Notre Dame Football: 3 keys to victory vs. Iowa State in Camping World Bowl

1. The offensive line must hold up

Despite a recent string of solid offensive outputs, the offensive line has remained a position of concern for an otherwise strong attack. The losses of Robert Hainsey and Tommy Kraemer haven’t helped matters, but there were problems with this unit far before those injuries occurred. However, Saturday offers little room for excuses against a capable Iowa State defensive front.

The Cyclone defense ranks within the top 50 in both rush and pass defense, but are somewhat more effective when it comes to the former. The Irish are averaging less than 180 rushing yards on a per game basis, and while that’s not an awful number, it isn’t a reflection of where the Irish offense wants to be either.

We touched on this before, but it will be interesting to see what kind of offense Rees rolls out compared to that which we have become used to seeing under Long. Junior Josh Lugg has stepped in capably, Liam Eichenberg has been one of the better players along the line, and Hainsey won offensive lineman of the year at this year’s Echoes Awards. The talent is there, but extracting it appears to be more difficult than initially thought.

There’s no way of knowing what kind of Notre Dame team we’ll see on display this weekend, but the offensive line will have to be on their game if the Irish’s recent offensive success is to continue. That begins and ends with production along the offensive line, making it imperative that this group functions as a cohesive unit come Saturday.