BREAKING | Notre Dame LB Bo Bauer Suffers Season-Ending Injury
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has announced Notre Dame captain Bo Bauer will miss the rest of the 2022 season following a knee injury earlier this week during practice.
“Bo will be out for the year,” stated Freeman. “Sustained a knee injury in practice on Tuesday, which is devastating just because he’s a captain and he provides so much more than just production. Just the energy, the ability to motivate our players, it’ll be a tremendous loss for us. So, he’s out for the year.”
The fifth-year senior linebacker has been a staple in the Notre Dame defense over the last few years as Bauer has recorded 120 career tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks during his time in the blue and gold.
Bauer had a breakout season in 2021 as he tallied a career-high 47 tackles in 13 games, which also included four tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, six passes defended and one interception Notre Dame fans won’t soon forget.
As a 2022 captain, Bauer took the 0-2 start personally and vowed to do everything in his power to leave Notre Dame a better place than he found it.
“I didn't come back here to be a 6-6 team my fifth year after everything we've accomplished,” said Bauer. “I'm here to give these guys a trajectory I think they deserve. There's so many guys that I've learned from that I want to pass on to the next generation if I can't be here for the National Championship. I want them to have that opportunity.”
The Pennsylvania native was also in line to break the most games played in an Irish uniform as he’s played in 55 career games since 2018, which is tied with kicker Jon Doerer and only trails defensive lineman Kurt Hinish’s 61 games played.
Jamie Uyeyama’s Thoughts
Bauer's role in the defense hasn't been as big as it was in previous years. He only played 71 snaps, wasn't elevated as the starter at Mike when JD Bertrand was out, and was no longer a starter in sub-packages. From that perspective, it shouldn't be a big adjustment for the defense as a whole.
That ignores his value on special teams as well, though. He already blocked a punt this season and is someone that they could always count on. I imagine he'll still be around the program, but it's yet another captain who won't be as involved as he would have been if healthy and that's never a good thing despite his great leadership.
I think some people will assume this is an automatic promotion for JR Tuihalamaka, but the players who this will affect the most are Jack Kiser and Prince Kollie. Kiser had played Mike the last couple of games and had his best game of the season against BYU. He's right now in the mix with JD Bertrand at the position. If Kiser is more focused on Mike, that should mean more opportunities for Kollie at Will as well.
There could still be some shuffling with who plays the most, but I think it's clear that the top four of Kiser, Kollie, Bertrand, and Marist Liufau is the likely rotation going forward.
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