Mike Denbrock Says Notre Dame Right Guard Battle May Last Deep Into Camp

Mike Denbrock said after Notre Dame’s official fall-camp practice that there is no firm deadline on the right guard competition, one of the few open positions on offense, and that it could stretch into the second or even third week of camp. The question that prompted the answer noted that Notre Dame opened last season still rotating at right guard in the season opener in Miami.

“I mean, yes and no. Obviously, you’d love to have the answers as early as possible,” Denbrock said.

The follow-up turned to how long the staff is willing to let it go.

“There’s some really good competition going on there. So, we’ll let it kind of run its course here for a little bit and kind of make evaluation as we go,” Denbrock said, before adding that the staff will “see if it kind of clears itself up or if it’s something that maybe extends, you know what I mean, into a second or even third week.”

Why the job is still open

The job is open because Charles Jagusah’s summer injury last year cost him all of 2025 and has his availability for this season in doubt as well. Marcus Freeman has said Jagusah should play again but won’t be ready for the opener. Sullivan Absher and Matty Augustine are competing for the spot. Absher has already played a good amount, appearing in all 12 games in 2025 while starting the final five of the season for the injured Billy Schrauth. Augustine has made it close enough that the staff is in no hurry to call it.

Denbrock was asked about managing reps in the backup quarterback competition. His answer walked through the mechanics of running any position battle, and the same math applies to the offensive line.

“You have to be really thoughtful and intentional with how you divide the reps and the opportunities that you’re giving those guys to either prove that they’re that guy or fail enough where you got to move somebody else into that position,” Denbrock said.

How Notre Dame is handling the evaluation

The wrinkle up front is that offensive line reps do not come one at a time. A guard rep is also a center rep, a tackle rep, and a snap for the quarterback behind them, so rotating two players through the first team changes the picture for the other four linemen on every snap. Denbrock said the staff has spent time mapping out how to keep the sample honest.

“You have to think through it, make sure everybody’s getting the same opportunities with the run game, with the pass game, with the concepts in the pass game, so that there’s truly an evaluation going on there.”

Denbrock also said the arrangement will move around.

“It’ll be a little different from practice to practice. They’ll all rotate themselves around a little bit, but it’s all in an effort to make sure we get a true evaluation of who that guy needs to be.”

Where the line stands heading into the opener

Right guard is the only spot on the offensive line without a clear answer, and that is a change from where things stood a year ago. Anthonie Knapp moved inside to guard this offseason, one of the more consequential position changes Notre Dame made in the spring. Knapp sliding inside opened left tackle for redshirt freshman Will Black, a five-star recruit who was the No. 26 player nationally and the No. 4 tackle in his class. Guerby Lambert, who started all 12 games at right guard in 2025, moved from guard to right tackle. Ashton Craig has been running with the first team at center again after missing a large chunk of last season.

Notre Dame went 10-2 and finished 10th in the final AP poll with a line that was still figuring out its right guard when the season kicked off, so the staff has already lived through the version where the answer arrives late.

Denbrock said the practice schedule is built with the kind of situational work that lets a competition like right guard sort itself out over the course of camp.

“We’re going to put them in a lot of different situations as we go through camp here and kind of work really hard to define who we are offensively,” he said.

What Absher and Augustine have to do now is separate in the specific areas Denbrock named: the run game, the pass concepts, and the situational work. Whoever wins it is lining up next to Lambert in a lineup that returns a lot of experience but will feature four “new” starters when considering position switches.