Bagpipe Wednesday: Who Is Notre Dame Going To Use For Receivers In The Citrus Bowl?

Welcome to Bagpipe Monday late in the day on a Wednesday! Yep... it's bowl week for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as they get ready to take on the LSU Tigers in the Citrus Bowl.

@phillykelly

Friends, life hasn't been kind to the Irish receivers since the loss to the Stanford Cardinal. Notre Dame is down 4 pass catchers for their upcoming game against the Tigers.

• TE Brock Wright (injury)
• TE Alize Mack (suspension)
• WR Kevin Stepherson (suspension)
• WR Chase Claypool (injury)

Now, I realize many Irish fans might just shrug this off and scream out RUN THE DAMN FOOTBALL and that's a perfectly acceptable response - but you should know better than that.

Even IF Notre Dame uses a power run game against LSU, they will still need to stretch the field in different ways, and with guys like Claypool and Stepheson out, the options get ore and more limited.

At tight end, it's a 3 man set with Durham Smythe, Nic Weishar, and Cole Kmet. Honestly, it is probably for the best that Mack is out so we get more of this trio.

At receiver, it's a lot trickier. Claypool and Stepherson were two of the three starters with Equanimeous St. Brown being one of the three. So, we are looking at a list of guys that don't exactly meet the level of the two that are out in:

• Cameron Smith
• Michael Young
• Chris Finke
• Miles Boykin
• C.J. Sanders (yes he still plays the position)

Who out of those five will step up to be the playmakers needed? Seriously - who? Right now you're probably looking at a starting three of EQ, Boykin, and Finke. That doesn't really move the excitement needle.

LSU is down three starting linebackers due to injury:

• Arden Key
• Corey Thompson
• Donnie Alexander

That alone should signal an offensive gameplan for Notre Dame geared more towards running the ball - but they have outsmarted themselves before and are certainly capable of doing it again.

Enjoy your pipes (also a few days late)!