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Notre Dame Football
Instant Reaction: Serious Issues at Center for the Irish
June 6, 2017
4,925
In case you weren’t concerned about the center position before, now’s the time to start worrying.
Notre Dame may be in a good spot with Sam Mustipher there the next two seasons, but the future isn’t just murky. With Tristen Hoge and now Parker Boudreaux leaving the program this week it’s like a Whiteout on a road trip in January. It’s completely unclear what the future of the center position is for the Irish.
That doesn’t even take into account this season where there is no obvious number two center on the roster at this point. Even if Mustipher was to stay completely healthy and snap every football, there is no one that is set behind him to take over.
Before we go into what’s next, let’s take a look at how Notre Dame got here.
Harry Hiestand is notoriously picky with who he offers at the offensive line positions. That’s fine when you’re hitting at the position and those guys become the next Zack Martin or Ronnie Stanley. It’s very risky if you miss on any of the prospects you target and eventually land.
They didn’t offer many recruits in 2015 after landing commitments from Jerry Tillery and Tristen Hoge early in the process. They added Trevor Ruhland to those two and settled on taking three that year, but that strategy ended up being the incorrect one due to Tillery moving to defensive line and Hoge no longer with the program. That leaves only Ruhland. He is a second team guard at best right now and really hasn’t been in the mix to play heading into his third year.
Notre Dame landed two of the best offensive line prospects in the class in 2016 in Tommy Kraemer and Liam Eichenberg, but the third member of the class, Boudreaux, is now gone. That leaves only three linemen from those two classes, which is Ty Willingham level bad in terms of numbers even if Kraemer and Eichenberg have the talent to be high level starters.
Notre Dame absolutely made a mistake by only taking three in back to back classes. I understand that they wanted to have a standard in terms of who they choose to offer, but they needed to look for more after Ben Bredeson decided to choose Michigan in ‘16. They stuck with the three they had and now it’s down to two.
This can’t be emphasized enough. Of course Notre Dame needs tackles and if they can get swing players that can play tackle or guard, that’s a great thing too. But they are in a position now where they can’t look for swing guys and figure it out later. They need to find interior options that can project to play center.
I don’t think either of the two guys they have committed in this current class are players that they envision playing center at the next level. Neither is their top target on the board, Nicholas Petit-Frere, who is definitely going to play tackle in college.
The only prospects they have currently offered that could play center, and both be really good ones at the next level, are Jamaree Salyer and Sam Vakalahi. They need to start working on at least a few more targets.
Unfortunately the May evaluation period is over so Hiestand will have to try and find some options in camps this month or by diving back into film of new prospects.
We just went over this with the Hoge transfer and the candidates remain the same minus Boudreaux.
5th year senior Hunter Bivin could get a look and freshman Robert Hainsey might be an option. Both of those moves would potentially weaken other areas, though, so other options might be better in the long and short term.
Trevor Ruhland has three years of eligibility left and center might be his clearest path to playing time. They may want to consider giving Dillan Gibbons a shot at learning the position as well when he gets to campus. He was slotted for guard with the Irish, but this is a higher priority.
They will need at least two of these players to start working on their snapping. If Mustipher were to go down, it’s likely one of them will be counted on and that is a scary proposition given the lack of experience playing the position.
Notre Dame may be in a good spot with Sam Mustipher there the next two seasons, but the future isn’t just murky. With Tristen Hoge and now Parker Boudreaux leaving the program this week it’s like a Whiteout on a road trip in January. It’s completely unclear what the future of the center position is for the Irish.
That doesn’t even take into account this season where there is no obvious number two center on the roster at this point. Even if Mustipher was to stay completely healthy and snap every football, there is no one that is set behind him to take over.
Before we go into what’s next, let’s take a look at how Notre Dame got here.
The 2015 and 2016 recruiting classes
Harry Hiestand is notoriously picky with who he offers at the offensive line positions. That’s fine when you’re hitting at the position and those guys become the next Zack Martin or Ronnie Stanley. It’s very risky if you miss on any of the prospects you target and eventually land.
They didn’t offer many recruits in 2015 after landing commitments from Jerry Tillery and Tristen Hoge early in the process. They added Trevor Ruhland to those two and settled on taking three that year, but that strategy ended up being the incorrect one due to Tillery moving to defensive line and Hoge no longer with the program. That leaves only Ruhland. He is a second team guard at best right now and really hasn’t been in the mix to play heading into his third year.
Notre Dame landed two of the best offensive line prospects in the class in 2016 in Tommy Kraemer and Liam Eichenberg, but the third member of the class, Boudreaux, is now gone. That leaves only three linemen from those two classes, which is Ty Willingham level bad in terms of numbers even if Kraemer and Eichenberg have the talent to be high level starters.
That leaves only three linemen from those two classes, which is Ty Willingham level bad in terms of numbers even if Kraemer and Eichenberg have the talent to be high level starters.
Notre Dame absolutely made a mistake by only taking three in back to back classes. I understand that they wanted to have a standard in terms of who they choose to offer, but they needed to look for more after Ben Bredeson decided to choose Michigan in ‘16. They stuck with the three they had and now it’s down to two.
Need to target more interior prospects
This can’t be emphasized enough. Of course Notre Dame needs tackles and if they can get swing players that can play tackle or guard, that’s a great thing too. But they are in a position now where they can’t look for swing guys and figure it out later. They need to find interior options that can project to play center.
I don’t think either of the two guys they have committed in this current class are players that they envision playing center at the next level. Neither is their top target on the board, Nicholas Petit-Frere, who is definitely going to play tackle in college.
The only prospects they have currently offered that could play center, and both be really good ones at the next level, are Jamaree Salyer and Sam Vakalahi. They need to start working on at least a few more targets.
Unfortunately the May evaluation period is over so Hiestand will have to try and find some options in camps this month or by diving back into film of new prospects.
Who’s moving to center on the roster?
We just went over this with the Hoge transfer and the candidates remain the same minus Boudreaux.
5th year senior Hunter Bivin could get a look and freshman Robert Hainsey might be an option. Both of those moves would potentially weaken other areas, though, so other options might be better in the long and short term.
Trevor Ruhland has three years of eligibility left and center might be his clearest path to playing time. They may want to consider giving Dillan Gibbons a shot at learning the position as well when he gets to campus. He was slotted for guard with the Irish, but this is a higher priority.
They will need at least two of these players to start working on their snapping. If Mustipher were to go down, it’s likely one of them will be counted on and that is a scary proposition given the lack of experience playing the position.
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