The Michigan-Notre Dame reunion pits a retooling offense vs. one of the country’s best defenses

Note: This Week 1 game preview was originally published in June. Read more on Michigan and Notre Dame from Bill Connelly’s 130-team preview series.

There’s not much margin on either Michigan’s or Notre Dame’s schedule.

The Wolverines are in a division with national frontrunner Ohio State, resurgent Penn State, and a quietly stacked Michigan State while facing some of the tougher Big Ten West teams in Nebraska, Northwestern, and Wisconsin.

The Fighting Irish draw Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and Florida State from the ACC, also face Northwestern, and play rivals Stanford and USC.

This rivalry’s Week 1 resumption was always going to be a major event, but it might also winnow out which team is poised for a top-10 season and which is rounding out the top 25.

The Wolverines had to replace nine starters in 2017 and still finished 10th in defensive S&P+. For 2018, they return eight starters, including leading tackler Devin Bush, top pass-rushers Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary, and their entire nickel secondary.

In South Bend, the offense has to replace a pair of top-10-pick OL in LT Mike McGlinchey and LG Quentin Nelson, fourth-round TE Durham Smythe, sixth-round WR Equanimeous St. Brown, and RB Josh Adams, who ran for 1,430 yards last season. The Irish return embattled QB Brandon Wimbush, who was benched during the bowl victory over LSU.

Despite losing arguably the most talented OL tandem in the program’s history, Notre Dame is returning two starters from last year’s OL, along with two who split time at right tackle and promising RS sophomore Liam Eichenberg at LT. Notre Dame is also loaded with large targets in the passing game, including TEs Alize Mack and Cole Kmet, big slot Chase Claypool (6’4, 229), and outside receiver Miles Boykin (6’4, 227).

The plan in year two with OC Chip Long is to make up for the loss of beef by expanding the RPO game that made Long’s Memphis so devastating. In 2017, the Irish leaned on Wimbush’s legs and their superiority up front. For 2018, they’re working to incorporate WRs like Boykin, who destroyed LSU in the Citrus Bowl, by using their QB’s arm, rather than his legs, as the complement to the run game.

For instance, the 2017 Irish loved to use plays like GT counter-read, with the QB reading a backside defender (here, the unblocked defensive end who chases the RB) for the keep option:

There is a quick passing option at the top of the screen. But in the 2018 spring game, they showed some more complex RPOs, such as this play that combined an out/go route combo with a split zone run:

The idea is to punish a cloud quarters coverage, in which the nickel is playing the edge against the run and the CB is trapping short passes. This makes the safety cover the go route while the offense is also mixing in a run play. The QB has to make some really good reads, but it makes life tough for even elite defenses.

Notre Dame is building this kind of balanced attack, but they have a lot of young components, and Michigan is a tough initial contest. The Wolverines will throw man coverage and pressures at the Irish, making Wimbush prove he’s ready to beat tight coverage.

The Irish also took a loss when Texas A&M poached DC Mike Elko as a part of an “open the vaults!” offseason plan. Brian Kelly promoted LB coach Clark Lea, and the plan is to maintain the same defense, but with Irish stars moving around in an attempt at maximization.

Some of the big changes include sliding 6’7, 299-pound athlete Jerry Tillery from nose tackle to the 3-technique, so he can attack opposing backfields, and bumping LBs Drue Tranquill and Te’Von Coney down a spot, with Tranquill moving from nickel LB to the weakside LB position and Coney from there to middle LB. The upshot will be a faster defense, one that should be more challenging to throw against.

Stopping Michigan is always going to come back to handling the power O run game. While all eyes have been on transfer QB Shea Patterson, his eligibility, and his spring battle with Brandon Peters, the Wolverines have something much closer to the sort of OL that Harbaugh built his Stanford offenses around.

The key is an interior OL that will likely include Ben Bredeson (6’5, 308, 25 starts), Cesar Ruiz (6’3, 315, six), and Michael Onwenu (6’3, 350, eight) all of whom were recruited by Harbaugh to execute his power run game. The Wolverines have an absurd collection of TEs (four could see major action) and bruising FB Ben Mason back to lead the way for a pair of RBs (Karan Higdon, Chris Evans) who ran for a combined 1,679 yards in 2017.

The Wolverines will bring all kinds of formations and tricks ...

... but often just to either isolate a TE in coverage or run power.

Notre Dame’s solution will be its 4-2-5 under, which puts big DE Khalik Kareem (6’4, 270) at the point of attack, along with nose tackle Jonathan Bonner (6’4, 293) and MLB Te’Von Coney, with the hopes of spilling runs to the rover LB, strong safety, or Tillery/Tranquill.

They held up okay against LSU’s power game in their bowl game ...

... and they’ll need similar resolve at the point of attack to protect their field against Michigan.

Harbaugh wants a hard-nosed team that can run, play defense, and throw to TEs with play-action. The 2018 season could be when they finally have both the run game and the QB to put it all together.

Notre Dame has been pivoting under Brian Kelly to include more RPOs in the equation. If Michigan is ready to go with its young OL and Patterson at QB, then Notre Dame will really need Wimbush and the next generation of offensive stars to match them against a top defense.

Expect Michigan to win a tough contest here and become a leading contender for Ohio State’s Big Ten crown.