Notre Dame certainly is not making the playoffs so the season is more than half over now. During the Stanford review I promised some player grades and I come to deliver the goods. I thought it’d be a good idea to grade each unit based on expectations as a good way to provide some talking points. Let’s get after it.

QUARTERBACK
Expectation: B+
Current Grade: C+

I tried to warn you. Goodness, I tried to warn everyone. Quarterback competitions are typically messy affairs and they are compounded when a team commits to playing more than one guy. Things have changed so drastically for Notre Dame in this department that it’s easy to forget how sky high the expectations were coming into this season. Both guys are in the top 5 best players on offense, they both have to play! What quarterback depth! Such envy!

Nevertheless, I thought we’d still see very good quarterback play once things settled down–just not quite nationally elite production.

For sure, Zaire drags this grade down. On the one hand, he hasn’t played that much. On the other hand, he’s been dreadful in the snaps he’s taken. It’s still shocking how 16 months ago Zaire was talking about how he wanted to be the best quarterback in the NFL and now he looks completely lost.

How bad are things for Zaire? He’s taken 52 snaps, completed 6 passes, rushed for -1 yards, and has 71 total yards of offense.

I’ve gone back and forth with Kizer. If we put aside the NFL hype and scouting I think he’s done a little bit better overall this season than he’s been criticized for in recent weeks. His completion percentage is down 4.8% which isn’t good but overall his passing numbers are pretty similar to last year. In fact, he’s right around the same YPA and TD:INT ratio as 2015. He’s taken more sacks (more on this in a second) but even with that his rushing numbers basically mirror last fall. Factor in he’s rushing roughly 11 times per game (same as 2015) and he’s actually producing a little more on the ground.

The problem is that Kizer isn’t getting much help and because we’re putting so much on his back (and expecting him to blossom into a dominating No. 1 pick-type of player) that it FEELS like he’s not playing well. Is he regressing? I don’t know if I’d say that but it doesn’t look like he’s really improving all that much. It’s obvious to everyone that he’s lost his patience in the pocket, keeps missing easy check-down throws, and his insistence on finding the deep receiver seemingly on every other throw is leading to too many bad sacks.

RUNNING BACK
Expectation: B
Current Grade: D+

Harsh, right? We can add some blame to the offensive line, the scheme, that damn hurricane and all the rest. To be fair, each of Adams, Folston, and Dexter have had moments of really good play. It’s just been far, far too minimal this year.

I didn’t look at the rushing stats in a while and I was shocked how poor things have fallen. Both Adams and Folston are under 5 YPC and combined for a whopping 2 touchdowns. Dexter’s been the most consistently good of the bunch with a much smaller sample size.

There have been injuries, too. Adams was banged up for most of camp and who knows if he’s actually 100% at this point. I’m a little concerned because he kind of looks the way I thought he’d be coming out of high school and he proved me so wrong last year. I want to be wrong! Folston also might not have been 100% to start the season and then had to miss a couple games with an ankle injury. Let’s hope they both get healthy over the bye week.

WIDE RECEIVER
Expectation: C+
Current Grade: B

If you ask some Notre Dame fans we don’t have a No. 1 receiver until he’s 6’5″ benches 450 pounds and has caught no fewer than 180 passes in his first 15 games. I joke around, but it’s clear Torii Hunter hasn’t ascended to the No. 1 receiver role. His concussion clearly set him back but he’s still had a very quiet 25 receptions and 1 touchdown.

This grade revolves heavily around Equanimeous St. Brown who is averaging almost 20 yards per catch on a team-leading 31 receptions. He also has half of the touchdowns from the receiving unit and has been one of the unquestioned bright spots on the roster this year.

It feels like C.J. Sanders has been a disappointment but then he’s on pace for a 400 to 500 yard season which is pretty normal for the slot receiver position. Being able to get 10 catches, 209 yards, and 3 touchdowns from true freshman Kevin Stepherson also boosts the whole units grade.

TIGHT END
Expectation: C+
Current Grade: C+

Our tight ends are boring and I don’t want to talk about them.

OFFENSIVE LINE
Expectation: A-
Current Grade: C

Here are some stats for everyone to digest. The offense is averaging almost 60 fewer rushing yards per game than last year. The run game is unlikely to reach 2,000 yards on the season and is on pace for the lowest total since Kelly’s first season. The rushing average at 3.98 YPC is also the same as the 2010 season–the previous Kelly low.

The line has had a bit of everything. McGovern has dealt with an injury and missed time. Mustipher some snapping issues. Nelson and McGlinchey shockingly looking below average at times. A fairly average season by Bars flying under the radar if only because of everything else going on with the line.

They’ve also given up 19 sacks already–on that pace they’ll finish with 32 on the season. The 2013 pass blocking this is not. We can lay some of the blame on Kizer for holding the ball too long but not all of it.

Overall, the offense started out well and while they haven’t come crashing down to earth a case can be made they are really underachieving relative to expectations. A lot of that blame falls at the feet of the offensive line which is kind of fitting in a weirdly terrible year that the supposed strength up front has been disappointing.