Marcus Freeman Updates The Latest Notre Dame Injuries
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – With a little more than two weeks to go until Notre Dame’s 2022 season opener at Ohio State, the Fighting Irish have seen the injury bug bite them in the last week. First came last week’s news that wide receiver Avery Davis will miss the entire season with a torn ACL.
The latest injury to an offensive starter came this week when left guard Jarrett Patterson injured his foot. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman addressed what he said is a “foot sprain” at a post practice Thursday press conference.
“Right now, we’re being cautious on his return,” Freeman said of Patterson. “We’ve got to rest it. Really for him, it’s gonna be once we get probably through about a 10-day period of resting, it will be he can go as he can tolerate the pain. So right now I would say he’s questionable for Ohio State, but I know J-Pat and I know his mentality and as a head coach, I expect him probably to be out there, just because I know the type of competitor he is. That’s kind of where we’re at right now, listening to the doctors. Hey, we’ll rest it for 7 to 10 days and then kind of let him go full speed.”
Ten days would have Patterson back a week from Saturday, which is exactly a week before the Ohio State game. So, how much would Patterson need to practice in the week leading up to the game in Columbus?
“It’s gonna be on him,” Freeman said. “It’s gonna be his pain tolerance and how much he can perform at the level we expect him to with the pain. He might feel great. I talked to him today, he said he feels great. Again, we’ve got to do what’s best for J-Pat. If he’s ready to go he’s gonna play. If he’s not ready to go, then we’ll get him ready for when he’s ready to go.”
Freeman said Andrew Kristofic and Rocco Spindler have been splitting reps at left guard in Patterson’s absence.
Are there any common threads to foot injuries?
“No, (it’s) just what happens, I guess, with working out and practice,” Freeman said. “The foot injuries, I mean, Jadarian Price, that’s an Achilles injury that’s gonna happen no matter what. I know we had a Lisfranc early in the summer, but those are injuries that happen across college football. I mean, every year you see a guy with a Lisfranc or a foot injury. I mean, it’s a part of this game. It’s a tough, grueling game that the only way to prepare your team is to make it hard and to work at it. If we didn’t have to go out there and bang each other and work really hard and play on September third, we wouldn’t do that, but we know as a coaching staff that this is what’s necessary to prepare your team to play a grueling 12-game season, guaranteed 12 games. It’s what it takes and until somebody tells me otherwise, you have to trust the preparation and your process to getting your team ready.”
More offensive line updates
Other offensive linemen missed Wednesday’s practice as well. Freeman says Michael Carmody is in concussion protocol. Other linemen missed practice, but were back Thursday in “return to play protocol”.
“There’s a return to play progression that we have, that our doctors have. We have to trust our doctors in terms of making sure our players are safe. A lot of those guys are just in that return to play protocol, in terms of you have to get your baseline test where it needs to be, you have to be able to do physical activity without having any symptoms before you can really start the physical contact. All those guys are really working through that progression, but we expect everybody to be back.”
The other linemen are Pat Coogan, Aamil Wagner, Tosh Baker and Caleb Johnson. Freeman says Coogan practiced Thursday.
When will Logan Diggs get out of the red and into a blue jersey?
Running back Logan Diggs has been wearing a red jersey since fall camp started two weeks ago. It comes after his surgery to repair a torn shoulder labrum that he injured in the Blue-Gold game in April. Freeman was short and sweet when answering when the red could come off.
“Yeah, we expect next week.”
Jayden Thomas
The sophomore wide receiver was in full uniform Wednesday, but he did not practice with the team when the media was present. Instead, he spent his time on a stationary bike and doing other conditioning work with the training staff. Freeman says he has a “tight hamstring”.
“(It’s a) grade one strain from Monday,” Freeman said. “We’re just being cautious. We expect him to be back soon, but just not yet.”
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