Zeke Correll confirmed to play against Navy by Marcus Freeman

It doesn’t hurt to have as many experienced players ready to kick off the season as you can, especially on the offensive line. Now, with just over 24 hours until their Week 0 opener against Navy, Notre Dame is adding yet another piece to their puzzle with graduate senior Zeke Correll cleared to play in Dublin.

Marcus Freeman opened his press conference at Aviva Stadium earlier today with the news on Correll. He said that their center has been practicing all week and has progressed in such a way that they anticipate that he’ll be a go for them against the Midshipmen tomorrow in Ireland.

“Zeke’s playing,” Freeman said. “He’s been practicing all week. I think, when we met on Monday, I told you we expected him to practice. He practiced and he has gotten better all week.”

“We fully expect Zeke to play and be ready to roll,” said Freeman.

Correll has appeared in 30 career games with the Irish. That includes his senior season last fall where he started and played in all 13 of Notre Dame’s games. He is now back for his fifth season as one of three veterans on this team’s offensive line.

However, a twisted ankle a week or so ago put his availability for the opener in question.

As Freeman says, though, Correll has taken the appropriate steps this week to return to the lineup tomorrow in their opener.

Freeman updates guard battle at Notre Dame

Notre Dame will be heading into a season-opening matchup against Navy on Saturday running out a pair of relatively unproven guards. Even so, Marcus Freeman loves the competition that’s been happening at the position.

After a recent scrimmage, the head coach dove into how the battle for the two spots has shaken out. He’s really hoping to end up with four guards he and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph are comfortable running out.

“So you want to have four guards, right? And I think right now we feel really good about three going in there and I look forward to evaluating today’s scrimmage with coach Rudolph and the offensive staff and saying, ‘OK, who’s going to the be the third and fourth guard that we say can go in a game at any point?’ But man I love the competition that they’re having. Nobody’s comfortable at those guard positions and I think we all know who the tackles are going to be and we all know who the center’s going to be. And so to continue to create that competition is something that you love as a coach,” Freeman said.

The main players competing to start at guard on the offensive line for Notre Dame are Pat Coogan, Rocco Spindler , and Billy Schrauth. Freeman was highly complimentary of the trio, giving the impression that they’re neck-and-neck as they jockey to play.

“It’s a great competition. And Coogs has been getting more reps with the ones and he’s done a really good job. He’s going to be a good player for us. I love the competition that we have going on at the guard spot. Rocco Spindler’s been doing a heck of a job, had a really good camp and Billy has, too,” Freeman said.