Notre Dame Football: Investigating Brian Kelly's History Against the Option

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Notre Dame football kicks off a difficult final five games of the regular season with a unique challenge Saturday in Navy’s triple-option offense.

In an annual or biannual event, the Irish must recalibrate their defense completely to face these run-based offenses. When discussing the Midshipmen, Irish head coach Brian Kelly called such offenses “a great equalizer” in college football as it relates to size, speed and strength.

“They create a lot of problems, and I think the most important thing is it's not whether you're athletic or strong or physical, it's whether you can be one-eleventh of that unit and do your job, and get off blocks and make plays and make tackles,” Kelly said.

Kelly has already had seven games going up against option teams through his first four seasons in South Bend. With the Midshipmen waiting for the Irish on Saturday night, we went back and examined—by the numbers—Kelly’s history defending the option since he’s been at Notre Dame.

Looking Back

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The service academics have trotted out their option offenses against the Irish in recent years, with Kelly and his squad facing Navy and Army in 2010, Air Force and Navy in 2011, Navy in 2012 and Air Force and Navy in 2013.

Things got off to a shaky start against the option in 2010, as the Midshipmen toppled Notre Dame, 35-17, behind a prolific ground attack. Notre Dame struggled with the Falcons in 2011 but still managed a hefty 59-33 victory. Navy again gave the Irish fits last season, but Notre Dame managed to prevail with a 38-34 win at home.

On the other side of things, the Irish have taken care of business against Army in 2010 (a 27-3 win), Navy in 2011 (a 56-14 win) and 2012 (a 50-10 win) and Air Force in 2013 (a 45-10 win).

Year	Opponent	Notre Dame Result	Score
2010	Navy	Loss	35-17
2010	Army	Win	27-3
2011	Air Force	Win	59-33
2011	Navy	Win	56-14
2012	Navy	Win	50-10
2013	Air Force	Win	45-10
2013	Navy	Win	38-34

Digging Deeper Defensively

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There are a variety of ways to look deeper and analyze just how well (or not) Notre Dame has fared against these option-based opponents. We’ll keep it fairly simple and check how Notre Dame’s defensive performances in those seven games compared to its average work for those specific seasons.

Though the Irish have only lost one of those games to option opponents in the Kelly era, the opposition scored more points on Notre Dame than the Irish allowed on average that season on three different occasions. Essentially, Notre Dame’s defense was less stingy in three of the seven games.

Year	Opponent	Average Points Allowed in Season	Points Allowed in Game
2010	Navy	20.2	35
2011	Air Force	20.7	33
2013	Navy	22.3	34

Sliced another way, we can compare the margin of victories in those games to account for blowouts and squeakers. As it turns out, only twice has the opponent won or played the game so closely as to mark a sharp difference from Notre Dame’s average margin of points.

Year	Opponent	Notre Dame's Average Point Margin for Season	Margin in Game
2010	Navy	+6.1	-18
2013	Navy	+4.8	+4

Analyzing the Offenses

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Looking at the offenses run by Air Force, Navy and Army gives us another trough of data to view. We know these teams put up monster rushing totals—in terms of carries, yards and yards per carry. So it’s not fair to compare their raw rushing numbers against the Irish to Notre Dame’s defensive averages.

But we can see how the option offenses performed against Notre Dame compared to all the other defenses the service academies faced in those seasons.

In two games—Navy 2010 and Air Force 2011—the Midshipmen and Falcons, respectively, eclipsed both their rushing yards per game and yards per carry. In 2013 Air Force rushed for more yards than its season average, and the 2013 Midshipmen rushed for more yards per carry against the Irish.

So, in four of the seven games against Notre Dame, these option offenses have outperformed their season averages.

Year	Opponent	Rushes	Yards	Yards Per Carry	Yards Per Carry (Season Average)
2010	Navy	60	367	6.1	5.3
2010	Army	43	135	3.1	4.5
2011	Air Force	60	363	6.1	5.7
2011	Navy	50	196	3.9	5.4
2012	Navy	40	149	3.7	5.2
2013	Air Force	65	290	4.5	4.95
2013	Navy	36	264	7.3	5.5

But the telling statistic is yards per carry. It’s difficult to make broad generalizations based on raw numbers from seven games, but yards per carry is pretty straightforward. How did these offenses do with each individual carry against the Irish? Did they gain more or less yards than what they typically notched during the rest of the season?

On average, option-running opponents have rushed for 0.26 fewer yards per carry against the Irish in these seven games compared to those teams’ season averages. So while Notre Dame’s defense has certainly had its hands full at times against triple-option attacks, when we look at the seven games as a whole, the Irish have kept their opponents in check.

The Bottom Line

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Of course, much of the historical chatter could change with new defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder calling the shots.

But despite all the numbers and the talk about Navy, Army, Air Force and the option, Notre Dame is 6-1 in those games. No matter how tight things have gotten, Kelly’s Irish have only lost one game to option teams—and that was in October of the inaugural season of the Kelly era.

The Irish will need to be crisp and focused against the Midshipmen on Saturday night if they want to improve to 7-1 and climb the College Football Playoff rankings, which debuted Tuesday night with Notre Dame slotted 10th.

“We have to be extremely disciplined,” Kelly said. “We have to run and make plays and make tackles and get off blocks. If we do that, we'll be successful. If not, it won't matter if we're more flexible or more athletic than our opponent.”

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Mike Monaco is a lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.