Jeff Quinn Notebook | August 15th
Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn spoke on Wednesday about his position group.
On Tommy Kraemer and Robert Hainsey:
“Repetition is the mother of learning. The more you do it, the more years and time you put into it, eventually you’re going to become more and more comfortable with the fundamentals.
“They know who to block. Now it’s about how to block them. It’s not so much presnap but the postsnap when the play is underway. Things change, bodies move and what I like is they can handle the variations of the calls based on what defenses do.
“Our communication has been outstanding. Sam (Mustipher) has done an outstanding job along with our tackles. Tom and Rob going through that a year ago, they’ve been hitting every call I’ve asked them to make. It makes a big difference putting all five of those guys on the same page.”
On mental preparation:
“They aren’t playing against a second-rate defense. This is first-class defense. You’re playing against Daelin Hayes, Khalid Kareem and Jerry Tillery. They’re playing against the very best every day.
“We should have the confidence to play Michigan because we see a great defense each rep.”
On Jarrett Patterson:
“It’s a special feeling because you know deep down inside as a recruiter when you find someone that you’re looking for all those traits and level of play and you see it unfold in front of you in the first 10 or 11 practices.
“You can tell he’s been well-coached. He understands the game. He reminds me a lot of what we saw a year ago from Hainsey. He’s someone that comes in with the right mindset, and he’s eager to learn. He understands the different movement pieces that happen in the game and react appropriately.”
On depth on the line:
“In the spring, my goal in the spring was not to just get five guys to play but to get multiple guys ready to play. We’ve been able to do with Liam (Eichenberg), (Alex) Bars, Sam (Mustipher), Tom (Kraemer), (Robert) Hainsey but then you have (Josh) Lugg, Trevor Ruhland, Aaron Banks, Jarrett Patterson, Dillan Gibbons and even Colin Grunhard. We have some solid depth to make you feel good that you can move some guys around and give them a chance to compete at a high level.
“It keeps guys on their toes when they know someone is in the wings if they aren’t ready to go every day. It’s been a healthy fall camp, and I continue to believe it will go in that direction because of depth we have.”
On the right guard position if Hainsey is out:
“It’s been handled by both Trevor Ruhland and Josh Lugg when Tom goes out to right tackle. They’ve done a terrific job for us. I like where we are at with Josh and Trevor.”
On moving on from winning the Joe Moore Award:
“We erased that, and we started all new. The outcome of every game this season will be predicated on how we execute. Our focus is not about what happened last year. Our focus is where we are right now together as a unit.
“We need to strive for the same mindset and mentality to get the same production out of these five. What you did last year, whether you won it all or you didn’t, you have to start again. It’s a fresh season.”
On Liam Eichenberg’s development:
“Everyone is going to be presented with opportunity, but it’s not going to be there all the time. You have to come out with the right mindset and Liam has done that. I’ve challenged him and hung in there with him.
“He took more time and broke it down. We took it step by step.”