Mitchell Evans helped off field vs. Pitt, heads to injury tent

Notre Dame fans were riding high as the Fighting Irish extended their commanding lead over Pitt to 37-0 in the third quarter. As they were tasting victory, they saw Notre Dame potentially suffer a big loss when Mitchell Evans needed to be helped off the field.

Evans went catch a pass from Sam Hartman and grabbed the back of his leg afterward. He was helped toward the sideline and immediately went to the injury tent. He later returned to the bench as Notre Dame scored another touchdown to make it a 44-0 lead.

Evans has been a key piece of the Notre Dame offense this year after Michael Mayer headed to the NFL. He entered Saturday’s game against Pitt just ahead of Chris Tyree for the team lead in receiving yards, hauling in 24 catches for 356 yards and a touchdown this season. Prior to his injury, Evans had five catches for 66 yards against Pitt.

He has emerged as a good safety blanked for Hartman and the offense. According to offensive coordinator Gerad Parker earlier this month, it’s not much of a surprise to see Evans playing at such a high level.

“I’m gonna be totally honest. Yes,” Parker said, via Blue and Gold’s Jack Soble. “This isn’t an accident. He has A-plus ball skills, he was a high school quarterback, he’s a great route-runner, he’s got good top-end speed. There’s reasons. And so it wouldn’t be a surprise, but there was a pretty good player here before him. Sometimes that kind of keeps that thing sheltered a little bit before it comes out. So I wouldn’t be surprised at all, but he deserves what he’s getting and he’s put himself in by a skill set that allows him to.”

Notre Dame’s matchup against Pitt was the first game out of the first bye of the year. The Fighting Irish will get another week off in two weeks because they played in Week 0, and Marcus Freeman said it would be a “two-week sprint” to get there.

They certainly lived up to that against Pitt, delivering plays on defense and special teams as the offense tried to find a rhythm following two Hartman interceptions. Next week, Notre Dame — which is looking like it will improve to 7-2 — will head to a hostile environment at Clemson to face a Tigers team that’s looking at its first single-digit win season since 2010.