Success Needs to Begin Upfront for IU's Offense Against Notre Dame

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

For the Indiana Hoosiers offense to have success against Notre Dame in their first round playoff game on Friday night it will have to start up front with the offensive line.

“It starts up front with those guys. Being efficient whenever we are running the football, keeping us in positive down distance scenarios. We're going to have our one-on-ones on the outside at some point or the other. They like to play a lot of man coverage.” Indiana offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan said on Monday.

Notre Dame will come at the Hoosiers with pressure and have the personnel to attack IU’s offense like Michigan and Ohio State, which were IU’s lowest scoring output of the season.

“They have really good personnel. I would say their personnel is going to be very similar to the Michigan's and Ohio State's. We've seen countless other good players throughout the year, whether that's in the secondary or on the D-line, linebackers. They're going to be up there with the best that we played.” Shanahan explained. “They play really fast. They keep you off balance. They don't make anything easy for you. They challenge you on the perimeter. They're physical. They're always running the football, and they've created a ton of turnovers. We've got to do a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage in the run game and in protections.”

The Irish are set to get star defensive lineman Howard Cross III back after he missed the final four games of the regular season. IU has a plan to try and contain him.

“We'll be very aware of when he's on the field and making sure that we're calling in that situation our up front, if we're able to get some double-teams on him, we'll take advantage of that if we can. He's a proven guy. He's very active for a bigger guy with his size. He moves very well. He's quick. He reminds me of some of the D-linemen that we have here on our team, and he's very disruptive. We'll have to do a good job of getting double-teams on him, like I just said, but also we'll try to stick to what we do well and maybe change some schemes up where we might be able to get the ball on the perimeter or maybe not run it right at him.” Shanahan explained.

It all starts up front for the Hoosiers and against Notre Dame’s man defense, the Hoosiers can find success should they be able to establish the running game and protect quarterback Kurtis Rourke.

“Relying on that run game because the thing about playing a lot of man to man is sometimes, when you can break through that first and second level, there's opportunities for explosive passes, explosive runs there as well. Being able to stay ahead of the sticks, I think, will be really big as far as just our whole operation on offense will go.” Shanahan said.

The Hoosiers and Irish kick off the College Football Playoff in a first round game on Friday night in South Bend