Texas A&M coach Mike Elko expects 'extremely talented' O-line for Notre Dame football

SOUTH BEND — In Mike Elko’s lone season at Notre Dame football as its defensive coordinator, the 2017 Irish featured Quinton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey along their offensive line.

Both went in the top nine picks of the next year’s NFL Draft.

Now running his own program at Texas A&M, Elko doesn’t sound like he has too much sympathy for Notre Dame as it puts forth a projected five-man offensive line with six career starts heading into Saturday night’s showdown at Kyle Field.

“Notre Dame has recruited offensive linemen really, really well for a really long time,” Elko said at his Monday news conference. “If they have young kids that have entered into the starting lineup, it probably means they’re NFL Draft picks.”

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Midyear enrollee Anthonie Knapp and redshirt sophomore Sam Pendleton rode a late-camp surge into first-string status on the left side of the offensive line Notre Dame listed on its official depth chart, released Monday. Third-year housemates Ashton Craig and Billy Schrauth remain the starting center and right guard after filling those spots in the final three games of 2023.

Aamil Wagner, another redshirt sophomore with just 52 career game snaps, is listed as the starting right tackle after working there throughout fall camp.

Listed as the primary backups are left tackle Tosh Baker (four career starts), left guard Rocco Spindler (10 career starts), center Pat Coogan (13 starts), redshirt freshman Sullivan Absher and freshman right tackle Guerby Lambert.

“When you say, ‘He’s a freshman starting on the offensive line at Notre Dame,’ my gut would be if you went back and researched that, that would end with, ‘He got drafted in the first round’ significantly more often than not,” Elko said. “The six starts maybe is a concern for them to some degree, just in the opener, but I’m sure these young kids that they’re putting out there for the first time are extremely talented and that’s why they’ve won the starting jobs that they’ve won.

“That’s certainly how we’re preparing. We’re preparing for a typical Notre Dame offensive lineman that’s going to be really big and really talented and try to control the line of scrimmage. I think they’ve been a finalist for the Joe Moore Award more than they haven’t in the last eight years. I would just imagine they have some really talented young kids playing.”

Notre Dame’s last two freshman starters on the offensive line were Blake Fisher and Joe Alt in 2021. Both tackles went in first two rounds as early entrants to the NFL last spring.

Knapp, listed at 6-foot-4 and 294 pounds, was a consensus three-star recruit from Roswell, Ga. Pendleton, a 6-4, 305-pounder from Lawsonville, N.C., was a top-400 national recruit who edged into four-star status.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and the South Bend Tribune. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Texas A&M coach Mike Elko expects 'extremely talented' O-line for Notre Dame football