Surprise.
The Notre Dame football team’s biggest offseason/preseason concern and its biggest source of growing-pains watching early in the season has become a November asset in ND’s College Football Playoff push.
And then some, apparently.
On Tuesday, the Irish offensive line was named one of 10 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award, given annually since 2015 to the nation’s best O-Line unit. The award is named after former Irish offensive line coach, the late Joe Moore, who set the standard in college offensive line coaching during the Lou Holtz Era.
Washington was last year’s winner.
The other 2024 semifinalists are Alabama, upcoming ND opponent Army, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Tulane. Finalists will be announced on Dec. 3, with the winner unveiled in an on-campus ceremony in late December.
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The Irish won the award once, in 2017 under iconic O-line coach Harry Hiestand, who’s one of the award’s new selection committee members this year.
Notre Dame lost two would-be 2024 starting tackles to early entry in the NFL Draft last spring, in first-rounder Joe Alt and second-rounder Blake Fisher. They are the first two ND true junior O-linemen, since the NFL began allowing underclassmen to enter the draft in 1989, to enter the draft.
Then in the first week of training camp, Notre Dame lost projected starting left offensive tackle Charles Jagusah to a season-ending injury. The Irish began the season with a freshman left offensive tackle, Anthonie Knapp, and a collective starting experience reservoir of six games among the five starters.
In game 3, against Purdue, the Irish lost starting center Ashton Craig for the season with a knee injury and starting right guard Billy Schrauth for four games with an ankle injury. Displaced former starters Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler have stepped in and more than risen to the occasion.
ND’s current O-Line configuration from right tackle to left tackle consists of: Junior Aamil Wagner, senior Spindler, senior Coogan, junior Schrauth and freshman Knapp. Sophomore Sam Pendleton started the first seven games of the season at left guard.
Knapp is one of 10 freshmen since the NCAA restored freshman eligibility in 1972 to start at least one game on the offensive line as a first-year player for Notre Dame. With his ninth start last Saturday against Florida State, Knapp and Sam Young (13 in 2006) are the only ones who have reached that threshold in freshman O-line starts.
Here are some of the accomplishments the Joe Moore Award selection committee highlighted about the Irish unit, coached by Joe Rudolph:
• Notre Dame ranks second among all Power 4 teams in yards-per-carry (5.98) and fifth among all FBS teams.
•With 30 rushing touchdowns, the Irish rank third among all Power 4 teams and fifth among all FBS teams in rushing touchdowns per game (3.33).
• The Irish own the 12th-ranked rushing offense in the nation, averaging 214.8 rushing yards per game.
• In every game played this season, Notre Dame has outrushed its opponents' average yards allowed entering the game. The Irish have rushed for an average of 92.6 yards more than their opponents' 2024 rushing yards allowed entering the game.
• Notre Dame has outscored opponents by an average of 27.2 points per game this season and the Irish have a 91% success rate in the red zone.
“This has been an unusual year,” said Aaron Taylor, former ND All-American, current CBS Sports college football analyst and co-founder of The Joe Moore Award. “The loss of even one key player has had an outsized impact on many units across the country. Several of this year’s semifinalists began the season facing challenges—whether from injuries or finding their rhythm—but have admirably rebounded in their quality of play.
“We believe ‘portal parity’ has made it harder to build and maintain depth, yet the standout units are continuing to rise above—demonstrating excellent resilience, coaching, effort, and technique.”
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