Since Mike Elko was hired as Notre Dame’s new defensive coordinator in mid-December, speculation about his favorite toy has both hindered and furthered any conversation about the Irish defense. The uncertainty of how Elko would deploy a rover at Notre Dame limited the discussion, yet that same uncertainty led to enough speculation to allow the discourse to meander in circles unabated.
Wednesday’s first spring practice provided the first hard data about the safety/linebacker hybrid. Well, at least it provided as much of a glimpse as the first practice of spring football can.
Many expected that initial peek to feature senior Drue Tranquill. Instead, junior Asmar Bilal had the opportunity to impress Elko and Irish coach Brian Kelly. Tranquill may get his chance soon, though.
“I really think it’s going to be a week-to-week matchup situation,” Kelly said. “You’re going to look at the teams that could stress that position with a slot receiver versus a tight end …
At 6-foot-2, 229 pounds, Bilal could feature prominently against physical, run-based teams.
“We think Asmar is a guy that physically can run with most detached or tight ends or backs coming out,” Kelly said. “In the role we’re going to ask the rover to match up. We’re not going to ask him to run vertically or play corner routes. We think [Bilal] is a physical guy at the point of attack, a guy that is agile enough to play in space, yet not put him in a position where he’d have to play more of a safety in that positon right now.”
When the time comes for a more coverage-based rover, that may be when Tranquill steps forward. If not him—perhaps he is deemed too necessary at safety—sophomores Spencer Perry and D.J. Morgan both have experience in coverage, as a cornerback and a safety by trade, respectively. Neither is primed to crack the depth chart at those positions, but could readily provide some depth at rover. Come summer and fall, incoming freshman Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, also a safety, will nearly certainly join the grouping. His late recruitment came about largely because Elko sees the consensus three-star recruit as a prime candidate at rover.
Theoretically, the rover provides the defense more flexibility than a traditional linebacker. Sure, Tranquill may be preferable in coverage to Bilal, but Bilal should still be more serviceable in that role than junior linebackers Te’von Coney or Josh Barajas. Similarly, Tranquill would presumably provide more run support than sophomore safety Jalen Elliott. In an era when offenses thrive on forcing defenses into mismatched packages, the rover can alter some of that algebra.
‘POWER RUN TEAMS’
Part of Kelly’s explanation for Bilal’s moment as the rover debutante hinged on the first third of Notre Dame’s 2017 schedule, pointing to “some power run teams in the first month of the season.”
As always around these parts, the below rushing stats do not include sacks or the yards lost via sack as the NCAA statistics do.
2016 Temple: 2,720 rushing yards on 535 attempts for 31 touchdowns and an average of 5.08 yards per carry; the Owls threw for 3,324 yards.
2016 Georgia: 2,632 rushing yards on 509 attempts for 18 touchdowns and an average of 5.17 yards per carry; the Bulldogs threw for 2,515 yards.
2016 Boston College: 2,122 rushing yards on 538 attempts for 16 touchdowns and an average of 3.94 yards per carry; the Eagles threw for 1,869 yards.
2016 Michigan State: 2,222 rushing yards on 444 attempts for 14 touchdowns and an average of 6.13 yards per carry; the Spartans threw for 2,668 passing yards.
Bilal’s physicality very well may be necessary in the coming September, especially against Georgia’s vaunted rushing attack. Bilal getting an extended run at rover makes sense even against Boston College. The Eagles’ offense may have been paltry in 2016, but any successes it did enjoy came on the ground.
For context’s sake, last season Notre Dame rushed for 2,123 yards on 410 attempts for 18 touchdowns and an average of 5.18 yards per carry. The Irish threw for 3,051 yards. This paragraph of statistics is not presented to start a rush:pass distribution debate, nor is it to insinuate Notre Dame was a power-rushing offense. Rather, it is simply an offense most readers of Inside the Irish are presumably familiar with.
For further context’s sake, Bob Davie’s New Mexico led the NCAA last season in rushing yards per game. (That statistic did not account for the NCAA’s inclusion of sacks, but given how few the Lobos suffered, they likely would have still led. The following statistics have had sacks’ results removed from their totals.) New Mexico rushed for 4,621 yards on 676 attempts for 48 rushing touchdowns and an average of 6.84 yards per carry. The Lobos threw for 1,389 yards.