Notre Dame OL Settling Into Place as Camp Closes
Notre Dame’s offensive line has been the center of attention following an injury to left tackle Charles Jagusah just days into preseason camp.
The left tackle spot was a concern, but then last week, Joe Rudolph rolled out a true freshman, Anthonie Knapp, with the first unit following praising Tosh Baker days earlier. That wasn’t the only change as sophomore Sam Pendleton was put in the left guard spot ahead of experienced veterans Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler.
Marcus Freeman made it clear that the staff hasn’t decided who will start in two weeks at Texas A&M, but it certainly appears that Knapp and Pendleton have momentum.
“We have not named a starting offensive line yet and we will at some point,” explained Freeman. “We have to soon, but what they've done is they’ve created a lot of confidence in the offensive coordinator and the offensive line coach with what they've been doing with their reps.I don't care if it's been with the 1s or the 2s. We want our guys to know that we're evaluating everything you do.
“Now, the challenge is when you're young and you're doing a really good job with the 2s, we’ve got to put you with the 1s. We’ve got to see what you can do versus our best and that's what we've done, and both of those two have done an unbelievable job.”
Coogan and Spindler have combined to play in 38 games, while Pendleton played has appeared in two games and has just 15 snaps under his belt.
A youth movement isn’t uncommon in college football, but it’s a bold move given Notre Dame has some experience at guard and perhaps even bolder, considering Kyle Field is arguably the toughest place to play in the country.
One can make a case for any combination of players as the balance of experience and potential is an endless debate. At the end of the day, Notre Dame will play the players they can trust.
“It’s almost like when you have your own children,” Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “At one point, do you trust them to themselves? You’re ready for this. Or do you hold on and say this may not be the best place. Those are hard decisions, within families and obviously trying to construct an offensive line that can match up against our week one opponent and all the ones down the road and be the type of force we’re going to need that group to be. Those are not easy scenarios for sure.
“We’re trying to work through them and make the best decision that’s best for the football team.”
The other piece is Denbrock's belief that Knapp and Pendleton have played themselves into having an opportunity to be a starter..
“They consistently perform at a high level stacking periods together and stacking reps together and stacking days together,” Denbrock stated. “This isn’t anything we’re rewarding them with. They’ve earned opportunities to be seen against the things our defense can provide us. We’ll make our final decisions and evaluations from there.
“It’s because of the work they’ve done, because of the consistency that they’ve shown and the ability that they’ve shown quite frankly to put them in the position to do it.”
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Notre Dame essentially put a stamp on preseason camp on Saturday with the jersey scrimmage, which the offense won 42-40 and included some of the sounds one will hear at Kyle Field on August 31st.
Freeman and defensive coordinator Al Golden were more than pleased with the quality of work the Irish showed inside Notre Dame Stadium as the program took a business approach for most of the day.
“It was a really mature scrimmage,” said Golden. “There wasn’t a lot of nonsense. It was just really mature. It was clean. Guys were flying around and executing. Wins on both sides. It was fun to watch both sides go out and do that.”
Notre Dame’s head coach was pleased due to the fact his team answered the bell. Freeman challenged both sides of the ball start fast with an emphasis on a variety of details, which were hit at various points in the day.
“It’s the opening drive,” Freeman stated. “Can I get a first down and keep the drive going? Or is the defense able to get a three-and-out, which is really hard to do. The offense was able to establish nine first downs on that opening drive, and the defense stopped them — had three three-and-outs.
Then the other keys — turnovers. The defense forced two turnovers, but the positive part is it wasn't the 1s or 2s. It was the 3s. We're going to need everybody, so I don't want to make it like it's not important, but, man, it was a really, really — the best jersey scrimmage I've been a part of. To see two groups really competing throughout the entirety of the scrimmage.”
Denbrock wasn’t as pleased and that’s a good sign.
Notre Dame’s offense has been challenged to raise its level of play after being mediocre for several years and Denbrock has been tasked with changing it. Barring a perfect scrimmage, it’s Denbrock’s job to be unhappy with the performance as he looks to keep pushing the offense to another level.
”I’m really hard to please so I didn’t really like it, to be honest with you,” explained Denbrock. “Do you guys know what the score was (42-40)? If you were asking me if we would have played the way we’re capable of playing, I would have hoped that there would have been a little bigger margin there. But there are a lot of things we’re still growing from and cleaning up. I’m not going to sit here and say we’re any sort of a finished product in any way, shape or form.
“We’re going to continually get better. The faster we can speed that process up, fine. Today for me, 42-40 to me is kind of like, ‘Yeah, we won 50 percent of the time and we weren’t as successful 50 percent of the time, so we’re going to have go back, analyze the tape, learn from what we did wrong and fix it so it doesn’t have to be close next time.’”
And Denbrock knows what it takes to get an offense to an elite level in college football as he did it a year ago.
Denbrock has made it his mission to get on his players about every detail during practice and while it might not be pleasant at times, it comes from a genuine place as he cares about his players, but also Notre Dame.
”I hope that they can feel through how I coach them how important not only they are to me but how important this university and this football program are to me,” Denbrock said. “That’s where it really comes from. It’s a passion about helping them be better.
“Sometimes it’s a little direct, but as I needed when I was a young person, sometimes I needed to be snapped back in the right direction. Hopefully, they understand it comes from a good place and they’ve done a great job with that.”
Golden, who has stopped some of the nation’s most explosive offenses, has noticed Denbrock’s coaching style is paying off, but also a talent upgrade on the other side of the football.
“They do a great job,” said Golden. “They have a quarterback who can distribute or he can solve it with his legs, which is really an awesome starting point. Everybody talks about Mitch (Evans), but the other two tight ends behind him made great strides. Now, all of a sudden, there are different combinations that can go in the game.I love our running back corps. Different combinations of wide receivers in the game.
“The totality of that, if you will, provides great challenges. It’s not like we’ll take away Mitch or just take away Beaux (Collins) or hey, we have to focus on Jeremiyah (Love). It’s not that because then Riley (Leonard) can get you with his feet. I love the system.”
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