Notre Dame’s offensive line has the kind of ceiling that turns heads, with multiple All-American candidates spread across the starting five. But while the spotlight has been chasing bigger names, right guard Sullivan Absher has been doing the quiet work of becoming a real piece of the puzzle.
Absher enters 2026 after stepping into the lineup late last season and making the most of it. The 6-7, 320-pound guard started the final five games of the regular season and gave Notre Dame exactly what it needed when Billy Schrauth went down with a season-ending injury in the Irish’s 34-24 win over USC. From there, Absher stayed in the lineup, starting on the road against Boston College and finishing the regular season as a steady presence on the interior.
His numbers from 2025 tell the story of a lineman who handled his business. He played in all 12 regular season games, logged 327 offensive snaps and worked 161 pass-blocking snaps.
On those pass sets, he allowed just two total pressures, no hits and no sacks. For a player who didn’t crack the starting five until Week 10 against Boston College, that’s a strong foundation to build on.
The offseason, though, has not been about handing him the job and moving on. Absher has been viewed by some as a placeholder until Charles Jagusah returns from injury, and Jagusah remains one of the highest-ceiling players in the room despite not yet appearing in a regular season game.
At the same time, 2025 recruit Matty Augustine has pushed himself into the conversation after a strong spring. Augustine is seen as the next man in, a label Absher himself held last season.
That makes fall camp a key stretch for Absher, even after what he showed in 2025. He’s the only one of the three with regular season starting experience, and he also showed a clear connection with right tackle Guerby Lambert during spring work. If that chemistry carries over, Notre Dame has a strong case for keeping the same pairing on the right side.
The expectation here is straightforward: Absher should open the season as Notre Dame’s starting right guard. He already proved he can handle the job in starts against Boston College on the road, Navy at home, Pitt on the road, Syracuse at home and Stanford on the road. The Irish line will face a serious test on November 7 against Miami’s talented defensive front, and Absher already got a taste of that matchup last fall when he played 18 snaps against the Hurricanes in the season opener while rotating with Lambert.
What Notre Dame needs from him now is more of the same in pass protection and growth as a run blocker. The pass-blocking part is already there.
The next step is becoming a dominant force in the run game alongside Lambert. If he does that, he gives the Irish a real chance to have the kind of complete offensive line that can chase a Joe Moore Award.
A good season for Absher would mean locking down the right guard spot on a Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line and playing to his full potential as a redshirt junior. If that happens, Notre Dame’s push for its first Joe Moore Award since 2017 starts to look a lot more realistic.
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