Notre Dame football injury report: Knee injury ends Rocco Spindler's season
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame starting right guard Rocco Spindler will miss the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury in the Clemson game.
Irish head coach Marcus Freeman shared news of the injury during Monday's press conference ahead of Saturday's home game against Wake Forest. Freeman said sophomore Billy Schrauth will replace Spindler in the starting lineup.
Starting center Zeke Correll remains in concussion protocol, Freeman said. Backup center Andrew Kristofic suffered a high ankle sprain against Clemson as well, so sophomore Ashton Craig will be in line to start if neither can return.
“What we would do right know is you’ll see how we finished the game with Billy Schrauth coming in at the right guard position," Freeman said. "Ashton Craig did a really good job filling in at the center position. I was really impressed with what he did.
"Now, Andrew played well. He still has a high ankle sprain. He didn’t practice much last week. If we played today, it would be Ashton Craig and Billy Schrauth.
"We’ll see how Zeke progresses this week and then Andrew Kristofic, how he progresses.”
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Both Spindler, a 6-foot-5, 314-pound junior, and Correll, a 6-4, 306-pound graduate senior, started the first 10 games of the season for the Irish. Correll's starting streak is 23 games dating back to the 2022 season opener. Spindler is a first-year starter.
Kristotific, a 6-5, 305-pound graduate student, has eight starts in his Notre Dame career. He replaced Correll in the second half of the Clemson game and also took some meaningful snaps at the position in the loss to Louisville earlier this season.
The 6-4, 307-pound Craig took his first high-leverage snaps against Clemson. He previously played this season at the end of lopsided victories over Navy, Tennessee State, NC State and Central Michigan. Craig, a product of Lawrenceburg, Ind., did not play as a freshman.
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Notre Dame's wide receiver position continues to be impacted by injuries. Projected starter Jayden Thomas has only started four games this season due to a hamstring injury that he aggravated again in the Pittsburgh game. That left the 6-2, 221-pound Thomas on the sideline against Clemson.
Thomas, a top candidate to be Notre Dame's leading receiver entering the season, has been limited to 17 receptions for 251 yards and one touchdown.
"He wasn’t at a level to perform what we need him to do," Freeman said of Thomas' status for the Clemson game due to his hamstring. "He’s coming back this week. We’ll see as we go through practice if he’ll be able to do all the things we need him to do at the wide receiver position.”
There's still no clarity on exactly when wide receivers Deion Colzie and Matt Salerno will be able to play. Colzie hasn't played since the Central Michigan game and had arthroscopic knee surgery in late September. The 6-4, 210-pound junior caught three passes for 45 yards and one touchdown in the first four games. The Irish are not trying to preserve a redshirt season for Colzie.
"When he’s available to play, right now the mindset is he’ll play, Freeman said. "But he’s not ready after his knee surgery to perform at the level we need him to. So that’s still to be determined.”
Salerno, who caught one pass for nine yards this season, has been out since suffering an undisclosed lower leg injury against Tennessee State. The 6-1, 199-pound graduate senior went through parts of warmups for Notre Dame prior to the Clemson game.
“There’s a chance we get him back here," Freeman said. "I don’t know exactly when. He’s been doing a little bit more in practice, doing some individual drills. This week, we’ll increase it a little bit more to truly get him game ready. We’ll see how long that takes. I have a confidence we’ll get him back before the year’s over.”
Walk-on freshman safety Luke Talich, a special teams contributor, suffered a broken collarbone in practice last week that required surgery. The 6-4, 198-pound Talich will miss the remainder of the season. He recorded two tackles in eight games.
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