Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 SEPT. 28, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T he fact that neither Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman nor Irish offen- sive coordinator Mike Denbrock even flinched when they lost two starting offensive lineman to injury during the 66-7 rout of Purdue Sept. 14, silently said something about the state of the Fighting Irish program. Starting center Ashton Craig was lost for the rest of this sea- son in the second quarter against the Boilers when he suffered a serious injury to his left knee. Before that, starting right guard Billy Schrauth injured his right ankle in the first quarter and will be lost for "a few weeks." While losing two offensive line starters in one game — and three since training camp opened — would send unbridled panic through almost every coaching staff in the country, not at Notre Dame. Freeman and Denbrock calmly in- serted senior Pat Coogan and graduate student Rocco Spindler at center and right guard, respectively, against Purdue and the Irish offense didn't miss a beat. Playing without two starters for almost three full quarters, Notre Dame still outscored the Boilers 45-7 with Coogan and Spindler in the game as backups. "You hate to lose Ashton for the year and Billy for a couple of weeks," Free- man said afterward. "But I have a lot of confidence in the depth of our offensive line." As more evidence into the superior depth Notre Dame features along its of- fensive line, Coogan and Spindler are both capable of starting for about any school in the country because they've started at Notre Dame. Spindler earned the starting right guard position last season and has ap- peared in 28 career games, while Coogan started every game at left guard in 2023. Both veterans lost their starting jobs to younger players during fall camp, but both stayed engaged and ready for when and if their number was called again. "I have the duty to uphold the stan- dard of the offensive line," Coogan said. "And Rocco and I have been here for a while, so that's bred into our DNA. We've played a lot of ball together." The depth on this Fighting Irish ros- ter stretches well beyond its offensive line. Notre Dame has also suffered nu- merous injuries along its defensive line since training camp and the start of the season, including one to graduate stu- dent vyper Jordan Botelho. The ver- satile veteran was enjoying a breakout season before he also suffered a sea- son-ending knee injury in the first half against Purdue. Enter sophomore Boubacar Traore, who replaced Botelho in the Purdue game and responded with 2 tackles, both for loss, with 1 sack, 1 quarter- back hurry and his first career inter- ception that he returned 34 yards for a touchdown. Next man in, Traore earned his first career start against M i a m i (O h i o) Se p t . 2 1 a n d se e m s plenty ready to fill the production void in Botelho's absence. It wasn't too long ago that Notre Dame couldn't have absorbed these kinds of injury losses at these critical positions. The frontline players were always strong. But when we p u l l e d t h e c u r ta i n o n t h e younger guys behind them, there were mainly project play- ers, and not many plug-and- play options. T h ro u g h a l l t h e l i n e u p changes, what has been most impressive is how prepared, engaged and ready the Irish re- serves are. It says something when vet- eran players such as Coogan and Spindler could've checked out after losing their starting spots to younger players, but instead they led Notre Dame to its big- gest win over Purdue in the 88- game history of the series. "When we're out on the prac- tice field," Coogan explained, "it's the competitor in me that kept me going, and kept me engaged, and kept me teaching those younger guys." Spindler, Coogan, Traore, junior quarterback Steve Angeli (100 pass- ing yards, 2 touchdowns), senior de- fensive tackle Jason Onye (4 tackles, 1.5 sacks), freshman linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa (3 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 1 in- terception), freshman safety Kennedy Urlacher (3 tackles) — the contributions from the Irish substitutes against Pur- due put a spotlight on the depth of this Irish team, and how capable it is to ab- sorb unfortunate injuries. With the starters benched and the benches cleared in West Lafayette, the Irish subs still outscored the Boilers 24-7 in the second half, won the yardage battle 188-90 in the last two quarters, and averaged 6.3 yards per play com- pared to 3.8 for Purdue. "Overall, I am very pleased with the performance and preparation by our football program," Freeman said. "A lot of guys were able to play and per- formed at a high level, which speaks to the depth of our football team." ✦ Senior Pat Coogan took over at center after starter Ashton Craig was lost for the season with a knee injury. Coogan started all 13 games at left guard last season. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Injuries Put A Spotlight On Terrific Irish Depth Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com. UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE