SOUTH BEND − Knuckles.
Nothing about the first seven-on-seven period on the first day of preseason camp last month for the No. 5 Notre Dame football team may have meant more to junior center Ashton Craig than knuckles.
The 14 on his left hand. The 14 on his right.
The Irish offensive line starting five is all about routine. One has it that just after the play is called in the huddle, and just before the play is run at the line of scrimmage, the five settle into their spots and trade knuckle knocks. At center, Craig looked to the left guard, best friend Billy Schrauth, and bumped knuckles. He looked to the right guard, on the first day it was Sullvian Absher, and bumped knuckles.
The 6-foot-5, 310-pound Craig then snapped the ball, and the offensive line did what it does. Run block. Pass protect. Dominate. Rinse and repeat.
The first time Craig reached over and bumped knuckles with Schrauth, then knocked knuckles with Absher, he had a certain sense of satisfaction. Of being back doing what he loved for the first time since last September. Of being home. Again. At last.
“I definitely had that feeling, for sure,” Craig said last week. “You get up there (to the line of scrimmage), it’s like, ‘Damn, it’s been 10 months.’ Glad to be back with the fellas out there on the gridiron getting after it.”
That first seven-on-seven on that first day was the first time Craig could get after it as the O-Line’s compass, the O-Line’s North Star, since he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the second quarter of the Sept. 14 game at Purdue. It was one of those freak injuries that often cut down offensive linemen. With a run play in front of Craig, a Purdue defender knifed in and rolled up on the back of his left leg.
Down he went; out he went.
Craig knew something was wrong, though he left the field under his own power. He soon learned that his season was over. His season, instead of being played on the football field, would be played out in the training room. Surgery. Crutches. Recovery. A long road back filled with mental and physical hurdles.
“You sit back and take a deep breath like, ‘Dang, that sucks, but the team still needs me,’” Craig said. “I kind of stepped into a different role after I went down. I wanted to try and help all the offensive linemen.”
Craig was never far from the O-Line life. A bunch of the guys share an off-campus house, so he lived last season with and through them. He was in the meeting rooms. He was on the sidelines. He was along for a ride that went all the way to the national championship game. Craig wasn’t a player part of that, but in other ways, he was.
“We’re going to go through everything with everybody, even if you’re hurt or you’re not playing,” he said. “Everybody is doing something, even if it’s something little that you can’t see.”
Craig saw the end of his rehab journey not long after it started. Whatever he needed to do, and however much rehab sucked, and there were times it did suck, he had to be back for fall camp. Not the first week or the second. The first day.
That first day, that first seven-on-seven rep, there was Craig back in his starting center spot, banging knuckles, making calls, being everything he must be on that O-Line. With Craig at center, that unit has a chance to be elite because he’s elite.
“Ashton steps right in,” said offensive line coach Joe Rudolph. “He understands what we want. He’s a great communicator, great leader. He’s an outstanding football player.”
Schrauth saw Craig alongside him that first day, and everything felt right again in his O-Line world.
“I love playing next to him,” Schrauth said. “Being on the same page is a huge piece of what we do, and he’s a great dude. Love playing next to him, love going through this process with him on and off the field.”
What makes Craig such a key to the Irish offensive line? He’s himself. He doesn’t try to do something he can’t do or be someone he can’t be. He’s just Ashton Craig, making the reads, making the calls, staying steady while making sure everything runs smoothly.
“He doesn’t overcomplicate anything,” Schrauth said. “He sees what he sees and makes calls and he goes. That’s the way you’ve got to play ball. He does that and carries it over in his life.
“You can tell he lives with a lot of peace of mind because he does the right stuff.”
In the camp’s coming days, if it hasn’t happened already, head coach Marcus Freeman will gather the team to select captains. He’ll likely ask players who believe that they should serve as captain to step to the front of the room and state their case. Craig plans to state his case. Injured last season or not, starter for all of six career games or not, he believes in his ability to lead.
“I want to be one of those guys they can count on and look up to and be a captain, a leader of this football team,” he said. “It would be an honor.”
Craig is honored just to be on the field. Another practice period of another fall camp can get stale quickly, but after last year, Craig takes none of it for granted. Ever. Any day he can play football is a good day. He knows the next play might be his last play. So go and play.
“It kind of keeps you in the moment,” he said. “It lets you realize how grateful you are for an opportunity to be playing for Notre Dame.
“I’m really juiced for this year, really excited to see what we can do.”
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Why the first play of Notre Dame football preseason camp mattered to center Ashton Craig
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
