SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Charles Jagusah’s frustration Wednesday came not from his performance in the second Notre Dame football practice of the spring, but that he wouldn’t have a chance to dissect it himself on film right away.
The sophomore-to-be left tackle is part of an offensive line group that traditionally extends practice time beyond head coach Marcus Freeman’s prescribed parameters. Then the 6-foot-7, 327-pounder had media interview obligations Wednesday, bracketed by an upcoming academic obligation.
“Yeah, I'm a freak about film,” Jagusah said. “I’ve got to watch it right away. I'm a little annoyed, because I have class at 11.”
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That student-of-the-game mentality, which Jagusah takes to extremes, is hardly a new wrinkle. He was spotted in the El Paso (Texas) International Airport evaluating game tape, while most of his teammates slept, the day after his first career start in Notre Dame’s 40-8 Sun Bowl mauling of Oregon State on Dec. 29.
“I nitpick a lot of different things,” he said of his film reviews. “Some people say I'm a little too far with it, but I think I just use it as a way to get better. Like if I'm not constantly adjusting things and figuring out what I'm doing wrong, then I'm never going to get better.
“But I’ve got to work on just kind of staying in the moment, at the same time and not thinking, ‘Oh, I messed up that play.’ It's all over now.”
That mentality, overlaid on top of his physical gifts and size, is the combination that helped Jagusah grab the starting left tackle spot when unanimous junior All-American Joe Alt opted out of the bowl game. That after Jagusah had logged just five game snaps all season — all five of them at left guard and all five in the mop-up moments of the 56-23 win at Stanford on Nov. 25 in the regular-season finale.
And roughly a month after finally feeling like himself following February 2023 surgery on both the ACL and PCL in his right knee. That after initially being told that the recovery timeline was likely to last a full year.
“I was worried,” said Jagusah, still at the top of the depth chart three months after his dramatic ascent, with 13 spring sessions to go. “But it's all about just kind of taking it one day at a time, finding different ways to kind of relieve stress and relax, not worry about the future too much.
“The ACL was just a small repair. But the PCL was like a replacement. … It's kind of weird, because it's still like some things are going to be different forever. Like you're not going to be able to bend the same way that you did before.
“I think I really started to feel good kind of at the midpoint of the season, just kind of being able to be confident in pushing off my leg and stuff. So, it's never going to feel the same. But it's about getting it to the best that it can be. And I feel like I'm in a really good spot right now.”
Sophomore Sullivan Absher, one of the teammates Jagusah spent spring break with last week, is the No. 2 left tackle at the moment, while grad senior Tosh Baker battles Aamil Wagner for the starting right tackle spot vacated by NFL Draft early entry Blake Fisher.
“My focus is just more about getting better,” Jagusah said of the competition at his position and the other four essentially open spots on the offensive line. “If it works out that I'm starting, that's good. If not and someone else is doing better, then it is what it is. But I’ve just got to keep progressing every day.”
Senior Pat Coogan and junior Billy Schrauth are the two players lining up as the No. 1 guards through two practices, neither of which were staged in full pads. Junior Ashton Craig has been the No. 1 center.
Sophomore Sam Pendleton and senior Rocco Spindler have been running with the 2s at guards, while sophomore Joe Otting has been the No. 2 center thus far. The third unit Wednesday was, from left tackle to right, freshman Styles Prescod, freshman Peter Jones, freshman Anthonie Knapp, sophomore Chris Terek and junior Ty Chan.
“I'd say everybody right now is super focused on just trying to get better, so anybody can do anything,” Jagusah said. “It’s the same as last year. If you played the best, you're going to play. So, everybody's got to keep working to be their best every day.”
Fisher and Alt were Wednesday practice observers, with both expected to participate in Pro Day workout, in front of NFL scouts and personnel types, Thursday morning at the Irish Athletics Center.
Jagusah still talks routinely with Alt and has even tapped into past Irish left tackle standouts, like Ronnie Stanley. He’s also buttressing his case to be Alt’s long-term successor at ND through his work with new Irish director of football performance Loren Landow.
“I think it's been like a whole kind of organizational shift,” Jagusah said. “Like our nutritionist is kind of locking in a lot more on what we're eating and giving us more information on it to kind of help with our diets and stuff.
“So, I think it's, just as a whole, everybody's really like stepping their game up a lot. And I feel like it's helped me a lot with just working on my speed and explosiveness, and trying to lean out a little bit more.”
The one thing Jagusah knows he can do is play through pain if it ever came to that again. He suffered his knee injury during his senior season on a Rock Island (Ill.) Alleman High School team going nowhere.
The only loss closer than 40 points over the six-game stretch that he played injured — and both ways, offense and defense, at that — was a 2-0 forfeit to Moline. He talked himself into the notion that the persistent ache was nothing more than a hamstring pull.
And he even kept that absurd conversation going when he began to train for wrestling and defending his Illinois heavyweight state title.
“The problem was I couldn't get down to weight, because I couldn't run,” he said. “So, I was on the bike every day, doing everything, trying to practice, but I couldn't go down onto the mat. Like I could only stand up, so I would have had to win every match just taking people down and cutting them.
“I got to like 295, and I had like 8 or 10 more pounds to go. And I just couldn't get there, because I couldn't run and condition enough.”
So, he relented to further inspection of his knee, which was followed by surgery and a long rehab. All the while, Jagusah studied the playbook and asked questions relentlessly while he couldn’t practice full speed — and then even when he could, ahead of schedule.
“Even to the D-linemen when I was on scout [team], I'd ask them like, ‘Why do you rush this way? Why do you set up this way pre-snap?’” Jagusah said.
“So, it's just trying to understand more, but that's just kind of the type of person I am. If you ask Joe [Alt], I'm just always coming up with random, stupid questions. So, I study a lot and try to know as much as I can, so that I don't feel like I'm caught out in the air with nothing.”
A feeling that continues to become more and more remote for him.
“Confidence was an issue for me, but I think it just takes time,’ he said of his freshman season in 2023. “No one comes in and is just ready to go right away, 100%. You have to still build, and for some people it takes them two months. Some people it takes them two years. It's just about building your own and finding your own confidence.”
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