Editor's Note: This story was originally posted on Friday. We've updated it to include Monday's announcement that Knapp's status as the No. 1 left tackle for Notre Dame is now official and included remarks for head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference reflecting that.
That the whispers and rumors about freshman Anthonie Knapp’s surge up the Notre Dame football depth chart have morphed into substantive threads and headlines lately come as no surprise to the man who presided over the Irish freshman left tackle’s evolution from a 6-foot-2, 185-pound tight end four years ago.
“I was talking to someone a couple of weeks ago,” Roswell (Ga.) High head football coach Chris Prewett told Inside ND Sports, “and his name got brought up. I said that he was one of the most driven kids that we’ve had.
“I mean, if you show him a goal or help him set a goal, there’s no doubt that he’s going to reach that goal. Really, the only question is whether he’ll just exceed the goal or will he crush it by a mile.”
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Even if Knapp eventually settles in as the No. 2 option at a position in which the lowest NFL Draft position of the last five regulars to man it at ND went early second round, consider his first post-Roswell High goal crushed by a mile.
But very much in play for the 6-foot-4, 291-pound Knapp is to do even more. Namely, a chance to become the 11th-ever Notre Dame freshman offensive lineman to start a game and the third ever to start a season opener, when the No. 7 Irish open at No. 20 Texas A&M next Saturday night (7:30 EDT; ABC-TV).
Irish head coach Marcus Freeman confirmed the news at Monday's weekly press conference.
Sam Young at right tackle vs. Georgia Tech in 2006 and Blake Fisher vs. Florida State at left tackle in 2021 are the other opening-night O-line freshman starters since the NCAA permanently restored freshman eligibility in 1972.
Sophomore left guard Sam Pendleton and his 15 snaps of college experience also made an impressive depth chart climb in fall camp, beating out seniors Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan for that job.
"I think you make decisions in the moment based off previous experiences and then that’s the beautiful part of practice," Freeman said on Monday. "Like, there’s competition. and I tell those guys every day ‘You should be trying to take somebody’s job’.
"And every day if you’re a starter, you should know guys behind you are trying to take your job. We’ve had 10 practices since then that basically kind of got us to this conclusion that Anthonie Knapp will be our starting left tackle. But he’s worked tirelessly.
"He's done a really good job of building trust with his coaching staff and that’s why we made that decision."
All 10 of the previous Irish freshman O-line starters made their debuts either on the road or at a neutral site, and Notre Dame went a collective 8-2 in those starts.
“You never know what’s going to happen when your players go off to college,” Prewett said, “but when you talk about exceeding expectations, that’s kind of what Anthonie did for us the whole time he was here.”
Including starting as a left tackle as a 220-ish-pound sophomore, becoming a rare junior team captain the next year and catching Irish offensive line coach Joe Rudolph’s eye at a camp when Rudolph was coaching at Virginia Tech.
And reluctantly moving to tackle at first, wanting to remain a tight end.
”Immediately after the first game,” Knapp said back in February of how long it took to embrace the switch once he tried the offensive tackle position his high school sophomore season. “I’ve always been an aggressive kid football-wise. I love to hit. Once I realized I could do this every single play, this is the position for me. I don’t have to worry about the ball and I don’t have to run a lot. That switch just flipped immediately.”
But his on-ramp to challenge was full of bumps and curves.
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Heading into his senior season at Roswell, Knapp became concerned about his college readiness when it came to his weight, namely being too light. So he piled on the calories and the pounds quickly, and it initially backfired.
“When putting it on too fast had a negative effect, he went back down from 275 to 260,” Prewett said, “and then he had a talk with coach Rudolph when he was in here, and it changed everything.
“He told him, ‘You don’t have to worry about the weight. The weight will come. You gain a pound a week, you’ll be fine, moving forward,’” Hewett related of Rudolph’s conversation with Knapp. “Honestly, once Anthonie stopped worrying about what number he was at and just focused on what makes your body feels good, he got to a good comfortable weight and excelled for us as a senior.”
Knapp then graduated early and enrolled at Notre Dame at 266 pounds in January. Once spring practice started in March, he bounced between working at right tackle and center. By June he was up to 291 and moved to left tackle at the start of fall camp and was the No. 2 option there even when sophomore Charles Jagusah was healthy and topped the depth chart.
But Jagusah suffered a season-ending pectoral tear on Aug. 3, in practice No. 4 of preseason camp, with grad senior Tosh Baker moving over from the No. 2 slotting at right tackle and getting the first chance to lock down the job.
Knapp kept surging and persisting and battling.
“He works his absolute butt off is the best thing I could say about him when he was with us,” Prewett said, “and nothing’s changed about that. What has changed is that he’s got into where football is a full-time job now, so he can really excel on and off the field, especially when he’s getting trained and eating right and all that stuff. The sky’s the limit.
“When I saw him — he was back here in between the end of summer school and the beginning of fall camp — I bumped into him, and I was like ‘Holy Moly. You’ve gotten thicker, bigger.’ And that’s going to translate to the field with him.
“One of the biggest things that we hone in on here is effort is going to be non-negotiable. And it’s one of those things that we hope that it’s very apparent that we’re playing with 11 guys that have their hair on fire and are absolutely trying to destroy the guy in front of them.
“And to me, when I watch his tape of him, that’s the first thing that pops off of it. He’s just playing like a guy possessed, not in a negative way, but he’s trying to bury the guy in front of him and put him in the ground.”
Strong hands and long arms complement Knapp’s ability to pick up coaching points quickly and build on them.
“We play great competition down here,” Prewett said of Roswell, located about 20 miles north of Atlanta. “But if he’s the starter down at Texas A&M, it’s going to be something different than anything he’s experienced. But Anthonie’s different. I tell our kids all the time, ‘If you’re not excited to be out there and aren’t a little nervous about how things are going to go, it probably doesn’t mean much to you and it’s not important.’
“I’m sure he’ll be amped up and ready to go if I know him, and I know how he kind of operates. He’s going to be licking his chops to play against the best guys. For him, his mentality, it’s exactly what he wants.
“So, hopefully, when you watch that game, you’re not pointing out the freshman that’s in the game. You’re hoping that he can hold his own and play well. But I think he’ll do fine. As long as he just trusts himself and believes in himself, you’re going to see who Anthonie Knapp is.”
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