Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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70 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2015 FOOTBALL PREVIEW BY BRYAN DRISKELL I t was not that long ago, just months in fact, when prospects for Notre Dame's future seemed bleak. The Irish ended the 2014 regular season with four straight losses, including an embarrassing 49-14 defeat at the hands of archrival USC. Brian Kelly's team was scuffling and desperately needed a bowl vic- tory to gain some semblance of momentum as it headed into the offsea- son. Hopes for gaining that spark looked bleak when SEC powerhouse LSU was announced as the Irish opponent in the Music City Bowl. Notre Dame entered an 8.5-point underdog, and few prognosticators gave the Irish much of a chance at victory. Somebody forgot to tell the Notre Dame offensive line that it had no chance against the Tigers. The group set the tone with a 15-play, 66-yard game-opening touchdown drive that made it apparent early on that Notre Dame came to play. After fueling the 31-28 victory over LSU, behind 263 yards on the ground, the Irish line had made the inconsistency that plagued the unit throughout the season a distant memory. Four of the five starters from that victory are back, and their return is a primary reason for the optimism that surrounds Notre Dame heading into the 2015 season. "We lined up and we were going to run the ball down their throat, and that's what we did," said junior right tackle Mike McGlinchey, who made his first career start against LSU. "I went in ready to play. It was definitely a huge challenge in LSU, but the five of us across the board took care of business that day." Associate head coach Mike Denbrock expects to have more perfor- mances like the one fans saw in the bowl victory. "I think it's the beginning," Denbrock said enthusiastically. "I wouldn't pigeon-hole it by saying every game's going to look like the LSU game, but I would say we definitely want to enter every week and every game with the mentality that we're going to physically take the fight to our opponent." Denbrock believes riding a powerful offensive line is what should define the Irish on that side of the ball. "It's the way Notre Dame should play football every Saturday," he noted. "Lean on the big boys up front to create space for the running backs and get the ball in space to some skilled receivers that can make plays. "When I think of Notre Dame football, that's what I think of and that's really what we're trying to do." The Irish line will be composed of three players that have started multiple games in multiple seasons. Senior left tackle Ronnie Stanley enters with the most starting experi- ence, having racked up 26 starts over the last two seasons. Multiple pre- season publications tabbed him as a preseason first-team All-American, and almost every NFL mock draft has him pegged as a first-round pick next May. Stanley has always been classified as one with a high ceiling because of his athleticism, and during his first 25 starts he flashed those skills. The LSU game, though, served as his true breakout game. Stanley went into the bowl matchup with a different mentality. "I wanted to just be more dominant and just really set myself apart," Stanley said. "Show that I am who I think I am." Stanley was dominant in the win and carried that performance into the offseason, becoming a more consistent player during spring practice. "Ronnie has grown tremendously, physically and emotionally, in understanding what we want," offensive line coach Harry Hiestand said. "As you get older in the program, you get more familiar with what we're asking guys to do … that's what he's demonstrated. "As he got more confident in what he was doing, he could let that great talent that he has come out. He's really focused in on here's what's important about my life, what I need to do as a student and what I need to do as a football player." Anchoring the middle of the line is fifth-year senior Nick Martin. The 2014 captain enters the season with 24 career starts. More importantly, Martin begins the season fully healthy and with a full offseason's worth of strength and conditioning. A knee injury caused him to miss most of the previous offseason, and a hand injury slowed him down during the 2014 campaign. Now that he is back to full strength and back at center, Martin is in position to finish his career off with a flourish. "He's significantly better. Last year at this time he was standing on crutches," Hiestand said. "He went into last season with no physical preparation, or very little of it." The strong spring performances of Stanley and Martin were expected, READY TO LEAD A strong finish to the 2014 season has the Irish line poised to carry the offense this fall Junior Steve Elmer, who started 17 games his first two seasons in South Bend, was lauded for making a "tremendous jump" in performance this spring. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA OFFENSIVE LINEMEN