SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As 11th-ranked Notre Dame continues to assess its options at the diluted wide receiver position heading to a primetime college football showdown at No. 17 Duke on Saturday night, the Irish may be closing in on getting reinforcements at a couple of other positions.
Just not in time to make an immediate difference, as the Irish (4-1) chase their 29th consecutive win against ACC competition in a game staged at Wallace Wade Stadium against a Duke team (4-0) sporting its highest ranking in 29 seasons.
But sophomore tight end Eli Raridon and sophomore linebacker Nolan Ziegler are finally on a faster track to return to active duty, with the 6-foot-7, 250-pound Raridon perhaps set to make his 2023 debut Oct. 7 at Louisville, roughly a year after re-tearing the ACL in his right knee.
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Ziegler, a spring sensation and at that time perceived to be a key rotational piece at linebacker this season, is back at practice after taking a hiatus for personal reasons near the start of preseason training camp this summer.
“Eli is practicing with us now, and really gaining the confidence that he needs to be ready to go,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said during his weekly Thursday Zoom session with the media, “And so, we have plans for him — as long as there are no setbacks — to be ready to roll next week.
“This week was about him trying to get into football shape. It’s a lot easier said than done when you haven’t really taken meaningful reps throughout the first couple of weeks of the season. So, he really has done a good job this week of trying to get the wind that it takes to really sustain the things that we ask him to do as a tight end. He’s really trending in the right direction.”
The 6-3, 234-pound Ziegler, in his return to practice this week, took part in some scout-team work and individual drills, per Freeman.
As far as the wide receivers corps, it has remained at five healthy scholarship players this week as junior Deion Colzie underwent arthroscopic surgery on Thursday, and junior Jayden Thomas had yet to practice this week after suffering a hamstring injury last Saturday night in a 17-14 loss to Ohio State.
Three of the five scholarship receivers who have been practicing this week are freshmen, So is top walk-on Jordan Faison, an elite speed athlete who was recruited to Notre Dame to play lacrosse.
“Probably questionable/doubtful, because he hasn't practiced yet this week,” Freeman said of Thomas’ status for the Duke game. He is Notre Dame’s leader in receptions (13) and snaps played (195) this season.
“He's been running, just trying to see how his hamstring is doing, but he hasn't been able to go full speed,” Freeman continued. “So, not ruling him out yet, but we’ve got to see what he can do [Thursday] and maybe a little bit [Friday]. The thing about it being a night game, we'll see how it really heals, but he has not practiced full speed this week.”
That leaves senior and converted running back Chris Tyree, freshmen Jaden Greathouse and Rico Flores Jr., and sophomore Tobias Merriweather, who have played extensively, and freshman Braylon James, who has logged 11 snaps in mop-up duty.
On the mend, other than Colzie and Thomas, are sixth-year grad Matt Salerno and freshman KK Smith.
Gauging the message
Freeman’s message in getting past the Ohio State hangover and the missed opportunities that came with Saturday’s loss: Time to move on.
The competing message many of the players get outside the Notre Dame bubble: What’s left to move on for?
In measuring the team’s mindset, Freeman so far has liked what he has seen this week.
“You really evaluate a couple of things. One is practice. Are they practicing with the intentionality that you’re looking for? And we’ve had two really, really good practices, spirited practices. The attention to detail and those things that we look for, that tells you. If we are lacking focus, it’ll show up in practice.
‘So, I’m really pleased with the way these guys have focused on the way we practice, improving our overall team. That’s the message to them: Every week we have to get better. Well, how do we get better? We’ve got to understand where we’re at and what we have to do to get better and then go through it on the practice field.
“The other part is continuing to preach the right message, continue to say the right things to them, because there is noise everywhere. And we’ve got to make sure that the noise we’re saying and the message we’re driving, as a coaching staff, is so loud that our players really focus on that and understand that in the midst of hearing other things and paying attention to other things. So, I feel really confident going into Thursday of where the mindset of this football team is.”
Guarded optimism
Have first-year offensive guard starters Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan finally come of age?
Both Irish offensive coordinator Gerad Parker and Freeman lauded the entire offensive line for its performance against an Ohio State defense that ranked in the top 10 in the nation in total defense.
They’ll face another tough test in Duke, which ranks 16th in total defense, and fourth in both pass-efficiency defense and scoring defense.
“We played [to the] level of the standard,” center Zeke Correll said after practice earlier this week. “We’re playing five as one, playing together. No sacks, a few pressures, one or two against an elite defense that has high-level ball players at every position. Yeah, we’re proud of the way we played.
“I would say Rocco had his best game on Saturday against a really good opponent, especially in his pass sets. He really worked on that all throughout last week in practice. He was really working on his pass sets, getting out of his stance, keeping his staggers, stuff like that.
“And then Coogan has done a really good job in the run, making sure he has his eyes in the right place. Combo blocks, and when teams blitz, it’s fast-flowing. You’ve got to make sure your body is in the right position. He’s done a really good job of getting better at that.”
Aded Parker, “They expect it. They're dialed in. They're awesome,” he said of the O-line. “It says a lot about who they are. They embrace it, and that's who we are. That's where it all starts, and who we are. And it's certainly been impressive for them to start. We've got a long way to go, but it's an impressive start.”
Squibs
• The ABC broadcast crew Saturday night fore Duke-ND consists of Rece Davis (play-by-play), Kirk Herbstreit (analyst) and Holly Rowe (sideline).
• ESPN’s College GameDay has been visiting campuses with the popular pregame show since 1993, and Saturday Notre Dame will experience the 20th time ever GameDay has appeared at a team’s game site in back-to-back weeks during the regular season.
The show was in South Bend last weekend.
It’ll be the second time the Irish scored back-to-back GameDay appearances, with it also occurring in 2002 for road games at Air Force and Florida State on consecutive weeks.
• The Irish and Duke meet for the eighth time in football Saturday night, with ND holding a 5-2 edge in the series. One of Duke’s wins, 38-35 over the Irish in 2016, led to the in-season firing of defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, with current Duke head coach Mike Elko eventually replacing him in December after the Irish finished that 4-8 season with interim defensive coordinators.
Duke also happens to be the first-ever conference opponent the Irish ever played in football. Notre Dame opened the 2020 season against the Blue Devils with a 27-13 victory after the Irish joined the ACC for that season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions that came with it.
Duke was also Notre Dame’s opponent last spring in men’s lacrosse in the national championship game in that sport. The Irish prevailed, 13-9, for their first national title in men’s lacrosse.
• Duke head coach Mike Elko is 13-4 (.765) through the first 17 games of his career at Duke, marking the best 17-game start to a head coaching stint in school history That includes the guy who Duke’s stadium is named after — Wallace Wade (10-5-2 in 1931-32). Elko’s record through 17 games is the best among current ACC coaches to open their respective tenures at their current schools.
• The six ACC teams to start the season at 4-0 (Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, Syracuse) tied the SEC in 2012 for the most teams in a Power 5 conference to start 4-0 in a single season in the AP Poll Era (since 1936).
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