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Photo by Rick Kimball/ISD
Notre Dame Football

McGlinchey Wants Offensive Line To Be Driving Force

August 23, 2017
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Mike McGlinchey got to experience life as a captain in 2016 and will do so again in 2017 with running back Josh Adams, who grew up about two miles down the road from him. The 6-foot-8, 315-pounder was very pleased to see Adams get recognized as a captain on Sunday after watching him work over the past two seasons.

“It’s great,” said McGlinchey. “It’s good to have another hometown kid wearing a 'C' with me. He’s fully deserving of it. There aren’t too many better kids than Josh Adams.

“He’s a guy that comes in and does everything the right way since he’s been here as a freshman. He’s not necessarily the vocal guy, but if you look around, you know No. 33 is doing the right things. That’s all we can ask of him as a captain.”

Rick Kimball/ISD Mike McGlinchey
As a fifth-year senior, McGlinchey will be counted on to the lead the team for a second year, but also bring along redshirt freshman right tackle Tommy Kraemer. McGlinchey was in Kraemer’s role a few years ago and simply wants him to be himself for the time being.

“I think Tommy Kraemer needs to worry about Tommy Kraemer,” explained McGlinchey. “He needs to play within himself and stop getting worked up about things out of his control. It’s the same things I dealt with at his age. Tommy just needs to play Tommy Kraemer football. He doesn’t need to worry about being me or Q (Quenton Nelson).

“He will get there one day. He’s a young kid, and he needs to worry about his job and technique. Then worry about just playing football. The more he can gain focus on the things that truly matter, the easier his job is going to be.”

The growing pains of playing offensive line will happen at every program for a young player, but offensive line coach Harry Hiestand tries to make those occur in practice and not the games throughout the week.   

“Saturday’s are the easy ones with the way we practice and the way our coach coaches,” McGlinchey stated. “There is a lot less stress on Saturday’s because you’re so prepared and ready to play. The preparation we do each week is going to prepare Tommy. He will be fine and he’s going to have a great year for us.”  

As Kraemer works himself in with the four returning starters, the confidence is growing each practice and each rep. McGlinchey knows Notre Dame has the chance to be special on the offensive line and he’s doing all he can to make sure that happens.  

“There is a lot more confidence and trust in each guy next to us,” said McGlinchey. “I think the five of us are working extremely hard to see things through one set of eyes and working together as one. The struggles we’ve had at times over the past have given the kind of drive to make sure we never those problems again. A lot of them were just miscommunications or guys not being where they were supposed to be.

"We want to be the group that drives our team and not the one that brings it down.”  

When Fall Camp completed a year ago, the Irish were met with arrests and suspensions. McGlinchey made sure his guys knew that had to change and it’s been a process all offseason to make sure everyone was accountable on and off the field.

“We made a point since January,” explained McGlinchey. “We had a meeting with Mr. (Jack) Swarbrick about it. We’re going to be a smarter football team on and off the field. It’s time for Notre Dame to be in the headlines in a negative way.

“We have a really, really solid group of kids on our football team. Everyone understands the responsibility that comes with playing football here. We’re starting to see what we’re actually capable of and that allows guys to dial in a little more.”
 
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