Notre Dame Must Work Quickly To Find Offensive Line Answers

Notre Dame will have a brand new look at offensive line, and finding out what that will be needs to happen quickly

Notre Dame is going to have a very different look on offense in 2021, and nowhere will that be more true than the offensive line. The decision by left guard Aaron Banks to declare for the NFL Draft means the Irish will have four new starters along the offensive line next season.

There are significant questions throughout the offense, and a lot of them involve the big boys.

Notre Dame could end up with a new starter at each position. Here are the questions at the position heading into the 2021 offseason.

What To Do With Jarrett Patterson?

Junior Jarrett Patterson was the team’s starting center in 2019 and up until he went down with an injury against Boston College this past season. The California native developed into one of the nation’s best centers, and he could certainly take that position back over when he gets healthy.

Patterson was recruited as a tackle, and he’s athletic and tough enough to play all five positions along the line. That gives the staff flexibility on where to fit him in as it looks to find the best five lineup.

Sophomore Zeke Correll is a talented young player and was considered one of the best offensive line recruits on the roster. Correll started at center against North Carolina and Alabama after Patterson went down, and he handled himself quite well. Correll has far less positional flexibility than Patterson, and if the staff believes he’s a pure center and one of the five best blockers, it would be much easier to find a new home for Patterson.

Patterson could begin at left tackle, which would give the staff another year to groom young blockers Andrew Kristofic and Tosh Baker. It could also allow them to move Kristofic to right tackle or guard in an attempt to get him worked into the lineup. If the staff is comfortable with its options at tackle it could also move Patterson to guard, which is a bit more of a question mark at this point.

As it looks to put together a 2021 offensive line, figuring out what to do with Patterson is priority number one. Everything starts to fall in place after that.

What To Do With Joshua Lugg?

The next step is finding a home for Joshua Lugg, who has eight career starts at three positions. Lugg started five games at right tackle at the end of the 2019 season, he started at right guard against North Carolina and he had two starts at center (Syracuse, Clemson). Lugg is definitely not a center, and the staff must decide whether to slide him back outside to tackle or move him to guard.

If both Lugg and Patterson move to tackle it certainly shores up the outside, but now you have to decide what to do with talented youngster Quinn Carroll and Kristofic. Do you have them sit another year, or does one of them (or both) move inside to compete for time at tackle. Lugg outside also creates even more uncertainty at guard, where Notre Dame would have zero returning starts.

Since Lugg has experience playing guard it could be more appealing to move him back there, which would give Notre Dame an experienced returning blocker inside (Lugg) and outside (Patterson). It would also help shore up some of the concerns about the returning depth chart at guard.

Who Plays Guard?

What Notre Dame does with Lugg and Patterson will have a significant impact on how good I feel about the guard depth chart. If both are at tackle, or if Patterson stays at center, it raises major questions about who plays guard, and the interior would be very inexperienced.

Senior Dillan Gibbons is the only guard on the roster with any real experience. Gibbons came off the bench to fill in at left guard when Liam Eichenberg went down against Florida State and Banks kicked outside. Gibbons played good football against the Seminoles, and he played well in his only career start, which came against Syracuse.

I would expect Gibbons to be inserted into the lineup at one of the two guard spots. If Lugg or Patterson moves to the other guard spot it would go a long way towards shoring up the middle of the line. If Patterson and Lugg both go back to tackle it would make sense to move Kristofic and/or Carroll inside to guard, where they would be able to compete for a starting spot.

Another option would be to allow rising senior guard John Dirksen to battle it out for a starting guard spot with rising sophomore Michael Carmody, rising junior Hunter Spears and at least one of the freshmen.

There are a lot of options, and once the staff figures out where to play Patterson and Lugg a lot of them will start to fall into place.

How Quickly Will A Lineup Be Formed?

Notre Dame must figure out its plan soon, which would give its blockers time to get comfortable in their new positions and roles. If the staff does all of its moving around during the spring it will stunt the growth of the line and limit opportunities to get reps with the eventual starting lineup.

My fear is that we’ll see a similar situation to what happened prior to the 2014 season. Injuries played a big role back then, but Notre Dame didn’t get to its ideal starting lineup until fall camp, and the line never got comfortable. Eventually the staff had to shift players around before finally settling in.

Making decisions immediately (winter) gives players more time to develop and get comfortable, it gives more time for the starting lineup to emerge and it gives the staff more time to make adjustments should players eventually need to move around. At that point, however, at least some of the spots would be shored up.

Notre Dame will have four players with at least one career start coming back, which helps, but the faster it figures out who among that group is going to play where the faster it can find out who is going to be a legitimate contender for a starting role next season.

Will ND Make Philosophic Adjustments To Protect The Youth Up Front?

Notre Dame is going to be too young and too inexperienced next season to be effective offensively running the same offense it did the last two seasons. It can’t just line up and play big boy football week after week.

As I wrote previously, that makes this offseason the ideal time to make the changes necessary to bring the offense into the modern age. There’s quality athleticism coming back, and it would be the ideal time to implement RPOs into the offense, enhance the screen game game, reinvigorate the quick game, and find more ways to get the quarterback out of the pocket.

This should still be a talented offensive line, but it must be brought along properly.

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