Notre Dame, IN (UHND.com) – When Charlie Weis announced on Friday that sophomore starting tight end Mike Ragone was going to be lost for the year with a partial tear of his ACL, it put the Irish in somewhat a precarious situation at the tight end position. With Ragone on the shelf for the Irish, Notre Dame will have just one scholarship tight end with much on field experience to go with two true freshmen and a junior h-back that hasn’t seen the field much.
“This summer, while running routes, Mike tweaked his knee and partially tore his left ACL,” Weis said in a statement yesterday. Ragone had hope to play through the injury and get it fixed at the end off the season, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to. “Mike had continued to practice, but felt his progress had deteriorated. Thursday afternoon, Mike came to me and decided that having the surgery done now prior to the start of school would be best.”
With Ragone lost for the year, junior Will Yeatman steps into the starting role after sitting out the spring while on suspension for violating team rules. Yeatman spent the last year backing up John Carlson and brings the most experience to the table among the remaining tight ends on the Notre Dame roster this year.
Two summers ago Yeatmen reported to Notre Dame along with five star recruit Konrad Reuland and passed the more heralded recruit for the third string spot behind Carlson and then backup Marcus Freeman. In two seasons though, Yeatman has caught just six passes for 37 yards in 25 games of action.
Reuland than got passed on the depth chart again last summer by Ragone and subsequently transferred. He is now battling for playing time at Stanford instead of vying for the starting tight end position for Notre Dame. Had he stayed at Notre Dame the junior tight end would be in position to challenge for the starting job with Ragone out for the year.
Considering Reuland was passed on the depth chart each of the past two summers though, it is entirely possible that last year’s #1 high school tight end Kyle Rudolph who has been turning heads in practice thus far in fall camp. Rudolph has been mentioned very favorably by Charlie Weis so far this summer. On Wednesday, Weis said, “I’m very, very, very high on Kyle Rudolph.” Weis has said that what Rudolph lacks in explosion off the line at this point, he makes up for in other areas such as his ability to stretch the field from the tight end position.
Prior to Ragone’s injury there was already some speculation that Rudolph would be at the least challenging for the backup tight end position by the time the Irish kick-off the season against San Diego State. Now it seems likely that Rudolph will be challenging for the starting position
The wild card in the group here could be junior Luke Schmidt. Schmidt has been working at both fullback and tight end this summer. On Wednesday, Weis said that Schmidt would be listed as an “OR” as the #1 fullback along with Asaph Schwapp, but that was prior to the news of Ragone’s injury so it is unclear what the staff will plan to do with him now.
Can Rudolph secure a backup or starting role at tight end in the next couple weeks? Will Schmidt be moved to tight end permanently? These are some questions that the Irish coaching staff will need to answer between now and September 6 when San Diego State comes to town.
Fortunately for Notre Dame there is a lot of talent at the tight end position. Unfortunately that talent is largely inexperienced and untested. The four tight ends on the roster have combined for just six catches for 37 yards among them – all coming last year from Yeatman.
The loss of Ragone could also alter the staff’s plan on how they had hoped to handle the position. Based on Weis’s comments so far this summer it seemed apparent that he and the staff had intended to use Schmidt in an “h-back” role this year and not exclusively as a tight end. Now it seems possible that Schmidt will be used strictly at tight end if freshman Jospeh Fauria isn’t able to show he is ready to play meaningful minutes as the #3 tight end in the Irish offense.
While the news of Ragone’s injury is bad news for the Irish as a team, it is equally bad new for Ragone personally. Prior to his final year of high school at Camden Catholic, Ragone tore his ACL causing him to miss his entire senior season. Friday’s news now means that he has had two major knee injuries in just over two years. Considering that ACL injuries are extremely tough to come back from, this latest injury will be even tougher for Ragone to come back from.
The timing of the injury could not have been worse for Ragoen either. He was primed for a breakout season and had a pretty firm grasp of the starting role. With a talent like Rudolph waiting in the wings, it is very possible that even if Ragone is able to fully recover from this second injury that he will find himself in a battle to regain the starting position it looked like he had cemented this summer.
