SOUTH BEND, Ind. — With each passing year, Alexander Ehrensberger has an easier time explaining to folks back in his native Germany what his dream looks like.
Thanks to the seemingly exponential popularity and growth of American football in recent years.
The timeline of just when he might realize that dream, though, is still a bit muddled.
But the now-Notre Dame junior defensive end takes it in stride, knowing what a “project” was when he verbally committed to Notre Dame in January of 2019 and eventually realizing that he fit in that box.
That’s light-years in self awareness ahead of where he was when he described himself as a combination wide receiver/defensive back before embarking on a sixth-month exchange-student stint in Maine as a high school sophomore.
Ehrensberger discovered the game at age 13 after playing tennis and soccer for nearly a decade. Some friends heard about a new youth team starting up and convinced Ehrensberger to give it a try. No one needed to convince him to stick with it.
Eventually, he played for the only high school team in Germany at the time, with the competition made up of club teams. He eventually met Brandon Collier, a former NFL player and founder of PPI Recruits — a placement source since 2017 for international football players to find opportunities at colleges in the U.S.
Former ND assistant coach Mike Elston ended up flying to Germany to meet Ehrensberger in person in January of 2019, two months after Ehrensberger visited ND’s campus.
A year later, he began his journey with an open mind.
“I think I definitely approached (college football) as a challenge,” said the 6-foot-7, 267-pounder, up from 230 when he arrived as an early enrolled freshman in 2020. “But I wanted to adapt to overcome it.
“So right when I got here, I never felt sorry for myself because I’m from somewhere else or something. I just went hard every day, worked for it, and didn’t stress too much about the whole process. Just trusted the process.
“Put my head down and worked. And it’s been working out pretty well for me so far.”
Breakout candidate and classmate Rylie Mills — a 6-5, 292-pound breakout candidate for the Irish defense — tops the depth chart at the field end position that Ehrensberger plays after Mills shifted this offseason from defensive tackle.
Senior Nana Osafo-Mensah has the inside track to be the top backup/rotation piece at the position behind Mills, but Ehrensberger is at least the right size and in the conversation now to push for at least some cameos this season, and maybe more.
“He’s getting more comfortable,” Irish first-year defensive line coach Al Washington said Thursday after Notre Dame’s seventh practice of training camp and third in full pads.
“From spring to now, you can just sense he has a little more command of the defense. And his work ethic — he really worked hard this June, July. You see it, and he’s constantly working on getting better. Being more experienced in that regard, and being ready when his number’s called.
“He’s done a fine job.”
And he seems to enjoy every minute of it, even with the uncertainty of when the game Ehrensberger has loved since 2013 will start to love him back in equal measure.
“Football is fun,” he said.
And relatively easier than the rest of college life. Imagine Notre Dame’s already challenging curriculum, then having to absorb it all in your second language.
Or picture the excitement of finding out that ND has a German Club, only to discover there were only five members. Three of them, according to Ehrensberger, are faculty members. And the other two are graduate students.
“I think there might be exchange students (from Germany) that are partially here,” he said. But as far as full-time undergraduates?
“I think (I’m the only one),” Ehrensberger said. “If anybody else is out there, let me know.”
Even Ehrensberger’s introduction to Notre Dame was less than ideal. Two months after enrolling mid-year in January of 2020 for the first time, Ehrensberger flew home to Dusseldorf for spring break.
On the flight back to the U.S. — in mid-flight — he found out the COVID-19 pandemic had escalated to the point that Germany was getting ready to close its borders. So he turned around and went back to Germany.
“Same plane,” Ehrensberger said. “We decided that in the midst of a pandemic, I might be better off being with my family and loved ones, because no one knew where that was going.”
Notre Dame canceled in-person classes for the balance of the semester. Sports, including college football, went on an indefinite hiatus.
But in June, during a break in tight pandemic regulations, Ehrensberger was able to get back to South Bend for summer workouts and eventually the 2020 season. The first time, though, that his family could get over to watch him play was the final home game of the 2021 season.
In that 55-0 drubbing of Georgia Tech on Nov. 20, Ehrensberger took down Tech QB Jordan Yates for his only sack of the season and second of his career while playing 12 total snaps in the game. His mom, sister and girlfriend all got to take it in, in person.
The next week, in a 45-14 mauling of Stanford on the road, Ehrensberger collected two tackles.
“I think those game experiences helped me realize football is football everywhere in the world,” he said. “I had a former coach who would always say, ‘It’s always 11 against 11. That will never change.’
“The guys you go against over here might be bigger, but at the end of the day, it’s football. I think that’s something I learned — that I’m on the right track.”
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