Mixing and Matching | by Pat

It's no secret that an incredibly porous offensive line is one of the biggest problems for the 0-3 Fighting Irish. Nothing seemed to work on Saturday as ND was unable to protect the quarterback or open big holes for the running backs. One critique you cannot make, however, is that the Irish coaches are stubbornly sticking with the same players. Of the 13 Irish possessions, 9 different offensive line rotations saw the field. The first four series featured the usual five starters, with one twist. Sam Young moved over to the left side of the line and Paul Duncan took his spot at right tackle. Charlie hinted that an injury situation involving either Young or Duncan prompted the move. We should find out more about that as the week goes on.

Starting with the fifth series in the game, the coaches made wholesale substitutions on the line (see the table below), looking for effective combinations and trying to figure out which guys wanted to fight and which didn't. To be honest, no one really looked good out there.

According to Irish Insights, 340-pound sophomore Chris Stewart did make the trip up to Ann Arbor, making him the only offensive linemen to be on the sidelines and not play. There may be an injury situation there we're not aware of, but as someone on the internet with a sense of humor wrote, if opposing teams are going to continue running around our offensive linemen, we might as well play the one guy that takes the longest to run around. At least with a home game coming up, Stewart will be on the sidelines if needed.

Perhaps the most notable item in the OL rotation was the debut of freshman tackle Matt Romine, who saw time early in the game at LT, and again later at RT.

There was one injury during the game that affected the rotation as Dan Wenger went down with a leg injury late in the game. His status for the Michigan State game is unknown at this time.

First Half Series 1-4 LT - Young LG - Turkovich C - Sullivan RG - Wenger RT - Duncan Series 5 LT - Romine LG - Turkovich C - Sullivan RG - Wenger RT - Duncan Series 6 LT - Young LG - Olsen C - Sullivan RG - Carufel RT - Duncan Series 7 LT - Young LG - Turkovich C - Sullivan RG - Wenger RT - Romine Series 8 LT - Young LG - Olsen C - Sullivan RG -Carufel RT - Romine

Second Half Series 9 LT - Young LG - Turkovich * C -Sullivan RG - Wenger RT - Duncan Series 10 LT - Romine LG - Olsen C - Sullivan RG - Wenger RT - Duncan Series 11 LT - Young LG - Turkovich C - Sullivan RG - Carufel RT - Romine Series 12 LT - Young LG - Olsen C - Sullivan RG - Carufel RT - Duncan Series 13 LT - Romine LG - Olsen C - Bemenderfer RG - Carufel RT - Duncan

* replaced after false start in favor of Eric Olsen