Notre Dame season preview: Ronnie Stanley leads on O-Line

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With the start of Notre Dame preseason camp approaching fast, we’re looking at what to expect from each unit that’ll take the field Sept. 5 under the lights against Texas.

Depth chart (LT-LG-C-RG-RT)

1. Ronnie Stanley (Senior)
2. Hunter Bivin (Junior)

1. Quenton Nelson (Sophomore)
2. Alex Bars (Sophomore)

1. Nick Martin (Grad Student)
2. Sam Mustipher (Sophomore)

1. Steve Elmer (Junior)
2. John Montelus (Junior)

1. Mike McGlinchey (Junior)
2. Mark Harrell (Senior)

This is an experienced unit that’s combined for 68 starts, and felt it had good enough players to demote 15-game starter Matt Hegarty from a starting role (which ultimately led to the fifth-year senior transferring to Oregon). Martin moves back to center, where he started 11 games in 2013, while Stanley’s decision to stay in school was easily the best thing to happen to Notre Dame this offseason.

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Stanley, already an accomplished left tackle, took on a greater leadership role during the December buildup to Notre Dame's three-point win over LSU in the Music City Bowl. Between him and Martin, there's plenty of veteran leadership up front for an Irish offense that's still relatively young.

Behind the five starters is good depth, which has been a hallmark of Harry Hiestand’s group since Notre Dame practiced for the BCS Championship without enough healthy scholarship offensive linemen to form two full units. A sign of that good depth: Brian Kelly was willing to switch early-enrolling freshman Jerry Tillery from offensive to defensive line (where he excelled during spring practice). That move doesn’t happen a few years ago.

Biggest question: Who plays left guard?

This is the only unresolved question about the offensive line, with Nelson and Bars kicking off the competition during spring practice. Nelson entered the summer with a slight edge on Bars, who if he doesn’t start at guard would probably be the first man in at tackle if something happened to Stanley or McGlinchey.

Nelson is a physical player — “We know if you put a guy in front of him, he's going to win a one-on-one matchup,” coach Brian Kelly said — while Bars has more refined technique. Heisting and Kelly usually don’t finalize their starting offensive line until past the halfway point of preseason camp, so this could be a competition that lasts a few weeks into August.

Youthful Impact

As usual, Hiestand & Co. will want to redshirt its freshmen offensive linemen. There are only two this year, Trevor Ruhland and Tristen Hoge, and with plenty of depth it'd take plenty of attrition for either to see the field. Hoge would have the better odds of playing this year given he's a natural center, but it'd take Martin and sophomore Sam Mustipher missing time for the coaching staff to consider burning his redshirt.

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Key stat

As we noted in the running backs unit preview, every championship-winning team since 2008 has averaged at least five yards per carry. With an offense that’s likely to run the ball more frequently, a large part of that push to get over the five yards per carry barrier will come from the offensive line.

They said it

“The most influential point was probably watching the national championship game and being kind of jealous of not being able to be at that top stage or where I wanted to be.” — Ronnie Stanley on his decision to stay at Notre Dame

More unit previews: QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs

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