Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 OCT. 22, 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY PATRICK ENGEL E mpathize with Jarrett Patter- son for a minute when you think about one of his low moments at Notre Dame. The graduate student left guard de- ferred the NFL Draft for one more year. He tore a pectoral muscle in winter workouts and missed all of spring prac- tice. He moved from center — where he bloomed into an NFL prospect — to left guard because the coaching staff thought it was best for the team. Less than two weeks into fall camp, he sprained his foot and missed the opener at Ohio State because of it. All of that preceded his return to the lineup Sept. 10 vs. Marshall, when he could rejoin the chase for the title he wanted one more shot at winning. There were bad days. Painful days. Days where he needed to be gritty. Patterson fought through them all for his team and for that championship pursuit. "Up until that Marshall game, I had like 12 or 13 practices all year," Patterson said. "I feel like I had been doing rehab since March nonstop." You can imagine the disap- pointment, then, when those goals were ripped away two weeks into the season by a blindsiding defeat. All that sacrifice and work for a best- case scenario of playing in a bowl game named after a snack food? The season wasn't supposed to require recalibration of expectations this quickly, if at all. The frustration, devastation and anger of losing to Marshall 26-21 and what it meant struck him especially hard — to the point of trying to evade the postgame singing of "Notre Dame, Our Mother." Pads in hand, helmet discarded somewhere on the sideline, face red and eyebrows furled, Patterson bee-lined for the Notre Dame Stadium north end zone tunnel. Director of player person- nel Hunter Bivin, maybe the only staff member big enough to block his path, stopped him and sent him back to the rest of the team. "Coming back, I had very high expec- tations for this team," Patterson said. "I still do. But in that moment, it's just disappointing." Patterson said he should have known better and understands if anyone was upset, even though he didn't mean any disrespect. Maybe he didn't put forth his best captain's display immediately after the final whistle, but he could still be a reason Notre Dame moved past the loss. "How is that going to help solve any- thing?" Patterson said. "It's not. I knew I had to lead, set the right example and keep pushing the guys." The first step in that process was buying into the season being about week-to-week and day-to-day progress rather than championship goals. That's a tough reality to swallow, but it's better than abandoning ship. Patterson came back because he cared about the team and also sustaining a culture. He could still help there. If Notre Dame was going to get the most of its reimagined season, Patter- son had to be a key figure in the turn- around on the field and in the locker room. More than a month later, his im- pact on both is clear. The Irish offensive line looks nothing like the unit that generated little push the first two weeks and lost the battle up front to a Sun Belt team. In the first three games since then, Notre Dame al- lowed just 3 sacks. Adjusting for sacks and kneel-downs, it paved the way for 692 yards on 130 carries (5.3 yards per rush) in wins over California, North Carolina and BYU. A major point of pride for an offen- sive line is running the ball successfully when the opponent knows run plays are coming. The Irish's last two drives vs. the Tar Heels before taking a knee were 75 yards each and featured 22 combined plays, excluding penalties. All but one of those 22 was a run. The exception was a shovel pass. Notre Dame bled the final 3:37 vs. BYU entirely with run plays. "That last drive [vs. North Carolina] was a tone-setter for us," Patterson said. "You don't really think about that at the time, but you look back and say, 'Man, we can do this. We can be the group we talked about throughout the offseason.'" Everyone on the line had to improve after the poor start. Each player had low moments, some more than others. They have all put forth better and steadier play since. Senior center Zeke Correll looks more confident. Sophomore right tackle Blake Fisher is more consistent and put- ting forth dominant flashes again. Patterson's health and acclimation to guard, though, is as important in the line's increased cohesion as anything else. He has a hand in Correll's growth and sophomore left tackle Joe Alt's ascent into a high-end player. How? Simply by being in the lineup and being available. "You line up next to a great interior offensive lineman, commu- nication is smoother with the center and the tackle," offen- sive coordinator Tommy Rees said. "The combinations, a lot of that is time on task, work- ing those together and having a feel of when to come off or not. The more you do those with the person you're playing with, the better you'll be. Great players elevate those around them. I'd put Jarrett Patterson in that category. "There's a lot of group effort that goes into it, but Jarrett helps in that he can be a calming presence for those guys." That shows up in blocking the blitzes that were going undetected early on but are now often picked up. Delayed line- backer blitzes were a bugaboo against Ohio State. Patterson felt one coming against BYU, though, and left a combo block with Correll to pick it up. STEADYING PRESENCE Captain Jarrett Patterson's acclimation to left guard and leadership helped Notre Dame's offensive line turn the corner "Great players elevate those around them. I'd put Jarrett Patterson in that category." NOTRE DAME OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR TOMMY REES ON PATTERSON