Notre Dame: Quenton Nelson making Day-by-Day improvements

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame hasn’t announced who its starting left guard will be come Sept. 5’s primetime season opener against Texas, but redshirt freshman Quenton Nelson has taken most of the first-team reps during the three practices that have been open the media so far.

Nelson is battling with fellow redshirt freshman Alex Bars for the starting spot, which opened up when Notre Dame moved graduate student Nick Martin back to center this spring and Matt Hegarty transferred to Oregon for his final year of eligibility. The hulking 6-foot-5, 325-pound Nelson, in taking most of those first-team reps, has gone against Notre Dame’s No. 1 defensive unit — which means facing senior defensive tackle Sheldon Day quite a bit.

[MORE: Notre Dame confident Jerry Tillery & Co. can replace Jarron Jones]

Going against Notre Dame’s best defensive lineman, who was second on the team with seven and a half tackles for a loss last year, has helped Nelson realize where he needs to improve to lock down a starting role on Harry Hiestand’s offensive line.

“He’s made me a better football player by showing me that I’m not that good and I have a lot to work on,” Nelson said, “because he beats me a lot.”

Nelson listed getting his hands inside on defenders while run blocking and keeping his elbows inside to generate more power as two areas of his game in which he has to be more consistent, and added he feels he’s still making too many mental mistakes. But Day — a returning captain and team leader — isn’t just beating Nelson in practice, he’s telling the New Jersey native why he’s able to get past him and into the backfield.

“He’s a great guy, he helps me a lot with my game,” Nelson said. “He’ll tell me if I’m tipping him on my pulls and what I need to do better. He’s one of the best in the country and I’m very lucky to go against him.”

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