The 5 Most Telling Stats for Notre Dame Football This Season
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — With the regular season in the books, there’s a bevy of numbers and statistics at our disposal to analyze Notre Dame football’s 10-2 campaign.
With the No. 8 Irish off until their bowl game, let’s break down five of the most telling statistics about this year’s group, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses.
12 Scrimmage Plays of 50-Plus Yards
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Notre Dame ranked tied for 13th in the country with 12 plays from scrimmage of at least 50 yards. The Irish were remarkably explosive offensively, utilizing long runs from running backs C.J. Prosise and Josh Adams, prototypical you-can’t-catch-him grabs from Will Fuller and even the occasional head-turning jaunt by 230-pound quarterback DeShone Kizer.
Factor in freshman C.J. Sanders’ big plays, including the 92-yard kickoff return touchdown against Stanford on Saturday, and the Irish totaled 13 plays this year of at least 50 yards—a program record in Year 127 of Notre Dame football.
The Irish possessed a quick-strike ability that allowed for sudden momentum shifts, especially in their recent road games.
24 Touchdown Drives of 75-Plus Yards Allowed
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With a tip of the cap to Tim Prister and Pete Sampson of Irish Illustrated, long touchdown drives provide much of the explanation for Notre Dame’s defensive struggles.
Notre Dame allowed 24 touchdown drives of at least 75 yards this season. In its 2012 undefeated regular season, the Irish allowed just two—one to Navy and one to USC. Even scarier is this year’s Notre Dame defense only gave up one such drive—combined—to Clemson and Navy. Yet Virginia (four) and UMass (three) engineered 75-yard touchdown drives with relative ease.
That foreshadowed a defense that couldn’t come up with the big stop for whatever reason, a consistent problem that again resurfaced Saturday when Stanford mounted four long scoring drives.
There are a lot of smaller components that go into numbers like these. Bottom line, though: Notre Dame couldn’t get enough stops.
5.76 Yards Per Carry
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Coming off the run-heavy Music City Bowl performance against LSU, many expected Notre Dame to turn more toward the rushing attack in 2015, with quarterback Malik Zaire and running back Tarean Folston working behind a veteran offensive line.
Well, the parts changed, but the engine kept humming. Notre Dame averaged 5.76 yards per carry, the fifth-best mark in the entire country, directly ahead of Navy, Baylor and Ohio State.
There’s plenty of credit to go around, as the offensive line, anchored by Ronnie Stanley and Nick Martin, remained relatively healthy and consistently paved wide running lanes for the backs. And how about those backs? Prosise, the former slot receiver, racked up 1,032 rushing yards in just nine starts, and the true freshman Adams added 757 of his own, averaging a whopping 7.3 yards per attempt. Kizer, of course, chipped in as well with 499 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, effectively serving, at times, as Notre Dame’s short-yardage back.
Notre Dame pounded the ground game against Texas (214 rushing yards), Virginia (253), Georgia Tech (215), UMass (457), USC (214) and Stanford (299), in particular.
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56% Red-Zone Touchdown Rate
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Speaking of that performance against Stanford—299 rushing yards as part of the 533 yards of total offense—Notre Dame was outstanding until it reached the red zone, a common thorn all season.
The Irish ended trips to the red zone with touchdowns just 56 percent of the time, tied for 91st in the FBS.
Notre Dame appeared to turn a corner at the beginning of November against Pitt, when the Irish scored four touchdowns in four trips inside the Panthers’ 20-yard line. Notre Dame converted both times the following week against Wake Forest, too.
But at Fenway Park against Boston College, turnovers (more on that in a moment) plagued the Irish, who scored just two touchdowns in a season-high seven trips to the red zone. And on Saturday at Stanford (one touchdown in four red-zone appearances), the Cardinal threw up sevens on the scoreboard while the Irish countered with threes.
-5 Turnover Margin
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While the turnovers weren’t nearly as plentiful as they were in 2014 (18 total turnovers in 2015, compared to 26 in 2014), Notre Dame still struggled to win the turnover battle throughout the regular season.
The Irish finished with a -5 turnover margin, a -0.42 margin per game, tied for 97th in the nation.
The four second-half turnovers against Clemson were particularly costly, as was Kizer’s fumble before halftime against Stanford on Saturday.
Yet the Irish also simply didn’t generate many turnovers, forcing just 13 takeaways on the season, tied for 109th in the 128-team FBS.
All quotes were obtained firsthand and all stats courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted.
Mike Monaco is the lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco on Twitter.
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