Notre Dame struggled to keep its offensive line together in 2024, and the unit that ended the season didn’t look anything like the unit we saw in the season opener. The end result was a pair of veteran players re-emerging into the starting lineup, and now Notre Dame will have to find replacements.

Rocco Spindler and Pat Cooganbegan the season on the bench despite combining for 23 starts the season prior. In Notre Dame’s 66-7 win over Purdue in the third game of the season the line lost starting center Ashton Craig and starting right guard Billy Schrauth. Coogan stepped in for Craig, who was out for the season. Spindler stepped in for Schrauth, who would miss the next four games. When Schrauth returned he moved to left guard and sophomore Sam Pendleton was benched.

Spindler and Coogan helped stabilize the line, and Notre Dame started the same lineup up front for eight straight games before the final shakeup in the national title game.

Spindler and Coogan each finished the season with 13 starts, but both entered the transfer portal this offseason, with Spindler moving onto Nebraska and Coogan moving onto Indiana.

Notre Dame will have a much different looking offensive line in 2025, and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph will have some important decisions to make. Which positions will we see competition for spots in the two-deep? Which players will move where? What we do know is that Notre Dame will need a new starting center and right guard from what we saw most of the 2025 season.

ASHTON CRAIG RETURNS

Craig stepped into the starting lineup for the final three games of the 2023 season and he performed well, which earned him the starting center role to start the 2024 campaign. Craig tore his ACL when he was rolled up on in the win over Purdue, and that ended his season. The question now is how long will Craig be out and how healthy will he be when spring starts, and then again when fall camp starts.

If healthy then the starting center spot is likely settled, with Craig stepping back into that position. If he misses the spring while recovering from the knee injury the staff will have to make at least one move to fill out the depth chart enough to get through practices. Rising junior Joe Otting would certainly benefit from the extra work, but who plays center behind him? The staff would need to find some answers, and if that happens will Otting and whoever else plays there this spring perform well enough to push Craig in the fall?

The ideal scenario for Notre Dame is that Craig gets healthy sooner rather than later and picks up from where he left off last season. Otting will get his chance this spring and in the fall to put himself in position to be the next man in line at center once Craig’s career comes to a close, or if he goes down again.

WHO MOVES INSIDE?

Schrauth, Craig, Spindler, Coogan and Pendleton took all the meaningful snaps at guard and center last season …. with one exception. Three of those players are gone (Spindler, Coogan, Pendleton) and the other two seem set as at left guard (Schrauth) and center (Craig).

The only exception to that group is Charles Jagusah, who stepped in for Spindler in the Orange Bowl win over Penn State. Jagusah played 53 snaps at guard in that game, but he moved out to left tackle for the national championship game, where he played 63 snaps. Jagusah was expected to be the team’s starting left tackle to being the season after he ended the 2023 season starting at left tackle in the Sun Bowl.

Jagusah replaced Anthonie Knappafter he went down with a knee injury against Penn State. Knapp replaced Jagusah after he went down with an upper body injury during fall camp. One of those two players will likely be the starting left tackle, but what about the other guy?

That will arguably be the biggest decision that Rudolph has to make this offseason. Both Jagusah and Knapp have a lot of talent, but they can’t both start at left tackle. My personal preference is that Jagusah gets the nod at left tackle, where his best has been better than Knapp’s best up to this point. We also don’t know the status of Knapp’s knee injury and whether or not he’ll be full go during spring practice.

Rudolph could choose to keep both Jagusah and Knapp at left tackle, but that seems like a waste of talented players, especially with the right guard position being wide open. It would make sense for him to move one of those two players inside. Since I think Jagusah is the better fit at left tackle, moving Knapp into right guard would make a lot of sense.

CAN ABSHER SETTLE IN?

Rising junior Sullivan Absher has moved all around during his career, playing both tackles spots and getting some time at guard. All that movement has seemed to make it a challenge for him to get comfortable at any spot. Hopefully the opening at right guard results in Rudolph allowing Absher to finally settle in at one spot and truly compete for a starting role.

Absher is a massive (6-7, 321) player that has performed well when given the opportunity, especially as a run blocker. Absher earning a starting spot would certainly add a great deal of size to the lineup, especially if that lineup also includes Jagusah. A lineup that includes Absher, Jagusah, Schrauth, Craig and Aamil Wagner would average 311.6 pounds and would give the Irish a pair of 320+ pound players.

A lineup with Absher and Jagusah would likely be a pretty impressive run blocking group, although Absher is like the rest of the line in that he must continue improving in pass protection. Coming from a triple option offense it certainly was an area where he had to improve the most when he arrived, but his skillset fits guard well.

UNDER THE RADAR

Jagusah, Knapp and Absher aren’t the only potential candidates for the starting spot at right guard. There are a copule of lesser known players that could also be in position to battle for the spot.

Rising junior Christopher Terek is a massive (6-5, 333) in his own right. He was a surprise standout in last year’s Blue-Gold Game, and he also impressed in the limited mop up snaps he got this season. Terek is a physical blocker that gets very good movement in the run game, and if he can continue improving his foot quickness and conditioning I could see him making a move this spring.

Rising sophomore Peter Jones is another young and talented prospect with the size (6-5, 312) and power to be a force up the middle at some point in his career. We’ll see if Jones is ready to make that kind of push this spring, but he’s a player with some ability.

Although his best position is tackle, and he’s arguably the most gifted player on the roster (along with Jagusah), there’s a chance that Guerby Lambert could get a chance to push for a starting spot at guard if he has a breakout spring. Ideally you’d want to keep Lambert at tackle, but if the objective is to get your best five on the field there’s certainly a scenario where Wagner stays at right tackle and Lambert is just too good to keep off the field. Perhaps that’s him moving to right guard, perhaps it’s him moving over to left tackle, but with his God-given ability the talented rising sophomore needs a chance to compete for a role in the offensive line this spring.

By admin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *