Notre Dame’s most consistent passing target will miss the rest of the season. Irish junior tight end Mitchell Evans tore his ACL during Saturday’s 58-7 rout of Pittsburgh, head coach Marcus Freeman said Monday.
Evans leads No. 12 Notre Dame (7-2) with 29 catches and 422 yards, snagging one touchdown this season.
In the most crucial stretch of the Irish season, in particular, Evans starred. From the last-minute loss to Ohio State, on to the last-minute win at Duke and to the turnover-riddled loss at Louisville, Evans strung together 17 catches for 280 yards and a touchdown, including catching all seven of his targets against the Buckeyes.
The rest of Notre Dame’s pass catchers combined for 371 yards on 37 catches in those three games.
The Irish may ponder two approaches to replacing Evans’s production. The first, obviously, is with tight ends, even if Notre Dame has few remaining.
Sophomore Holden Staes showed his downfield abilities with four catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns at North Carolina State last month, adding eight catches fo 49 yards and two more scores in his other eight games this season. He has more of a receiving frame than Evans does, built to both catch passes and run block.
Behind Staes, the Irish have only two other scholarship tight ends: sophomore Eli Raridon, gradually taking on more of a workload as he returns from his second career ACL tear, the win against Pitt being his third appearance of the season. There may have been a thought to limit Raridon’s November appeaerances to preserve a year of eligibility, but that should no longer be a Notre Dame option.
“He’ll be asked to do more,” Freeman said. “... You don’t make up for the production that Mitch gave our offense with one guy. I think every person in that tight ends room will be asked to do more, and I’m confident they’ll be able to.”
After Staes and Raridon, the only genuine tight end in that room is freshman Cooper Flanagan would be available, having caught his first career pass for a 19-yard score on Saturday. While that was his first genuine offensive opportunity, the beneficiary of just how thorough a rout of the Panthers it was, Flanagan has played in every game this season, never pondering a year preserving eligibility.
1️⃣8️⃣ ➡️ 8️⃣7️⃣@CooperXFlanagan with his first collegiate touchdown #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/HhVUeKbuPH
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 28, 2023
“One, the ability to grasp what we’re asking him to do on offense,” Freeman said as to why Flanagan played from August onward. “Two, he represents a skill set that is a little bit different in terms of the power that he is able to block with. He blocks with a physicality that not everyone in that room has. He’s also devleoping in the pass game, doing some things in practice in the pass game that’s really impressive.”
The second approach the Irish may need to lean into, simply due to the increasing lack of tight ends, would be demanding more from their receivers. Evans must stepped up when Notre Dame was without freshman Jaden Greathouse and junior Jayden Thomas, both slowed by hamstring worries for much of October. They returned on Saturday, even if they combined for only two catches on five targets. (Evans actually led the Irish, again, with five catches on six targets for 66 yards.)
The more notable aspect of Greathouse’s and Thomas’s return to or close to 100 percent is it gives Notre Dame some semblance of receiver depth again, now enjoying five healthy scholarship receivers, six if wanting to include freshman former walk-on Jordan Faison.
It was hardly a coincidence that the Irish receivers caught 11 of 16 targets for 233 yards against Pittsburgh.
“We have a talented room,” Freeman said. “But we need to give those guys a chance to play at the fastest speed they can. That means maybe shrinking what we’re asking them to do.
“The one thing about the University of Pitt, you know the 3-4 things your’e going to see defensively, so youc an say here’s the way we’re going to attack them.”
Life will be a bit more complicated at Clemson at noon ET on ABC this weekend, but without Evans, Notre Dame will need the receivers to carry more of the workload.
Thomas, it could be argued, could help both the tight ends and the receivers, fast enough to be considered the latter but big enough that he often serves as a vital run blocker.
Freeman said the other two notable injuries from Saturday — sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison’s quad strain and fifth-year cornerback Cam Hart’s apparent shoulder concern — should not keep either defensive back out this week.
Notre Dame a 3-point favorite at Clemson ... it'll be a long late week of tracking Tigers RB Will Shipley's availability (concussion protocol).
— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) October 30, 2023
