Notre Dame Football - Depth and Offensive Line Concerns

to quote your your old buddy Brian Kelly when he's asked about expectations at LSU he seems to lean in the direction of he always goes back to well the roster is not where we expected to be down the road we're still filling it in we we took over a mess we took over uh a roster void of talent void of depth and and we're still filling it out and getting it to where we need it to be and once you start to bring up the weather as I did and then you start to give us some context to that and and how you prepare the roster for a big game against a big opponent in those conditions I think okay where does Notre Dame stand in regards to where you would want them to be obviously Brian Kelly turned over a pretty good roster over to Marcus Freeman a couple years ago but is is this a roster where it needs to be uh overall from a depth standpoint depth standpoint absolutely I mean I was actually talking about that on the show today Mark is you look at Brian Kelly in year three and Marcus Freeman in year three and how much more of this roster is guys that he's brought in compared to what Brian Kelly had in 2012 there were still a very heavy you know Charlie Weiss recruit influence on that class and part of it is just the changes in college football since then I mean Brian Kelly couldn't go to the portal and get a Riley Leonard and a Chris Mitchell and and RJ Obin and Rod herd and and players like that they had to say okay we we're down a corner we're not great at corner I didn't inherit a great Corner situation from my predecessor Beyond some guys that are vets can't go to the portal and get them I got to move cavar Russell over there and get him ready to go you had to kind of build it from within and Marcus Freeman has taken advantage of that they've had two very good good sized and talented recruiting classes in 23 and 24 notame has I believe I counted eight true freshman in their two deep basically in their depth chart today and a lot of other red shirt freshman you look at the offensive line they've got one true freshman starting on the offensive line and they've got Sam Pendleton who's a red shirt freshman secondy year player and then three guys who are red shirt sophomores and but the depth behind it is is very good you've got Pat cougan Rocko Spindler Chris tck svin Abshire inside so the Joe aing there's great depth there and if you if your tackle struggle you've got Tosh Baker to rely on who's got four career starts you've got gerby Lambert who's a a guy that is a f-star recruit coming in and Notre aame so even up front on the offensive line where there's a lot of concerns about the youth and inexperience it is a very deep group and same with wide receiver I I don't know if they've got a number one guy there but I know they have a lot of guys there that are Tal and good football players and it's true everywhere you know you can lose a guy like cam Hart to the NFL and you've got Christian Gray and Jaden Mickey stepping in the battle and you got Leonard Moore coming in to to compete there so they're they they're at the point now Mark where it's reload mode and and Brian Kelly's defense the reality is he did inherit a much different rostered LSU than what Marcus Freeman walked into a Notre Dame I understand all that but he's always going to kind of have that Mantra uh but Notre Dame didn't have to completely rebuild the numbers so so as they went out and recruited they were adding on to what was already there and they've also to the point where they've kind of funnel some guys out of the program this last couple years because they've been able to go out and get better players and that's something that the high school recruiting and the portals really done for this program yeah the the depth situation which leads us um into this question so of course Joe Al onto the Chargers as a first round pick and then the injury that was talked about more so than any other injury uh probably during this entire training camp uh Across the Nation was at left tackle as well so size up the situation along the offensive front and the weaknesses and where you think Notre Dame has been able to maybe fill the Gap and what they need to do there in terms of the the offensive line Shuffle I thought Mike kko had a great comment on that today during his press conference he goes listen if a freshman's playing offensive line for not am means he's going to be high he's going to be a high draft pick in in you know in a few years and and to a degree there's some truth to that but this is a in the last true freshman offensive lineman started at own name was Joe Walt you know he was thrust in the starting lineup the guy that they started that year off was Blake Fischer he was a true freshman starting offensive lineman but it's never IDE deal right it there's certain positions Mark where I honestly just don't care about experience I don't care about experience at running back if you're if you can play you can play I don't care about experience but at receiver but when you talk about offensive line experience does matter more to me so there's this unique ique balance that you have to have if you're going to evaluate properly this offensive line you can take the stance of hey it's all about the talent and okay that's true Emil Wagner is a very talented player I gave him a a five-star upside grade and Anthony nap is a very talented player I gave a four and a half star upside grade to same with Sam Pendleton same with Billy schr same with Ash Craig these are all very talented players but it's also a position where experience matters more than any other position on offense outside of quarterback those two are right up there and and the experience matters for two reasons number one is obviously the experience of playing you know what to expect you've seen all the looks you've seen all the stunts you know how to read certain things when an offense defensive lineman's lining up this way and his body's tilted a little bit this way you know that means he's going to do this where a younger player doesn't have those nuances that a veteran player would have it's the experience of playing together offensive line more than anything else is like a dance right it's like a symphony you've got to all be playing the same note at the same time it's all got to kind of the timing's got to be perfect if if you're if you're a person playing the clarinet or person playing the saxophone is off everybody in the building knows that that person's off the timing is off right it's same thing here when it comes offensive line if your left guard is off when it comes to the timing of what he needs to do whether it's working a second level black back blocking whatever the case may be everybody's going to know it because it's you get exposed on the offensive line and so that's another level experience and the other part of experience is grown man strength right I mean the older you are the stronger you get the more you have sort of that that grownup strength why did they say you shouldn't have NFL players playing against college players you know because there's just a different kind of strength and so that factors into it as well so which side of those of that debate wins on Saturday night Mark that's going to be the question is it does the talent take over for Notre Dame the athleticism the length the ability to go out there and run the football or is it are they going to be more is it going to be more about the experience or the lack thereof which is the talking point coming out of the game boy that's a really talented offensive line or boy those young guys they got a long way to go I think that's going to have more than anything the biggest impact on how this game is going to play out this weekend college football is even more exciting with some action on the line and the games are even better when you're cashing in and the voice of college football is the place to be to get the greatest value let's start with my picks 75% against the money line 58% against the spread I've got a 40-year track record in fact in 2023 at $100 played per game you would have nett it over $9,300 and guess what I'm just the warm-up act Steve Merill our Ace in the Hole show stopper from wager talk six years with the voice of college football over 30 years in the industry Steve gives us analysis on all the big games but you can't miss Steve's weekly under the radar pick which went 21 and5 against the spread the last two seasons I repeat 21 and five against the spread you also get picks from some of our top analyst here at the voice of college football including Steve da and Matt zik become a YouTube channel member or patreon member for just $99 per month go to the main Channel on YouTube click join and select the betting tier do the same thing on patreon make 2024 a winner now