With massive prospects Will Black and Guerby Lambert stepping into starting roles, the Irish trade experience for raw athleticism to solidify a championship-caliber wall in South Bend.
There was a lot of movement on Notre Dame's offensive line in the earlier part of the offseason. Left guard and captain Billy Schrauth and right tackle and captain Aamil Wagner elected to forgo their final years of eligibility and enter the NFL Draft. Schrauth was taken in the 5th round by Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Wagner was signed as an undrafted free agent to the Tennessee Titans.
This opened up some holes along the offensive line which led to coach Joe Rudolph shuffling some players around. Rising junior Anthonie Knapp who has started 27 games at left tackle got moved inside to left guard paving the way for rising redshirt freshman Will Black to take over at left tackle. Rising redshirt sophomore Guerby Lambert who started 12 games last season at right guard got kicked out to right tackle.
The offensive tackle play at Notre Dame the last two seasons has been good. But when you're a program striving to win it's 12th National Championship, sometimes good just won't cut it. Knapp and Wagner performed well for the majority of their careers, but when they faced comparable or superior competition at defensive end, they struggled. This past season, in the season opener against Miami, Knapp graded out with a 12.1 PFF pass blocking grade while Wagner graded out at 38.4 after allowing four total pressures, one sack and two hits on the quarterback.
Wagner went on to not allow a single sack the rest of the regular season while Knapp only allowed one for all of 2025 which came against Purdue. But no team they faced down the stretch, outside of maybe Texas A&M, could match the talent that the Hurricanes had on the defensive line. Both players did a serviceable job at tackle and started a combined 55 games together. But the outlook on their offensive tackles going into 2026 in undeniably higher.
Lambert was brought to Notre Dame to be an offensive tackle. During his recruitment, he was thought to be a follow-up to Joe Alt's outstanding play at tackle. Last season, he entered the starting lineup at right guard and was arguably their best offensive lineman in spurts despite playing a position he wasn't the most natural at.
In 329 pass blocking snaps, Lambert only allowed one sack which came in his first career start against Miami. From then on, he didn't allow a single hit or sack on the quarterback and only allowed 10 total pressures over the course of the regular season. Now, he's back at a position at right tackle where he has the highest ceiling.
The other side of this conversation is Black, the rising redshirt freshman. Black was one of the highest rated recruits in the 2025 class and was the most natural-looking left tackle on the roster, outside of Lambert, the moment he stepped foot on campus. For reasons we can't explain, Black spent the majority of his first year with the program taking reps at left guard and right now.
That issue has since been corrected, and Black is now running with the first team offensive line at left tackle and remained there throughout spring training. Black has all the characteristics you want at left tackle. He's comfortable playing in space, something Knapp struggled with at times which makes his fit at guard very natural. Black is long, athletic and has the size you want in a starting left tackle at Notre Dame at 6-7, 316-pounds.
Both Lambert and Black add size, athleticism and length at tackle that's been absent from the position since Alt and Blake Fisher departed after the 2023 season. There's still a ways for them to go and they'll have to continue working throughout the offseason and into the regular season. But the outlook of Notre Dame's offensive tackles heading into the 2026 season is extremely high.
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