Notre Dame OL Jarrett Patterson Focused on Leadership
Notre Dame got a significant boost to its offensive line when captain Jarrett Patterson decided to return for his fifth year with the Fighting Irish.
A few weeks later, the excitement was met with the unfortunate news Patterson would miss the spring after a pectoral tear in March.
"It's feeling a lot better," Patterson said following Thursday's practice. "It's going to be four weeks tomorrow. Next week, I should get the sling off, but I'm making a lot of good progress so far."
The California native has started rehab and if there is a silver lining, Patterson feels it's easier than last spring when he was rehabbing from a Lisfranc injury.
"I started rehab probably three or four days after surgery," explained Patterson. "Shoulder mobility, basic strength exercises and the next part of the process with be starting to strengthen the pec and prepping for bench pressing and things like that."
Notre Dame offensive line coach Harry Hiestand would love nothing more than to coach his most experienced lineman, but he's been thoroughly impressed with Patterson's leadership this spring.
"He's a guy that has earned the respect from his teammates," said Hiestand. "You can lead once you have the respect of people. He does that, so he's key to helping bring out the best in each guy. It starts with himself and we'll get him healthy and push forward from there."
Patterson has made it a point to still be a presence in meetings and the practice field despite not being able to play.
"Just keeping guys confident and playing hard," Patterson said of his current role. "That's what I want to help these guys do. They've done a great job and it's made my job easier."
One of Hiestand's most significant points of emphasis is taking care of the small details and Patterson has made sure to help keep his teammates on track.
"It's just about picking one thing every day to get better at," said Patterson. "It's not looking at the big picture, but it's looking at the little things every single day we can we improve on and master."
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