Marcus Freeman: Notre Dame center Zeke Correll will play vs. Navy
Notre Dame’s graduate student center Zeke Correll is playing Saturday vs. Navy. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman definitively said so Thursday to a gathering of reporters in Dublin, Ireland. The Athletic’s Pete Sampson tweeted the news.
Correll turned his ankle two weeks ago and missed a practice. He returned the next day with a heavy tape job. It didn’t seem like anything more than a twisted ankle, and Freeman’s report just over 48 hours away from kickoff of the Week 0 matchup with the Midshipmen is evidence of that.
Correll is one of three returning starters along the offensive line for the Irish. Junior tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher are the other two. Fellow juniors Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler will make their first career starts at left and right guard, respectively. They won those starting jobs in a fall camp battle with several other suitors gunning for the same spots.
They’ll all be blocking for graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman, who will also be making his Notre Dame debut after five seasons at Wake Forest. This will be Hartman’s 46th career start at the college level, though. Yes, it comes in a unique setting at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. But the bearded Hartman very much has a been there, done that attitude as QB1.
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Navy head coach Brian Newberry gave Hartman his due Thursday.
“He’s a winner,” Newberry said according to Irish Sports Daily. “He’s a leader. He adds a different element to their offense. And I think he’s just a few years younger than me. He has a way better beard than me. You can’t put a price tag on a guy like him and what he does.”
Hartman raises Notre Dame’s ceiling. He led Wake Forest to its second-ever 11-win season with a supporting cast not nearly as talented as the one that surrounds him at Notre Dame. The idea is Hartman can lead the Irish to an 11-win season of their own and qualify for the College Football Playoff for the third time in program history.
Navy isn’t expected to be one of the teams that stops Notre Dame from getting there. As of Thursday morning, the Irish were a 20.5-point favorite over the Midshipmen. The presence of Correll on the pitch Saturday isn’t going to affect that line, but it surely will affect the Irish’s mindset having a veteran leader snapping the ball to Hartman.
Business as usual.
