National praise for Notre Dame football’s surprising 2024 standout unit

Rewind to the days leading up to Notre Dame’s season opener at Texas A&M and remember the thoughts going through your football mind.

Notre Dame’s offensive line had just lost Charles Jagusah for the year, as the sophomore was assigned to anchor the left tackle position. Entering the game against Texas A&M’s fearsome defensive front was a Notre Dame offensive line that had combined for just six collegiate starts in its career.

We now know that Notre Dame’s offensive line more than held its own that night, rushing for 198 yards and averaging 5.8 yards per attempt against the big, bad Aggies.

It hasn’t been all that impressive all year, as the following week against Northern Illinois was an all-time speed bump, but with only three games left to play this regular season, this unit has emerged as one of the very best in all of college football. .

Notre Dame Football named a Joe Moore Award semifinalist

I’m not just saying that.

That’s the selection committee for the Joe Moore Award, which goes annually to the best offensive line unit in the country. Notre Dame was announced Tuesday morning as a semifinalist for the award and was just one of 10 teams nationally to earn the recognition.

Notre Dame offensively is clearly built on running the ball and the offensive line clearly has a lot to do with whether this is a success or a failure. How has it worked for three-quarters of the 2024 regular season?

Notre Dame owns the 12th-ranked rushing offense in the country, averaging 214.8 rushing yards per game.

In all nine games so far, Notre Dame has outpaced opponents’ average yards. The Irish have averaged 92.6 more yards rushing than their opponents’ rushing yards allowed in the game in 2024.

Add in the fact that Notre Dame is allowing just 1.3 sacks per game this season and you can see why the group is getting this kind of praise.

Freshman Anthonie Knapp has grown tremendously after being thrust into the starting role at left tackle, but the Jagusah injury was hardly the only one this offensive line unit had to deal with.

Billy Schrauth started the season at left guard, but missed time due to an ankle injury suffered against Purdue, while original starting center Ashton Craig was also injured in the Purdue game, but lost the entire year.

Players like Pat Coogan, Sullivan Absher, Rocco Spindler and Sam Pendleton were called upon and helped run one of the nation’s top offenses this fall, while Aamil Wagner was solid at right tackle.

The growth is a testament to offensive line coach Joe Rudolph, who certainly came into the year with his hands full.

Semi-finalists of the 2024 Joe Moore Award

Notre Dame was one of ten teams named 2024 Joe Moore Award semifinalists.

Joining the Fighting Irish are:

Alabama
Army
Indiana
Iowa
State of Ohio
Oregon
Tennessee
Texas
Tulan

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