Notable data, did you know, by the numbers for 2024 Notre Dame offensive line

This story appears in the Blue & Gold Illustrated 2024 Notre Dame Football Preview. To order your copy of the 160-page, full-color, glossy magazine, which includes opponent previews, Fighting Irish position previews and position previews like this one, click here.

This is Part 3 in a four-part series previewing the Notre Dame offensive line.

Notable Data

Notre Dame allowed only 16 sacks in 2023, the lowest team total since giving up the same number in 2019. Notre Dame has allowed fewer than 10 sacks in a season only one time in the last 11 seasons; the Fighting Irish ranked No. 2 in the nation behind Toledo with 8 sacks allowed in 2013.

Joe Alt, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, allowed only 1 sack in 2023. The only players credited with multiple sacks allowed were Blake Fisher with 3 and Billy Schrauth and Rocco Spindler with 2 apiece, per Pro Football Focus.

Did You Know?

Notre Dame was the first school to have two offensive linemen picked in the 2024 NFL Draft when Fisher (second round, No. 59 overall) joined Alt, who went No. 5 overall to the Los Angeles Chargers.

Alt and Fisher started every game together on opposite ends of the Notre Dame offensive line from the start of the 2022 season through the end of the 2023 regular season. When they sat out the Sun Bowl to prepare for the draft, it was the first time since the regular-season finale in 2021 that they did not start together along the Irish offensive line.

By The Numbers

4 Career starts for graduate student Tosh Baker, Notre Dame’s projected starter at right tackle for the season opener. Baker started two games at left tackle in 2021 before Notre Dame landed on Alt as the present and future at that position. Baker did not start again until he lined up as an extra tight end against Ohio State last year. He also started in place of Fisher at right tackle in the Sun Bowl.

17 Quarterback hurries allowed by Pat Coogan in 2023, the most of anyone on the Notre Dame roster. Coogan is the only Notre Dame offensive lineman who started all 13 games last year. He was the Fighting Irish’s mainstay at left guard and is expected to start there again in 2024. Fisher allowed the second-most quarterback hurries of any Irish player with 9. For reference, Alt allowed 2 on 368 pass-blocking snaps.

90.7 Alt’s overall Pro Football Focus grade in 2023, No. 1 among FBS offensive tackles. Alt posted a pass-blocking grade of 91.2, which was No. 2 in the FBS among tackles who met the snap minimum. Only Houston’s Patrick Paul’s pass-blocking grade of 91.5 was better.

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