That’s What We Call a Sack Lunch
Despite blitzing with great frequency this year, the Notre Dame under has just one sack so far this season. With our relative lack of depth and playmaking ability along the defensive line I am not too surprised that we’ve struggled in this department. I am, however, surprised that we do have just one sack four games into the season. There could be some good news in this department for us this weekend though. A look at the stats from the past five seasons shows that when the Irish play the Cardinal, we usually get the quarterback a lot more than we normally do.
Notre Dame Yearly Sack Total |
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| Year | Total Sacks | Per Game | vs. Stanford | % |
| 2003 | 37 | 2.7 | 7 | 19% |
| 2004 | 30 | 2.6 | 1 | 3% |
| 2005 | 30.5 | 2.1 | 7 | 23% |
| 2006 | 31 | 2.2 | 5 | 16% |
| 2007 | 18 | 1.2 | 5 | 28% |
Note: the “Per Game” stat is how many sacks the Irish averaged in games against everyone except Stanford.
In every year except 2004, Notre Dame has gotten to the quarterback significantly more against Stanford than any other team on the schedule. Even last year when the Irish tallied just 18 sacks on the entire season, five of them came in the season finale against Stanford.
Granted most of these games came when Stanford employeed coaches who had very short tenures on the farm. Still, these stats suggest that maybe a game against Stanford could be exactly the cure for what ailes our pass rush this year.
Last year Raeshon McNeil (1.0), Trevor Laws (1.0), Brian Smith (0.5), Kerry Neal (1.0), Joe Brockington (1.0), Justin Brown (0.5) supplied the five sacks for the Irish. Hopefully Smith and Neal came add a couple more this year and get the Irish pass rush back on track.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
I think your right Frankie, and here’s why: last week was the offensive break out, this week should be positive and conducive to defensive progress.
Especially with the prima donna comments by a Stanford player.