Reading the Offensive Line Tea Leaves
Their visual image was imprinted in your memory bank. They answered the bell so often, their names easily flowed off the tongue as you pictured them moving in unison with one another.
Three-year starting left tackle Liam Eichenberg. Two-and-a-half year starting guard Aaron Banks. Three-to-four-year starting guard/tackle Tommy Kraemer. Four-year starting right tackle Robert Hainsey.
No. 73. No. 69. No. 78. No. 72. Gone from the program but not forgotten.
And yet with the start of spring drills this past Saturday and the second practice slated for Tuesday, March 30, they’re moving further away in the rearview mirror.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve always lost really good players,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly of the offensive line that, in essence, was on the field together for 33 victories the last three seasons.
“It’s my job and our coaches’ job to replace them and maintain the standard of excellence we’ve had around here. Being in the College Football Playoffs two out of the last three years doesn’t give you a pass. (There’s) the expectation. So we’ve got to get these guys ready.”
Now, how to go about doing it? And with whom? So begins the multi-piece puzzle that likely won’t have fully interlocking parts for some time, perhaps not even when the Irish open the 2021 regular season in September at Florida State.
When healthy, red-shirt junior Jarrett Patterson, red-shirt sophomore Zeke Correll and red-shirt senior Josh Lugg will occupy spots in the starting lineup. The lone position certainty lies with Correll, who will be Notre Dame’s starting center.
Patterson, coming off foot surgery and the starting center the last two seasons, reportedly was told he’d be moving to left tackle. Lugg, who played right tackle when Hainsey was injured in 2019, will play right tackle this spring, although that may not be his position this fall.
“A couple guys we know,” Kelly said. “Zeke is slotted at the center position. Josh Lugg is going to play a tackle (this spring), but is most likely going to slide back into a guard position when the season starts. So you’re going to see a big battle for one of the tackle positions and one of the guard positions.”
Left tackle makes sense for Patterson. That was the position for which he was recruited and the one he played as a true freshman behind Eichenberg in 2018. The coaches really liked him at left tackle. But Patterson moved to center to replace Sam Mustipher in 2019 and started 21 straight games before a Lisfranc (foot) injury shelved him. The plan has been to move him back to left tackle when he’s healthy enough, which won’t be this spring.
And yet contending personnel could prompt an adjustment of that plan. What if 6-foot-8, 300-pound red-shirt freshman Tosh Baker – the highest-rated non-skill position player in Notre Dame’s Class of 2020 – fits the mold/dimensions of the left tackle position best?
Patterson could just as easily slot at the right tackle position if left tackle is Baker’s best spot. Or perhaps Kelly and offensive line coach Jeff Quinn prefer to have their most experienced offensive lineman at left tackle and bump Baker to the right side. Former Irish great Mike McGlinchey went from starting right tackle to starting left tackle when Ronnie Stanley moved on to the NFL.
Fifth-year senior Dillon Gibbons and red-shirt junior John Dirksen are the most elderly of the players in competition beyond Patterson. When spring practice commenced Saturday, Gibbons was working with the No. 1 unit at left guard and Dirksen was occupying the top right guard spot.
And yet the Irish have other promising candidates such as red-shirt sophomores Quinn Carroll and Andrew Kristofic, both of whom appeared to be pegged for tackle positions upon their arrival from high school. If the staff determines that the upside of younger players is greater than that of Gibbons and Dirksen, they could favor youth over time in the program, although Gibbons filled in admirably against Florida State and Syracuse last season.
Kristofic is expected to work at both guard and center. The Irish do not have a true center behind Correll, although Lugg dabbled at the center position when Patterson went down in the middle of last November. If Lugg ever plays center again, which seems unlikely, it likely would be a temporary, stop-gap measure.
Working as the No. 2 right tackle, red-shirt freshman Michael Carmody earned mention from Kelly while early-entry freshmen Blake Fisher and Rocco Spindler occupied the left tackle and left guard spots respectively with the second unit.
Fisher reportedly has turned heads and could make an early contribution, although guard still seems to be the better long-term fit. (Note: Injuries have limited former defensive tackle-turned-guard Hunter Spears.)
“You’re going to see a little bit of everybody,” Kelly said. “Tosh Baker was with one of our starting units. Dillon Gibbons was starting. John Dirksen was starting. We really like the progress of Carmody. (There’s) Kristofic. Quinn Carroll is another guy that had a really good off-season. Both of the young freshman mid-years have got a chance to step into the second group.”
Confused? Frankly, so is the Irish coaching staff. Actually, not confused as much as undecided and open-minded about how this will all shake out, which is the purpose of 15 spring practices.
Imagine missing spring practice 2020 without Eichenberg, Banks, Hainsey and Kraemer. What would it have been like piecing together a unit last August? At least there’s time – pandemic willing – to experiment throughout the spring.
“Everybody is going to get into the mix,” Kelly said. “A lot of names. We kind of have a plan of how this should look. We’ve got to sort it out as it goes this year.”
And so begins the long and winding path to the reconstruction of Notre Dame’s offensive line in 2021 and beyond.
