Notre Dame And Clemson Are In The Midst Of Some Important Offensive Line Battles
Notre Dame is trying to build a program that can compete for a national championship, and one of the programs the Irish are pursuing is Clemson. The Irish and Tigers have faced each other four times since 2015, and Clemson has a 3-1 record against Notre Dame and has won two national titles.
If Notre Dame wants to catch and surpass Clemson, and become a team that can compete for and win a title it must develop dominant offensive lines.
Interestingly enough, the offensive line is the position where Notre Dame and Clemson are doing the biggest battles on the recruiting trail. Notre Dame and Clemson are going toe-to-toe for three very talented offensive linemen in the 2023 class. Notre Dame won the first battle when it landed Sam Pendleton, and the second battle ends tomorrow when Sullivan Absher announces between the Irish and Tigers.
Historically speaking, the development of offensive linemen between Notre Dame and Clemson is not much of a conversation. From the moment Harry Hiestand was hired to coach the offensive line the Irish became the premier producers of NFL offensive linemen. The Irish routinely put out a long list of high draft picks that includes Zack Martin, Quenton Nelson, Ronnie Stanley, Mike McGlinchey and more.
Clemson has produced A LOT of NFL Draft picks since the program's emergence as a national power in 2015. The offensive line, however, has not been a strong suit. From the 2014 Draft until now, Notre Dame produced four first round picks, three second round picks and two third round picks along the offensive line alone.
During that same stretch Clemson has produced just one second round pick, one third round pick and just five total draft offensive linemen.
You may be reminded of Clemson’s most acclaimed offensive lineman over the last several years, Mitch Hyatt, who was selected as a First-team All-ACC three different times and was a unanimous All-American selection during the 2018 season. Hyatt parlayed that hefty resume into going undrafted during the 2019 NFL Draft and never played a snap on the NFL level in a regular-season game.
If you are searching for Clemson’s offensive linemen who has been selected in the first round, your search would be a substantial one. Why? Because the program has never had an offensive lineman selected in the first round of any NFL Draft. The earliest one to be drafted from the program was Harold Olson, who was selected with the No. 13 overall selection in the 1960 NFL Draft. At that time, that draft slot was still a second-rounder with the lower number of teams across the league prior to the merger.
Since that time, Notre Dame has had 11 offensive linemen selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, most recently in the 2018 NFL Draft when Nelson went No. 6 overall and McGlinchey went No. 9. Notre Dame has far outproduced Clemson on that front. As it pertains to the 2023 recruiting cycle, the battle goes between the development side and the proximity of several recruits to home.
That has certainly helped Notre Dame when it comes to recruiting offensive linemen, and it is especially helpful during the 2023 cycle as the Irish are battling Clemson for three Carolina blockers.
Hiestand's ability to quickly get in with Pendleton and add him to the class was impressive. It caused Clemson to go from being a player to bowing out when it became obvious that Notre Dame had set its sights on Pendleton.
We'll find out tomorrow if Hiestand can close the deal with Absher, who was considered a strong Clemson lean for months before Hiestand and the Irish program blew him away during his Blue-Gold Game visit.
Once Absher makes his decision known it will likely once again come down to Notre Dame or Clemson for Mount Pleasant (S.C.) Oceanside offensive tackle Monroe Freeling. An elite edge blocker and Top50 national recruit, Notre Dame and Clemson are both pushing hard for the talented edge player.
There is some pressure to stay in the state of South Carolina, but Notre Dame is coming off of a fantastic visit that may have pushed them into the lead with Freeling. It’s something that the Irish Breakdown staff has felt good about for a while but this recent visit really pushed this one in a great direction. Notre Dame will look to close it out after his round of June visits.
Notre Dame still needs to close on both Freeling and Absher, but they have clearly put themselves in a position to do so. It wasn’t long ago that the Irish seemed to be the clear second choice for both Freeling and Absher, while they still hadn’t even offered Pendleton. These battles with Clemson are an indicator that recruits still value development and the man behind the magic.
Going into the Carolinas and potentially landing all three of these talented offensive linemen would be huge. Beating Clemson is just an added bonus.
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Ranking The 2022 Signees - Offense
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