How a schematic switched helped spark Chris Tyree’s kick return touchdown
Brian Polian decided it was time.
No more automatic fair catches on kick returns. Time to let returner Chris Tyree loose out there. And doing so would come with a shift in blocking scheme.
Polian, Notre Dame’s special teams coordinator, told head coach Brian Kelly at halftime of the Irish’s 41-13 win over Wisconsin of his plans. Notre Dame led 10-3 after two quarters, but had gone three-and-out on three of its first six possessions. Its run game was expectedly nonexistent against a strong Wisconsin defense. Sacks were stalling drives.
The Irish were searching for a spark. Polian offered a potential one: Hit Wisconsin’s kickoff coverage team in the middle of the field.
Notre Dame’s primary return blocking scheme to that point had been the sideline return, which is designed to create a crease between the hash marks and the sideline. Polian switched to a field return, which tries to set up a lane between the hashes.
“We had been going sideline return,” Kelly said. “Just didn't have enough working room. Brian, at half, said, ‘Listen, we're going to try to go to the field. It's going to be an all-or-nothing situation.’”
It wasn’t just the former. It changed the tune of the game.
Tyree’s first returnable kick of the second half came not even a minute into the fourth quarter, after Wisconsin took a 13-10 lead on kicker Collin Larsh’s 27-yard field goal. He caught the ensuing kickoff at the 4-yard line, just outside the numbers, and ran toward the middle of the field. He cut behind senior receiver Matt Salerno’s block at the 30, burst past an unblocked defender at the 33 and accelerated away from the rest of Wisconsin’s return unit.
“When you go to the field, you're stretching your blocking out longer,” Kelly said. “That's where you tend to see a holding or something like that. But we were able to catch a crease. And the rest, obviously, he's a very fast and talented player.”
A 96-yard touchdown, all told. No flags. Thirteen seconds after Notre Dame fell behind, it had the lead back. And held it for good. Tyree’s touchdown ushered in a fourth-quarter deluge of 31 unanswered points that turned a tense game into a blowout.
“That was the game-changing play, honestly,” junior cornerback Cam Hart said. “Putting the defense back on the field with a lot of energy and intensity, that changed a lot.”
Tyree is on kick returns because he’s Notre Dame’s fastest player and a home-run threat every time he touches the ball. In three prior games, though, he had attempted just one return — a 19-yarder against Toledo Sept. 11. Kelly ordered him to fair catch all kickoffs in the second half of the opener at Florida State. His two first-half returns against Wisconsin went for 36 combined yards, both on short kicks he fielded just beyond the goal line.
It’s modest production from a big-play weapon. Between the fair catches and the lack of space he has found as a running back this year, his opportunities to make an impact have been limited.
Polian’s schematic switch gave him one. Tyree ran to it and ran through it, scoring Notre Dame’s first kickoff return touchdown since 2016.
“We know he can do it,” senior receiver Kevin Austin Jr. said. “We know he has game-breaking speed. For him to show that, it was a reminder for all of us on the sideline that this is type of game this was going to be and this is the game we need to have to beat a team like that.”
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