Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 19, 2026 53 I f Anthonie Knapp carried the mindset he plays football with into his everyday life, the Notre Dame left guard would find himself in quite a bit of trouble. Knapp is a mild-mannered and thoughtful young man off the football field. Between the lines, the college junior seeks out and creates violence. "I always used to think, like, if you're confused," Knapp said, "just solve it with violence, and you're gonna be all right." To be clear, that's how Knapp thinks about football, and it predates his career at Notre Dame. His high school offensive line coach and trainer, Vince Vance, helped Knapp form that belief in what an offensive line- man is meant to do. That's why Knapp could be regularly seen bury- ing defenders nowhere near the football during his time at Roswell (Ga.) High. After two seasons as Notre Dame's starting left tackle, Knapp has taken that violence to the left guard spot where it's even easier to find. "I'd say that you can find violence anywhere, and I think that's just im- portant," Knapp said. "I'd say there's different things at tackle than there is at guard. I'd say at guard, you're in it more. You have to draw lines. So, I guess that part is definitely more violent. "But anywhere on the offensive line, if you're a violent player, you're going to find violent situations to be in." The 6-foot-5, 305-pound Knapp helps set the tone for Notre Dame's offense. "I love Knapp Daddy, man," said head coach Marcus Freeman. "He's a dude. He's a grown man." Freeman went so far as to com- pare Knapp's mentality and approach to practice to former unanimous All- American left tackle Joe Alt, who played three seasons at Notre Dame (2021-23). "Man, he is a heck of a football player," Freeman said of Knapp. "He's tough, physical. Man, I love Knapp." When Notre Dame's offense started to hum in the second half of the 41-13 victory over Wisconsin in the season opener, Knapp and his fellow offensive linemen were a big part of the solu- tion. That's because sustained violence makes an impact throughout a game. Whenever Knapp finds an opportunity, he tries to put a defender on the ground. "My mindset is when you are able to do something like that to a man that's across the line of scrimmage from you, it gets them thinking," Knapp said. "You can either hurt their ego or it affects their technique. They might be thinking a lit- tle bit hesitant, and that puts us in the best position to take advantage of them. "The more you're able to do that, whether it's protection violence, like if I can go get a good shot on an edge rusher that might slow down the rush for next time it's third down for my tackles, whatever it may be, just try to put us in the best position to score and take ad- vantage of the opponents in front of us." Knapp's success doesn't come solely from his disposition. There's plenty of technique that goes into allowing him to distribute some of that punishment to defensive linemen and linebackers. Unfortunately for Knapp, officials have a hard time processing one of the techniques he likes to use to keep de- fenders off balance. The snatch-and- trap technique uses the mo- mentum of defenders against themselves. When Knapp feels a defensive lineman leaning on him too much, he disengages from the initial block and chops down on the arms of the de- fender. When done correctly, it often ends with the defensive lineman falling on his face. But the snatch-and-trap can also appear like a holding pen- alty. Even if Knapp didn't pull the defender down, it might look like he did. That's why Knapp was called for holding against Wisconsin, and he's been improperly flagged previ- ously at Notre Dame, too. Knapp said he might have to use the technique less often to avoid penalties, but he shouldn't have to. There's an obvious value in the technique that doesn't require any illegal holding to occur. "Obviously, a ref's call is a ref's call, and you have to respect that," Knapp said. "It is what it is. But I think that's just a huge part of the game, because if you snatch them once, I guarantee you they're not going to lean into you 100 percent the next time. It's just the truth. I always use that to my advantage on the offensive line, and it's helped me a lot." Freeman feels it's his responsibility to alert officials prior to games to make sure they don't assume a holding penalty when the technique is executed properly. It shouldn't be too much to ask. Though Knapp may have to change his plan with one technique, what won't change is his attitude or his creativity when it comes to exerting violence. "Especially at offensive guard — heck, any position on the offensive line — if you're able to consistently be violent, it feels like it frees a lot of other people up, whether it's our backs, our quarterback. "It's always good to have a front five that's able to really go hit someone in the mouth and isn't afraid to do so." ✦ Knapp sets the tone for Notre Dame's offense with his physical play. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER On The Field, Anthonie Knapp Seeks Violence Tyler James has been covering Notre Dame athletics since 2011. He can be reached on X @ TJamesND FIRST AND LAST TYLER JAMES