Could Notre Dame Start a Freshman at Left Tackle in 2024?

When Charles Jagusah went down for the season early in training camp, the conventional wisdom was that fifth-year senior Tosh Baker would be moved back to left tackle and eventually named the starter. Based on media viewings this week, however, it appears true freshman Anthonie Knapp has moved into the top spot on the depth chart and could be headed towards making his first career start in Kyle Field against the Texas A&M defense in just over two weeks.

Blue & Gold Illustrated’s Tyler Horka tweeted that Knapp was running with the first-team offensive line for the second session in a row that was open to the media.

For the second media viewing session in a row, the projected Notre Dame starting offensive line was…

Left tackle: Anthonie Knapp
Left guard: Sam Pendleton
Center: Ashton Craig
Right guard: Billy Schrauth
Right tackle: Aamil Wagner

A freshman, a sophomore and three juniors. pic.twitter.com/Kc9ndVirlM

— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) August 15, 2024

It should also be noted that sophomore Sam Pendelton was at left guard today. It was assumed that Pat Coogan and Roco Spindler would battle it out for the starting left guard position.

Depth charts are always fluid this time of year – and there is always the possibility of the Irish staff playing a bit of gamesmanship here – but it is very significant that Knapp is running with the first team this week. Should Knapp start at LT, he would be the third true freshman to start at LT for Notre Dame in the last three years – Blake Fisher began the 2021 season as the starting LT, and Joe Alt eventually took over after Fisher was lost for the season. Before those two, Ryan Harris was the last true freshman to start at left tackle for Notre Dame in 2003.

When Jagusah went down, my initial thought was that Notre Dame would start Baker for a few weeks and have Knapp on the “Joe Alt plan” – i.e., they would wait a few weeks until they felt he was ready, similar to what the previous staff did with Alt in 2021. It looks like that plan may have accelerated, and the current staff may have learned from the mistakes of the previous staff. If you recall, the Notre Dame offensive line was a trainwreck for the first few weeks of the 2021 season – most notably against Cincinnati – before Alt was inserted into the lineup. Once Alt solidified the left tackle position, the rest of the line fell in place.

Should Knapp start week one against the stout Aggie defense, the similarities to Alt’s rapid ascension would be astounding. Like Alt, Knapp was not a wildly heralded recruit. Three of the four major services ranked Knapp as just a 3-star recruit and, at best, the #59 interior offensive line. Knapp’s outlier in the rankings was On3, which had him as the #5 interior lineman in the entire country and the #97 prospect overall. If Knapp continues running with the ones and starts the season opener, it would appear that On3 nailed their evaluation while the others massively missed the mark. Most programs seem to have missed their evaluation of Knapp as well, with Penn State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, and Duke among the major programs that even offered him out of high school.

If Knapp is ultimately the starter, he will be a much smaller LT than Notre Dame fans are used to. Even as a true freshman, Fisher and Alt were over 300 lbs -Fisher 335 lbs and Alt 305 lbs. Knapp is listed at 6-4 291 lbs on the official roster for the 2024 season. That isn’t quite the ideal size for a starting left tackle. Still, for Knapp to be running with the ones this week, the staff has to, at minimum, consider him as a potential starter, given how precious reps are at this time in preparation for Notre Dame’s season opener in what will be a hostile environment.

There are still two weeks to go until Rudolph, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, and head coach Marcus Freeman have to decide on a starter at left tackle. Still, it looks like the Irish could be headed towards starting a freshman at the most crucial offensive line position on the road in College Station to start the season.