TE Eli Raridon Confident Entering 2024, Focused on Mastering New Notre Dame Offense

It’s year three for Eli Raridon.

The junior tight end is looking to make some noise after flashing toward the end of last season and in April’s Blue-Gold game. 

Raridon has battled through two ACL injuries, but those are in the past and he’s looking forward to showing confidence in 2024. 

“The hardest part is honestly the confidence,” said Raridon. “Obviously that injury lingers in your head when you’re first coming back. Football is a violent, physical sport. It takes a couple practices and a lot of time to fully regain that confidence. That’s the hardest part, returning to play. It’s a lot different than sitting out for 9-10 months.” 

This offseason wasn’t about rehab for Raridon. The focus was learning Mike Denbrock’s offense as it’s a significant change from the 2023 Notre Dame playbook. 

“There’s just a lot of different rules for everything,” Raridon stated. “There’s a lot added, so it’s a harder playbook to learn. All of us are doing pretty well getting to learn it. It’s definitely a learning curve from the last playbook.” 

The tight end room has taken a committee approach on the field, but also off the field as it relates to mastering the new offense. And yes, that includes plenty of hours outside of The Gug. 

“We all sit around before practice, talk about plays that we have questions on,” Raridon said. “We help each other out. I’m roommates with Davis Sherwood. In the hotel room, we go over it together. It’s been good.” 

Denbrock is also the latest voice leading the tight end room, which has been a revolving door over Raridon’s time in South Bend. It is no secret that Denbrock has pushed the offense hard, and that includes vocally, as time is ticking to the season opener. 

“It’s fall camp and we have to get things going,” Raridon stated. “It’s really starting now. It’s a lot more intense. It’s definitely go time now.” 

There is another change on offense and that’s the transition from Sam Hartman to Riley Leonard. Yet, Leonard made the most of it as he focused on building relationships while not being able to build chemistry on the field. 

It’s also led to most of the team getting to know him while also seeing how competitive Leonard is in everything he does. 

“There’s one moment that sticks out,” explained Raidon. “When we had our testing day here, we were running 20-yard sprints, vertical jump, broad jump, all that. He went up to Beaux Collins; they wanted to bet $5 for every test, whoever wins.

“After every time, he’d go up to Beaux: What’d you get? What’d you get? Beaux was probably the worst person to compete with on that because he’s probably the most athletically gifted person on the team. I don’t think Riley ended up winning any of them, but he was competitive with that.” 

With a healthy offseason, Raridon gained good weight under Loren Landow’s S&C program, and the Iowa native has also noticed other benefits in his game. 

“His lifting program is amazing,” stated Raridon. “You can just tell you’re in such better shape. Some of those are fast tempo. He does different power days where we’re lifting a lot of weight. I can just tell, I feel better right now. I feel really in shape.

“He’s really smart with what he does. He makes sure we all feel good. He doesn’t push his limits but he gets us to the point where we are going as hard as we can without being stupid. He’s been amazing, in my opinion. He’s done a really good job this winter and summer.”

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