Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Reveals Three Medical Hardship Cases

On the first day of preseason practice for the Fighting Irish (Wednesday, Aug. 12), the Notre Dame football public relations team announced three players that failed to receive medical clearance to play in 2020. They will maintain their scholarships as students, but it will be transferred elsewhere and not count against the 85 the NCAA permits on a roster.

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• Senior wide receiver Isaiah Robertson — recruited as a safety — played primarily on special teams his first two seasons, but redshirted last year.

• Junior offensive tackle Cole Mabry played one game last season and took 24 snaps in the 66-14 blowout of New Mexico, the second game of the year. He did not play the rest of the season, and has been slowed by a neck injury.

• Graduate transfer running back Trevor Speights, who was at Stanford from 2016-19, missed two seasons with the Cardinal as well, including 2019. He enrolled at Notre Dame this summer.

Entering the summer, Notre Dame had 90 players listed on scholarship, and had to get down to 85. Last week, graduated running back Mick Assaf, who was put on scholarship last December through at least the spring semester, announced that he is leaving football to concentrate on his current business venture.

Current senior center Colin Grunhard also was put on scholarship at the same time as Assaf. It did not mean it would be carried into the 2020 season.

Last year the lone medical hardship case was then-junior nose guard Darnell Ewell, who also was kept on a separate scholarship from football.

Number Switches

There are numerous number changes from last year, almost all involving single digits.

• Junior wide receiver Braden Lenzy will be wearing 0, a first in school history and a number the NCAA has permitted players to use this year. He donned No. 25 last year.

• Senior wide receiver Avery Davis is now No. 3, along with junior safety Houston Griffith. Davis was No. 4 last year, but because junior wideout Kevin Austin, sidelined last year and shelved this preseason because of a broken foot, is also No. 4, Davis had to switch so two players on offense don’t have the same numeral.

• Wearing No. 4 on defense instead will be North Carolina State graduate transfer cornerback Nick McCloud.

• Sophomore cornerback Cam Hart switched from No. 9 (fifth-year senior defensive end Daelin Hayes also is No. 9) to No. 5.

• Sophomore defensive end Isaiah Foskey is now No. 7 after getting issued No. 94 last year.