Knapp, Notre Dame's most experienced lineman, embraces his new guard role, mentoring a rising tackle and stepping into a crucial leadership position.
One of the biggest moves made earlier this offseason was kicking left tackle Anthonie Knapp inside to left guard and inserting rising redshirt freshman Will Black in at left tackle. For the last two seasons, Knapp has been the starting left tackle at Notre Dame and was a serviceable player, but his ceiling was always the highest along the interior. The Irish are past the midway point in spring training and the Georgia native has fully made the transition to left guard.
"I just like to play football, so it doesn't really matter to me," Knapp said about his move to guard. "I'm a football player, I love football and I'm here to play football. I was a fourth-string center when I first got here, so it's whatever Coach needs. He knows best. Whatever the team needs, whatever Coach needs. If they think I can be pretty good at guard, then I trust them. So I'll do whatever it takes to be the best I can be and do what the coach says."
Knapp is the most experiences offensive lineman returning in 2026 and it's not overly close. The 6-4, 304-pound Georgia native has 27 careers starts, the next two closest offensive lineman are tied at 12 career starts. Knapp is an ideal player for Black to step into the starting lineup with and their chemistry has started to build throguhout the spring.
"Will's been doing a great job," Knapp explained. "He has great feet, good hands, he's quick and he's fast. I've just given him little tips and tricks that I learned from playing two years at left tackle, like certain fronts or certain play calls, what to say to tight end, how to reline your snap or your stance before the snap.
"We've talked about how to put yourself in the best position possible to win that cutoff or win that play," Knapp continued on his relationship with Black. "I've let him know that, like, ‘Hey, this is what I'm going to do. I just need you in my hip pocket,’ when we're on the man's side of pro, so that way he knows that I'm there and he can trust me."
Growing in his leadership is the next step for Knapp and he's taken that challenge head-on this spring. Notre Dame lost two leaders and two offensive captains from last season in Billy Schrauth and Aamil Wagner. Both players also played on the offensive line. Now, it's Knapp's time to step up as a leader which is a role he's growing in so far this offseason.
"I feel like people get respect, not from what people say, but what people do," Knapp explained. "So I take it upon myself every day to try to set the example. Not only set the example for the guys behind me, but set the example for me where I can get better. I think that's where you can have a voice. I don't think you can just walk in and just say you played games and have a voice. I think you have to show people.
"I think that's what really changes people to respect you, and that's what I want to try to do, you know," Knapp continued. "I don't want to have these guys respect me because I played in this amount of games. I think that's garbage to be completely honest. I want to go out there and practice and show them I can do this too. Let me help you out. I think that's the biggest thing to get these guys going."
The expectations for this offensive line is exceptionally high. Across the board, this might be the most talented offensive line that head coach Marcus Freeman has had going into a season. They've got the players in the correct spots, now it's about grooming them throughout the rest of the offseason to be the best unit they can be. If that happens, this could be the best offensive line the Irish have had since 2017.
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