Notre Dame limped into last weekend’s victory over previously 15th-ranked Louisville banged up along the offensive and defensive lines. They left the game even more banged up along both lines and added some injuries in the secondary for good measure. The calendar still says September, but the injuries are starting to pile up on Notre Dame in a hurry. Luckily for the Irish, they have an early season by this weekend, and they’ll need every minute of it to try and get as healthy as possible.
The most significant injury to add to Notre Dame’s injury list last weekend was sophomore Boubacar Traore, who was already filling in for the injured Jordan Botelho, who Notre Dame lost for the season against Purdue. Traore went down after an awkward leg plant that did not look good at the time. He was ruled out for the rest of the game quickly and was emotional coming out of the blue injury tent. That is rarely a good sign. We’ll have to hold out for any official word from head coach Marcus Freeman with the Irish on the bye, but I don’t think anyone is overly optimistic just from watching how the injury occurred.
Notre Dame has also been playing without reserve defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio all season. There’s been some hope that he could be getting close to a return, but an official return date hasn’t been announced. Reserve defensive end Josh Burnhman has been out since week one as well, though he made a very brief return last weekend against Louisville. Burnham’s return will help if Traore is lost for significant time, but it will also mean more time for true freshmen Loghan Thomas and Byrce Young.
Notre Dame’s Offensive Line, the walking wounded
The injuries on the defensive line almost pale in comparison to the MASH unit that is the offensive line. Notre Dame lost Charles Jagusah for the season in camp, then lost center Ashton Craig for the year against Purdue and starting guard Billy Schrauth for a few weeks against the Boilers. The Irish lined up with three backup offensive linemen against the stout Louisville defensive line on Saturday. To make matters worse, starting guard Sam Pendleton had to leave the Louisville game, with sophomore Sullivan Absher filling in.
The extent of the Absher injury isn’t known yet, either. With him out, though, the Irish were down four starting offensive linemen against the Cardinals and still held on for the victory. Not a lot of teams would be able to do that. Luckily, Schrauth should be back at some point this season. In a perfect world, he’d return after the bye week, and Pendleton won’t be lost long, so the Irish can use the month of October to gear up for a potential playoff run. That remains to be seen, however, and if the Irish are forced to use the same line to start the Stanford game that they ended the Louisville game with, they’ll be lining up four players who were not expected to start back in August.
Secondary injuries became primary concern vs. Louisville
A week ago, the Notre Dame secondary was considered to be in good shape, health and depth-wise. It was so deep that junior corner Jaden Mickey announced his intention to redshirt the rest of the season and transfer in the spring. Things can change pretty quickly, though. The medical staff held Christian Gray out of the Louisville game at the last minute, thrusting freshman Leonard Moore into the starting lineup. Then, star corner Benjamin Morrison got banged up and had to miss time during the game. At one point, the Irish had Northwestern safety transfer Ron Heard II at corner because they were running out of healthy corners.
Morrison returned to action on Saturday, and Gray’s injury isn’t considered serious, though there hasn’t been official confirmation. Reports over the weekend suggested that Gray should be back for the Stanford game. Still, at one point on Saturday, the Irish were down their top three corners, which they opened camp with while facing perhaps the best wide receiver corps they will see all season. Like the offensive line, not many teams could have survived all those losses and still come away victorious.
Notre Dame boasted about how healthy they left camp under new strength and conditioning coach Loren Landow, but since then, there has been one injury after another. Some injuries have been entirely unavoidable, with players being unlucky and getting rolled up under. If the string of injuries continues, however, Notre Dame will need to examine its off-season program closely and improve it to prevent such epidemics in the future.
Freshmen stepped up big time in win over Louisville
In the face of these injuries, Notre Dame has found some young players with very bright futures. Left tackle Anthony Knapp would ideally be spending this season in the weight room bulking up, but instead, he is anchoring the Irish offensive line. He’s had some struggles at times, but he’s also had his moments. Traore looked like the star of the sophomore class before his injury, so again, fingers crossed.
Leonard Moore forced his way onto the field even before the injury to Gray. Louisville targetted the true freshmen more than All-American Benjamin Morrison, but Moore held his own. He was beaten a few times, but in almost every case, he got beat by a great throw or catch. He was never entirely out of position or lost in a busted coverage.
Bryce Young and Loghan Thomas played significant snaps in the win on Saturday. Young was credited with 38 snaps, with 13 for Thomas. Thomas looked like he had the play of the game after scooping up a loose ball and returning it for a touchdown. Unfortunately, it was ruled an incomplete pass, with Morrison jarring the ball loose just a split second too late before Tyler Shough’s arm started to move forward. Still, there he was, playing in crunch time. Before Saturday, he only saw action in the Purdue blowout (7 snaps).
Louisville fans have been chirping on Twitter about the Cardinals being “clearly the better team” since their loss to the Irish. They all likely fail to realize just how beat up Notre Dame was by the fourth quarter and how remarkable it was that the Irish held on. At one point, Notre Dame simultaneously had four true freshmen on the field on defense. Notre Dame holding on to win that game with all the freshmen on defense and four missing offensive linemen is impressive from the Fighting Irish, and it’s pretty embarrassing if you’re a Louisville Cardinal.
As the late Bill Russell said “excuses are for losers. If you were the better team Louisville why didn’t you win the game. NotreDame gift wrapped 14 points to you with 2 fumbles 1 on their own 7 yard line. Both teams had big plays called back. Riley Leonard also missed 2 open receivers that would have kept drives alive.