Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BY ANDREW OWENS G rowing up an abnormally tall young man in Philadelphia, Mike McGlinchey often re- ceived stares from people who couldn't believe just how much he towered over everybody else. The current 6-7½, 310-pound right tackle grew taller than his mother by the fourth or fifth grade, and his fa- ther by the sixth grade. "My parents aren't abnormally tall like I am, so I don't know where it came from," he said. "It's something we had to get used to. I was the first born, so they didn't really know what normal sized was when I was grow- ing up. "When I was in school and head and shoulders above everyone else, everyone would kind of look at me weird, and my mom didn't really like it." These days, McGlinchey is learn- ing on the fly as a first-year starting right tackle at Notre Dame. The junior redshirted in 2013 before mostly con- tributing to special teams and then getting his first chance to start in the 31-28 win over LSU in the Music City Bowl. In 2015, the job has been all his. "Just the intricacies of playing Divi- sion I football in general are tough," McGlinchey said. "From where I came from, we were small schools, small programs, we didn't really have too much going on, and just went out and played. "I've had to become a student of the game, and that's something I really enjoy doing — learning more about it and getting a grasp of what football is all about. That's something I've had to really work on and overcome since I started playing, and I feel like I've done a pretty good job with that." Fifth-year senior center and team captain Nick Martin noted that one of McGlinchey's learning curves has been to release his emotion during the week so as to not let it control him on Saturdays. "You need to have a fire in your stomach and want to beat your guy across from you, but at the same time you've got to be cool, calm and col- lected because if your head's not in it you're not going to be able to make your block," McGlinchey said. "A lot of times in practice if you miss a block, it kind of sits with you. Then the next play you're not really fo- cused on what you need to do for the STANDING TALL Mike McGlinchey has helped the Irish offensive line improve into one of the nation's best in 2015