Notre Dame football 11 personnel sets may not last in regular season
Marcus Freeman made it clear that could change when the team is healthy.
The Notre Dame football team’s offense is no doubt, going to change under new offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. No matter what it looks like, most Fighting Irish fans believe it will change for the better.
Spring has officially sprung in South Bend. The guys who will be running the offense - at least some of the guys - are trying out the new offense. It will almost certainly look different than what Notre Dame football ran in 2023.
During his Saturday press conference, Freeman shed some light on just what kind of offense the Irish have been running so far. He said that Denbrock’s crew has been lining up in 11-personnel quite often. However, Golden Domer fans might not want to get all that excited just yet.
Freeman made it so clear that while the 11-personnel format has been popular in the spring, there’s no guarantee it will be part of the Notre Dame football attack once the regular season begins.
One reason is that the Irish have quite a few tight ends that they expect to lean on this fall. At the moment, the Irish are without guys like Mitchell Evans. But they are expecting him back at some point before the 2024 season kicks off.
Eli Raridon is also nursing some bangs and bruises and the coaching staff is looking to make sure and keep his workload manageable. He could end up seeing different looks in the fall as well.
Notre Dame football may not stick with 11-personnel
The Irish went with two tight ends plenty in 2023. It seem unlikely Denbrock will abandon that entirely, even if he’s been showing off the three receiver, one tight end, and one running back alignment so far this spring.
It’s also worth pointing out that just what kind of formation the Irish line up in is going to rely quite a bit on how the rest of the offense coalesces this year. With new transfer receivers and someone new stepping into the running back spot, it’s hard to have any kind of real feel for what Notre Dame football will be doing once the season arrives.