Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SUMMER 2025 45 A ugust 2024 is essen- tially the Jurassic Period in Notre Dame football time. But think back, if you can, to Week 1 at Texas A&M. Jordan Botelho, beginning what was supposed to be his final season of college foot- ball, is playing the best game of his career. The graduate student vyper is a brick wall on the edge, making 4 defen- sive stops (tackles that result in a failure for the offense). He's constantly tormenting then-Texas A&M quarter- back Conner Weigman, pick- ing up 5 total pressures. Both of those numbers led Notre Dame that night. "There was a debate if he was the player of the game or Xavier Watts," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said the following Monday. "Jordan played well, and he played hard. Like, consistently, he did his job. … He's playing at a high level right now." Botelho had slimmed down over the offseason, following an underwhelming first season as a starter. Those "he's in the best shape of his life" stories in fall camp can be hit or miss, but in Botelho's case, it was very real. He looked quicker, faster and somehow also stronger than ever. Two we e ks l a te r, Bo te l h o ca m e screaming off the edge for an early sack against Purdue. Amid 95 percent of your brain screaming "the sky is falling" due to the previous game's result, the other 5 percent now thought, "Man, what a pleasant surprise Botelho is right now." Then he blew by the Boilermakers' left tackle again. And the patellar ten- don in his right knee gave out. With Botelho done for the year, in stepped then-sophomore Boubacar Traore. A recurring practice standout over the past two seasons with length and athletic gifts most edge rushers dream of, everyone knew Traore would do great things at Notre Dame. But would he be ready to start earlier than most anticipated? Oh, yeah. He was. In Notre Dame's first four games and change, Traore totaled 3 sacks, 9 quar- terback pressures, 5 tackles for loss and a pick six. A couple of those numbers continued to lead the Irish for several weeks after he went down. He was a much stronger run defender than an- ticipated, and he flourished as a pass rusher. In his first start, he was Notre Dame's defensive player of the game against Miami (Ohio). And then, in Week 5 against Louis- ville, he suffered an ACL and LCL in- jury. Two breakout years for Fighting Irish vypers met devastating ends, both before the halfway point of the season. Notre Dame's pass rush suffered as a re- sult, which is why Freeman's announce- ment April 23 regarding their status is so important. Freeman confirmed that Botelho and Traore will both be full participants in Notre Dame's summer conditioning program. That's a significant step, and it differentiates their recoveries from for- mer Irish tight end Mitchell Evans'. After tearing his ACL and MCL in October 2023, Evans did not participate fully in summer workouts. He was fully cleared a week before the season, but it took him months to return to his pre- injury form. Traore and Botelho are on shorter timelines, and Free- man seems to expect they'll be as effective as they were before going down. "You got two guys with Boubacar and Jordan Botelho that haven't practiced in the spring, but we under- stand that's production right there," Freeman said. "I'm re- ally confident in that room." Alongside seniors Joshua Burnham and Junior Tuihal- amaka and sophomore Bryce Young, Notre Dame returns nearly all of its edge-rusher production from 2024 (with the excep- tion of RJ Oben). The way Freeman and Irish defensive coordinator Chris Ash have talked about that group, they believe its performance can skyrocket. "In terms of the end position, they're practicing at a high level," Freeman said. "The guys that aren't practicing right now, they've had a lot of production. And so it's going to be how do we figure out a way to play 'em all and give them opportunity to have success on the foot- ball field? It's a great challenge for us. We have a deep defensive ends room." A challenge, perhaps. A luxury, abso- lutely. A necessity for (borrowing Free- man and Ash's buzzword) enhancing a top-five defense, I would argue yes. If we learned anything from the Philadelphia Eagles' victory in Super Bowl LIX, it's that the best pass rushes come at you in waves. Notre Dame has a chance to recreate that at the college level. ✦ Boubacar Traore showed flashes of brilliance during his sophomore campaign before it was cut short by a knee injury, notching 9 quarterback pressures, 5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, and a pick six in the first four games. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Botelho And Traore Could Create Lethal Pass Rush Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE