Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 2, 2023 31 W ith time tick- ing down to- ward a 42-3 Notre Dame vic- tory, Rocco Spindler bopped his head to some R&B mu- sic blaring from the speakers at Aviva Stadium. His helmet off. His services no longer necessary. T h e r e we r e n ' t 49,000 people in t h e s ta n d s a n y- more. A few thou- s a n d o f t h e m m u s t ' v e h e a d e d for the bars by the waning moments of the fourth quarter. They saw all they needed to see. For however long they stuck around, they saw the Notre Dame offensive line, Spindler, a junior right guard making up 20 percent of it, absolutely maul Navy's Midshipmen in the trenches. And if they stayed long enough to see Spindler beep-bopping around the home side- line, then they also saw Notre Dame di- rector of athletics Jack Swarbrick bump fists with him and three of his fellow starters; junior tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher, and junior left guard Pat Coogan. That quartet plus graduate student cen- ter Zeke Correll had much to do with the fact that their reserves logged some snaps in garbage time. From the Fighting Irish's very first drive, ball carriers had gaps as wide as the Irish Sea to spurt through. On a night in which two-thirds of Notre Dame's scoring came through the air, it was fitting the first touchdown was gained on the ground. Junior run- ning back Audric Estimé easily powered into the end zone in a goal-line forma- tion. The Irish brought backup tackle Tosh Baker onto the field to flank Alt's left. Tight end Mitchell Evans was in- line to Fisher's right. There were two H- backs in the backfield with Estimé, too. True power football. Notre Dame eas- ily pushed the line of scrimmage in the offense's favor. Touchdown, Irish. Ultimately, that was the only one they needed to emerge victorious. They tacked on five more for good measure. The of- fensive line had a tangible helping hand in all of them, from favorable pass protec- tion on quarterback Sam Hartman's four touchdown tosses to opening up another hole for sophomore running back Jadar- ian Price to score from 19 yards out on his first career collegiate carry. Fall camp was dominated by a pre- vailing storyline; what the heck is going on with Notre Dame at guard? Sophomore Billy Schrauth and gradu- ate student Andrew Kristofic entered fall camp as projected starters, but they were quickly replaced by Coogan and Spindler. Those two haven't been twos on the depth chart since July. Now, nobody can stop talking about them — in a good way. "I was just talking to Jack Swarbrick about that," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said in his postgame press conference. "I guess we found out those two guards can play." And here's where we advise caution. But, sprinkled in there, we also have rea- sons for continued, resounding optimism. It's Navy, y'all. A team that went 4-8 last season and let go of longtime head coach Ken Niumatalolo. But, it's Navy, y'all. A team that ranked No. 3 in rushing yards allowed per game in 2022 despite its miserable outings otherwise. The Midshipmen only gave up 88.9 rushing yards per game last year. The most the Mids gave u p i n a n y ga m e wa s 2 0 0 a ga i n s t Air Force's triple- option offense. The Falcons needed 47 carries to get there. Notre Dame just racked up 191 rush- ing yards on 32 at- tempts in this year's s e a s o n o p e n e r, meanwhile. That is 6.0 yards per carry for those who don't want to take out their calculators at home. That would've been the highest average of any Navy opponent last fall. Notre Dame can be one of the best offenses in the country in 2023 if the offensive line continues to hold up. Freshman wide receiver Jaden Great- house showed he's the real deal with two touchdowns. Junior wide receiver Jayden Thomas proved he can be a No. 1 wideout with a solid showing of his own. Of course, having Hartman helps. The Irish tailbacks? That room is loaded. Maybe the tight end position isn't all the way there from a pass catch- ing standpoint, but Notre Dame has enough targets anyway. Nine different ones caught a pass without any of them being a tight end. This Notre Dame offense will go as its offensive line goes. Because when the offensive line is going, so is Hart- man. And so is the ground game. It's full steam ahead, firing on all cylinders. The more we see Spindler with his helmet off in the fourth quarter jamming to whatever the stadium disc jockey has going at the moment, the better the chance is Notre Dame could truly end up as one of the most talked about teams in the country come November. That's a long way off. But Week 0 was a good start. ✦ GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com Notre Dame's offensive line was instrumental in the Irish's blowout victory over Navy both in pass pro- tection and run blocking. PHOTO BY JOHN CROTHERS Powerful Offensive Line Paves Path To Victory