SOUTH BEND — What's the coolest pad on this year's Notre Dame football team? It'll be hard to beat House of Beef.
A bunch of 300-pound offensive linemen might not seem like the coolest combination of roommates, but that's just because the outside world hasn't heard them shred yet.
“We just hang out,” tackle Tosh Baker said. “Our greatest joy when we’re not talking about soccer is having a Wii connected to a projector in the living room.”
Besides Baker, this particular Fab Five consists of center Ashton Craig, guard Billy Schlaus, and Aamir Wagner and Tai Chiang.
When I want to relieve stress, my video game of choice is always the same. “Guitar Hero”.
“That's our way of being competitive,” Baker said. “It gives you a percentage of how great you did, and we were saying fucked up things to each other. Like, 'You've got to be better.' All that stuff. ”
Stop by on a weekday night and you might hear Baker & Company galloping along to Metallica's galloping “One.”
“It's very difficult to play,” Baker said of the late '80s MTV classic. “That's very difficult. It's a long song.”
Try 7 minutes and 26 seconds worth of fierce brilliance. Most of them feature Kirk's frenetic work on his Hammett fretboard.
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Steely Dan's “Do It Again” moves at a more manageable pace, though it creeps in at 5 minutes and 57 seconds.
“This is a good song that we play a lot,” Baker said. “This is one of my and Craig's favorites of his.”
Famous for being used in the background of countless Hollywood movie scenes, including the football biopic Invincible, the first hit single of Steely Dan's Hall of Fame career featured lead guitarist Jeff “ “Skunk” Baxter and Denny Diaz on electric sitar are featured.
“Go back, Jack, spin the wheel around and try again.”
There's no debate around the House of Beef as to which lineman is the Steeliest.
“Ashton Craig is awesome,” Baker said of the 6-foot-4, 308-pounder from Lawrenceburg, Indiana. shot. “
The look on Wagner's face when the idea was raised revealed how wide the gap was.
“We want to get second place in the house,” Wagner said. “Ashton Craig may be the greatest Guitar Hero player of all time.''
In the words of Donald Fagen's esoteric, hip vocals, you won't steal Craig's water or get caught at the border.
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“I don't know what he's done,” Wagner said of his talented teammate. “I don't know what kind of contract he has for the game, but his fingers match every note exactly. I've played him one-on-one a few times.”
Wagner frowned.
“Not even close,” he said. “But we'd like to get second place. Tosh's fine. Billy's fine. We've played a lot now, so I think we're probably at a higher level than a lot of the others.”
Not on the level of Notre Dame's modern-day “skunks.”
“If there was a professional 'guitar hero' career, Ashton would be number one,” Wagner said.
Ashton Craig has talent
Given this background, what Craig accomplished about five months ago somehow makes more sense.
On a raucous Saturday afternoon in Death Valley, also known as Clemson, South Carolina, Notre Dame lost fifth-year starting center Zeke Correll to a concussion at halftime, then lost fifth-year backup center Andrew three games later. – We lost Christofic to a severe ankle sprain. quarter.
That meant Craig, a redshirt freshman who had made 37 sweeps up to that point, would have to sit out the season.
“I think we both felt the same way,” Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph said. “When I saw him, I thought, 'I'm ready.' And he said, 'I know.' “
Rudolph couldn't help but laugh then and now.
“I said, 'Okay, let's go,'” Rudolph recalled. “That was it.”
Starting with the season opener in Dublin, Craig was given the chance to play complete games in five of Ireland's first nine games. Playing at Clemson against Clemson with all that noise and orange color and future NFL talent in front of you was a different level of demand.
Craig played the final 24 snaps without incident.
“He knew he was ready,” Rudolph said. “He knew early on that he had some chances, even though he wasn't quite his 'best self,' and he put it on film and his peers I was excited to go out with him. … Just being able to give us what we needed was huge. ”
Notre Dame was unable to make a comeback in the second half and lost 31-23, ending their hopes for a New Year's Six Bowl. But Craig was just getting started.
He drew praise from coach Marcus Freeman and quarterback Sam Hartman after the game, but as Correll's symptoms lingered, so did Craig's chances.
The former four-star recruit and all-state selection ended up starting the final three games of the year, including Oregon State's crushing Sun Bowl loss. With Correll, his former roommate whom he considered a “great role model,” leaving for North Carolina State as a graduate transfer, Craig could be entrenched as Notre Dame's next multi-year starting center.
“It kind of fell into my hands,” he said late last season, “and it was pretty great.”
From emergency option to multi-year starter?
Not bad for a simple study that “definitely considered” Ivy League offers from Yale and Columbia in high school.
“Ashton is really smart,” Rudolph said. “There were moments in spring and fall camp last year where he really showed his ability, but they just weren't there yet. He continued to work and study and follow through and when he got a chance to go out, , I was ready for that.”
And it all started on a noisy November afternoon on the street.
“I never thought I would be able to play against Clemson,” Craig said. “But as a backup, it's my job to be ready for moments like that. When Sieg went down and Stoff went down, I was ready. I was the next one to join, but there I was. It was like this from then on.”
Craig was able to fit all the notes together instead of melting under the spotlight.
“I didn't really think about it,” he said. “I was a little nervous, but after the first drive I calmed down. I was able to play my game, play ball and just have fun.”
His confidence grew immediately. His easy wins continued on Senior Day against Wake Forest and in the regular season capper against Stanford.
“When you play Clemson, they have good players up front,” Craig said. “I was encouraged by that and knowing that I did relatively well.”
Craig is back in the midst of the mayhem as the Irish bring in new starters at both tackle spots. He calls for significant changes and identifies potential hot spots with the speed and agility of his “Guitar Hero” alter ego.
The Irish attacking force's reliable starter is ready to do it again.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is active on social media @MikeBerardino.
