Third-year center Craig ready to rock for Notre Dame
SOUTH BEND – The grooviest pad on the Notre Dame football team this year? It will be hard to top the House of Beef.
A collection of 300-pound offensive linemen might not seem like the coolest combination of roommates, but that’s just because the outside world has yet to hear them shred.
“We hang out,” tackle Tosh Baker said. “Our biggest thing when we’re not discussing football is we have a Wii in our living room hooked up to a projector.”
Besides Baker, this particular Fab Five is comprised of center Ashton Craig, guard Billy Schrauth and tackles Aamil Wagner and Ty Chan.
When it’s time to blow off some steam, the video game of choice is always the same: “Guitar Hero.”
“That’s our way to get competitive,” Baker said. “It gives you a percentage of how great you did, and we’re talking back and forth to each other.”
Stop by on a random weeknight, and you might hear Baker and Co., taking a run at Metallica’s galloping “One.”
“Very difficult to play,” Baker said of the late ‘80s MTV classic. “Very difficult. It’s a long song.”
Try seven minutes, 26 seconds’ worth of breakneck brilliance, much of it featuring Kirk Hammett’s frenetic work on the fretboard.
Steely Dan’s “Do It Again” moves at a more manageable pace, even while slinking in at a leisurely 5:57.
“That’s a good one we play a lot,” Baker said. “That’s one of me and Craig’s favorites.”
Famously used in the background of countless Hollywood movie scenes, including the football biopic “Invincible,” Steely Dan’s first hit single features Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on lead guitar and Denny Dias on electric sitar.
“You go back, Jack, do it again, wheel turnin’ ‘round and ‘round.”
Around the House of Beef, there is no debate as to which lineman is the Steely-est.
“Ashton Craig is the best,” Baker said of the 6-foot-4, 308-pound product of Lawrenceburg, Ind. “I would like to say
I’m a close second, working my way up to try and give him a shot.”
Wagner’s expression when that notion was raised made it clear just how large the gap remains. “I would love to claim second in the house,” Wagner said. “Ashton Craig might be the best ‘Guitar Hero’ player of all time.”
There will be no stealing Craig’s water or catching him at the border, to borrow a line from Donald Fagen’s esoterically hip vocals.
“I don’t know what he’s done,” Wagner said of his talented teammate. “I don’t know what deal he’s made with the game, but his fingers just match all the notes. I’ve played him one-on-one a couple of times.”
Wagner frowned.
“Not close,” he said, “but I would love to claim second. Tosh is OK. Billy’s OK. I think we’ve played so much now that our level is probably better than a lot of other people.”
Just not to the level of Notre Dame’s modern-day “Skunk.”
“If there was ever a career in professional ‘Guitar Hero,’ “Wagner said, “Ashton would be the Number One.”
Ashton Craig’s got talent
Against that backdrop, what Craig pulled off almost five months ago somehow becomes more understandable.
On a raucous Saturday afternoon in Death Valley, aka Clemson, S.C., Notre Dame lost fifth-year starting center Zeke Correll to a concussion at halftime and then its fifth-year backup center, Andrew Kristofic, to a badly sprained ankle late in the third quarter.
That meant Craig, a redshirt freshman with 37 snaps of mop-up work to that point, had to enter with the season on the line.
“I think we both felt the same thing,” Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph said. “When I looked at him, I go, ‘You’re ready.’ And he goes, ‘I know.’ “
Rudolph couldn’t help but smile, then or now.
“I said, ‘OK, let’s go,’ “Rudolph recalled. “That was it.”
Starting with the season opener in Dublin, Craig was given a chance to finish out five of the first nine games for the Irish. Facing Clemson at Clemson, with all that noise and all that orange and all that future NFL talent across the way, was another level of ask.
Craig played the final 24 snaps without incident.
“He knew he was ready,” Rudolph said. “He knew he’d had some opportunities early where he hadn’t been that ‘best him’ and he was excited to go put that on the film and go play with his guys. … Just being able to step in and give us what we needed was huge.”
Unable to complete a second-half comeback, Notre Dame fell 31-23 and had its New Year’s Six bowl hopes extinguished. Craig, however, was just getting started.
He drew postgame praise from coach Marcus Freeman and quarterback Sam Hartman, and when Correll’s symptoms lingered, so did Craig’s opportunity.
The former four-star recruit and allstate selection ended up starting the final three games of the year, including the Sun Bowl blowout of Oregon State. With Correll, his former roommate and someone he considered “a tremendous role model,” leaving for N.C. State as a graduate transfer, Craig could be settling in as Notre Dame’s next multiyear starting center.
“It kind of fell into my hands,” he said late last season, “and it’s been pretty awesome.”
From emergency option to multiyear starter?
Not bad for a quick study who “definitely considered” Ivy League offers from Yale and Columbia out of high school.
“Ashton is really smart,” Rudolph said. “There were some moments last spring and in fall camp where he would really flash ability, but those things weren’t there yet. He continued to work and study and follow and when he got his opportunity to go out there, he was ready for it.”
And it all began on a noisy November afternoon on the road.
“The Clemson game, I wasn’t expecting to go in,” Craig said. “But as the backup, it’s my job to be prepared for those type of moments. When Zeke went down and ‘Stof went down, I was ready. I was the next guy in, and then from there that’s just how it goes.”
Rather than melt under the spotlight, Craig was able to match all the notes.
“I wasn’t really thinking about it much,” he said. “I was a little bit nervous, but after the first drive, I got settled in. I was able to just play my game, play ball and just have fun.”
His confidence quickly soared. Easy wins followed over Wake Forest on Senior Day and in the regular-season capper at Stanford. “Going against Clemson, they have good guys up front,” Craig said. “Knowing that and that I did relatively well, it boosted me up.”
As the Irish break in new starters at both tackle spots, Craig is back in the middle of the mayhem. He’s calling out key changes and identifying potential hot spots with the speed and alacrity of his “Guitar Hero” alter ego.
The trusted triggerman of the Irish offensive line is ready to do it again.