interesting..... we've seen this trend coming for a while but it was too radical to believe that the thinking would go this far.
I think/feel that Kelly is following his great system instincts here again. He has always wanted to role out of the huddle and present something to the defense that they could not figure out until after the ball was snapped. Prior to this, Kelly's idea was grounded on a very simple way of presentation: four immediately dangerous quick receivers running mainly short to intermediate routes and a QB who saw the field, read the sequence rapidly, and delivered darts before the DLines could get there. Mixed in was the "pepper" of the semi-surprise rip blast run in the semi-open-field defensive confusion.
Here at ND almost every bit of that had to be modified. As Kelly "went bigger" to conservatively protect flawed quarterbacks, he serendipitously became aware of how big he could recruit here. Since running was a greater staple here than at previous stops, inline blocking TEs but also downfield blocking WRs became an insistence. Our WR recruits began swelling in size.
The last element in this surprising evolution seems to be Kelly's decision/vision of the double confusing RB. I believe that he wanted to do this last season, but the power difference between Cierre as the "other" back to the multifunctional Theo, vs the undefendable Tyler Eifert in the slot, made him largely give up on the two-back game.
So, here we are. Kelly's rolling out Big Guns all across the field. Big physical people who will outmuscle you, out jump you, and block your eyeballs out. If there ARE two RBs, BOTH will be able to catch and both will be able to block at high levels or they won't be the "two".
This makes me pause. GAIII? Amir? Cam? Will? The two rooks? When/if we go two RBs, who can run, catch, AND run-block? [Pass-block is an absolute requirement].
