Notre Dame tight end Mitchell Evans out for year with significant knee injury
Notre Dame’s leader in receptions and receiving yards is finished for the season. Junior tight end Mitchell Evans will miss the remaining three games of the year and the Fighting Irish’s bowl game with a torn ACL, head coach Marcus Freeman confirmed Monday.
Evans injured his knee in the second half of Notre Dame’s 58-7 victory over Pittsburgh. He was helped off the field by a couple of trainers, and he looked to be in a great deal of discomfort. Prior to going down, Evans had five catches for 66 yards to bring his season totals to 29 receptions and 422 yards. His lone touchdown of the campaign came in garbage time in a 33-20 loss to Louisville on Oct. 7.
Evans was far and away Notre Dame’s top tight end through nine games. He played 425 offensive snaps this season. Sophomore Holden Staes has played the second-most offensive snaps among tight ends with 281. Also on the rundown are junior Davis Sherwood, a former walk-on, with 76, true freshman Cooper Flanagan with 62 and sophomore Eli Raridon with 32.
Raridon has only appeared in three games this year since returning from his second ACL tear in as many years. Notre Dame has been cautious with easing him back into action for obvious reasons. The knee injury bug has hit the Irish tight ends room hard lately. Senior Kevin Bauman has torn his ACL twice in two years as well, the most recent blow coming this past August.
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Evans’ absence will be glaringly apparent right away in the passing game. He leads all Notre Dame pass-catchers with 39 targets according to Pro Football Focus. That’s more than twice as many as the next tight end on the list. Staes has been targeted 18 times. Sherwood, Raridon and Flanagan have combined for three targets.
Quarterback Sam Hartman had built up quite a rapport with Evans. It started under the bright lights against Ohio State when Evans caught seven passes for 75 yards, including a miraculous one-handed snag. He had another magician-like reception a week later against Duke on a night in which he broke out with six receptions for 134 yards. Michael Mayer never had that many receiving yards in one game in an Irish uniform.
Notre Dame will preach “next man up” in replacing Evans, but it’ll be easier said than done. Evans was on his way to continuing the “Tight End U” reputation with big-time season-long numbers.
