SOUTH BEND, Ind. — So much for great first impressions.
Notre Dame first-year offensive line coach Joe Rudolph gave one-time prodigy Rocco Spindler a rebooted history and an open mind as he went about evaluating candidates to fill two open starting offensive guard spots this offseason.
And the 6-foot-5, 314-pound junior from Clarkson, Mich., with NFL bloodlines, responded last spring with the kind of performance that usually leads to a player opting for the transfer portal.
“I've told Rocco this,” Rudolph said Monday after Notre Dame football training camp practice No. 5, “the first four days of spring he spent all four days on the ground, you know what I mean?
“We laugh about it now, because he's added tremendous growth and at the end of spring. He was flat-out winning at the point of attack, and that's why he's fighting in this race. He's really picked up in a good place, coming into fall camp, which makes it a great competition.”
A right guard competition that, for the first time, Spindler looks like he has at least a 50-50 chance of winning over grad senior Andrew Kristofic, if not suddenly a little more.
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Notre Dame opens its 2023 season Aug. 26 in Dublin, Ireland, against Navy.
Rudolph is still, admittedly, dabbling with some experimentation in practice — giving his top backup tackles, Aamil Wagner and Tosh Baker, for instance, some offensive guard reps during Monday’s practice. But Spindler’s presence with projected starters Blake Fisher, Joe Alt and Zeke Correll as well as leading left guard candidate Billy Schrauth, felt intentional.
Kristofic has the experience edge. He has eight starts on his résumé, including seven in the 2021 season at left guard. Spindler, the second-highest O-Line recruit on the Notre Dame roster (No. 68 overall in the 2021 class) behind only former five-star Fisher, has logged 19 career snaps as a backup, including just three last season.
That’s the same number of offensive line coaches he has played for at Notre Dame, with Rudolph following one-and-done retired Harry Hiestand, who had replaced purged Brian Kelly hire, Jeff Quinn.
“I'm looking for three things,” Rudolph said when asked what would determine his choice to top the depth chart. “One, you've got to be accountable. You've got to be able to control the controllables, like penalties, assignments, linemen assignment, you know the detail with things.
“Secondly, you’ve got to win at the point of attack — guys that can flat out win and create opportunities for the [running] back. Win at the point of attack and in the protection game.
“And then, three, guys that can play in a way where they make guys around them better. Those three things and we kind of detailed things up how we look at it and what we talked about as a group. That's what it comes down to.”
Spindler impressed as an early enrollee in 2021, taking some No. 1 reps that spring alongside Fisher as freshmen when overall O-line numbers were admittedly diluted by injuries. His physicality was an asset, though, right from the start. The challenge for Spindler has been combining that with overall line chemistry and staying assignment-correct.
Rudolph values both qualities and believes he can teach the latter.
“You can hit a landmark. You can have your hands in. You can do all those things,” Rudolph said. “But if you can't win or punch a hole in that defense, then you're gonna have a problem. There's gonna be a lot of plays kind of mushing in there. But the guys that can find a way to win at the point, those are these guys you’ve got to feature and keep helping to grow.”
Early returns
Four June-arriving freshmen joined early enrollee Sam Pendleton this summer and are learning while at the bottom of the depth chart during training camp. The most physically advanced, left tackle Charles Jagusah, is also the most physically challenged at the moment as he is practicing while working his way back from February knee surgery for a PCL injury.
Sullivan Absher is also working at tackle, while Pendleton and Chris Terek are guards and Joe Otting is getting reps as the No. 3 center.
“They've all had great approaches,” Rudolph said. “They've all come in, and the strength staff has done a great job to get them in the best shape to attack this. Haven't had any issues with that. And they're learning, they're learning quick.
“But there are some days where it's better than others, and the learning always is nice. We had heavy installation on the front end. It gets lighter for those guys on the line after that. So, I think you'll see more and more of the confidence in them keep rising.”
Focused Fisher
Junior All-America left tackle Joe Alt continues to glean all kinds of preseason accolades. Junior right tackle Blake Fisher is making headway toward doing something similar at the end of the 2023 season.
“The thing I've noticed from Blake more than anything is such an incredible mindset to always focus on what he can control whatever happened,” Rudolph said, “whether it was the most successful play, whether it was a play he wanted to do better on, his focus is now always on, 'Man, I could have taken a better step' or 'boy, I needed to have a better job of getting my hands inside', whatever it was.
“Which man, that's a winning ... that's flat out what you want. You're gonna be successful in everything you do, and I think it's a real natural approach.
“Then secondly, just the natural progression into leadership for him, I think, has really helped as well, because he's doing a great job with these young guys. Sully [Absher] is on that right side, and the way he communicates with him and helps him grow is outstanding.”
Microwaving progress?
Even some of Notre Dame’s best offensive lines in recent years haven’t looked elite in September as they gather real-game reps.
Rudolph discussed the keys to perhaps shortening the process of eliminating early unit growing pains.
“I think the key is continuity,” he said. “You know, can you get them really confident on the details of what they do? Can you get them to honestly trust? I think how ever you line up defensively, no matter what you can anticipate as an offensive lineman, you can't guess. They can do anything. Like this guy can be lined up here, he can look like he's going there and he could go sideways if he wanted to. So you’ve got to trust your eyes.
“You’ve got to trust the guy next to you. You’ve got to trust the communication and you’ve got to go out and play as one unit. I think when you get into those first big moments and maybe you have one thing that's off, you’ve got to come right back to the foundation of doing it the right way. And I think that is the biggest way of getting to the right part.
“One of the key things in fall camp is ... it's kind of funny, sometimes you watch film, and you know a way to fix that play, but in doing that do you compromise any of your other teaching to anything else that may or may not happen? I think being in it, you’ve got to really be smart to how you approach things and how you put things in and how you detail things, and I think if you do that, and [if] that group trusts each other, you hit the ground running.”
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