Marcus Freeman will have something going into his second full season that the Notre Dame head football coach wasn’t afforded in last season’s season opener.
An intact starting offensive line.
Grad senior center Zeke Correll missed some practice time last week with an ankle injury but has been cleared for Saturday’s matchup with Navy at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. EDT (NBC/Peacock).
“He’s been practicing all week and he's gotten better all week,” Marcus said in a Thursday afternoon press conference from the game venue. “So, we fully expect Zeke to play and be ready to roll.”
Junior guards Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan will be making their first collegiate starts alongside Correll, a returning starter himself. The starting tackles for the 13th-ranked Irish are juniors and returning starters Blake Fisher and Joe Alt.
The Irish were without then-starting guard Jarrett Patterson in its 23-10 loss to Ohio State in last year's season opener.
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Raridon update
Sophomore tight end Eli Raridon initially was hopeful to return from an October ACL tear by Saturday’s season opener. But given it was his second such injury in a 10-month span, he didn’t want to push things.
Nor did Freeman or the ND medical team.
And so, one of the highest-potential members of the Irish offense will be out this week and likely next week as well, when the Irish host Tennessee State on Sept. 2.
“I would love to see him by NC State,” Freeman said of a Sept. 9 road game. “Every day I ask, ‘How's he doing?’ Better, just not ready yet. It will probably be a couple games, because he hasn't truly done a lot of good-on-good practices [versus the No. 1 Irish defense]. And so when he is cleared, I don't think he's going to be ready to go in two days. It's going to be a process of truly getting him game ready.”
Raridon played in five games last season as a reserve before re-tearing the ACL in an October practice in a non-contact situation. His next career catch will be his first, but he did receive the third-best run-blocking grade on the team last season, from Pro Football Focus, behind only All-Americans Joe Alt and Michael Mayer.
Senior tight end Kevin Bauman also suffered an ACL tear last season and then suffered a partial tear in training camp and is out for the season. Junior Mitchell Evans and sophomore Holden Staes are considered the top two options at the position.
The combined total career catches among Evans, Staes, Raridson, freshman Cooper Flanagan and former walk-on and junior Davis Sherwood is eight. Mayer, now a rookie with the Las Vegas Raiders, had three more than that in a single game last season, against BYU, breaking his own school record.
“It's a process,” Freeman continued on Raridon’s recovery. “And I think his strength is getting close to where it needs to be, but this is a mental and physical thing to come back from your second ACL [surgery]. And so, I'm trusting our doctors and kind of trusting him to know when his body's ready to go.”
A necessary number change
After swapping out his old uniform No. 25 for 2 this offseason, Notre Dame senior Chris Tyree will make his wide receiver debut wearing No. 4.
The former running back made the switch this week when it was discovered Tyree winning the punt returner’s job meant there were now two No. 2s on the punt return team, a penalty if that actually unfolded in the game and the officials were paying attention.
Safety DJ Brown, on the punt team, is also No. 2.
“We actually just realized that earlier this week,” Tyree said Thursday ahead of practice at Aviva Stadium. “I wore [4] in high school, and figured why not change back to it?”
Ironically, during ND’s 2012 season that started in Ireland against Navy, the Irish got away with two players wearing the same number later in the season against Pitt on the field goal block team.
In a 29-26 triple-overtime win over the visiting Panthers, Pitt kicker Kevin Harper missed a 33-yard field goal at the end of the second overtime. Cornerback Bennett Jackson and wide receiver Chris Brown were put on the field goal block team together for the first time on the play. They both wore No. 2 that season.
Had the officials noticed, the Panthers would have gotten a first down by penalty at the Irish 11-yard line. But they didn’t, and the game continued with Harper kicking a 44-yarder in the third OT, and ND quarterback Everett Golson countering with a game-winning TD run.
In-flight entertainment?
Freeman elected to watch a rerun during Notre Dame’s overnight flight to Dublin Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
The game film from Notre Dame’s 35-32 escape over Navy last November in Baltimore. The Irish led 35-13 at the half in that game, a week after routing Clemson, 35-14.
“I truly believe that we let our foot off the pedal,” Freeman said. “We were making mistakes that were effort-based. And that's the one thing that it can't happen in our program, when we make a mistake because of effort. Scheme is one thing.
“I think it was just the cumulative effect of Clemson, and we're up big after the first half and both sides of the ball in the second half didn't play up to our standard. And so they're reminded often. I needed [to rewatch the game] for myself.
“I was looking at just different situations: How would you call this? What are we looking for? But it was a great reminder that if you give [Navy] a chance, they’ll take advantage of it and they will not quit.”
Irish feeling at home in Ireland
Saturday’s game in Dublin is technically Notre Dame’s home game, as opposed to the 2012 matchup the last time the teams played in Aviva Stadium and the 2020 game that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those were Navy's home games.
Given the huge ND following that made the trip, Freeman is expected a home-field advantage — at least when it comes to support.
“I just, for the first time, had a chance to walk out into the stadium and see how it’s structured,” Freeman said. “It looks like it's going to keep a lot of noise inside, and that, hopefully, will work in our favor.
“We've had a lot of coaches, players that are over here that have been here all week. And I've heard it from people I've talked to like — there are Notre Dame fans everywhere over here. And it's exciting but [also] a great reminder of the global impact this university has. It's subtle reminders like that, when you get off the plane, everybody's saying ‘Go Irish.’ It’s a reminder how special this place is.”
Growing the game
Freeman was asked Thursday his assessment of the rise of European prospects in American college football, given the increased exposure to the game from college and NFL teams in recent years.
“Games like Saturday's game will help promote the game of American football,” said Freeman, who pointed out German-born-and-raised Alexander Ehrensberger was on last year’s ND roster. “And as you get more interest — there are great athletes in Europe, trust me. We see enough in plenty of other sports.
“So, as the game continues to grow and more young people play the game of American football, the process will continue to rise. There's been plenty of European prospects that have come over to the States and have been really good football players, and I think that will continue to excel.”
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