10 ways Notre Dame Football can make it back to the College Football Playoff

10 ways Notre Dame Football can make it back to the College Football Playoff

3. Maintain the Offensive Line

One of the calling cards under Brian Kelly has been an elite offensive line. In fact, in most seasons, it has been the offensive line that has made the Irish offense successful. From the Martin brothers, to Ronnie Stanley, to Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson, to the modern iteration of Liam Eichenberg, Aaron Banks, and Robert Hainsey, Notre Dame has always had elite offensive line talent.

In 2021, there is going to be a lot of turnover on the offensive line, which always begs the question, will this line be able to maintain the levels of success that the previous line reached?

To this point, the answer has always been yes during the Brian Kelly years, so, it’s easy to assume that this will be the case again in 2021. They have some experience and some highly-touted players expected to come in, so why shouldn’t the Notre Dame staff continue to excel at developing and preparing the offensive line?

Still, it’s always a question. If something does go wrong you can kiss any hope of a College Football Playoff goodbye. This is an Irish team built to run the ball and get push on the line, and they need that or they will fail. Jack Coan isn’t mobile, either, which means he can’t create like Ian Book would be able to do on the run.