Hey 18 Stripes readers it’s been a while! Hope everyone is doing well. Things are good up here in Canada, I am currently enjoying the 10 days of summer we get annually in the Great White North, so really can’t complain. As we all know, there is a lot of excitement heading into the 2026 [...]
My first thought after Drew Allar winged the ball out of bounds to secure a 27-24 Notre Dame victory over Penn State, the second New Year's 6 win for Marcus Freeman in a week, was pretty simple: How did that happen? TEAM GLORY ☘️ ORANGE BOWL CHAMPIONS #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/CbqnL8fYTG — Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) January [...]
First, let's get this out of the way now: I cried. Thirty-one years. Thirty-one long years of not winning these games. Of coming up short. Of drawing the best possible opponent. Of chuckleheads on the Internet pretending losing games meant they shouldn't have been in them. It all got swept away in less than one [...]
Hopefully this is proven out to be in the Catholic “A broken world from which Grace is the redemption” and not “The return window has already closed so you’re SOL.” At any rate, I’m going to knock out one framing piece before the workday picks up here and hopefully go through a similar exercise for [...]
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 [...]
Brian Newberry is the new head coach at Navy after being the defensive coordinator for the Middies since 2019. Their defense has been pretty good over his tenure but the more intriguing bit is that outside of a 5-year period when Paul Johnson left to coach Georgia Southern this will be the first time since [...]
Marcus Freeman may very well benefit from an explosive, difficult to defend offense in his second turn at the helm. By keeping it in the family and tabbing Gerad Parker as OC, Coach Freeman may have found the perfect driver for a neon-colored, nitrous-boosted, titanium reinforced 2023 ND Offense, […]
In our 18S preseason prediction survey, receiver depth was voted as the biggest concern heading into the season. Between Kevin Austin’s decision to turn pro, Avery Davis’s preseason injury, and some spotty recruiting at the position the last few years, the top receiving threats are Michael Mayer (a tight end), Lorenzo Styles (a true sophomore), [...]
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