Welcome back to the first Five Wide Fullbacks of the hot summer time. In today’s edition we are talking about the injury to Gabriel Rubio, the development of Notre Dame’s offensive line, a tricky 2024 opponent to watch, the brewing saga of 2025 quarterback recruit Deuce Knight, and insights from the recent Olympics version of On Cam.

1) The commitment of quarterback Deuce Knight looks to be on shaky ground following a visit to Auburn with the recruiting world motioning towards a lot of momentum for the Tigers and the Mississippi native signal caller. How big of a blow would the loss be for the Irish?

With the new calendar for recruiting the timing certainly sucks. Sneaking in a visit to Auburn right as Notre Dame opens fall camp and a dead period arrives signals a decision making process that isn’t kind to the Irish. Around 10 months committed and to do this now isn’t super unusual but I’d still classify it as a dick move.

The top 38 quarterbacks in the 2025 Composite rankings are all committed so Notre Dame will have to rely on a flip in a part of the calendar when flips don’t happen as often anymore. Of course, it’s highly likely the Irish do flip someone but that’s not the point.

As of this writing, losing Knight from the 2025 class would drop Notre Dame all the way from 7th to 12th in the team rankings.

I think momentum, hype, and good vibes matter in the world of recruiting and this is another blow to Marcus Freeman’s program still trying to take things to the next level. If they lose Knight it’s another data point that it just isn’t happening for Irish recruiting.

2) Notre Dame lost key backup defensive lineman Gabriel Rubio for the first part of the season following a broken foot in the first practice of fall camp. How does that recalibrate the line for 2024 and who is ready to step up in his absence?

I feel like scrooge out here because the depth for Notre Dame’s defense is a little bit precarious and while there are plenty of bodies on the roster at defensive line this is an injury that the Irish would’ve hoped to avoid–and I’m not sure the quality depth is good enough. Does Notre Dame have an elite defensive line? I’m staring at the Athlon pre-season magazine and they have the Irish ranked 9th nationally.

To me, that’s a lot of reputation carrying from Howard Cross, then there’s a step down to Rylie Mills, then there’s a couple steps down to the next level of players. Deep down, I feel like Notre Dame has one great defensive lineman and some other okay pieces surrounded by a very high quality system. So, the injury to Rubio could be bad.

So far during camp, redshirt freshman Armel Mukam looks to be making the biggest leap from way down the depth chart to potentially playing some decent minutes in September. I went back to look at my recruiting comments on him with a grade of 85:

“I hesitate to call Mukam a project because he’s a potent weapon at the high school level. But, we know his background and the lack of overall football played in his life. Once he beats his man he’s a missile towards the ball-carrier. He’s really strong and mean with a nasty side to his tackling. I’m not sure where his body and size will take him at Notre Dame, though. However, he’s got a high ceiling.”

Maybe he’s moving closer to that ceiling? Mukam was 250-ish as a high school recruit and is already up to 302 on the 2024 roster. He’s potentially a new piece to add to Jason Onye and Donovan Hinish as trusted backups on the interior.

3) Notre Dame’s offensive line is the biggest question mark for the team heading into the season. Has their been a shakeup this fall camp so far and can they open the year at Texas A&M playing at a high level?

Just as this was being finished up news dropped that Notre Dame lost projected starting left tackle Charles Jagusah for the season following a torn pectoral muscle. That’s just about the worst injury for the Irish given the state of the roster right now.

Through a week of fall practice, it looked like Tosh Baker was going to be the man left on the outside looking in with Aamil Wagner reportedly leap-frogging the veteran for the starting right tackle spot. The most recent reports have Baker moving over to left tackle in recent practice(s) which will leave Wagner at right tackle.

Is that the right move?

The options are extremely limited. If the first move after Jagusah’s injury was to move Baker to the left side then I’m sure they want to keep Wagner at right tackle no matter what. Still, I’d be interested in hearing arguments for moving someone like Billy Schrauth to right tackle now, figure it out during August, and have Wagner get acclimated on the left side. That’s probably too much movement, though.

True freshman Anthonie Knapp has been the backup left tackle in camp, interesting because it’s not elite recruit Guerby Lambert instead. That doesn’t speak real well to the depth on the offensive line but it’s an amazing story so far for Knapp who looked like a sure-fire interior lineman and much more of a long-term development project. If size is a bit of an issue for Wagner it is right now for Knapp who isn’t quite as big.

4) Every season has 2 or 3 tricky trap games. Which one is the most worrisome for Notre Dame?

I keep looking at the Purdue game. It’s either that or Louisville and I think the Cardinals are too good nationally to overlook, it’s a home game for the Irish, and there’s revenge for last year.

Notre Dame hasn’t visited Purdue in 11 years–and while it won’t be a rowdy nighttime crowd with a 3:30 PM ET start–I’d expect a Boilermaker team ready to fight hard. They also have a conveniently scheduled week 2 bye and will be feeling good after pummeling hapless Indiana State.

Purdue is replacing a lot of starters, though. So it’s possible they are pretty terrible. Then again, maybe they make a jump in year 2 of the Ryan Walters era and I’ve always believed there’s a really good quarterback in there with Hudson Card. The Texas transfer was pretty mediocre in 2023 but he can be dangerous at times.

5) On a recent edition of On Cam with Irish freshman receiver Cameron Williams, he talks to teammates about which Olympic events they would excel at. What are the top takeaways from this video?

I love these quick videos because we get to see the players up close and without equipment and helmets on. Or, they’re not behind a lectern taking questions from the media.

Cam Williams has some good size, he looks like he could fit in on defense somewhere.

Rocco Spindler looks like he lives on a ranch off campus and just came back from Tractor Supply.

There’s been a lot of talk about Aamil Wagner’s weight but his height is interesting in this video. Based off the official roster there is supposed to be a 4-inch difference between Wagner and Williams while the discrepancy looks much closer to 2 inches.

Remember that The Shirt this year was flesh colored? Well, transfer kicker Mitch Jeter showed us a shirt that would’ve been a much easier choice for this year. Slap the words “The Shirt” on the back in green and these would sell like hot cakes.