What does Notre Dame football offense need to be better? OC Gerad Parker knows
SOUTH BEND — Each post-practice Tuesday evening when the No. 14 Notre Dame football team has a game that Saturday has been the same for offensive coordinator Gerad Parker.
He’s one of the first to ascend the Irish Athletic Center stairs where the coordinators and assorted players meet the media. He grabs the stool furthest to the left on the left side of the long table. He ignores the bottle of water waiting for him. He wears the same gear — long-sleeve coaching shirt, shorts, sneakers and ball cap, often pulled low, but not low enough to hide accountability.
The first four weeks of the regular season, that seat for those sessions felt like a throne. Notre Dame averaged 46 points in four wins. It averaged 23 first downs and 304.7 passing yards. It converted 54.5 percent (6-of-11) on third down. It tallied an average of 508.7 yards of total offense. It was good.
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The 42-year-old Parker was praised for everything — the run game, the pass game, the call sheet. He seemingly could do — and call — no wrong. Everything that he dialed up delivered.
As good as it was, as good as he was, Parker never allowed himself to feel like he’d done, well, well. The Irish could be better. He could be better. Still, after last season’s offensive slog under former quarterbacks coach and coordinator Tommy Rees, all seemed right on that side of the ball.
Then the next four games happened, and that seat at that table on those Tuesday nights that had felt so comfortable became less so, maybe even a bit … warm.
Points per game plummeted to 25.7, as did the average first downs – to 17 a game. Passing yards dipped to 194.2 while third-down conversions were a hide-your-eyes 29.1 percent (3.5-for-12). Yards per game dipped to 320.2.
For some, the whiz-bang, first-year play-caller had a problem. After going 4-0 to start, the Irish staggered through the next four at 2-2. The struggles gave Parker an opportunity to offer excuses. Yet every Tuesday, this last one included, Parker was in his familiar seat for his media session owning all of it.
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Prior to sitting down, Parker joked how this media window, coming on the heels of a bye week, was a “can of corn.”
In other words, routine. Here he is. Here we are. Let’s go.
How can this offense look more like it did in the first four games than the second four?
“I’ve thought a lot about it,” said Parker. “Here’s the real question – do we have to execute better? Do we have to be better on third down? Yes. Never have I ever sat in front of you guys and ever used anything (as an excuse). I’m first. I get it. We’ve got to play better.”
Preferably sooner (this week against Pittsburgh) than later (next week’s trip to still-dangerous Clemson). Pittsburgh’s defense will present problems. Clemson’s atmosphere will present problems. At Notre Dame, there’s no notion of an easy game.
“We’ve got to be better against really good people,” said Parker, whose offense has faced two scoring defenses (Ohio State, Duke) currently ranked in the Top 5 nationally. “That’s what everybody wants. That’s what you all want (not really). That’s what my wife wants (uh, OK).
“How do you do that? We have to execute better.”
Crunching the numbers
Look at a few key offensive categories and where Notre Dame ranks nationally — total offense (52nd), rush offense (55th), pass offense (48th), pass efficiency (11th) and scoring offense (17th). Notre Dame was 59th, 35th, 97th, 31st and 41st in those five spots last year, so it’s been better nearly across the board.
Maybe all that angst isn’t all that warranted. But what’s a Notre Dame football season without angst? We rarely know.
Heading into the USC game, tight end Mitchell Evans was asked the identity of this Irish offense. With seven games down, what was it that Notre Dame did well? Run it? Throw it? Evans deferred, saying that the identity is anything it needed to be on a given Saturday.
“Whatever the situation needs,” he said, “that’s our identity.”
Kind of.
“We,” said head coach Marcus Freeman, “can’t just be a pass-first team.”
But …
“We have to continue to build confidence in taking shots (in the passing game),” Freeman said.
With two-thirds of the regular season in the rear-view, what is the identity of this Irish offense? Of Parker as a play-caller?
Parker offered some thoughts — Notre Dame must run the football and control the line of scrimmage (duh!) — but not many definitive answers. Hearing the tone in his voice, the conviction in his words and the look-you-right-in-the-eye honesty, Parker believes that this is still a team in search of an offensive identity, but an identity that still can be reached over the season’s final four games.
If — and that’s a capital IF — everything comes together in ways that have yet to come together. If they can do something they haven’t done in the last month – be effective vertically with a veteran quarterback. Everything else — running the ball, being tough, being penalty free (for the most part), being efficient — this group has done (except in Louisville). Now get the passing game going.
“We’ve got to find ways to put it in space and find explosives,” Parker said. “That’s the next step as we grow.”
And continue to grow. The bye week allowed Parker to do a little of everything — coach the offense for three days, see three recruits in North Carolina over two days, spend time with his family. Decompress. However far he tried to get away from football, he couldn’t totally unplug. Coaches simply aren’t wired that way. Coordinators definitely aren’t. There always was something about the game on his mind. Time away was needed, but the time to fine-tune the offense also helped.
“We kind of got back to brass tacks, understanding why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Parker said. “How to execute it better so we can and then we can finish drives and put points on the board that everybody wants to see.
“We’re really not dodging it.”
At some other places, you could dodge it. Not at Notre Dame. One week, they love you. The next, they don’t. Parker’s certainly ridden that roller coaster. Who’s to say the next ride doesn’t go a little smoother?
“That’s the only way you do this thing better against better people and get going these last four games,” he said. “Get to where we expect our guys to be and where we want to be.”
Where they need to be. For this offense. For this coordinator. For the rest of this regular season.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
No. 14 Notre Dame (6-2) vs. Pittsburgh (2-5)
■ When: Saturday, Oct. 28, 3:30 p.m. EDT
■ Where: Notre Dame Stadium (77,622), South Bend, Ind.
■ Rankings: Notre Dame is ranked No. 14 in both the AP and US LBM Coaches Polls. Pitt is unranked.
■ TV: NBC/Peacock
■ Radio: WSBT (960 AM), WNSN (101.5 FM)
■ Line: Notre Dame opens as a 20-point favorite
■ Series: Notre Dame leads all-time series 50-21-1
■ Last meeting: No. 3 Notre Dame defeated Pitt, 45-3, on Oct. 24, 2020 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football offensive coordinator Gerad Parker seeks improvement
