SOUTH BEND —A dozen days away from Notre Dame football’s season opener against Wisconsin, Joe Rudolph’s offensive line is still holding auditions for 40% of the starting spots.
In addition to the Joe Otting-Ashton Craig battle at center, where team doctors have yet to fully clear Craig in his return from his second torn ACL in as many seasons, there’s a turnstile of sorts spinning at right guard.
Or maybe it was just the turn of Styles Prescod, considered the top backup at either tackle spot, to get a longer look at right guard.
“Listen, the competition at right guard is open,” offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “And we’ve got a number of guys we're taking a look at in there. Styles is one of those guys.”
Sullivan Absher entered fall camp as the leading candidate at right guard, but a broken foot derailed second-year man Matty Augustine’s push to claim the starting job.
Craig has taken some snaps at right guard, where he practiced extensively in 2023 before assuming the starting center role in early November at Clemson.
In the Aug. 21 jersey scrimmage at Notre Dame Stadium, Prescod got his shot and showed enough that he was doing drill work Tuesday as a guard in between Craig and starting right tackle Guerby Lambert, last year’s starter at right guard.
“We put (Prescod) in there in the scrimmage and saw some really natural things happen from him in there,” Denbrock said. “We're going to keep trying to figure out what the best combination is up front. But Styles is definitely in the mix to become one of the five that goes out there.”
A 6-foot-6, 304-pound product of Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers, Ind., Prescod kept drawing the coaches’ attention with his productivity as a backup to Lambert and second-year tackle Will Black.
“He's come a long way with his maturity about his approach to every practice and the consistency that he's been playing with,” Denbrock said of Prescod. “He's been outstanding at tackle and has earned an opportunity to showcase whether he could be one of the first five guys in there.”
Prescod did not see the field in 2024 after early-season surgery on his right shoulder. Last fall he was limited to 88 offensive snaps across seven games in a mop-up role.
His single-game high was 20 snaps in the home shootout against Purdue, but his season grades were poor, falling between 32 (pass blocking) and 49 (run blocking), per Pro Football Focus.
With a slew of talented freshmen behind him, Prescod is getting his long-awaited chance to shine.
“He's probably, at this point, a clear backup at either one of the tackle positions,” Denbrock said. “But there's opportunity at other places, and we've got to give him an opportunity to see whether he can handle the workload or whether we've got to go in another direction. He's earned that by his play.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Who's at right guard? Notre Dame football is still figuring that out
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