Mitchell Evans never heard the pop last October against Pitt that athletes often note as a marker for a torn ACL, but he definitely knew something was wrong.
And then it got worse.
The Notre Dame starting tight end not only wiped out the ACL in his left knee in that Oct. 28 58-7 blowout of the Panthers at Notre Dame Stadium, the MCL was gone too, requiring some reconstructive surgery.
“With anything, you have a choice in life,” Evans said after a recent Irish spring football practice in which he continues to be an observer only. “And the minute I found out about my knee, I could have been all down in the dumps and been really depressed.
“Yeah, it sucked in the moment. But I was like, ‘All right, this isn’t going to set me back. I know what I can do. I’m just going to go figure it out and do it again next year. It’s going to take a while to get there.’
A lot longer than the balance of spring practice, which kicked off on March 7 and concludes April 20 with the annual Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium (1 p.m. EDT; Peacock streaming).
“It just made me become a better person to work through adversity,” the senior continued. “Coach [Marcus] Freeman talks about it every day. Everybody’s got to go through some stuff to become a better person. So, this is my stuff.”
With a still muddy timetable in terms of when it will all get back to normal and Evans can continue his ascent as the next standout in the strong Notre Dame tight end lineage. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound former high school quarterback from Wadsworth, Ohio, still ended up as Notre Dame receptions leader (29 for 422 yards and a TD), despite missing the final four games of the 2023 season.
And now?
“[I’m able to ride] the bike, [do] the StairMaster, which sucks,” he said. “I sweat more on the StairMaster. I haven’t started running yet, because we usually do a knee test. We just haven’t done the numbers yet to see when I’m able to run yet. I’m doing a lot of stuff in the weight room.
“A goal of mine has been by the end of the semester I want to be running and stuff, and I think I can do that. I don’t leave ’til May 18, so I have like a month and a half to kind of get right still and I definitely think by that time I can be running and be more mobile for the summer.
“When we come back for the summer, I think I’m going to be not ready to go, but way more active in terms of mobility, cutting, change of direction, top speed, stuff like that. [But] It’s all questionable.”
So is the big picture of the tight end room, in a sense.
The Irish have six on scholarship for 2024, but grad senior Kevin Bauman is still in the throes of his own comeback from an August ACL tear. And junior Eli Raridon, a veteran of two ACL tears on the same knee and 10 months apart, just recently went from cautionary mode to full-speed, full-contact reps in spring practice.
“For Eli, who’s a freak of nature, to come out here and still be dominating after two [ACL injuries], it’s helping me have confidence like, ‘This is not a setback; it’s only just a moment to get better.’”
The team’s second-most productive tight end last season, in the first year of the post-Michael Mayer Era, was Holden Staes, but he hit the transfer portal right after the regular season ended and landed at Tennessee in December.
Sophomore Cooper Flanagan has been the spring star at the position so far, with former walk-on Davis Sherwood and early enrolled freshman Jack Larsen giving new offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Mike Denbrock something to work with.
“Coop has been fantastic all spring,” Denbrock said. “Very, very encouraged by where he’s headed. Love his work ethic. He’s tough as nails. Love all that.
“Jack is swimming. Just getting him lined up is a chore. But he’s really athletic. He can get out in space and run and catch the football. I’m happy with both of those guys.”
For all the talk of Denbrock’s offense moving away from the frequency of multiple-tight end looks employed by Denbock’s offensive coordinator predecessors, Gerad Parker and Tommy Rees, Evans is loving the new offense and feels like it’s tight end-friendly enough.
“He told us at the beginning of the year when he got here, he’s like, ‘I’ll play whatever our best personnel is, whether that’s 11, 21, 22 or 14,’” Evans said of Denbrock. “‘Whatever our best personnel is, we’ll play that the most, because that’s what we’ve got to do to win games.’”
The best way Evans can help to that end in his current condition is becoming a leader and maybe even a captain.
“That’s always been a goal of mine,” he said, “because that’s a great honor to be a Notre Dame football captain. Looks good on the résumé. But not even that. That’s kind of the person I am. I just want to help as many people as I can, and be a leader.”
And even better when he’s leading from the top of the depth chart instead of the sideline.
“I don’t know when that’ll be,” he said, “but it’s going to be exciting.”
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