player; his biggest sin was probably that he wasn’t Quenton Nelson. With Elmer deciding to move on from football, the entire right side of the Irish line will be new in 2016; enter Colin McGovern, a senior who has bided his time while benefiting from Harry Hiestand’s tutelage. McGovern won a fierce battle with senior Hunter Bivin (#97 overall recruit in 2013), sophomore Tristen Hoge (#89 overall recruit in 2015) and freshman Tommy Kraemer (#27 overall recruit in 2016), spanning the spring and fall camp sessions. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll get from McGovern, but winning that competition says a lot about him. He should settle down quickly with his fellow new starters and continue the Irish line’s strong play.
2015 RT: Mike McGlinchey
2016 RT: Alex Bars
Alex Bars has some big shoes to fill for a guy who’s still on the offensive line, with McGlinchey moving to left tackle as noted above. Bars will most likely make the same move next season, but for now he’ll get his chance to shine on the right side. Unlike fellow new starters Mustipher and McGovern, however, we have actually seen something substantial from Bars already – he stepped in for Quenton Nelson at left guard last year when Nelson was hurt, and he performed quite well before getting hurt himself. In 2014, Brian Kelly called Bars one of the most advanced freshman he had ever seen; now, Bars has the extended chance to prove Kelly right. We should see little to no drop off in production here.
One returning starter on this list? That’s just great…
He only focused on changes so not sure why there would he a focus on returning starters. But at first glance this article was definitely worrisome. However the 2014 offense returned virtually no receptions, a qb who was on a 2 year sabbatical and was a turnover machine and that offense was quite good. And last year, breaking in 2 new offensive linemen, a new qb then backup qb, new rb then backup rb, new te then backup te, the offense got even better. So yeah this article was concerning but I trust the offensive staff to figure it out
Returning starters at QB, RB, LT, LG, TE, returning significant contributors at RT, WR1. It’s not quite as dire as all that. As CardinalBaseball noted, I was looking at depth chart changes, not the entire lineup, even though there are enough changes to almost look like it’s the entire lineup.
This is life in college football. Even Ohio State lost elite players at nearly every position and will have to find a way to cope. I know we’ve been conditioned to expect the worst, but the talent on the Notre Dame roster hasn’t been at this level in a very long time. I think it’s about time to expect that younger guys are talented and prepared enough to step in and perform at a high level.
Okay, I’ll step away from the precipice.
Danke!
I’m really interested to see how the C/RG combo works out. With no Fuller to stretch the defense, it was already going to be more challenging to run up the middle. Will Folston get enough blocking up the middle to get to the second level? If Hunter/St. Brown can stretch defenses vertically, I would expect to see a ton of Josh Adams/WRs running sweeps to the outside to try to stretch defenses horizontally. While I’m very nervous about the all around lack of experience, the versatility at most of the positions on offense should still leave us with a high floor. But just how high is the ceiling for this offense, and is there a weak link that could keep them from approaching that ceiling?
Good questions. I think you’re dead on about a high floor and an unknown ceiling. I don’t think Fuller’s absence will have all that much of an effect on the run game – Hunter doesn’t run a 4.3, but if teams single cover him he’s definitely able to make them pay, so he should still draw some attention from the safety.
I’m intrigued by the Nelson/Mustipher/McGovern grouping as well. Mustipher has an attitude to match Nelson’s, and as noted McGovern beat out some pretty stiff comp. If they can gel they could do some damage inside.
Have we seen Hunter beat guys deep before? I think he has the potential to be a decent deep threat, but has he shown that at all yet?
Yes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ERy8pPYuGE
Ok that was in a scrimmage, but still looked good.
I also remember him being open deep in one of the later games last year but Kizer overthrew him…can’t remember exact game.
I don’t expect the same miraculous last second burst/subtle pushoff that Fuller employed (still doing it with the Texans), but I would expect 3-4 40+ yard catches from Torii.
Beautiful, thank you.
He’s not going to always be the fastest guy on the field, like Fuller was, but he’s fast enough to be a legitimate deep threat. I think he’s more physical than Fuller too, so it should be harder to press him at the line.
Will he have an 80-yard TD? He might, but I have no confidence in predicting that. I think it’s highly probably that he’ll have a handful of 40+ yarders, though, like Shoelace said.
Weishar and Smythe have a combined 7 receptions through 5 seasons on the team, so while it might not technically qualify as a change at the TE position to make it in the article there’s a pretty big question mark about how much production we’re going to see out of that position as well with Jones off the field for the season.
I’m probably most excited to see St. Brown take over the WR 1/2 role this year. He’s got all the tools that Corey never got to put to full use.
I wrestled with whether to put Smythe in here; ultimately I left him out because he was the clear starter last year before he got hurt, he was fine in that short period, and he was back for the bowl game. I approached this list more from the angle of “who have we not seen in this role before” than “who will play more this year than last.”
Along those lines, I also left out QB and RB, even though both positions have a different starter situation than they did last year. Since we pretty much know what we have in Kizer or Zaire in the QB1 role and in Adams or Folston in the RB1 role, it’s a little less suspenseful.
I’m not expecting much from Weishar, by the way, unless Smythe gets hurt again. I think Smythe should be able to provide Troy Niklas-level production, which is to say solid.
WR2 should be an major upgrade, right? I mean, canonization is a big deal, isn’t it?
Criminally under-rec’d.