Notre Dame Football Injury Report: Irish dealing with some substantial injury issues coming off Purdue win

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media on Monday, putting his closing remarks to last weekend’s 65-7 victory over Purdue and began looking forward to their game against Miami (OH). As a part of the conversation, Coach Freeman talked about the latest string of injuries we saw during the game against the Boilermakers.

Here are the latest injury updates, including some positive and some less than ideal. Getting healthy needs to be a key for the Irish program moving forward, as much as is possible.

WR Jordan Faison

There was some anticipation that Faison would return against Purdue after being sidelined during the last couple of weeks with an ankle injury. It isn’t a question now, with Coach Freeman announcing that Faison is a “full go” on Saturday against Miami (OH). The wide receiver position has been a spot that has underwhelmed so far this season, and getting the sophomore back should be big for the Irish. They need Faison’s ability to win in space.

OG Billy Schrauth

Initially things did not look good for starting right guard Billy Schrauth, who was lost during the game on Saturday against Purdue. There was somewhat good news from Coach Freeman, who said that Schrauth will be out just for a few weeks due to his ankle injury. Rocco Spindler filled in for Schrauth, who started ten games at right guard last season. Spindler should keep the ship afloat while Schrauth gets healthy.

OC Ashton Craig

It was an unfortunate update on Craig, which wasn’t initially thought to be overly serious. Craig will be out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. This means that veteran Pat Coogan will slide into the starting role, which we saw on Saturday. While it isn’t ideal to lose another starter up front, but Coogan should leave some optimism for cushioning that blow.

DE Joshua Burnham

Burnham remains questionable for this weekend against Miami (OH), which he was last week as well. The redshirt sophomore is dealing with an ankle injury, and it feels somewhat unlikely he might play against the Redhawks. Coach Freeman mentioned freshman Bryce Young and Junior Tuihalamaka who are set to take more reps this Saturday.

DE Jordan Botelho

Like Craig, Botelho’s season has been lost due to a knee injury. This is a really unfortunate situation for Botelho who was playing the best football of his career, and also leads a veteran void. As mentioned, you should expect both Young and Tuihalamaka to have increased reps. Notre Dame has a lot of depth on the edge, and they will need some players to step up, including redshirt freshman Boubacar Traore.