Sam Pendleton, a former Reagan star, makes first career start for Notre Dame

Sam Pendelton looked around Kyle Field in College Station, Texas on Saturday night and the moment wasnt too big for him or his Notre Dame teammates.

Pendelton, a hulking redshirt freshman on the Irishs offensive line, made his first career start.

And it was memorable.

I do know I cant stand that Texas A&M fight song, said Pendleton, a former Reagan star whose family lives in Lawsonville.

It was blaring the whole game, so I think we all got tired of it.

Sam Pendleton, a former star at Reagan High School, made his first start of his career at Notre Dame this past Saturday.

The fifth-ranked Irish went on the road to beat the 20th-ranked Aggies 23-13 and it was a young offensive line that made an early-season statement.

And Pendleton was a part of that statement.

I cant speak for everybody on the line, but I just feel like we did a lot of learning through spring ball, obviously, and into fall camp, said Pendleton, who is 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds of mostly muscle these days.

It was big time for us to not only learn, but then to sort of showcase what we learned from Coach (Joe) Rudolph.

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Rudolph, the offensive line coach, had a true freshman (Anthonie Knapp), a redshirt freshman (Pendleton) and three redshirt sophomores (Ashton Craig, Billy Schrauth and Aamil Wagner) in the starting lineup on Saturday.

The running game racked up 198 yards averaging 5.8 yards per carry.

Twins Emma and Sam Pendleton pose for a picture at Reagan High School.

Emma plays basketball at Lenoir-Rhyne and Sam plays football at Notre Dame.

After spending last season as a redshirt where he saw action on about 20 snaps, Pendleton played his first full game since his senior year at Reagan.

If there was fatigue, Pendleton said he didnt feel it after the game.

The adrenaline kicked in and I didnt feel anything, so it was a lot of fun, Pendleton said.

On the broadcast on ESPN it was analyst Kirk Herbstreit who gave credit to Pendleton on the game winning touchdown in the fourth quarter.

With 1:54 left Jeremiya Love went 21 yards right through Pendletons initial block from his left-guard position.

Sam Pendleton, left, is one of many former Reagan football players who are now playing in college.

Pendleton sealed his man to the right, Love got through and when he got to the end zone the Irish had the lead at 20-13 after the extra point was good.

There's a good block by Pendleton on the inside to get the play started, Herbstreit said while dissecting the play in slow motion on the broadcast.

When Pendleton heard that he was singled out by Herbstreit he quickly added, it just wasnt my block, all the guys did a great job and thats just part of how we are sort of learning as we go.

Another bonus of winning the game in his first start was his mom (April) and dad (Jason) along with his younger brother, Eli, were at the game.

His twin sister, Emma, plays basketball at Lenior-Rhyne so she was a school.

Reagan offensive linemen Sam Pendleton (72) is a redshirt freshman now at Notre Dame.

He made his first career start on Saturday in a win over Texas A&M.

Im pretty sure Emma watched the game, Pendleton said.

But it was extra cool to have my parents and younger brother there.

Pendleton, an honors student at Reagan who was a four-star recruit, also considered Michigan, N.C.

State and Florida but ultimately picked the Irish.

He graduated early and spent a semester at Notre Dame.

He then went through a whole academic year and says his growth has been tremendous in his first three semesters in South Bend.

Hes especially proud of the fact that he waited for his time to come and was ready when he moved into the starting lineup for this season.

Now that hes had time to think about his time at Notre Dame and playing for Coach Marcus Freeman, Pendleton said the hype about the program is real.

Im going to give you two answers because I cant really sum it up in just one answer, Pendleton said about the best part of playing football for the Irish.

When you look at Notre Dame as a program historically, its by far the most tradition-rich school in the nation.

And that's not arguable.

I can firmly say that we have the most tradition, and it's richly engrained, and not just the players, but like the fan base, the students here, everyone's bought in.

Secondly, I think our culture is amazing.

I have buddies who play on other teams, and they talk to me about their teams, and no other team really has what we have here.

Check out these highlights from the hard-fought matchup between No.

7 Notre Dame and No.

20 Texas A&M.

The Fighting Irish would get the best of the Aggies, 23-13, off a touchdown run by Jeremiyah Love late in the 4th quarter.

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Its a good start, Pendleton said.

I don't think any of us came away from that with a different perspective on the season.

I feel like we have high expectations and Coach Freeman has high expectations, and I feel like that game was just kind of a wake-up sort of thing.

"You know, football is here, and this is how it's supposed to be done at Notre Dame.

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