Two days out from the National Championship between Notre Dame and Ohio State, head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media for Media Day and provided some updates on key injuries the Irish are dealing with ahead of their tilt with the Buckeyes. While Freeman didn’t give definitive answers for how the Irish will deal with the injury to Anthonie Knapp, he gave strong indicators that the starting left tackle will indeed be sophomore Charles Jagusah among other updates.
Jagusah starting at Left Tackle?
Marcus Freeman would not commit to sophomore Charles Jagusah starting at left tackle in the National Championship game, but it sure sounded like that is how he was leaning. “We’ve been working Charles Jagusah at the left tackle but also playing some guard,” Freeman said. “We have an idea of what we’re going to do starting on Monday, but it’s something I think we could wait until Monday to just say this is exactly what we’re going to do,” he added.
According to Pete Thamel, though, the decision has been made, and Notre Dame will be starting Jagusah.
We’ve talked about this a lot over the last week. It is far from ideal to have someone making their second career start and first start of the season in the National CHampionship game, but when that person was your heir apparent to Joe Alt and only didn’t start this year because of injury, it’s a little different. In a perfect world, Anthonie Knapp would be out there for the Irish after starting 15 games this year, but having someone like Jagusah step in is about as good as Notre Dame could have hoped for. He’s being given a monumental task and there’s no guarantee that he succeeds, but again it could be worse.
Reminder: Blake Fisher got hurt in the first half of the first game in 2021 and then started the Fiesta Bowl and played 91 snaps and was Notre Dame’s 2nd highest-rated player in the game.
Beaux a Go at Wide Receiver?
It’s been wide receiver by committee for Notre Dame this year – especially in the playoffs. One of the committee members that made big plays along the way was absent in the Orange Bowl, but should be back for the Natty. Freeman said that Beaux Collins has been practicing after having a calf strain that kept him out against Penn State. Notre Dame previously listed him as questionable when Freeman met with the media earlier in the week.
“He’s progressing exactly the way we thought, in the right way. He practiced yesterday pretty much for the majority of the practice. The first time he’s really done that in the last couple of days. So as long as there’s no setbacks, he’s progressing in a way that we think he’ll be ready to go, full go on Monday.
Spindler trending well at guard
Notre Dame didn’t even list Spindler on the injury report at the beginning of the week, but the starting right guard was knocked out of the Orange Bowl after getting knocked out of the first round game against Indiana. The extra few days of rest ought to do Spindler well and he’s expected to be ready to go. He told Blue and Gold Illustrated that he’s “100% ready.”
The bigger question for Spindler might be if he can finish the game, given how banged up he’s been, but it seems pretty clear that someone will have to drag him off the field if he gets banged up again. If he can’t finish he game again, Notre Dame will have a real question of whether to leave Jagusah at LT and bring in Sam Pendleton or if they move Jagusah back to guard and bring Tosh Baker back in at LT. Hopefully, it never comes to that and Spindler looks like his old self.
I think these teams are pretty evenly matched. I think like any game it will come down to turnovers, penalties, mistakes, which teams lines control the line of scrimmage and which quarterback plays better. I would be surprised if this game is a blow out but you never know how any game is truly going to go. See Northern Illinois.
With injuries to both offensive and defensive lines, the task for underdog ND appears gargantuan.
Perfect setup for an Irish victory! I sure hope MF doesn’t leave. But, I can’t blame him if he did with a NC in his hip pocket!.