SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As impressive as Notre Dame freshman left offensive tackle Anthonie Knapp’s management/survival of Texas A&M’s elite edge players was Saturday night, how he dealt with the six-figure crowd, largely trying to will him to crumble, was even more intriguing.
“I don’t think there’s anything better than being a true freshman, getting thrown into a stadium like that, 107,000 people,” Knapp said Tuesday night after practice as he readies for his encore in fifth-ranked ND’s home opener this Saturday against 1-0 Northern Illinois (3:30 p.m. EDT; NBC/Peacock).
“Once you get on the field, it’s kind of like — it feels like you’re almost in a video game, you know? You hear the noise, but you don’t really feel the people, if that makes sense. And obviously some great defensive ends. I think that’s the coolest part.”
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That and the 23-13 outcome at Kyle Field in College Station Texas with five offensive starters combining for six college starters heading into the season-opening win against the then-20th-ranked Aggies.
In that game, Knapp became the 11th Notre Dame freshman to start at least one game on the offensive line in a season and the ninth to celebrate a victory afterwards. And he’s only the third to make that first start in a season opener, joining Blake Fisher (at Florida State in 2021) and Sam Young (at Georgia Tech in 2006).
“I wouldn’t say nervous for the fact that I thought I was gonna fail,” he said of the experience. “I’d say more excited, if that makes sense. I spent so long preparing, doing everything I could possibly do, it’s just kind of like you just want to take the test.
“You just kind of want to go, like ‘I’m ready, I know.’ That kind of helped me out, like my anxiety wasn’t too bad. I was really just excited, just to prove a lot of people wrong, hold my own. Obviously, I wish I — you know, I could definitely do a better performance sometimes, but it’s good to get that under the books. It’s only up from here, to be honest.”
The Irish offensive line and quarterback Riley Leonard’s footwork and savvy helped to combine for zero sacks against Texas A&M. And the Irish rushing game churned out 198 rushing yards, two TDs and a 5.8 yards-per-carry average.
“[He’s] a warrior,” Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said of the 6-foot-4, 294-pound Roswell, Ga., product, who four years ago was a 6-2, 185-pound high school tight end. “He did exactly the type of things he did on the practice field to earn himself that opportunity, and then went out in the game and put it on tape again.
“So, obviously, I think he'd be the first one to tell you that there's a lot of things he wishes he would have done better. But the heart is not to be minimalized in any way, that he played with and the way he attacked his job.”
The long game?
For those who get lost in the concept of why playing complementary football might make more sense against some opponents and in certain venues than flaunting a vertical passing game, Notre Dame’s longest completed pass of 20 yards Saturday night at Texas A&M might seem a bit alarming.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman hinted during his Monday press conference that the long game is very much in the Irish playbook and its scope of capability. And that when the time is right, the Irish fan base and the rest of the college football world will see it.
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock on Tuesday explained why it wasn’t a priority against the Aggies, but rather calling a game to protect a young offensive line and doing so in a difficult communications environment were on the front burner.
“Really, the most important thing in the end is making sure you don't put them [the offensive line] in a compromising position that maybe their development hasn't made them ready for yet,” Denbrock said. “And it will come at some point.
“So, how do you judge that? How do you do that? Try to stay out of third and long. We didn’t do a very good job of that, right? So, OK, you're in third and long. Now what the hell are you going to do? Well, that's where the screen game kind of came in, in some scenarios.
“And it's frustrating for some maybe to have to see us flinging a screen pass on third-and-13. But in front of 107,000 fans with a lot of new faces up front, what gives our football team the best chance to win? And we were doing such a good job and playing so well defensively, the flow of the game and all those things go into the way I call the game and the way I think about playing the game.”
The 20-yard connection, incidentally, was from quarterback Riley Leonard to Clemson transfer wide receiver Beaux Collins on a third-and-5 play late in the fourth quarter during Notre Dame’s go-ahead touchdown drive.
The pass play gave the Irish a first down at midfield, which Collins almost gave back when his post-catch shove of the defender on the play did not draw a penalty.
“We were jawing back and forth throughout the entire game, me and the DB,” Collins said Tuesday night. “It was kind of an out-of-body experience, but it can’t happen again. It almost cost us big-time.
“It was just in the moment — made a catch that I knew I should have made and just kind of let it all loose. Something that coach Free [Marcus Freeman] and [wide receivers] coach [Mike] Brown got on me afterwards, and stuff like that. But it’s a good learning experience for sure. I let the environment get the best of me for a sec.
“The ref walked up to me and he was like, ‘Hey, man, you need to calm down. Blah, blah, blah. We watched the film.’ Actually, he put his hand on the flag, but took it off. That’s the luck of the Irish right there. Yeah, for sure.”
Embracing the Gray area
Both Notre Dame Al Golden and cornerback Christian Gray drew lavish praise for the sophomore cornerback’s fourth-down breakup of a Conner Weigman pass Saturday night on Texas A&M’s final consequential drive of the game.
Golden maintained on Tuesday night, that was half right.
“It was a big play,” he said. “It wasn’t even a good [defensive] call to be honest with you. Christian just read it really well, had great vision. And we always say, ‘Break through the junction point’ — and he did that.
“He wasn’t lateral. He broke exactly how we would want him to break and he has every much entitlement to that ball as the offensive player and that’s what he did. He stepped in front of it.”
Weigman finished 12-of-30 passing for 100 yards and two interceptions.
His long completion was 18 yards and he was sacked once.
Gray, making his first college start, had two tackles and two pass breakups.
“It was the marriage of rush and coverage,” Golden said of Weigman’s career-worst day in his ninth career start for the Aggies. “We didn’t get sacks per se, but we got him to scramble five or six times, which was big. We were good on third and fourth down. So, if you win those downs, you’ve got a good chance in the game.”
Bringing the fire
The now-viral video of Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman firing up his team at the mouth of the Kyle Field tunnel before the Texas A&M game on Saturday night wasn’t exactly breaching new territory as far as the Irish players were concerned.
But rather a reminder of who Freeman is.
“He brings the energy to practice, too,” junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed said. “He's always full of energy at practice. So, I just see it as him. That's a normal guy. He's just fired up and ready to play in front of 100,000.”
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