SOUTH BEND — Emotions will flow when Anthonie Knapp takes the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday afternoon against Georgia Tech.

A freshman left tackle for Notre Dame football, Knapp will be playing in front of friends and family in downtown Atlanta, 25 miles south of his hometown in Roswell, Georgia.

Both teams will be starting former Roswell Hornets at the prestigious left tackle spot. For the Yellow Jackets, it will be redshirt junior Corey Robinson II, a Kansas transfer making his 20^th career start.

Familiarity, however, won’t be the only source of emotion for Knapp. The memory of a beloved former teammate will guide him as well.

Robbie Roper’s tragic death in December 2021 left the Roswell community reeling. A star quarterback and honor student with a 3.9 GPA, Roper guided the Hornets to a 10-3 record and the Class 7A quarterfinals that fall.

He underwent shoulder surgery on Dec. 14. Eight days later, he was gone.

Roper was 18.

James Roper told USA Today Sports in May 2022 that his son suffered from urea cycle disorder (UCD), a rare genetic condition that results in elevated blood ammonia levels that can become toxic. Undergoing anesthesia before the surgery may have led to Robbie Roper’s death, a family attorney said at the time.

“He’s a kid that just cared for everyone,” Knapp said earlier this year. “Everyone loved him. It has affected Roswell completely.”

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Anthonie Knapp always had a believer in the late Robbie Roper

Roper passed for 60 touchdowns in his final two seasons, earning FCS scholarship offers from such schools as Western Carolina, Massachusetts, Morehead State and Morgan State.

At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Roper was a dual-threat talent with natural leadership skills and a disarming sense of humor.

As a junior in 2020, it was Robinson, now 6-5 and 305 pounds, protecting Roper’s blind side. Robinson was credited with 65 pancake blocks while giving up just one sack in 11 games.

As a senior, Roper came to depend on a converted tight end/linebacker trying to play left tackle at barely 200 pounds. Knapp was that eager, undersized sophomore.

“The thing about Robbie was he was a very sarcastic kid,” Knapp recalled. “The relationship we had was kind of funny because he was always messing with me. I was a 200-pound sophomore on his blind side in 7A Georgia football, so he was giving me a hard time.”

Knapp can still see Roper’s wry smile when he closes his eyes.

“The only thing he always did was believe in me,” Knapp said. “He was kind of like an older brother. … He was always taking me under his wing. If I would give up a sack back in my early years, he wouldn’t yell at me. He’d tell me, ‘Hey, you know I got you.’ He’d pick me up.”

At times, the lift was literal.

“If I got hurt or something, he’d be on the field picking me up, even though he just threw for a touchdown,” Knapp said. “I don’t think I ever saw him make a bad throw. … He’s a big motivator for where I am today.”

To honor his former quarterback and friend, Knapp wears a tattoo in remembrance of Roper. Proud to be Roper’s left tackle, Knapp made sure the tattoo was on his left arm.

“We miss him,” Knapp said. “I’d never really lost someone in my life that close, like a friend. I definitely learned a lot. Not everything is guaranteed at the time. I remember coming off my first (college) offer thinking life was great and then just having that hit you in the face.”

Roswell High School, where enrollment is a little over 2,100, provided support for a grieving student body. The same held true for the town at large, where the population is around 93,000.

“Roswell has such a great community,” Knapp said. “We’re all there for each other. It was hard, but I was in the right place.”

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That quality remains for Knapp, who stepped in as the surprise starter for the season-opening win at Texas A&M after fall camp injuries to Charles Jagusah (season-ending pectoral surgery) and Tosh Baker (shoulder).

Just the third Notre Dame offensive lineman to start as a freshman in Week 1, joining Sam Young (2006 at Georgia Tech) and Blake Fisher (2021 at Florida State), Knapp held his own against the Aggies’ ferocious front seven.

Last week against Stanford, Knapp shook off a sloppy opening series, when he was called for holding and then allowed a sack, the fourth charged to him this season. The rest of the way, the 6-4, 291-pounder — up 25 pounds since enrolling back in January — was solid.

“He’s just a guy that does a lot of things right all the time,” Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “He’s rarely in bad position. He’s rarely not prepared for everything he’s going to see because of the work that he does, not only with (position coach Joe) Rudolph but the work he does on his own to make sure nothing really surprises him.”

Denbrock has come to rely on a freshman left tackle about to make his seventh career start.

“He’s just mature beyond his years,” Denbrock said, “and he plays that way.”

Team captain Rylie Mills, the fifth-year defensive tackle with 11 career sacks, has noticed steady improvement for Knapp since the season began.

“It's really just been night and day,” Mills said. “We were going against each other the other day. I think for him the ability to play with a steady base and not play like a freshman, play like an older guy who's been there and recognize things, is really impressive. Compared to preseason camp, where he was figuring things out, he just seems a lot more confident in his technique.”

Knapp’s trajectory continues to climb.

“I'm just really excited for the type of player he's grown into and will keep growing into,” Mills said. “He's going to be a really good player.”

Echoes of another Knapp at left tackle for Notre Dame

Three decades ago, Aaron Taylor played alongside a Notre Dame left tackle named Lindsay Knapp (no relation). A two-year starter at that all-important spot for the Irish, the Arlington Heights, Ill., product would team up again with Taylor on the 1996 Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl champions.

When Taylor, now a college football studio analyst for CBS Sports, stopped by Notre Dame practice in August, the offensive lineman who caught his eye was the three-star recruit from Roswell, Ga.

“Honestly, it was Anthonie Knapp,” Taylor said in a September interview. “You look at his body style compared to the rest of the body styles that are on the field when they’re next to him, and he looks like a true freshman. He looks like a younger player. He looks like me when I stepped on the campus.”

All Taylor did was go on to become a two-time All-American and the 1993 Lombardi Award winner as the nation’s top lineman.

“What you notice about (Knapp) is the tenacity he plays with, the confidence that he’s mustering, the technique that he’s clearly working on and trying to apply,” Taylor said. “It’s a challenge to be that young. I don’t think I could have started as a true freshman and had any more success than Anthonie is having right now and probably wouldn’t have done as well.”

Even in his second year on campus, Taylor needed plenty of help from his fellow linemen.

“It was moving fast for me as a true sophomore,” Taylor said, “when Mirko (Jurkovic) and Gene McGuire and Lindsay (Knapp) and those guys would have to tell me which linebacker to go block. I had no idea because my head was spinning.”

Whenever Anthonie Knapp needs to slow the game down and get back on his feet, he needs only glance at his left arm for motivation.

Robbie Roper will always be there to pick him up.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football freshman LT Anthonie Knapp set for homecoming