The 5 Most Telling Stats for Notre Dame This Season

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — It’s tough to neatly summarize the first two-thirds of the regular season for Notre Dame football, but we’ll turn to the numbers to try to do so.

The Irish sit at 7-1 and are still a part of the national conversation with games against Arizona State, Northwestern, Louisville and USC remaining. They’ve had convincing performances (Michigan, Florida State and Stanford, to a lesser extent) and uninspiring outings (North Carolina, Navy).

So how do we best describe what’s been happening this season?

Glad you asked.

19.5 Points Per Game

Nick Wass/Associated Press

Everett Golson

Irish senior quarterback Everett Golson has been responsible for 156 points this year through Notre Dame’s first eight games (19.5 points per game). If he continues on this pace, Golson will breeze past the program record—Brady Quinn accounted for 18.0 points per game in 2006.

It’s not that we really need numbers to know just how good Golson has been this season. Sure, we’ve seen it in his monster performances against Rice and Navy, but it’s revealed itself in smaller bursts too. Golson’s 4th-and-11 touchdown dart to Ben Koyack to beat Stanford and his 4th-and-18 pass to Corey Robinson against Florida State are two of the defining plays of Notre Dame’s season.

But the number does tell us just how key Golson is and will continue to be for this team—not just this offense—the rest of the way. Golson is the vital cog to making the offense go, and the offense will likely need to find another gear if the defense slides back a step or two with Brian Kelly announcing Joe Schmidt is out for the season.

91 Percent

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

Jaylon Smith

Considering all the tackles made by Notre Dame players this season (516), a whopping 91 percent of that production has come from players who will still have eligibility remaining after this season. This defense is remarkably young.

"

How young is #NotreDame's D? Only slightly sarcastically, Brian Kelly referred to sophomores Redfield, Smith, Luke & Onwualu as "veterans."

— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) November 2, 2014"

The takeaway is twofold. It was originally surprising to see how well the green Irish defense began the year, holding each of its first five opponents to 17 points or fewer. And then, of course, the growing pains have been palpable in recent weeks, with Notre Dame surrendering an average of 37.7 points per game over the last three games.

The good will likely come with some bad in the final third of the season. When the defense falters, will the offense keep Notre Dame rolling?

69 Percent

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Tarean Folston

Irish sophomore running back Tarean Folston leads Notre Dame with 532 rushing yards this season, and 69 percent of those yards have been tallied in the last three games.

The Irish running game drew criticism in the early part of the season as the offensive line struggled, eventually leading to a wholesale makeover during the first bye week. With Folston assuming the lead back role and getting the bulk of the work, Notre Dame’s ground game has clicked.

Folston notched 98 yards and two touchdowns against North Carolina, 120 yards against Florida State and a career-high 149 yards and one score Saturday against the Midshipmen.

Notre Dame’s offense has found a new balance with Folston alongside Golson, and that dynamism should only help the Irish post points in the remainder of the season.

Will Fuller's Nine Touchdowns

USA TODAY Sports

Will Fuller

You could really point to any of sophomore receiver Will Fuller’s statistics to get the point across, but we’ll zero in on his touchdowns. Notre Dame entered the season without a proven pass-catcher with no TJ Jones, no DaVaris Daniels and no Troy Niklas. No problem.

Fuller has burst onto the scene in his second season and racked up 46 receptions for 599 yards and the nine scores, all of which lead the Irish. Head coach Brian Kelly often stops short of tabbing Fuller as a true No. 1 receiver, but he is for this team for all intents and purposes.

Fuller and Golson have been able to develop solid chemistry, and the increased emphasis on screens in the play-calling this season has played into Fuller’s skill set.

It hasn’t just been a one-man band, of course. Corey Robinson, Chris Brown, C.J. Prosise, Ben Koyack and Amir Carlisle have all made strong contributions at different points this year.

10 of 16 Field Goals

STEVEN CANNON/Associated Press

Kyle Brindza

Any way you slice it, the field-goal unit has underwhelmed this season. Now, it’s tough to separate out a variety of factors (poor conditions and poor holds in the Stanford game come to mind), but the bottom line is that 10-of-16 is underperforming.

Before the season and even up through the midway point of this year, senior kicker Kyle Brindza would refer to the numbers that seemed glued to his brain. He knows he missed eight field goals in 2012. He knows he missed six last season. He was trying to trim that even lower this year. But with the two misses, one of which was blocked, Saturday, Brindza has missed six field goals in 10 fewer attempts than last season.

Brindza is still a top kicker and warrants the trust of one of the best kickers in the country, but for now, things seem unsettled with the entirety of the unit in general.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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