Notre Dame Notebook: Gerad Parker Talks Offense, Rico Flores, Jadarian Price, Jayden Thomas

On paper, Notre Dame is an average to slightly above average offense coming out of its first bye week. The Fighting Irish have the No. 11 team passing efficiency offense, No. 17 scoring offense (36.3 ppg), No. 52 total offense (414.5), and No. 55 rushing offense (165.2 ypg) through their first eight games of the season.

The season splits for those numbers become a lot more exaggerated when comparing the first four games to the last four games of the opening eight-game stretch. The Irish averaged 46.0 points and nearly 509 yards of total offense against Navy, Tennessee State, NC State and Central Michigan in the season’s opening stanza.

The scoring dropped to 25.7 points over the last four games, all against ranked teams, while the total yardage sunk to an average of 320 per game against Ohio State, Duke, Louisville, and USC. Their 48 points against the Trojans was their only game scoring more than 20 points and their 381 yards against Duke was the high-water mark over the last four after tallying at least 444 yards against those first four foes.

First year Irish offensive coordinator Gerad Parker knows it has to be better down the stretch of the last four games of the regular season.

"I’ve thought a lot about it and I’ll be honest with you guys,” Parker began when asked about getting the offense back to early season form. "Do we have to execute better, and do we have to be better on third down? Yes, and we have to execute better against better people. I think we need to be fair too and understand two of those defenses (Ohio State and Duke) were Top 5 defenses. The third one that we lost to that we don’t feel very proud of was a Top 25 defense (Louisville).

"Never have I sat in front of you and felt anything but ‘I’m first.' I get it,” Parker continued. "We have to play better. But, there’s realities too. We have to be better against really good people. It’s what everyone here wants. It’s what you want, it’s what my wife wants. How do you do that? We have to execute better. So starting last week, we kind of got back to brass tacks about understanding why we’re doing what we’re doing, how to execute it better so we can (in games) and how to finish drives and put points on the board that everybody wants to see. That’s the only way you do this thing better against better people and get going toward these last four guys so we can get our guys where we expect them to be and where we want to be.”

Rico On The Rise

Wide receiver Rico Flores Jr.’s rise through the receiving ranks continues this week as he finds himself at the top of the depth chart for the first time. The freshman has continually seen his playing time rise, especially over the last three games after injuries to veterans Jayden Thomas and Deion Colzie and fellow freshman Jaden Greathouse.

Flores has 15 receptions for 178 yards to date and Parker is hard pressed to name another freshman he’s started at wide receiver in his coaching career that includes previous stops at Purdue, Duke, West Virginia, and Penn State.

"I don’t know that I have,” said Parker. "On my resume — I’ve had some play, but play this significant amount of reps and play in a stadium like that. It tells you a lot about him. He’s eager to learn, always asking, always around the building and I think it’s put him in a situation where he’s starting to see some stuff and see some success doing it.”

Return To Form For Jayden Thomas?

Thomas has been severely limited over the last three games with a hamstring injury. The junior missed the Duke game and had two catches for 33 yards against Louisville for his only production in the last two games. Thomas is expected to be as close to 100% as he has been in the last month this weekend against Pitt.

"We think so,” Parker appraised. "It’s been a hard road for him and JG and a few of them to get healthy through that eight-game stretch. We feel like they’ve come out healthy so we should see kind of a full look of our guys again. Be able to play fast and play healthy.”

Jadarian Price’s Promising Prospects

Jadarian Price has been a solid contributor out of Notre Dame’s backfield all season after missing all of last season with a torn Achilles. The sophomore has 100 rushing yards and 65 receiving yards this season. He also has five kickoff returns. His 99-yard return for a touchdown against USC was the biggest play of his young career as well as Notre Dame’s biggest special teams play of the season. It could also be a turning point for his confidence after coming back from last year’s injury.

"I’m not saying this just because he popped one,” Parker explained. "But sometimes it takes things like that to unlock all of you. I think now mentally he’s in a place where last week and this week, and I don’t think it’s in my mind, our minds, but last week and this week it just looks like there’s another piece to his gear and how he’s finishing during practice even. Sometimes something like that gets you thinking, ‘Okay, I can do that’.”