As much of a difference as Ian Book made for the offense in 2018, equally important was Dexter Williams. Williams was suspended for the first four games of Notre Dame’s 2018 season. In three of those four games, the offense struggled to move up and down the field much at all. When he came back against Stanford, he ran for 161 yards.
Williams was an explosive number 1 back for the Irish. He carried them to an undefeated regular season.
A solid-to-great No. 1 running back hasn’t been uncommon under Brian Kelly, but Williams seemed to be the most natural.