ATLANTA — The whispers about Charles Jagusah’s beautifully contorted path back to ascending to Notre Dame’s No. 1 option at left tackle got louder and more substantive on Saturday.
Two days before the first-circle moment that might matter most on Monday night in Mercedes-Benz Stadium unfolds in a plotline saturated with them.
And every bit as compelling that a sophomore who’s missed two full years of regular-season practices, has played two different positions in the two games he has seen significant O-line game reps in his career, and will be making his second college start against perhaps the best collection of defensive linemen/front-seven personnel in college football this year is how Jagusah and the Irish offensive line arrived at this moment.
And that is 7 seed Notre Dame (14-1) exhuming the hope for a sequel, following its most recent national championship — 1988 — and looking to belatedly complete that circuit against a lower-seeded (8)/heavily favored Ohio State team (13-2) on its own captivating redemptive rampage of sorts.
TV start time on ESPN is 7:30 EST.
Related Content
► Opponent Outlook: What to expect from Ohio State football in CFP title game
► A hug, a promise kept, a rerouted dream embody Notre Dame LB Sneed's path
► Film Analysis: How play-calling, execution put ND's offense back on track
► The greatest hits of quotes from Notre Dame player interviews on Wednesday (Ohio State edition)
And 1988 is part of the history that Ohio State grad and third-year ND head coach Marcus Freeman and his staff — specifically O-line coach Joe Rudolph — are tapping into 36 seasons later. When iconic offensive line coach Joe Moore became the standard for coaching that position at the college level.
And whose words still matter to Rudolph, and to the players he tutors, molds and evolves.
Jagusah, along with his O-line teammates, watched old videos of the late Joe Moore in the spring talking about fundamentals, and then Rudolph explaining how and why they’re still relevant.
And in fall camp too, after Jagusah tore a pectoral muscle that was supposed to end his season. And it did, but not the postseason. And videos were played of Moore disciple Harry Hiestand talking ball.
Hiestand the coach who curated the O-Line in 2017 that won the Joe Moore Award, emblematic of college football’s best offensive line, in his first tour of duty at ND and Rudolph’s predecessor in his abbreviated reprise in Freeman’s first season as head coach (2022).
“There’s one of Joe Moore where he talks about pass protection,” Rudolph told Inside ND Sports on Saturday during media day for the CFP National Championship Game. “He says, ‘Don’t let a guy get to someone’s hip.’ And we’ll play that, and say ‘OK, this is how it applies to us. And this is why we do the fundamentals that we do.”
"And so, you want them tied into the history. The history is what it’s all about. You know what I mean, It’s Notre Dame. And so, when you can tie them to that and bring them up to today, … like coach Hiestand, showing something from coach Hiestand. Showing something from coach Moore, like it just ties them into this is a special opportunity, and the feeling that ‘I’m going to give it all I have.’”
And the formula has worked for 15 games. Sometimes shakily, but for the position group most likely to trigger the check engine light on a dream season and eventually be its epitaph, went on to be named one of top 10 finalists for the 2024 Joe Moore Award. And is still standing now.
Against an Indiana team in the CFP first round on Dec. 20 that came into the postseason No. 1 in the nation in run defense. Against an athletic Georgia D-line on Jan. 2 in the CFP quarters that features two edge players, Mykel Williams and Jalon Walker, projected to go in the top half of the first round of April’s NFL Draft.
Against a Penn State team on Jan. 9 in the CFP semis that was fueled by the nation’s best D-lineman, Abdul Carter.
That was the game in which Jagusah made his O-line debut for this season, and at right guard no less from an injured Rocco Spindler. Jagusah ended up playing 53 of the possible 75 offensive snaps and tied right tackle Aamil Wagner for the highest film grades, per Pro Football Focus’ game film studies.
And now he’ll shift to left tackle {first reported by ESPN's Pete Thamel) to replace freshman Anthonie Knapp, who suffered a first-quarter high ankle sprain against Penn State and who eventually won the job after Jagusah went down the first week of training camp, in August.
“Charles is a stud,” marveled Knapp, wearing a protective boot on his left ankle on Saturday. “He’s been working hard this postseason. Even though he’s been hurt, he’s still been putting in the work. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I’m so glad he’s part of this offensive line room.
“I think what he does is pretty cool. The fact that he can play any position you put him at is exactly what we need. I think his mindset is always about playing for his brothers. That’s kind of what we all portray around here, and I think he lives up to that, if not more.”
Jagusah fed off that brotherhood, off their confidence and camaraderie against the elite Penn State defensive front.
“I just felt calm because of everyone around me,” he said Saturday. “When you have great guys around you, you have a certain level of confidence that you’re ready to do whatever you need to do.
“So, for me it was just trusting the guys next to me and knowing that they trust me as much as I trust them. And it brings you a level of peace that you don’t get from anything else.”
Grad senior Tosh Baker filled in for Knapp in the Penn State game, but with Spindler back and healthy at right guard, Jagusah overtook Baker in practice this past week as ND returned to school for spring semester.
Rudolph said Jagusah got better as the game went on and kept building on it. And they were able to make in-game adjustments and improvements without having to wait until halftime to do so and after the break, with the use of iPads on the sidelines.
“It’s nice to have the iPads on the sidelines, because you can make corrections,” Rudolph said. “You can see things. It’s the best feedback that you can possibly have, because you’re not only putting words to it, you’re relying less on some of the information that they’re giving you, and you’re helping them by allowing them to see it.
“We always say that the iPad’s a tool, not a distraction. You can’t get lost in what you did three plays ago. It’s got to be whether it’s helping you for the next play, which I think is an important way to go about it.
“Then at halftime, I really didn’t pull the iPad out a lot. It was more like, ‘These are what we’re going to do coming out of the half. This is how we need to execute it. And then let’s go.’ They wrapped their arms around it and went, so it was good.”
And now Ohio State — No. 1 in total defense, No. 3 in rushing defense and No. 3 in sacks per game — stands between them and Irish history — a nod to it and a continuation of it.
“I know from the outside it might have seemed pretty dire,” ND offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said on Saturday, “but these guys are unshakeable in terms of the belief that they have in themselves and the belief they have in just capturing the game and those small instances in winning that moment.
“And when they do, those moments start to build on each other and some really good things happen.”
It was Denbrock walking away from former ND head coach Brian Kelly and LSU in December of 2023 and striding back to Notre Dame for a third tour of duty that highlighted one of his reasons for coming back was his belief in Freeman and his belief Notre Dame could climb all the way back to the summit of college football.
And then he looked at the rampant inexperience of the offensive line and a quarterback in Duke transfer Riley Leonard, who essentially missed all but a few snaps of spring practice recovering from ankle surgery, and he still believed.
But he recalibrated what the journey might look like, knowing it would require patience and perseverance. And knowing it was a race against time with the O-line and Leonard kind of growing up together while hoping the growing pains along the way wouldn’t prove fatal.
“He’s been awesome,” Rudolph said of Denbrock. “And I think it’s been evolving. We’ve learned about our players as the year has gone on and how to put them in the best position to succeed.
“What I love is that when you coach in a way where you want to put your players, based on their skill set, in the best position to succeed, that’s it, That’s the magic.”
Magic that will be put to the ultimate test on Monday night.
“I think I mentioned it more than once that we weren’t going to be a well-oiled machine right out of the gate,” Denbrock said with a smile. “There’s been time in the last couple of weeks that we haven’t been that much of a well-oiled machine, but I just love the battle of this group. I love their fight, their belief.
“And we’ve just continued to get better. And no moment that we’ve encountered so far has seemed too big for this group. They just dig in and somebody makes a play. Somebody makes a block. Somebody makes a run. Somebody makes a throw.
“And I think the neatest part about the whole deal is that it’s been spread out through the entire offense. It’s just a collection of individuals who fought their tails off for each other and obviously have put themselves in this position to hopefully bring home a national championship for Notre Dame.”
• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.
• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND and @TJamesND.
• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports
• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports
