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Notre Dame freshman O-lineman Joey Tanona opts to medically retire

Notre Dame freshman offensive linemen Joey Tanona's career is over almost before it got started.
Notre Dame freshman offensive linemen Joey Tanona's career is over almost before it got started. (Rivals.com)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The comeback from spring head trauma persists for Notre Dame freshman offensive lineman Joey Tanona.

It just no longer will include football.

On Friday, the first day of August training camp for the Irish football team, ND head coach Marcus Freeman announced Tanona had opted to medically retire, roughly six months after suffering a head injury in an automobile accident.

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Freeman added the 6-foot-5, 284-pound Zionsville, Ind., product will remain in school and on scholarship. Because of the medical hardship status, Tanona’s scholarship does not count against the NCAA maximum of 85.

“After his accident in the winter time, he just kept trying to come back,” Freeman said. “Mentally and physically was not in a place where he was ready to play football. So he decided to medically retire.”

Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand in April provided some details from the accident.

Tanona’s mother had moved to South Bend for spring semester, and his sister was driving him to an early morning workout at the Guglielmino Athletics Complex when a car slammed into the Tanonas’ car on the passenger side.

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“Just really freak thing,” Hiestand said. “Scary. Blessing that he’s just dealing with what he’s dealing with, that it wasn’t worse. It was a terrible accident. I saw a picture of the car.

“He was asleep and reclining, which was probably a good thing, because he body was limp. And a car ran a red light and hit right where he was sitting, pretty close.”

Tanona was a four-star prospect and the No. 178 player overall nationally in the 2022 class coming out of Zionsville High School. He enrolled early as a freshman, in January.

“He'll still be here to get his degree, which again is the greatest thing about this place,” Freeman said. “We can guarantee one thing — at some point football’s going to be over. You have a chance to get a degree from this university and you have a chance to be successful.

“So, he’s in good spirits.”

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