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Mike McGlinchey: Heir To A Left Tackle Tradition Of Excellence

McGlinchey (68) shifted from right tackle to left tackle this spring, just like Ronnie Stanley in 2014.
McGlinchey (68) shifted from right tackle to left tackle this spring, just like Ronnie Stanley in 2014.

In college football, it doesn’t take long for a greenhorn to become a graybeard. Just ask senior left tackle Mike McGlinchey.

A year ago at this time, McGlinchey was a novice along the Notre Dame offensive line with one career start at right tackle. Twelve months later, he is the centerpiece of a reconstruction along the line — and the heir to a left tackle tradition that in head coach Brian Kelly’s first six years at Notre Dame has had nothing but future first-round NFL Draft picks playing his new position.

In fact, over the last three decades, there has not been a single position at Notre Dame that has had more first-round glamour attached to it than left tackle.

From the national title season in 1988 to nearly the turn of the century, the position produced three first-round selections in Andy Heck, Lombardi Award winner Aaron Taylor and Luke Petitgout. Since 2000, it has included four-year starters Jordan Black (who had a nine-year NFL career) and Ryan Harris, a third-round pick in 2007 who was the starting left tackle for this year’s season’s Super Bowl 50 champion Denver Broncos — and on March 15 signed a two-year, $3.9-million contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

During his first three years at Notre Dame, McGlinchey had the opportunity to witness the left tackle excellence of first-round pick Zack Martin (2010-13), already an All-Pro with the Dallas Cowboys, and Ronnie Stanley (2014-15), who is projected to be selected even higher than the No. 16 overall selection Martin was.

The 6-7½, 310-pound McGlinchey, whose cousin Matt Ryan is the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, is not reticent about acknowledging that “playing football for a long time” is in his DNA. Like Stanley, who succeeded Martin by moving from starting right tackle to left tackle in 2014, McGlinchey has done the same this spring after starting all 13 games at right tackle last year.

“It’s a special accolade to be a left tackle at the University of Notre Dame,” McGlinchey said. “… It’s something I want to live up to, if not exceed. I certainly had the best examples to look from the last four years, and I’m hoping I can set my own path and have guys look up to me and see how I’ve done things, and hopefully try to emulate that along the way.

“When you’re in a program for four years and have guys do it the same way over and over again, you kind of just get brainwashed into doing it the same way. That’s something we take a lot of pride in — having a standard that is set and it’s up to the guys that are in the room the longest to uphold that standard. I’ve certainly had some great, great examples over my four years as to what that looks like. I like to think it’s my job now to kind of set the bar again.”

McGlinchey is rangier than Martin was — which is part of the reason Martin plays guard in the NFL — and he is considered more of a road grader than Stanley. A star all-league basketball player as well in basketball-crazed Philadelphia, McGlinchey’s footwork could be comparable to his predecessors. His high school offensive line coach Ed Doyle (William Penn Charter) described McGlinchey as “the prototypical left tackle with long arms and really good feet.”

Meanwhile, Tom Lemming, a recruiting analyst for four decades, described McGlinchey in 2013 as one who “could be the best left tackle they’ve had in 20 years at Notre Dame [or since Taylor].”

Fifth-year Fighting Irish offensive line coach Harry Hiestand met with McGlinchey in January about moving to the left side for two reasons. One was to find a comparable successor to Stanley. Two was to form a lethal left side, a la Martin and Chris Watt from 2011-13, with junior Quenton Nelson, who McGlinchey already describes as “one of the best guards in the country.”

The offensive line collectively is in a state of flux because it needs to replace three-year starters in Stanley and center/two-time captain Nick Martin, plus right guard Steve Elmer, a 30-game starter who opted to graduate this May and move on with his life after forming a strong right side with McGlinchey last year.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” McGlinchey said of the shift. “I’m just following the example of others before me. The adjustments you have to make are just getting comfortable in a left-handed stance … you have to remember I’m not on the right side anymore.

“I’m back-side on a call that I normally was on play-side for, and then just getting chemistry with ‘Q.’ It’s pretty easy because he’s such a talented player as well that he makes my job a lot easier.”

This spring, McGlinchey has been a vocal, intense presence on the practice field — and a good bet to earn a captaincy — and is more attuned to building collective cohesion along the revamping line than a potential financial windfall down the road. That includes developing junior Sam Mustipher at center, while the right side battles for now are amongst sophomore Tristen Hoge (also a center) and senior Colin McGovern at guard, with senior Hunter Bivin and junior Alex Bars at tackle. A wild card with his versatility could be fifth-year senior Mark Harrell. Working behind McGlinchey and Nelson on the left side are junior Jimmy Byrne and sophomore Trevor Ruhland, respectively.

“I don’t really hide my emotions too much,” McGlinchey said with a smile. “That’s something I’ve had to work on, reeling it in at times. I’m definitely not a guy that is quiet out there. … The idea is to get everybody doing the same thing the same way at all times.

“That’s what we work for. We’re going to have cohesion, no matter what.”

With Stanley and Martin on their way to pick up NFL paychecks, McGlinchey and Nelson are the two new mainstays up front, although McGlinchey maintains that Hiestand is the common thread of any success achieved.

“Those two will be the first to tell you it’s a lot because of Coach Hiestand,” McGlinchey said of Stanley and Martin moving on to the next level. “He’s the best coach in the country, he’s getting us prepared to play, he’s recruiting the right guys and he’s making our job easier because he’s teaching us the right way to do things, and it’s paying dividends for us.

“It’s a dream of mine to be able to do something as they’re doing. I hope to God I can achieve that goal, but as of right now I’m not focused on that at all. I’m just ready for [the next] practice.”

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