Notre Dame Running Game as Suspect as Its Defense

Everyone wants to pile on Notre Dame's defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta. They say there's nothing wrong with an offense that puts up 30 points a game—an offense that has only lost the total yards battle twice this season (USC & Pitt). They say it's the defense that's been responsible for this year's demise.

It may be true, the defense has had problems. It's allowed too many big plays and has given up about as many points as the offense has scored—a sure-fire way to produce a 6-4 record.

When distributing blame for this year's disappointments, it's just not about the Irish's defense. Have you seen the running game this year? I'm guessing you haven't because it's been hard to find—it's been almost non-existent.

I don't know if you need a running game. Notre Dame has only gotten fewer total yards than two of it's opponents. In a loss to USC, Notre Dame had 30 fewer total yards than the Trojans and last Saturday, in the loss at Pitt, the Panthers had close to 100 more total yards.

A lot of Notre Dame's big yardage totals are the result of comeback wins, and comebacks that fell short. They come from having to pass the ball in desperation. This isn't the way an offense wants to rack up yardage.

While good teams can kill the clock with the running game, Notre Dame doen't have that luxury. Not only don't they have a strong running game, but they've hardly been in position to kill the clock at the end of most games this year.

Nothing against the great Dan Marino, but a lot of his 50,000 passing yards are the bi-product of the Dolphins not having a good running game while he was there—very similar to Jimmy Clausen. I'm sure Clausen would gladly give up some of his passing totals to be able to control the game with a better running attack.

Last Year the Irish knew things were bad when they rushed for only 1426 total yards. They knew it needed fixing and were basing their hopes on four returning backs, all of whom saw playing time in 2008.

There's been a slight improvement this season in total yards. After ten games, they've rushed for 1309 yards. With two remaining regular season games, and a bowl game, they'll likely exceed last year's total.

However, of the 12 teams on Notre Dame's 09 schedule, only Washington and Washington State currently have fewer total rushing yards.

Nevada (3531) and Navy (3108) are two of the best running teams in the country—no one's comparing the Irish running game to these teams.

It's Stanford (2224), UConn (2169) and Michigan (2154) that have run the ball the way Charlie Weis and company would have wanted

Pitt (1876) and USC (1812) also have good running games.

It's not just that these teams are running the ball, but they have complimentary passing attacks-they're balanced. They're balanced and they keep their opponents off balance--the key to winning football games.

What's more remarkable than the shortage in rushing yards is the lack of big plays the the running game has seen. Robert Hughes has the longest run this year—37 yards. Armando Allen's longest is 24 yards.

Every team on the schedule, including Washington State has had at least one running play longer than Hughes' 37 yard run.

The numbers are staggering! Nevada's had three different runners with runs of 75 yards or more, Michigan's had three with 55 yards or more, and Michigan State's had two with 71 yards or more.

Purdue's had two different runners with runs longer than 58 yards, UConn's had three runners rip off runs of 50 yards or more, and Pitt's Deon Lewis broke one for 85 yards.

Navy, Washington, USC and Stanford have had at least one running play longer than 50 yards.

It's hard to understand how most defenses that the Irish have seen, being so focused on Jimmy Clausen and the passing game, haven't gotten stung with one big running play.

This has been going on for quite some time. Notre Dame hasn't had a running back break one for over 40 yards since Julius Jones had a run of 61 yards in 2003.

Lack of production like this is incredible. With an outstanding quarterback and two great receivers, Charlie Weis may have geared his offense around the passing game. That's fine, but balance is still what's important to most good football teams—it's just not there.

As an assistant in the NFL to Bill Parcells, Weis, if anything, must have learned the value of a good running game.

Notre Dame without a "smash mouth, in-your-face" running game? It's just not Notre Dame football!