Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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10 SUMMER 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Spring Injuries Make It Offensive Line Continuity By Todd D. Burlage With six Fighting Irish offensive linemen selected in the four NFL Drafts from 2021-24 — five of those players in the first three rounds — Notre Dame has become the launch point from college to the pros at these important positions. And while the 2025 Irish roster still features plenty of NFL candidates and future Sunday players, the inju- ries, instability and uncertainty within this unit during spring ball make it the most pressing issue to address between now and opening day at Miami Aug. 31. It's no secret that more than any unit on the field, the offensive linemen need the most reps and time together to build cohesion, and this spring provided very little. Four players who will either start or could start on opening day — sophomore Anthonie Knapp, senior Billy Schrauth, senior Ashton Craig and senior Aamil Wagner — were all either held out or limited during spring practice. That's not exactly the familiar recipe for cohesion that the Irish coaches have enjoyed in recent springs. Admittedly, there is plenty of experience within this group. Knapp and Wagner combined for 31 starts in 2024-25 on a team that practiced 21 extra times and played four games last postseason. "We played a lot of football," Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph succinctly said, not overly worried about his unit's patchwork lineup ap- proach in the spring. But experience or not, with a "rookie" starting quarterback set to make his first career start at Miami, the importance of building offensive line continu- ity will be increasingly magnified during fall camp with limited work together this spring and summer. Lost Leaders Must Be Replaced By Jack Soble Todd's case is a good one, though here's an important counter: This will be the first time the offensive line is 100 percent set entering fall camp in my three seasons on the Notre Dame beat. That should go a long way toward mak- ing up lost ground. What is much more difficult to replace, however, are the leaders who guided the Irish a year ago. Not just captains like Riley Leonard, Xavier Watts, Jack Kiser, Rylie Mills and Benjamin Morrison; Notre Dame lost Howard Cross III, Mitchell Evans, Jayden Thomas, Jordan Clark and Pat Coogan, too. It's easy to roll your eyes at all the leadership storylines you see during the offseason, but they matter. Leadership keeps a team together after a crippling early-season loss to Northern Illinois. Leadership keeps a team focused through a grueling College Football Playoff run. In 2025, Notre Dame's leadership will undoubtedly lean younger. Not that there aren't natural leaders there, but they won't be as seasoned as they were in 2024. "I believe we have multiple guys that are doing those things that are lead- ing," Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said. "They're solving issues, they're making those guys around them better, vocally, by the way they practice, challenging guys. I do." A few names have been floated as candidates to fill those roles. Junior linebacker Drayk Bowen is the most prominent among them. Senior offensive linemen Billy Schrauth, Aamil Wagner and Ashton Craig are natural options. Several more juniors who are returning starters can step up, too. We won't know if Notre Dame has enough leadership, though, until the going gets tough. And in a 16-game season, the going will get tough at some point. Point ✦ Counterpoint: WHAT IS THE BIGGEST QUESTION NOTRE DAME MUST ANSWER BETWEEN NOW AND WEEK 1? Simply put, sophomore catcher Carson Tinney recently turned in one of the best performances that any Notre Dame baseball player has put together during a three-game series in recent seasons. And in many ways, Tinney's individual performance helped spark team fortunes. During a three-game road sweep of Stanford April 18-20, Notre Dame's leading hitter batted .750 (9 for 12) with 10 runs scored, 2 doubles, 4 home runs and 7 RBI. For his ef- fort, the Castle Pines, Colo., native earned ACC Player of the Week honors April 21 and the prestigious National Hitter of the Week award from the National College Baseball Writers Association a day later. Tinney's memorable series helped spark an eight-game winning streak for the Irish, the longest for the program under third-year manager Shawn Stiffler. An elite player out of Valor Christian High School near Denver, Tinney was recruited by and committed to the previous Irish coaching staff that was led by former manager Link Jarrett. An unexpected coaching change the season before Tinney was set to arrive on campus could've changed his college course. Instead, Tinney — a finance major — didn't waver, and stuck with his commitment because of the combination of top-notch academics and athletics that Notre Dame provides. Blue & Gold Illustrated caught up with Tinney shortly after his memorable series with Stanford to ask him about that impressive weekend, and his time on campus. BGI: How did it feel to be named the best hitter in the country after the Stanford weekend? Tinney: "It was cool. But it was cooler because we got the sweep. The vibes of the team and the energy we had that whole weekend was awesome. That was the most memorable and special part of it for me." BGI: How would you describe your role on this team? Tinney: "I'm focused more on the winning side of things than anything I'm doing personally. I'm just trying to do what I need to do to help the team do better. I think we're in a good spot as a team right now, probably playing our best ball." BGI: You've been the team's leading hitter essentially since Day 1. How would you describe your season? Tinney: "I've definitely had my ups and downs. I went through a bit of a slump towards the beginning of ACC play, but it never brought me down. It never demolished my confidence. So, I was able to work through it." BGI: With the coaching change before you arrived here, what made you stay committed to Notre Dame? Tinney: "The new coaches had a lot of belief in me. That's how I ended up here. Academics have also always been important in my life, so Notre Dame was hard to pass up when you have that great mix of academics and athletics." BGI: What was it about Notre Dame that kept you so invested? Tinney: "My experiences on my [recruiting] visits, I really enjoyed every- thing about this place. My teammates and the guys in my class have been awesome. So, that would've made it much harder to switch schools. Once I committed to the school it was a done deal." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … SOPHOMORE CATCHER CARSON TINNEY During a three-game road sweep of Stanford April 18-20, Tinney batted .750 (9 for 12) with 10 runs scored, 2 doubles, 4 home runs and 7 RBI. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS BILLY SCHRAUTH DRAYK BOWEN