Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 OCT. 10, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T he read was a quick one for Notre Dame running back Aneyas Williams. Quarterback CJ Carr fake- clapped several times, as he is known to do, to make sure Pur- due didn't put a seventh defender in the box. Once he finally real- clapped, Notre Dame's right guard, Sullivan Absher, and its center, Ashton Craig, blew the Boilermakers' defensive tackle off the ball. Junior right tackle Guerby Lambert walled off the defensive end, and at that point, all that remained to stop Wil- liams was Charles Correa. The linebacker peeked to Wil- liams' left. Williams ran right. Game over. "Once we saw the light box, and then the linebacker I was reading disappeared and all I saw was green grass," Williams said. "That was nice. It was good to see." The junior running back scored a 22- yard touchdown on a duo concept, one of Notre Dame's favorite gap-scheme runs. Another is the counter, which the Irish ran several times with sophomore running back Nolan James Jr. during their game- clinching drive against Michigan State. Notre Dame was a heavy zone-scheme team in 2025 and in Week 1 of the 2026 season, when it ran 26 zone runs and four gap runs against Wisconsin. But in recent weeks, the approach begun to shift. Since the Wisconsin game, the Irish have run 53 gap-scheme runs and 45 zone-scheme runs. It's a trend worth noting because Notre Dame's run at- tack is very much a work in progress and hasn't quite fired on all cylinders early in 2026. But in the past two weeks, as the gap-scheme runs have become more prevalent, the Irish have been slowly but surely finding a formula. "It's two new guys, working a new scheme and we're just trying to fig- ure out what works best for this team," Williams said. "We were finally able to bring a little bit of that to light, and we're going to be even better next week." 'GOOD COMPLEMENTARY RUNS' Fifth-year head coach Marcus Free- man will tell you that much of Notre Dame's strategy is based on its oppo- nent. The run scheme is no different. "As we game plan, it's based off of angles," Freeman said. "You'll hear me say it all the time, angles and what our guys are doing well. If we think we're better for this game to be a zone team, we can do them both. We can zone, we can run gap schemes — it's what's best for what the defense presents." That was the reasoning behind Notre Dame's zone-heavy approach against Wisconsin. As Williams explained, the Irish thought the Badgers' athleticism, aggressiveness and willingness to stunt lent themselves more to zone running, in which the line blocks an area (rather than a specific man) and the back reads the play for any holes that may develop. However, Freeman admitted the Irish have been slowly but surely finding — in which the line is assigned a man (based on how the defense lines up), and the play is designed for the back to hit a specific hole or holes — as of late. "But I'm not saying it's all game plan-based," Freeman said. "It is what our guys do well, and in the last two weeks, we've done a little bit more gap scheme. The guys are perform- ing it pretty well." That's less of a statement about the offensive line, Notre Dame of- fensive line coach Joe Rudolph ex- plained, and more of a statement about the running backs. While no one on the Fighting Irish coaching staff has the of- fensive run game coordinator ti- tle, a team's offensive line coach often serves as its de facto run game coordinator. Rudolph said many of his decisions are based on what complements the run- ning backs, in addition to what the defense is doing. "What's this guy do best?" Rudolph said. "And then we'll put it together. There could be a guy or two in your group that gap scheme may help. It may be a good thing for him. We're just trying to find good complementary runs, and then things that put them in the best position to succeed." Last season, Notre Dame leaned heavily into zone concepts because they're often designed to stretch a field horizontally, and even inside-zone runs give the backs freedom to flow with the blocking and pick their spots to cut up the field. Those were obviously strengths of first-round running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. Williams and James, meanwhile, are tremendous when they can get downhill and bounce off tacklers. They do it in different ways — James is shiftier and Williams is more physical — but they're similar in that they're better with a little more structure. "Sometimes you got guys where you want to carve it out and be like, 'Okay, this is where we think this is going to hit,'" Ru- dolph said. "And it's more of a progression with your eyes. But either way, running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider does a hell of a job with those guys. We're just trying to find the right mix for the different mix of guys that are playing there." ✦ Junior running back Aneyas Williams' 22-yard touchdown against Purdue came on a duo concept, which is one of Notre Dame's favorite gap- scheme runs and involves two double teams at the line of scrimmage. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER The Right Mix Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE