Knee injury ends Notre Dame iron man Bo Bauer's season
Bo Bauer's consecutive game streak will come to end Saturday.
The graduate senior linebacker and one of Notre Dame's six captains won't be able to play in the home game against Stanford (7:30 p.m. EDT on NBC) following a season-ending knee injury suffered in Tuesday's practice. Multiple ligaments were damaged in Bauer's knee that will require at least one surgery.
Head coach Marcus Freeman shared the news during Thursday's Zoom press conference with reporters.
"Bo will be out for the year," Freeman said. "Sustained a knee injury in practice on Tuesday, which is devastating just because he's a captain and provides so much. More than just production: the energy, the ability to motivate our players. It's going to be a tremendous loss for us."
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Bauer played in the first 56 games of his Notre Dame career and was on track to surpass nose tackle Kurt Hinish's program record of 61 games played, which was set last season. Bauer moved ahead of kicker Jonathan Doerer for second all-time in games played with his action in Saturday's BYU game.
The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Bauer was a special teams contributor for the Irish since his freshman season and never left those roles behind. Though his playing time at middle linebacker decreased in the last three games, he still played on all five special teams units this season. Bauer blocked a punt during Notre Dame's failed comeback effort against Marshall last month.
With nine tackles in the first five games this season, Bauer increased his career total to 116. He also tallied 10 tackles for a loss, 2.5 sacks, two interceptions, two blocked punts and four pass breakups in the past 56 games.
Defensively, the Irish will likely ask sophomore Prince Kollie and freshman Junior Tuihalamaka to take on increased roles in Bauer's absence. Multiple players will likely be needed to fill Bauer's special teams roles as well.
"I would think for sure you'll see more of Prince Kollie, who played really, really well last game," Freeman said. "He's a guy that we want to continue to try to get on the field more. I think we'll see more of Junior too. I think you'll see him play a couple different packages and increase his role too."
Kollie (6-1, 220) has four tackles, two tackles for a loss and one sack through the first five games. His sack came against BYU. Tuihalamaka (6-2, 240) has recorded two tackles.
Bauer is the second Irish captain to suffer a season-ending injury. Sixth-year wide receiver Avery Davis tore his ACL in August.
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