Film Room: Impound it - Notre Dame’s Run Game In Green Bay Mike Denbrock and Notre Dame sought to establish the run versus Wisconsin in their opening game in the 2026 season. Wisconsin, early in the game, consistently gave the Irish favorable box numbers (even number of blockers versus defenders), yet the Irish were unable [...]
In this fourth part analysis of Mike Denbrock’s offense, I will describe the vertical stem plays: (4) Verticals, All Curl/Spacing and HOSS (Hitch-Outside Slot-Seam). In part 1, I described an overview of Denbrock’s offense. In part 2, I discussed the Yards-After-Catch (YAC) generating plays of Shallow, Drive and Dagger. In part 3, I analyzed the [...]
In this third part article previewing Mike Denbrock’s offense, I will describe the two main “flood” zone-killing plays: Sail and Cross. These are basically either a weak side or strong side stress of the defense. These plays seek to overload the defense with too many receivers near the same zones in order to create a [...]
In this article, I will break down how Mike Denbrock has used several similar passing concepts successfully. These concepts have traces to the West Coast offense and Air Raid offense and are popularized by nearly every college and NFL team. But first, I would like to share this youtube video and site I found where [...]
Return of the Mike: Much excitement can be had from the return of Mike Denbrock to be the offensive coordinator of Notre Dame. Last year, Notre Dame ran a old-is-new-again scheme of drawing up many condensed formations and a huge variety in the running game. The RPO (Run-Pass-Option) and pass game weren’t employed as much [...]
After the rain delay of the NC State game, Notre Dame and Gerad Parker needed a spark. Only one quarter had elapsed but the Irish offense had been stymied so far. Gerad dialed up a very fitting play for Notre Dame that, according to my data, hadn’t been run yet this season. Gerad called a [...]
The most prominent running play against the Midshipmen was, in my opinion, the Counter play. Counter is a gap blocking scheme play that utilizes misdirection and masses of humanity to create often devastating holes in the defensive structure. Many of Gerad Parker’s other runs seek to create cutback lanes for the running back by maintaining [...]
Out of the 14 passes that Peacock graced us with a decent angle for, the most common concept by far was Snag (6/14). Snag is a passing concept that is used at pretty much all levels. Snag can be separated into two categories, two man Snag and three man Snag. The origin of this concept [...]
Have you ever looked at a snap and wondered why it was such a success or failure? In this series I hope to try to explain and give names to the common plays that a Notre Dame Tv (or Peacock I suppose) broadcast can easily decode. Let's first start with the most common runs that [...]
Last season, playaction passes were so insignificant that I actually forgot to tally that particular stat for my playcalling article. I have now tallied it and of the around 300 snaps I have charted just under 6% were playaction. This frequency will almost assuredly increase with Chip Long. Chip Long showed two different categories of playaction [...]
Last season, for whatever reason, Notre Dame did not threaten the perimeter much in running plays. The biggest “stretch” of the outside, in my opinion, was probably the “give” option of power-read or inverted-veer that was ran a fair bit. Things will be different this season for the Irish. Chip Long will be using a gap/zone [...]
In 1988, a third year coach edged his team to a national championship led by a brutalizing rushing attack. He employed an option-based running attack with dynamic athletes at fullback, running-back, and especially the quarterback. He was blessed to have in his corner such talents as Bobby Daugherty, Kenneth Goldsmith, Richie Harris, and Patrick Baynes. [...]
The topic of interest for most Irish fans is likely the Run Pass Option (RPO) of Chip Long. They are exciting: you can throw a 20 yard pass on a running play; but also divisive: there can be decisions to throw while having a triple team at the line of scrimmage. Ian Boyd wrote a nice [...]
“So those will be some new things, but at the end of the day, we're not going to change the entire offense and teach a new system to this group.” - Brian Kelly in December. However, last Saturday had little resemblance to Kelly's offense of last year. Regardless of what Brian Kelly and Chip Long choose [...]
With the recent staff changes, it is clear that the 2017 offense will not be a simple continuation of last year. However, most of the terminology, formations and plays are known to the majority of the roster and might serve as a basis for Chip Long's system. Given this, lets take a look back about [...]
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