Evaluating where Notre Dame is in replacing Charles Jagusah after injury

Sophomore Charles Jagusah was expected to start at left tackle for Notre Dame in the 2024 campaign. However, after suffering a right shoulder injury and torn pectoral muscle, Jagusah will miss the entire 2024 season. In a conversation with On3’s Andy Staples, Blue and Gold’s Tyler Horka revealed how Notre Dame’s offensive line will adjust to Jagusah’s absence.

“As soon as Charles Jagusah went down, you assume that Tosh Baker, the elder statesman in this Notre Dame offensive line group — he’s a fifth-year senior — would get the nod,” Horka said. “He was battling Aamil Wagner at the right tackle position. They ended up moving Tosh Baker over there, exactly like we would have anticipated.

“Joe Rudolph, the offensive line coach, even said, ‘Yeah, I think he’s the answer there.’ Well, the next time that we got to see practice, which was some five days later, Anthonie Knapp, a true freshman, was taking first-team left tackle reps, and a sophomore, actually, Sam Pendleton, was taking first-team left guard reps over a couple of seniors, who started a combined 23 games last season… That left side of the offensive line right now is looking very young.”

Knapp is a true freshman and was a four-star prospect in the 2024 recruiting cycle, per the On3 Industry Ranking. Pendleton doesn’t boast much more experience. The former four-star recruit only saw action in two games last season.

Nonetheless, Horka isn’t particularly concerned. In fact, he claims Jagusah wasn’t much more experienced than either Knapp or Pendleton despite his talent.

“I have to remind people, Charles Jagusah, highly-rated guy, big guy — he looks like a tackle at this level and maybe even the next level — he still only started one game in college football,” Horka said. “So if you’re saying, ‘Holy cow, we might go start Anthonie Knapp at Kyle Field in College Station in front of 100,000 people and this is this kid’s first college football game.’

“Charles Jagusah has really only played in one as well, and it was the Sun Bowl against Oregon State. And obviously, bowl games, if you’re not in the College Football Playoff nowadays, they don’t mean a whole lot. So, it’s just the youth movement all around for Notre Dame’s offensive line.”

Notre Dame’s offensive line has big shoes to fill. In the 2023 campaign, the Fighting Irish’s front five only allowed 16 sacks, tied for the 19th least in the country. For its efforts, Notre Dame was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award, annually given to the best offensive line in the country.

Notre Dame will take on Texas A&M in its season opener at 7:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 31. The game will be broadcast on ABC.