Joe Rudolph Looks To Continue High Offensive Line Standard For Notre Dame
Joe Rudolph has big shoes to fill. Notre Dame’s new offensive line coach has only officially held his new position for a few days and he finds himself following in the footsteps of Harry Hiestand. Rudolph is well aware of Hiestand’s status as one of the best line coaches Notre Dame (and arguably college football) has ever seen.
Heck, Hiestand recruited Rudolph when he was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Cincinnati in the early ‘90s.
“He sat in my living room,” Rudolph said this week in his first public appearance since being named Notre Dame’s offensive line coach. “My mom made a lot of good food for him. I’ve known Harry for a long time and have a ton of respect for him, how he goes about coaching, how he works and what he instills in his players.”
Rudolph didn’t opt for Hiestand’s pitch to join him at Cincinnati. Instead, he helped Barry Alvarez, himself a former Notre Dame assistant, break a 30-year Rose Bowl drought at the end of a 10-win 1993 season. He followed that with brief NFL stints with Philadelphia and San Francisco before embarking on a coaching career that is now approaching its third decade.
Wisconsin’s teams have been built on strong offensive lines since those early Alvarez days. It was no different when Rudolph returned to his alma mater as offensive coordinator and line coach from 2015-2021. The “O-line driven” vision Marcus Freeman laid out for the now 50-year-old coach was enough to lure him to South Bend after one season at Virginia Tech.
“That’s not always in fashion to say, ‘This is an O-Line driven place and the O-Line sets the tone,” Rudolph recalled. “He took a lot of pride in saying it and said it in a few of the meetings we had. That hits deep to me. It’s how I grew up when I played. I felt that responsibility as a player. It really hit home for me.”
The line Rudolph inherits has three returning starters, with Zeke Correll anchoring the center position and a pair of NFL tackles in waiting in left tackle Joe Alt and right tackle Blake Fisher.
“They’re very disciplined,” Rudolph said of his veteran tackle duo. “No matter what it is that’s going on, they’re focused on the task at hand. They not only do it but do it exceptionally well. They aren’t complacent about anything. They’re pushing to be better in every single area and that speaks volumes about who they are. That’s just who they are, and not including the athleticism they have, the size, the length. They’re really smart, they pick up things fast. In the end, they make guys around them better. They’re a pleasure to have.”
Three spots are taken, but both guard spots are up for grabs heading into the spring after the departures of Jarrett Patterson and Josh Lugg. There will be plenty of competition for the job, with Andrew Kristofic, Rocco Spindler and Billy Schrauth among the obvious candidates for the jobs. Other names could still easily emerge this spring as Rudolph looks at not just guards to plug into those spots, but who he sees as the best fit.
“You’d be selling the group short if you weren’t trying to find the best five,” Rudolph explained of his philosophy for picking a starting line. “You have to do that with some vision of how the whole group fits together. There might be someone who’s competing their tail off, and they might back up Joe or back up Zeke. But if they play in a way this spring where you see they’re one of those five, you can easily move them to a position have them ready in fall camp and all summer to take that over. That’s what I shared with them. I want to be smooth; I want to see guys at their best spot and where they feel that is, but the evaluation and assessment, we’ll always find a way to get the best five on the field.”
Recruiting is an early priority for Rudolph as well. He was on the phone as soon as his hiring became official earlier this week to reach out to Notre Dame’s current group of offensive line prospects.
“I reached out to them right away that day and told them I’m excited about them,” Rudolph said. “I knew all of them a little bit through the recruiting process, some of them more than others, and Sam being here already. I’m looking to grow that relationship with all those guys. It’s not anywhere near where it’s going to be. It’s going to be an everyday process. Getting them on the phone, talking to their families as well is what I look forward to doing.”
Irish Breakdown Fans be sure to get your Notre Dame tickets from SI Tickets HERE
Be sure to check out the Irish Breakdown message board, the Champions Lounge
Irish Breakdown Content
2023 Scholarship Chart
2023 Football Schedule
Notre Dame 2023 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @SeanStires
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
