I'll raise you a tight end

NOTE:  This was conceived before Alex Welch suffered a season ending injury.  However if Tyler Eifert returns (not likely) and Jake Golic is offered a 5^th year (also unlikely) it will still be relevant.

One Foot Down (a pretty decent Notre Dame Football Site) has a neat piece showing off the potential depth of the Tight End position.  The piece discusses the possibility of using four tight ends at a time - Eifert, Koyack, Welch and Niklas.  The concept is to split one out and use one at fullback.  I am not sure how probable it is, but it is possible.  Looking for bright spots and excitement and even a little fun this season, I will up the stakes and make an offer of five tight ends in one offensive formation.

Tyler Eifert		Alex Welch	Zack Martin	Chris Watt	Braxton Cave	Mike Golic	Christian Lombard	Jake Golic	Ben Koyack
					Andrew Hendrix
					Troy Niklas

The line and quarterback are my predictions.

My set adds Jake Golic to the mix in the traditional tight end spot along the line, and I doubled up on the right side just to get things started.  Eifert could easily line up as the fullback thanks to his athleticism, but he played wide receiver in high school.  Having Troy Niklas coming out of the backfield would give me flashbacks to Christian “The Nigerian Nightmare” Okoye (both weigh in at260 lbs.), but Niklas stands six inches taller.   With the size, skill, talent and experience of the offensive line, this is a set up for “student body right” plays where the Irish will run and don’t care who knows it.

In this set I have Eifert split out, not so far out as to be and actual wide receiver as this is for a predominantly a run or short yardage pass attempt.  If we wanted to present more of a passing threat to keep the defense honest, we could push Eifert out further to a wide out role and bump out Welch and or Koyack.