Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM APRIL 2025 5 T he most comprehensive injury re- port in the history of Notre Dame football might've been given out by head athletic trainer Rob Hunt March 6, and it left Fighting Irish fans feeling a little hopeless for what's to come during the spring practice slate. Snap out of it. Everything's going to be all right. It's human nature to be alarmed when the list of student-athletes who will miss the spring season entirely is nine players long, the group of players on a "modified" schedule goes five deep and the collection of guys with "individual- ized plans" takes up another 10 names of roster space. Two dozen players in the proverbial infirmary? That's not insignificant. Most of these situations were to be expected, though. For instance, defensive ends Jordan Botelho, a graduate student, and Bou- bacar Traore, a junior, were never go- ing to be spring options having blown out their knees last fall. Same goes for senior center Ashton Craig. There's one-third of the non-participants in spring ball. The others are freshman de- fensive lineman Davion Dixon, junior tight end Cooper Flanagan, sophomore linebacker Kahanu Kia, junior offensive lineman Chris Terek, graduate student cornerback Chance Tucker and gradu- ate student safety Jalen Stroman. Fla- nagan injured his Achilles in the Sugar Bowl. Kia's been out since early last fall with a knee injury. Same with Tucker. Dixon is a walk-on. Terek's injuries are new, but he was buried deep on the depth chart anyway. That leaves Stroman. His injury is a surprise and a costly one at that, con- sidering the Virginia Tech transfer is in line to start at safety. Liken his absence to that of Northwestern transfer Rod Heard II last spring. Then-sophomore Adon Shuler stepped up and used the extra spring reps to become a starting safety in the fall. It's possible any one of the many safe- ties competing for the open job can do the same. Stroman's injury could very well be a blessing in disguise for the de- velopment of safeties like junior Luke Talich, sophomores Kennedy Urlacher and Tae Johnson, and freshman JaDon Blair. Notre Dame can manage this spring slate without Stroman. When he does return, the back end of the Irish defense will be even better. Of the players on "modified" spring schedules, per Hunt, two of them started along the Notre Dame offensive line in the College Football Playoff — sophomore Anthonie Knapp and senior Billy Schrauth. They're both dealing with ankle injuries. Yeah, it'd be nice for them to be full-go for the spring so we can get the most accurate idea of what Notre Dame has across the board up front on offense. But can you blame them for taking it easy after the longest season in college football history? Schrauth played banged up for most of the year. Knapp started the first 15 games of the season and had to miss the final one because of an ankle ail- ment suffered in the Orange Bowl. Let's let these guys get back to 100 percent. That'll always be more important than lining up for protection and duo block- ing installs six months before the next season starts. Sophomore defensive lineman Cole Mullins, graduate student wide receiver Will Pauling and sophomore walk-on offensive lineman Robbie Wollan are also on pitch counts. You hate it for the developmental side of things for Mul- lins, but it is what it is. You also hope Pauling can get enough for the Irish to know if he will challenge junior Jaden Greathouse for playing time, but that can be figured out in the fall. That's another important part to all of this — fall camp is always going to be more important than spring prac- tices. It was not ideal for quarterback Riley Leonard to miss the spring a year ago with his injuries, but if you had the choice between him missing the spring and him missing the fall you say spring every single time. There is an immedi- acy factor involved in the fall that can't be simulated in the spring no matter how hard anyone tries. So when senior defensive lineman Joshua Burnham, junior linebacker Drayk Bowen, junior cornerback Chris- tian Gray, Greathouse, junior running back Jeremiyah Love, sophomore cor- nerback Leonard Moore, junior safety Adon Shuler, senior linebacker Jaylen Sneed, junior offensive lineman Aamil Wagner and sophomore defensive line- man Bryce Young perform their "indi- vidualized plans," which will look dif- ferent for all 10 of them, don't freak out when the Irish's practice report reads that they didn't do a whole lot on a cer- tain day during the spring schedule. Every one of those student-athletes was a major reason why Notre Dame made it to the very last game of the 2024 season Jan. 20. We aren't very far re- moved from then, and we are far re- moved from the 2025 campaign. Let those integral pieces to the Irish puzzle take some more time to rest, get right and get locked in on getting back to the very last contest of the upcoming gauntlet of games. ✦ Junior defensive lineman Boubacar Traore (left), who suffered a knee injury midway through last season, is one of nine players who will not par- ticipate in spring practice. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Don't Be Alarmed By A Lengthy Spring Injury Report Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA