Notre Dame TE Eli Raridon reflects on his long road back from ACL surgery
When Eli Raridon is asked to tell the story of his first college touchdown someday to those who weren’t around to recall it, the Notre Dame sophomore tight end will sort of have something in common with them.
“It happened, but I don’t really remember it too much,” Raridon said earlier this week of a 19-yard scoring pass from Sam Hartman last Saturday, 52 seconds after halftime that fueled a second-half onslaught in a 45-7 Notre Dame Stadium takedown of Wake Forest.
“Too much adrenaline,” Raridon continued, “and I kind of blacked out there. Still really hasn’t hit me yet, but obviously it’s super cool for me and my family.”
And perhaps the start of something even bigger as well as the beginning of the end of the long road back from a second ACL surgery in a 10-month span on the same (right) knee.
Raridon actually had three catches in the game, the first three in his 10 games in an ND uniform — spread over two seasons — and in his first career start. The 6-foot-7, 250–pound Des Moines, Iowa, product is looking for an encore of sorts on Saturday night, when the CFP 18th-ranked Irish (8-3) close their regular-season at Stanford (3-8).
Kick time is 7 p.m. EST on the Pac-12 Network (with a free trial available on fuboTV).
“I can work on everything,” Raridon said of his next step, “but the thing I can improve most is definitely my route game. In high school I never learned about different coverages or how to run routes really, so when I came here, that was kind of new.
“I’ve always been athletic, so it worked out in high school. But when you come to college, you have to know how to run routes. You have to know what coverages are happening when you go out there. I’ve gotten a lot better with that, in my opinion.
“I still have a lot more work to do in that area. Being a good route-runner and being smart in the pass game is definitely my next step to develop into a better tight end.”
But first Raridon had to get comfortable on the field all over again from his October 2022 ACL tear. He was near physically ready to go when the Irish opened the 2023 season on Aug. 26, but he didn’t make his season debut until Oct. 7 at Louisville.
“The second ACL is always harder mentally, and also with my surgery it was a little more traumatic on my knee with the patellar tendon,” he said. “I was getting a lot more pain than the first time. There were a lot of mental barriers coming back later on in the season, especially Louisville.
“I wasn’t 100% yet. I would say about the USC game [on Oct. 14] was when I gained my confidence and started feeling normal again. It took me some game play and some practices to get through that mental barrier.”
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Spending time with a sports psychologist helped. So did incrementally getting used to the various facets of the game at the slower pace.
“It was hard,” he said. “I didn’t play football for a year. I had to get used to blocking guys again. It took me a couple weeks to get back in the groove of playing again. It just happened over time really.
“I’ve always lived by not being scared to live life. Whatever happens, happens. I know God has a plan for me. I stayed strong in my belief.”
Raridon’s time for a revival couldn’t come at a better time. The Irish lost senior tight end Kevin Bauman just before the start of the season and TE1 and leading receiver Mitchell Evans (29 receptions, 422 yards, 3 TDs) in game 9, a 58-7 rout of Pitt on Oct. 28.
Raridon gives the tight end corps some needed, end-of-the-season quantity and quality, combining with fellow sophomore Holden Staes (15-176-4) and advanced freshman Cooper Flanagan (1-19-1).
Raridon sustained his initial ACL tear playing in a high school basketball game his senior year.
“There was really no correlation,” Raridon said of the two tears, he was told. “I was feeling great., and I’m feeling great now. I’m happy with where I’m at.”
He briefly considered limiting himself to four games this season (he’s played in five now) and taking a redshirt year, but talked himself out of that.
“My body only has a certain amount of time of playing football, and I have a special opportunity these next few weeks to step up,” he said. “I’m glad I played the last game, and look what happened. The mentality is I hope I get out of here in four years and then go to the NFL or do whatever it is I want to do. [For now] I’m just happy to be playing out there.”
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