Sam Mustipher Becomes Center Piece Along Notre Dame’s Offensive Line

Life as a student-athlete at Notre Dame is hardly a snap, but new starting center Sam Mustipher makes it seem that way, literally and figuratively.

Entering his junior season in 2016, Mustipher is one of two scholarship players on the team enrolled in the ultra-challenging College of Engineering (classmate and safety Drue Tranqull is the other).

At Our Lady of Good Counsel High in Olney, Md., Mustipher achieved a 4.6 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale by taking weighted courses. His plan at Notre Dame was to go into aerospace or civil engineering, but he opted for computer science engineering instead because his ambition is to get into the cyber security field. Such an area of study presents some huge time constraints, but Mustipher is not one to back away from a challenge.

“The time management skills and the academic support staff that we have here is the best I can ask for,” he said. “The coaches understand the schedule I have and it all meshes together pretty well.”

Before he gets into cyber security, he’s going to be counted on to provide security for the Notre Dame offense as the starting center for at least the next two, and possibly three years, just like predecessor Nick Martin.

Like Martin, Mustipher had zero experience as a center prior to enrolling at Notre Dame. Meanwhile, Mustipher’s defensive line coach at Good Counsel, Kevin McFadden, considered him the prototype three-technique on the other side of the ball.

“The defensive side of the ball forces you to twitch and react faster, and lets you focus on burst, leverage and foot placement, which are all strengths of his,” McFadden, who has helped send several dozen players to the NFL, said of Mustipher. “He plays with his hands well. He sees his keys well … he’s just faster. He’s an offensive lineman with a defensive mentality.”

Notre Dame offensive line coach Harry Hiestand has had his own ideals about how to utilize Mustipher’s skill set. Beginning with the Music City Bowl preparations for LSU during Mustipher’s freshman season in 2014 in which he redshirted, he began to audition at center and then was groomed to be Martin’s heir. In 2015 as a sophomore, he took 40 snaps in his apprenticeship.

“Probably just having to snap the ball and play football,” Mustipher said when asked what the primary adjustment was. “You’re definitely closer to the defensive linemen than you are at guard, so you have to make sure you deliver the ball to the quarterback just right to get the play going.”

Oh yes … and then after getting the snap just right, you still have to take on what is usually one of the biggest, strongest players on the field, the opposing team’s nose guard.

“Being able to play behind [Martin] for a year and learn the things that he did and see the leadership qualities that he had, it made the transition so much easier than had he not been here,” Mustipher said. “He taught me everything about the position. I credit a lot of what I do now to him.

“He’s so smart and I believe he was the greatest leader in the country last year. … He demands excellence from the guys who are next to him, and that’s the most important quality about him.”

A prime physical difference is that whereas Martin was a rangier 6-4½ and 301 pounds, Mustipher is a compact and powerful 6-2¼ and 305 pounds, allowing him often to achieve excellent leverage. In the Blue-Gold Game, he was even regularly able to get under the pads of 6-0¾, 315-pound Daniel Cage, who defensive line coach Keith Gilmore said might be among the three or four strongest players on the team. Mustipher graded out well, including several pancake blocks.

“He’s got the body type for it,” Hiestand said of what inspired him to shift Mustipher to center. “He’s thick and strong, and has really good quickness, and he’s really smart. … Sam is probably your classic center body type, combined with intelligence and understanding of football.

“We knew that he would eventually be very good there. He’s progressing really well.”

Center also is classified as a cerebral position because a lot of blocking call responsibilities during the pre-snap read is placed on him, although Mustipher downplays that aspect.

“There are calls I make, there are calls that the guys around me make, and there are calls that whoever is at quarterback will make,” Mustipher said. “I just kind of do whatever I have to do. If somebody has a question, I’ll be sure that I can answer it.

“I feel like I’m comfortable in that role, and it makes it easier when you’re around a group of guys like we have here at Notre Dame. It makes my job a whole lot easier.”

Even though Hiestand has to find three new starters this year along the line, the word “rebuilding” is taboo to him because through his first four years at the school his primary objective has been to create a culture along the line that mandates a consistency in the attitude toward competition and with the fundamentals.

“That culture continues,” Mustipher said. “It’s the same every day. We put our nose down, go to work every day and we know what we have to do to help this team win.”

“Our standards don’t change, and what we’re specifically teaching also has a consistency to it,” Hiestand said. “It’s easier to pass it on rather than learn a new set of fundamentals.”

It’s not necessarily a snap, but players such as Mustipher make it a little easier.