On Matt Salerno’s last play in Saturday’s 56-3 victory over Tennessee State, the Notre Dame wide receiver returned a punt for six yards with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
That will likely be Salerno’s last play for quite some time. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman announced during his Monday press conference that Salerno will be out “for an extended period of time” with a lower leg injury.
“Multiple weeks,” Freeman said. “I don’t know really when he’ll be back, but he definitely had an injury from the game.”
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The game lasted only two more plays following Salerno’s last punt return. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Salerno provided a key downfield block to aid running back Gi’Bran Payne on his 42-yard touchdown reception.
Through Notre Dame’s first two games of the season, Salerno was the seventh-most used wide receiver behind sophomore Tobias Merriweather, junior Jayden Thomas, freshman Rico Flores Jr., freshman Jaden Greathouse, sophomore Deion Colzie and senior Chris Tyree.
Salerno played 19 offensive snaps with 11 against Navy and 8 against TSU. Salerno also served as the backup punt returner behind Tyree. He caught one pass for nine yards in the Navy game and returned two punts for 21 yards in the TSU game.
With Salerno out, Notre Dame may need to consider if it can afford to give a redshirt season to freshman Braylon James. He only played five offensive snaps against TSU in his first career appearance. The Irish could also consider elevating freshman walk-on wide receiver Jordan Faison, who also plans to play lacrosse for Notre Dame in the spring.
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Freeman provided a few more notable injury updates Monday.
• Freshman linebacker Drayk Bowen is expected to be available for Saturday’s game at NC State (12 p.m. EDT on ABC). He sat out the TSU game Saturday while in the concussion protocol, Inside ND Sports has learned.
• Running back Devyn Ford, who was knocked out of Saturday’s game on a helmet-to-helmet hit on a kickoff return in the first quarter, remains in concussion protocol. His availability for Saturday will be determined later in the week. He was replaced on the depth chart at kick returner by sophomore running back Jadarian Price.
• Defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio underwent arthroscopic surgery for the knee injury he suffered in the season opener against Navy. Freeman continued to say Rubio will be back in “another couple weeks.”
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