It’s hard to miss the height. Or the length. Just one practice viewing will reveal the intriguing mix of strength, lateral agility and athleticism.
Whether it’s for one of those reasons or a combination of all three, one look at Notre Dame freshman offensive tackle Joe Alt evokes visions of an impact player and future star. It’s not often a 6-8, 305-pound 18-year-old shows up on campus, even at a program as lauded for its offensive line production as Notre Dame.
Take it from those who face him in practice every day.
“The whole D-line saw it and knew Joe Alt was going to be really good,” junior defensive end Isaiah Foskey said.
But a freshman starter and left tackle stabilizer? No, nobody saw that coming this quickly. Not even the coaches at Fridley (Minn.) Totino-Grace High School, where Alt arrived in 2017 as a freshman quarterback and left as a Notre Dame-bound offensive tackle, with stints at tight end and linebacker in between. Maybe not even Alt.
“I think his expectations were to redshirt and that’s where he’d fit in,” Totino-Grace head coach Jay Anderson said.
A redshirt made sense. The list of players who have gone from a 240-pound high school junior tight end to major college football starting freshman left tackle is surely a small one. Alt is a freshman at a position that does not normally lend itself to first-year contributors.
Yet here’s Alt. He’s a former three-star recruit whose on-paper profile should portend a freshman year as a third-teamer. Instead, he has stabilized a position stricken with injuries and ineffectiveness.
In Notre Dame’s ideal 2021 season, Alt redshirts because the Irish have continuity at left tackle like they normally do. This isn’t a freshman year like Kyle Hamilton or Michael Mayer, who forced their way onto the field at positions with entrenched starters. None of that should take away from Alt’s ahead-of-schedule development and growth.
“We didn’t know he was going to start this year,” Foskey said, “but we weren’t surprised he was going to be next up at tackle.”
Added Anderson: “Anything that’s told to him, he soaks in.”
When Alt earned a spot on the second-team offensive line in fall camp, it felt like a good sign for 2022 and beyond — a high-ceiling player showing signs of his potential as a tackle of the future. Injuries and inconsistent play, though, opened the door for him to snag that role in the present.
Turns out, he was ready to run through it. Alt made his debut on offense as a blocking tight end in the 27-13 triumph versus Purdue Sept. 18, earned a nine-snap trial run at left tackle in the 41-13 win over Wisconsin Sept. 25, slid into the lineup for the second half of the 24-13 loss to Cincinnati Oct. 2 and made his first career start the following week in the 32-29 victory at Virginia Tech.
Alt was option No. 4 at left tackle this year, but that doesn’t matter as long as he’s the last. And it sure seems he has staying power.
“If he gets his hands on you, you’re screwed,” Mayer said. “That dude came in here and worked his tail off. It’s working out.”
It’s not that anyone thought Alt wouldn’t work out, but recruiting him felt like a down-the-line return on investment.
Notre Dame identified a high-ceiling prospect when it offered Alt after his junior year, before he even made the full-time move to tackle in high school. He had the frame. He had the athletic ability. He even had the pedigree. His father, John, played offensive line for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1984-96, earning an All-Pro nod in 1990. He made the tight-end-to-tackle transition himself.
It’s one thing to have a ceiling. It’s another to reach it. This is where Alt separated himself and where Notre Dame felt like it had a future asset in a developmental prospect.
“When you take a kid at that size who’s not fully developed, you’re banking on his want and desire to be great,” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. “We saw he had all of those intangibles that in our mind, this kid had a high, high ceiling because he had that drive.
“Intrinsically, he was going to do all the things necessary to be a great offensive lineman.”
First, that meant developing between the end of his senior season and move-in week at Notre Dame. Especially as a pass blocker. He had a baseline understanding of pass protection from his intermittent time at tackle. Even as a tight end, he spent half of the route-running portion of Totino-Grace practices working on pass protection with his father, an assistant offensive line coach. But it still required more catch-up and technical refinement than other areas.
Alt worked with his dad on pass protection in the winter and spring. He also asked teammates to pass rush against him one-on-one after school.
Alt’s time at tackle hasn’t been flawless. He allowed two quarterback pressures versus Cincinnati on Notre Dame’s final drive. He gave up a sack on the first drive at Virginia Tech, when Hokies defensive end Amaré Barno beat him with a spin move.
All told, missteps are infrequent. He surrendered just one pressure in each of his first three starts. Those starts coincided with Notre Dame’s best three rushing outputs of the season — 180 yards against Virginia Tech, 170 versus USC and 293 vs. North Carolina.
Playing offensive line requires more than physical traits and sound technique, though, especially as a freshman. Alt draws strong reviews as a communicator from Kelly and his teammates. It’s a big reason why he clicked with the starters in short order when Notre Dame elevated him into the lineup for good.
Offensive linemen need time to get used to each other’s strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. That cohesion doesn’t develop at the snap of fingers. Alt sped up the feeling-out process by taking matters into his own hands, or more accurately, his own words.
“He’s very vocal out there,” junior guard Andrew Kristofic said. “Sometimes you have your eyes inside and it’s nice to have a guy who’s communicating everything.
“There are no secrets with him. He’s screaming in your ear everything he’s seeing.”
Fast progress aside, Alt needed injury and bumpy play in front of him to crack the starting lineup.
Freshman starter and former five-star recruit Blake Fisher suffered a meniscus tear in the opener at Florida State. Sophomores Michael Carmody and Tosh Baker were next up. They split starts over the next four games, with each missing time due to injury and shuttling out of the lineup due to inconsistency. Alt replaced Carmody versus Cincinnati, and he has not left the lineup since then.
A path had to clear for him, but he’s entirely responsible for running down it. Earning a bit role as a blocking tight end before his chance at tackle speaks to his self-driven fast progress. He dressed in his No. 76 jersey, but pulled a No. 45 over it for his tight end snaps. Notre Dame rotated him in and out of the lineup and in and out of numbers. He didn’t blink. Impress in that swing role, and he just might get an extended look as the next man up at tackle.
It was natural because he did it before. As a high school senior, he moved to left tackle from tight end when Totino-Grace’s starter was injured.
“We brought two jerseys to the game,” Anderson said. “He threw on the No. 76, went in there and played tackle and never missed a beat.”
Sounds familiar.
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