Explaining Notre Dame’s confidence in Charles Jagusah replacing Joe Alt

In 2024, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program will have the difficult task of replacing top-five picks from this year’s NFL draft, left tackle Joe Alt. However, replacing Alt might not be as difficult as it seemed on paper.

Recently, on the Andy Staples On3 Podcast, the college football expert had a conversation with Blue and Gold’s Tyler Horka. Of the many topics they discuss, arguably one of the most prominent was their discussion on Notre Dame’s left tackle position, which has become a premier position at the university, giving way to a handful of quality NFL pros.

During the conversation, Horka explained why Notre Dame is so confident when it comes to replacing Alt with this year’s anointed starter, Charles Jagusah.

“Yeah, being anointed is the perfect way to put it because everything that we’ve heard, everything that we’ve seen from Charles Jagusah; it’s just it’s kind of like Joe Alt three years ago,” he began. “You had no idea… he played tight end and quarterback in high school for three of his years in high school. You didn’t know that he was going to be the next great offensive lineman; you didn’t know that you know [Jim] Harbaugh was gonna be calling him a weapon in the NFL draft press conference on Thursday night.”

Alt was taken fifth overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. His new head coach, national championship-winning head coach Jim Harbaugh, who left Michigan for the Los Angeles Chargers, raved about his ability, calling him a ‘weapon’ on offense. Alt’s reward for being considered a high-priority offensive weapon for the Los Angeles Chargers came with a pretty decent rookie salary. The former fighting Irish left tackle is scheduled to make $33.1 million over four seasons. Alt also receives $20.9 million as a signing bonus.

Talent like that does not come around very often, as Horka continued. But in Jagusah, he sees quite a few similarities to Alt, which made him comfortable with the new Notre Dame left tackle going forward.

“So you didn’t know that he was going to be that, and you don’t know if Charles Jagusah is going to be that either. But you do know, ‘Okay, we’ve got the confidence to put this guy, at that position.’ That’s huge at the University of Notre Dame partly because the quarterback position at this university has been so up and down over the years that you need a good left tackle to just sort of solidify things in a way.”

“They’re saying all the right things about Charles Jagusah. I mean, he’s got the size for sure, the athleticism… He came to Notre Dame a little bit banged up, and that’s where the similarities to Alt kind of come in for me. Alt came, and you’re like, ‘Okay, this guy’s not gonna play right away.’ Jagusah didn’t play right away because of the injuries. But once he did play, like he played in that Sun Bowl, it looked good; it looked the part. I think he’s gonna be a really good player at that spot.”

Coming out of high school, Jagusah was a top 100 recruit with a 96 rating as a four-star in the 2023 recruiting cycle. The Fighting Irish new left tackle was a multi-sport star, including being one of the top heavyweight wrestlers in the Midwest, earning a state championship in his junior season with an undefeated 41-0 record. Now, in 2024, he will have the opportunity to display his raw athleticism and skill as the big man on the Notre Dame offensive line. But only time will tell if Jagusah ranks up there with the likes of Alt and others to play left tackle at Notre Dame.