August 15, 2011

Pete Sampson
IrishIllustrated.com Editor

Andrew Nuss graduated from Notre Dame before he started his first game there.

If all goes according to plan this fall, the fifth-year senior offensive lineman will have a few first-team call-ups before he masters jazz guitar and regains fluency in German, half his course load this semester. Nuss finished his degree from the Mendoza College of Business last year and picked up a Ph.D. in patience along the way.

Nuss showed up in South Bend four years ago as a four-star defensive lineman out of Ashburn, Va., then moved to right guard, then moved to left guard, then moved to offensive tackle and has since returned to left guard.

“Oh my God, this is crazy,” Nuss said while rattling off his position switches. “I can say a lot of things have happened, but now that I’ve had this opportunity I’m not going to do anything to waste it.”

Nuss sat down with offensive line coach Ed Warinner last season to state his case he fit best at guard, getting full agreement from the Irish assistant. Getting Nuss back for a fifth season without a starting job to sell wasn’t a sure thing, but the 6-foot-5, 303-pound athlete at least needed an honest shot at the first team.

Despite the hype associated with junior Chris Watt, it’s been Nuss working with the first team during the scant open portions of practice. But even with that promise from Brian Kelly that he’d get a fair shot at guard, Notre Dame’s head coach can’t overlook the fact Nuss might also be the team’s best back-up tackle.

“We didn’t want to immediately say, ‘you’re our utility guy, you can help us everywhere’ because you don’t give a kid a fair shot to earn a starting position if you do that,” Kelly said. “He’s really had a great battle with Watt. Both of those guys will play.

“But he also as a team player has to be able to play some tackle for us because he has that versatility. And if we don’t play him at tackle, our next guy in is a freshman. So he’s been both a guy that we wanted to take care of and give him a chance at guard. But also as a team player he’s got to play a little bit at tackle. So very, very valuable player for us.”

That’s probably the first time a Notre Dame coach described Nuss in those terms, just in time considering he wasn’t sure he wanted to return for a fifth year throughout last season. If Nuss left he said he’d likely have ended up at Virginia or Virginia Tech.

But as last season wore on Nuss saw his playing time pick up. Despite logging just 51 snaps on offense all season, that taste was enough to convince Nuss he needed more.

“I was in the process (of deciding) pretty much all season, thinking if I should come back,” Nuss said. “Each week was kind of different, especially after the last four games, then the Miami game and playing in the Miami game and doing pretty good. It was, ‘all right, this is what I want to do.’”

That means delaying his career in finance, a subject that interests Nuss to the point he’s comfortable being called a nerd. He’ll take a couple finance classes this fall to go with jazz guitar and German.

The past four years have been a grind for Nuss, who relied on his parents for advice.

“It was stressful, I’m not going to lie to you,” Nuss said. “I was talking to my parents, whether I should come back for my fifth year or try to go somewhere else. But I’m fully committed to Notre Dame. I’m grateful for everything that I’ve received from this great university. Also coach Kelly has given me an opportunity to come back and compete for a starting job. That’s why I came to Notre Dame and why I wanted to play college football.”

Now Nuss lives off-campus with Trevor Robinson and Taylor Dever, two players he hopes to team with in the starting lineup this season. That first start has never been closer and if it comes Nuss will join a line with realistically high expectations for the first time in years.

The Irish allowed 1.54 sacks per game last season, its lowest average since 1998, doing it with three new starters and one new offense. Now Notre Dame brings back four starters with Nuss the potential new guy.

“It’s scary, to be honest, how good we can be,” Nuss said. “I really mean that. Because you can see with Braxston (Cave) and Zack (Martin) and Taylor and Trevor, those guys are great. They’re right where they left off in that Miami game so it’s going to be a great season I think.”