Notre Dame Injury Report Sees Key Movement Ahead of Boston College Trip
The Notre Dame availability report was a lengthy one on Monday.
Will Black, Cooper Flanagan, Micah Gilbert, Jaden Greathouse, DeVonta Smith and Loghan Thomas have been listed as questionable or out over the last couple of weeks.
Offensive lineman Matty Augustin (concussion), defensive end Jordan Botelho (concussion) and receiver Matt Jeffery (left thigh) joined the questionable crew, while starting left guard Billy Schrauth will be out for Saturday’s road game at Boston College.
The good news is Notre Dame’s availability report will look very different on Saturday as guys get healthy and come out of concussion protocol.
Schrauth’s injury is the most pressing as Notre Dame’s offensive line had its best performance of the season against USC, which included a new starter at center as Joe Otting took over for Ashton Craig, who is out for the year.
Redshirt sophomore Sullivan Absher worked at center in the spring and it was somewhat surprising to see Joe Rudolph move forward with Otting and true freshman Cam Herron as the backup.
But Schrauth’s injury showed why Rudolph likely moved forward with Otting and Herron, as Absher can play and has worked at all five positions on the offensive line, which is important considering the lack of depth at this point in the year.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman knows Absher is good enough to start for his program and there’s plenty of confidence in the 6-foot-8, 327-pounder heading into the weekend.
“Very confident,” Freeman said of Absher. “The reason I'm confident is because of the work he's put in while he waits. He's waited for his opportunity. You always hear me say, ‘You can't wait.’ You gotta work while you wait and he's done that. We have a lot of confidence in him being in the starting lineup and getting his job done.”
Losing two starters is never a positive, but it’s also impacting how the Irish defense practices during the week, as the scout team offensive line is getting thin.
In fact, Notre Dame has basically 2-3 actual offensive linemen on the scout team, so they’ve had to bring a few defensive linemen over in part and full-time capacities.
“We have three, 2.5, true scout team O-linemen. When you talk about Max Anderson, Owen Strebig, and Brenan Vernon, who has been a scout team O-lineman for a couple of weeks now,” explained Freeman. “We need 10 guys to rep with the offense. What you can't do is rep seven guys and the ones now are getting added reps and that's going to take away from Saturday's performance.”
Moving over to the offensive line isn’t ideal, but it’s part of the team glory message Freeman preaches. The players know it’s not a full-time move, but they have to sacrifice a little in the present to win games.
“Armel Mukam's done a good job in his limited role on scout team O,” Freeman stated. “Big Sean (Sevillano) has helped at some scout team O. We throw guys in there, but that's what the team needs.
“You'll get some defensive reps, but we also need to give you some scout offensive reps and they don't blink. Let's go, let's go. Whatever the team needs. It's a credit to Coach Wash in that room, but also those guys, man, caring about the team.”
Defensive tackle Gabe Rubio missed the USC game with an elbow injury and won’t be back for the foreseeable future.
The good news is Freeman expects Rubio to be able to return at some point before the season ends.
“Gabe will be out this week,” stated Freeman. “At some point, we plan on getting him back before the season is over. I don't have a great timeline for when that's gonna be, but we believe it will be before the season's over.”
The other injury to monitor is cornerback Christian Gray.
Gray has been the subject of message boards and Social Media for his play this season, but there’s a reason behind some of the inconsistent play.
“I think it starts with health for him,” Freeman explained. “He's a guy who's been pretty injured and banged up. He's such a tough, tough individual who never wants to come out of the game or never wants to tell somebody how he's truly feeling.”
It’s not surprising in the least to hear Gray has been playing hurt. The junior from St. Louis has played 1,268 snaps over the last 23 games, and the only breaks have essentially been when the game is out of hand or a play here and there when he was hurt during a game.
As a staff, Freeman knows they have to be careful with Gray as Notre Dame could be in line for postseason play if they take care of business.
“We know he's banged up,” said Freeman. “Without him even saying it, we were proactive in really evaluating him and his body and what areas need to truly recover. That's where a lot of his issues came from—injuries, right? That caused him to play with poor technique in certain situations.
“That's the first thing. The second thing is to continue to trust the technique, continue to do it consistently. He'll never be a guy to make an excuse, but we have to make sure to keep getting him healthy so he can play at a high level.”
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