Do you have questions surrounding the stability and direction of the Notre Dame football program because of the coaching changes? The two biggest questions centered on those changes right now are how stable can the program be if Brian Kelly is making changes after only two years? And, how is having Chuck Martin as offensive coordinator different than Charley Molnar?
The answer to the first question is don’t panic. Post-second-year coaching changes aren’t as uncommon as you may think. The first two years at a new program the head coach is evaluating what he has in his assistants, and in some cases he decides a change needs to be made in order to reach his goal.
Lou Holtz had the biggest post-second-year turnover of any recent Irish head coach. Holtz brought in a new secondary coach, a new offensive line coach and promoted his outside linebackers coach, Barry Alvarez, to defensive coordinator. So before you panic with all the changes, consider that Kelly knows his staff better than anyone, and that promoting from within, as was the case with Alvarez, is a good thing.
For those of you too young to remember Barry Alvarez, he was the defensive coordinator the last time the Irish won the national championship in 1988 and went on to a stellar head coaching career at the University of Wisconsin.
Now the second question about what difference will Martin make at OC. I don’t want to imply that Martin will work out as well as Alvarez, but the mere fact that Kelly turned to Martin after pledging to fix the offense after the Florida State loss carries some weight.
When Kelly took the Notre Dame job two years ago, I had the opportunity to extensively watch the interaction of his new coaching staff. It was clear that there were a core group of coaches who created a quick bond and another three who seemed detached. It’s not all surprising that the three seemingly detached coaches were the first three to leave the program.
Charley Molnar was a Kelly guy, but you got the feeling he never really fit with the rest of the staff. The same can be said for Tim Hinton, who Kelly inherited from Mark Dantonio at Cincinnati, and Ed Warriner, who came to Notre Dame as a Kelly new hire from Kansas.
It also didn’t take long to notice the coach interacting the best, looking like a leader and exuding confidence all over the field. Even though his title didn’t say it at the time, you could see that Martin was a leader among the assistant coaches. And now his title, offensive coordinator, does say it.
And maybe more important than a schematic change to the offense will be confidence and moxie Martin can bring to the offensive side of the ball. Martin’s confidence, both in himself and his players, will be just what the offensive players need after apparently having it shaken down the stretch last year.
Additionally, Martin’s fearlessness, and his ability to motivate without getting irate (see Kelly on USF sidelines) should add a much needed swagger to the offense that became quite vanilla down the stretch.
Martin, who liked to run a power offense, took over an offense at Grand Valley State that Kelly had implemented. Martin evolved Kelly’s spread attack to one that moved mostly on the ground as shown by the following spreads:
2006: 538 runs, 355 passes (60.2 percent/39.8 percent)
2007: 541 runs, 329 passes (62.2 percent/37.8 percent)
2008: 464 runs, 280 passes (62.4 percent/37.6 percent)
2009: 599 runs, 397 passes (60 percent/40 percent)
Compare that to the last two Irish seasons under Molnar:
2010: 414 runs, 481 passes (46.3 percent/53.7 percent)
2011: 433 runs, 473 passes (47.8 percent/52.2 percent)
And Molnar’s splits are with Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray in the backfield with Tommy Rees. Go figure.
But then that leads into the next big question of who will quarterback the Irish in 2012 when Martin is running his offense. What I can tell you is it shouldn’t be Rees, and what I can also tell you is it should be either Andrew Hendrix, Everett Golson, or recent new addition Gunner Kiel. How can I be so sure? Take a look at the following breakdown of quarterback carries from the above four year span under Martin:
2006: 538 carries: 139 from QBs (25.8 percent)
2007: 541 carries: 117 from QBs (21.6 percent)
2008: 464 carries: 50 from QBs (10.7 percent)
2009: 599 carries: 66 from QBs (11.0 percent)
And if you need further evidence, just look at the last four years (two at Cincy and two at ND) of quarterback carries when Kelly was calling the plays:
2008: 347 rushing, 100 from QBs (28.8 percent) – Collaros 6.0 ypc
2009: 444 rushing, 111 from QBs (25.0 percent) – Collaros 4.8 ypc
2010: 414 rushes, 73 rushes (17.6 percent) – Crist 1.4 ypc
2011: 433 rushes, 61 rushes (14.1 percent) – Hendrix 6.5 ypc
Those rushes include quarterback sacks, which makes the yards per carry astounding. But what’s even more astounding is when you compare Hendrix ( 25 rushes, 162 yards) and Rees (31 rushes, negative 56 yards). Does anyone still think Rees is in the mix? I know, you’ll believe it when you see it.
But also understand that before Martin took over as OC, the Irish were recruiting Devin Fuller as a defensive back and he wasn’t interested. Now, with Martin as OC, the Irish are recruiting Fuller as a quarterback and he’s highly interested, although the recent addition of Kiel may change Notre Dame’s plans. Point blank, Martin’s system needs a running quarterback.
However, all of the above depends on how much input will have into the system where Kelly will continue to call the plays. What is a fact is that when Kelly promised to fix and work on the offense he turned to Martin, and how that turns out still remains to be seen. But just the fact that Kelly made the decision to turn to Martin means a lot.
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