Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman called Notre Dame's 15 spring practices, which concluded Saturday with the annual Blue-Gold Game scrimmage, "one of the healthiest springs," but the Irish were missing two of their skill position players who had been active this spring until this week: junior running back Jadarian Price and freshman wide receiver Cam Williams.
Both players, Freeman said after the 28-21 Blue victory, were held out with hamstring injuries.
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Price, who's expected to work with sophomore Jeremiyah Love at the top of Notre Dame's running back rotation this fall, injured his hamstring on the last rep of a scrimmage earlier in the week. Price missed his freshman season with a ruptured Achilles tendon but returned last season to handle 47 carries for 272 yards and three touchdowns.
"It wasn’t crazy," Freeman said of Price's pulled hamstring. "It’s one that would keep him out a week. But just came at the wrong time right before the spring game. Because we wanted to see him out there.
"Shame on me. I don’t know. I wanted to get one extra rep in the kick scrimmage and it ended up costing us a hamstring. I take the blame on that one. But he’s fine. He had a great spring. He’s done some really good things."
Freeman suggested that Williams' hamstring injury could have been the product of an increased workload throughout the spring as multiple receivers missed practice time, which added more reps for the early enrolled freshman.
"When you start adding those reps to Cam Williams, then all of a sudden he pulls his hamstring in one of the practices," Freeman said. "But he was very similar to JD [Price]. It was a very mild tear, but he wouldn’t be able to go full go today. So that’s why he wasn’t out there."
Williams was one of Notre Dame's highest-ranked recruits in the freshman class. Rivals ranked him as the No. 10 wide receiver and No. 46 overall in the 2024 class.
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Freeman also addressed what has kept freshman offensive tackle Styles Prescod limited throughout the spring. Prescod sat out the Blue-Gold Game as well.
"He’s just a guy that we’re really working on muscle deficiency in one of his legs that was previously worked on in high school," Freeman said. "He hasn’t been totally full-go all spring. So it’s just something we’re trying to make sure we build this right leg up — I can’t remember which leg; one of his legs — to make sure it’s equal with the other so we can truly be safe.”
Sophomore running back Gi'Bran Payne limped off the field during Saturday's scrimmage with an apparent right ankle injury.
Notre Dame had several scholarship players sit out with previously disclosed injuries: tight end Kevin Bauman (knee), Mitchell Evans (knee), defensive end Aiden Gobaira (knee), wide receiver Jayden Harrison (foot), quarterback Riley Leonard (ankle), cornerback Benjamin Morrison (shoulder), defensive tackle Armel Mukam (shoulder), wide receiver Jayden Thomas (hamstring), defensive end Loghan Thomas (shoulder) and running back Kedren Young (hamstring).
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