Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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10 NOV. 8, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME The injuries to Notre Dame offensive linemen aren't just impacting the starting lineup for the football team. They're negatively impacting how the Irish can prepare in practice on a weekly basis. Every injury to a starter trickles down to impact the scout team. Though it may mean good news for a scout team player getting elevated to prac- tice with the offense during the week, it leaves the scout team with one fewer body in practice. Notre Dame's offensive line depth chart has been hit so hard by injuries, the Irish have turned to defensive linemen to play scout team offensive linemen. Redshirt sophomore Brenan Vernon, a 6-foot-6, 305-pound defensive lineman, has been playing scout team offensive line for multiple weeks. The only other constants have been freshman offen- sive tackle Owen Strebig (6-8, 300) and sopho- more walk-on Max Anderson (6-3, 303). Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman ex- plained last week that the Irish feel they need to have 10 offensive linemen working with the first- and second-team units with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock during the week, because they don't want to add extra reps to the starters that could impact their readiness for games. Freeman said the Irish essentially have two- and-a-half scout team offensive linemen — with Vernon counting as the half. Defensive line coach Al Washington provides other linemen to fill the remaining needs. "We've had to roll some guys, some defensive linemen, in there because we're deeper at D-line," Freeman said. "Armel Mukam's done a good job in his limited role on scout team O. Big Sean [Sevil- lano Jr.] has helped us on some scout team O. "We throw guys in there, but that's what the team needs. So, you'll get some defensive reps, but we also need to give you some scout offense reps. And they don't blink. Let's go. Whatever the team needs. It's a credit to Coach Wash in that room, but also those guys caring about the team." Mukam, a 6-3, 305-pound redshirt sophomore defensive tackle, has played in all seven games on special teams and 15 total defensive snaps this season, per Pro Football Focus. Sevillano, a 6-2, 340-pound redshirt freshman defensive tackle, has played nine defensive snaps across three games this season. Notre Dame entered last week with one offen- sive lineman sidelined for the rest of the season: redshirt junior center Ashton Craig, who suffered a right knee injury against North Carolina State. Three others were out for the Boston College game but could be available at some point this season: redshirt junior left guard Billy Schrauth, who sprained the MCL in his left knee against Southern Cal, redshirt sophomore guard Charles Jagusah, who has been out since July recovering from a broken left arm, and redshirt freshman guard Peter Jones, who has been out since the preseason with a left ankle injury. — Tyler James Notre Dame Turns To Defensive Linemen To Help Scout Team Offense CORNERBACK CHRISTIAN GRAY PLAYS THROUGH PAIN You didn't have to be a football savant to understand Southern Cal's offensive game plan against Notre Dame: Go after Christian Gray. The Trojans targeted the junior cornerback 15 times; no other player was targeted more than five times. Southern Cal pass catchers made receptions on 8 of those 15 passes, which is not a high per- centage (53.3), but they beat Gray for 179 of their 328 receiving yards, according to Pro Football Focus. Gray finished with a PFF coverage grade of 31.1 and an overall defense grade of 34.8. Unfortunately for him and Notre Dame, that wasn't a one-off. Gray was Notre Dame's lowest-graded defensive con- tributor on PFF through the first seven games at 49.7. He was targeted 51 times in that span, more than double the next-highest total (freshman nickel back Dallas Golden, with 25). This is not the Gray Notre Dame fans saw for the vast majority of 2024, save for 90 percent of the Southern Cal game and one fateful play in the national championship. Before Southern Cal, he was al- lowing about 5 yards per attempt on passes targeted at him. Which raises the question: What's wrong with his technique? Is he playing hurt? Last week, Freeman confirmed that he is. "It starts with health for him," Freeman said. "He's a guy that's pretty injured and banged up." Freeman did not specify what Gray has been dealing with. He played through a shoulder injury in late August and early September, but Freeman seemed to imply that multiple bumps and bruises were a problem. "That's where a lot of his issues came from," Freeman said. "Injuries caused him to play with poor technique in certain situations." Whatever the case may be, it hasn't kept Gray off the field. He led Notre Dame's defense with 472 snaps through the first seven games. No. 2 was redshirt freshman safety Tae Johnson with 398. Only 24 defensive snaps in those games didn't feature No. 6 in blue and gold. "The thing about Christian is he's such a tough, tough individual that he never wants to come out of the game, never wants to tell somebody how he's truly feeling," Freeman said. "We know he's banged up without him even saying it." However the Irish do it, it's imperative they get Gray healthy for the stretch run and eventually, they hope, the College Football Playoff. "We were proactive, evaluating him and his body and what areas need to recover," Freeman said. "He'll never be a guy to make an excuse, but we have to make sure to keep getting him healthy so he can play at a high level." — Jack Soble Redshirt sophomore Brenan Vernon, a 6-foot-6, 305-pound defensive lineman, has been playing scout team offensive line for multiple weeks. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER