Offensive Identity?
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
September 10, 2001

Lincoln, Nebraska (UHND.com) - If Notre Dame developed an offensive identity in the off-season I for one did not see it last night against Nebraska?  Is Notre Dame a power running team?  If they are they weren't too effective?  Is Notre Dame a passing team?  Again, if they are they aren't very effective?  Is Notre Dame a balanced offense that mixes the pass and run together well?  If they are the play calling is atrocious.  Is Notre Dame an option team?  They only ran it a couple times, but with Carlyle Holiday at quarterback that is one identity they can assume.

For Notre Dame to assume an offensive identity, Bob Davie has to decide on a starting quarterback.  As of now he said he would guess that Matt LoVecchio is the starter for Purdue.  This will not due.  Not the fact that he picked LoVecchio.  The fact that he said if he had to guess.  He needs to pick a starter, make him his guy, and then stick with him.  As long as he plays both quarterbacks, Notre Dame will not have an offensive identity because no matter how much Davie wants to believe Holiday and LoVecchio are the same style quarterback, they aren't.  LoVecchio has mobility, but Holiday has pure athletic ability.  He is elusive and adds another dimension to the Notre Dame offense.

Davie was very critical of Holiday's interception that he threw downfield but did not say anything about Matt LoVecchio's interception that was thrown right at the defensive back.  The defensive back did not even have to move, it was right to him.  Both quarterback made mistakes last night, but when Holiday went in the game the thought that every play could be something big came over me.  He is just a play maker. 

Davie is going to have to first pick a quarterback.  Once he has done that he has to decide what this offense is going to be.  It is ridiculous that it has come to this at this point.  These are issues that should be resolved before fall practice starts and should have began to be worked on in spring practice.  However, here we are going into the second game of the year and there is not a clear cut #1 quarterback nor is there a real sense of what kind of offense Notre Dame has.  

With the weapons on this offense it is ridiculous that the only touchdown scored came when the special team blocked a punt and gave Notre Dame a first and goal from the four.  What's even more disheartening is that it took Notre Dame four plays to put the ball in the end-zone from four yards out!  After the first two runs up the middle didn't work, didn't the brilliant offensive minds up in the press box think that maybe, just maybe, a play action pass to the tight end might work?

Even the ABC announcers made notice that while Nebraska uses tight end Tracey Wistrom as a valuable part of their offense, Notre Dame doesn't even think of uses the tight end.  We watched two NFL tight ends get wasted in Jabari Hollowayand Dan O'Leary the last four seasons and now it appears that John Owens and Gary Godsey won't be used either.  When the passing game isn't working why not call safe passes to the tight end instead of that damn lob down down the sideline or the halfback screen which I think lost more yardage than it gained???

The last two seasons there were excuses as to why the Notre Dame offense was bland and predictable.  In Jarious' last year the excuse was that the offensive system was completely different than Colletto's and that they didn't install it all in that first year.  Well, who saw anything that we did not see with Colletto last night?  Last season the offense was conservative because LoVecchio was a freshman.  Well, he is a sophomore this year and who saw anything last night that we did not see 100 times last year?  I for one didn't.

As long as Notre Dame continues to be conservative and does not utilize the pass, and not just on third and long, Notre Dame will continue to feast on lesser opponents (as they did enroute to the Fiesta Bowl last year) and lose to top ranked teams.  You are not going to beat a top 10 team in their house without showing them something they haven't seen yet or without taking any chances.

Bottom line here is that there is no excuse for this offense not putting points on the board with the weapons it has.  I said last week the difference between winning and loosing would be offensive play calling and the offensive play calling last night would have had a tough time beating anybody, let alone a top ten team on the road.