On January 16th UND.com posted an
article "20 Questions for Notre Dame Football for 2015". This is question 2.
2. The Irish ran for 246 yards (their second-highest rushing
total of 2014 and best since the season opener versus Rice) against LSU in the
Music City Bowl, and that came with Mike McGlinchey making his first start at offensive
tackle. Notre Dame returns a solid, proven tailback in Tarean Folston and a potential improving and talented
sidekick in Greg Bryant—and the makings are there for an offensive line with
productivity and experience. Can
the Irish become a team in 2015 known for its smash-mouth running style?
Answer: I don’t know about “smash-mouth” but they
should be able to be recognized and respected for their running game. They (the running backs and the line) have
shown glimpses of explosiveness but I am not sure I would categorize it as
smash mouth.
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| Sam Mustipher, Jimmy Byrne, Quenton Nelson and Tristen Hoge |
The offensive line is going to be experienced and deep and
should have no excuses for not being dominant in 2015. Let’s first look at retuning lineman with
starting experience ; Ronnie Stanley at left tackle, Nick Martin at left guard,
Matt Hegarty at center, Steve Elmer at right guard and Mike McGlinchey at right
tackle and several of these guys have played at multiple spots along the
line. Two deeps also have experience as
many of them have been on the team for over a year now; Hunter Bivin (2 yrs
exp.) at tackle, Connor Hanratty (4 yrs exp. with 4 starts) at guard, Mark
Harrell (2 yrs exp.) at center, John Montelus & Colin McGovern (2 yrs exp.
each) at guard. In addition to that there
were a number of freshmen this year that gained a year of experience who would
be in major consideration for starting jobs next year on a lot of other teams
and will be looking to see action next season sooner than later; Quenton
Nelson, Jimmy Byrne, Sam Mustipher, and Alex Bars. And not to get too ahead of ourselves Kelly
and crew has another couple of All American lineman all ready enrolled in South
Bend who will be a part of spring practices in center Tristen Hoge and
offensive lineman Jerry Tillery.
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| Tarean Folston & Greg Bryant |
At running back the Irish have a great one – two punch but
after that is gets real thin, real fast.
Tarean Folston has proven himself on the field and will come into 2015
as the number one back. He has a diverse
skill set that makes him an all purpose back.
The only questions with Folston is how much better will he get and will
he return in 2016? As for Greg Bryant he appears to still be
learning the college game and has shown signs of greatness. The questions I have about Bryant are around consistency
and will he step up to the expectations colleges had about him coming out of high
school. I don’t think the Irish will
have two one-thousand yard rushers next year but they could be a pretty impressive
duo. After that there is Josh Anderson
(5’ 9”. 200lbs), don’t feel badly if you don’t know who he is, he hasn’t seen
the field in three years. And at this
time there is only one running back committed to Notre Dame (signing day is
Feb. 4) in Josh Adams.
