Steve Elmer's decision to leave Notre Dame still resonating in the fall

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — It’s been nine months since Steve Elmer announced, via a thoughtful first-person essay on Notre Dame’s official athletics website, that he would leave the Irish after graduating to accept a job in Washington D.C. He would’ve been Notre Dame’s most experienced returning offensive lineman and could’ve played his way onto an NFL roster with a solid senior season; instead, he decided to begin life after football earlier than normal for a high-level college player. 

It would be wholly unfair to criticize Elmer for using his Notre Dame education — he graduated in May with a degree in economics — to turn pro in something other than sports. But on Tuesday, five days before what would’ve been Elmer's final game at Notre Dame Stadium, coach Brian Kelly was asked to look back on the impact the former four-star recruit's departure had on Notre Dame’s offensive line this fall. 

Specifically, Notre Dame lost the strong level of experience Elmer possessed (30 career starts), which couldn’t be replicated by his inexperienced replacements at right guard. 

“All the things that you correct on Sunday had to be re-corrected starting in Game 1,” Kelly said. “We lost a lot of that experience that had been gained with Steve. Remember, we played Steve as a young player, so there was a lot of equity placed in a young player making some mistakes and learning and having to teach through that. We had to kind of go through that process again.”

Notre Dame has started three players at right guard this year — redshirt juniors Colin McGovern and Hunter Bivin and graduate student Mark Harrell — and hasn’t enjoyed the kind of consistency and continuity at that position that’ve become the expectation for Harry Hiestand’s offensive lines. McGovern made his first career start in Week 1 against Texas, while Bivin’s first career start game against Stanford and Harrell’s came last week against Army. 

While Notre Dame would’ve liked to have Elmer in its offensive line mix this year, his early graduation and departure for a job is a good card for Kelly, Mike Elston & Co. to play in recruiting. It’s an enticing pitch — especially for parents — to say that a recruit could be a top-50 pick like Ronnie Stanley or Nick Martin or use the education and connections gained at Notre Dame to find a career in, say, the business world. 
 
“They know that they have options when they come to Notre Dame,” Kelly said. “The NFL, certainly for most of those kids, is the No. 1 option. But there are a number of kids that also know that the door is open for them to do whatever it is that they’re passionate about, whether it’s the public sector, private sector, Wall Street. And I think that is a great trait for us to continue to talk about in the recruiting process.” 

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