Marcus Freeman updates guard battle at Notre Dame

Notre Dame will be heading into a season opening matchup against Navy on Saturday running out a pair of relatively unproven guards. But head coach Marcus Freeman loves the competition that’s been happening at the position.

After a recent scrimmage, the head coach dove into how the battle for the two spots has shaken out. He’s really hoping to end up with four guards he and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph are comfortable running out.

“So you want to have four guards, right? And I think right now we feel really good about three going in there and I look forward to evaluating today’s scrimmage with coach Rudolph and the offensive staff and saying, ‘OK, who’s going to the be the third and fourth guard that we say can go in a game at any point?’ But man I love the competition that they’re having. Nobody’s comfortable at those guard positions and I think we all know who the tackles are going to be and we all know who the center’s going to be. And so to continue to create that competition is something that you love as a coach,” Freeman said.

The main players competing to start at guard on the offensive line for Notre Dame are Pat Coogan, Rocco Spindler and Billy Schrauth. Freeman was highly complimentary of the trio, giving the impression that they’re neck-and-neck as they jockey to play.

“It’s a great competition. And Coogs has been getting more reps with the ones and he’s done a really good job. He’s going to be a good player for us. I love the competition that we have going on at the guard spot. Rocco Spindler’s been doing a heck of a job, had a really good camp and Billy has, too,” Freeman said.

Freeman and Rudolph have made a decision on who the starting two guards will be ahead of the opener, with a depth chart placing Coogan and Spindler in the starting left and right guard spots, respectively. It seems possible the Irish could platoon at the position to see how Schrauth and Kristofic respond to real game reps out of camp.

Either way, the head coach seems confident in the depth and competition pushing all the guards to be ready if called upon.

Rudolph explained early in camp how the guards could win a starting job for Notre Dame

He has three criteria he’s seeking out for a starting offensive guard.

“I’m looking for three things. I’m looking for a guy that can flat out win at the point of attack. You know what I mean? I’m looking for someone that can get their job done in a way where they make the guys around them better. And I’m looking for someone that’s accountable. That knows what to do and how to do it and it’s not correcting things that are controllable,” Rudolph said.