our months after downplaying the possibility due to timing issues,
Notre Dame offensive line guru Harry Hiestand found a way to move All-America candidate Jarrett Patterson from center to left guard after all.
Fully recovered from early March surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle on the left side of his chest,
Patterson worked exclusively at left guard on Friday as the Irish opened August training camp.
Redshirt junior Zeke Correll, who filled in at center this spring,
remained the first-team center until heat exhaustion ended his practice a few periods early.
Even when Correll went out, it was redshirt freshman Pat Coogan that jumped in as the first-team center while Patterson (6-foot-4, 310 pounds) remained at guard.
Correll, a Cincinnati product who stands 6-3 and 308 pounds, opened last season as the starting left guard but gave way after five games to Andrew Kristofic.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “J-Patt being at guard, we feel like, gives those five guys up front the best chance to be successful.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. "You’ve got to look at that unit in terms of all five, not as individual pieces,”
Patterson, signed originally as a left tackle in 2018 out of Laguna Hills, Calif., has started at center in 34 of Notre Dame’s last 38 games. Patterson,
a graduate who spurned NFL interest to play another season, missed the final four games in 2020 after suffering a Lisfranc fracture in his foot.
Correll spelled him for two of those games in 2020.
Midway through spring practice, Hiestand expressed disappointment at not being able to see Patterson work at guard.
“I would want to get him some guard work, just for him personally,
but it would’ve been this spring,” Hiestand said. “But not now. We’ll be right up against it, getting him ready.”