Notre Dame tight end Eli Raridon to miss rest of season with torn ACL
Eli Raridon remarkably recovered from a December 2021 ACL tear in time to be ready for preseason camp. The same injury, though, will cost the Notre Dame freshman tight end the rest of his 2022 season.
Raridon will miss the balance of the year with a torn right ACL, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said Thursday. The injury occurred during practice and is to the same ACL he tore 10 months ago in a high school basketball game.
“He suffered a non-contact knee injury and re-tore his ACL,” Freeman said. “He will have surgery here in the next couple days.”
The 6-foot-6¾, 245-pound Raridon ends his season having played in five games, logging 76 snaps in that span. He did not catch a pass and was targeted once. He has a Pro Football Focus run blocking grade of 78.9, second among Notre Dame players behind only sophomore left tackle Joe Alt (89.9).
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Raridon is the second Notre Dame tight end to be lost for the season with an ACL tear in as many months. Junior Kevin Bauman suffered the same injury in a September practice, ending his year after three games.
Bauman’s absence elevated Raridon into the No. 2 tight end role behind Michael Mayer, which led to him playing 30 snaps vs. North Carolina Sept. 24 and 35 vs. BYU Oct. 8. Sophomore Mitchell Evans returned from a two-month absence due to a foot injury for the Oct. 15 Stanford game and slid into the No. 2 job. Raridon, in turn, played just four snaps.
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Notre Dame now has five healthy scholarship tight ends: Mayer, Evans, sophomore Cane Berrong, sophomore Davis Sherwood and freshman Holden Staes.
Evans played 19 snaps in his return to action vs. Stanford. Berrong has not played this season and was limited during camp and the early part of the season as he recovered from an October 2021 ACL tear. Sherwood, a tight end/fullback hybrid, has played six games and totaled 39 snaps this year. He has been a run blocker on 35 of them. Staes has played four games (26 snaps), making 1 catch for 11 yards.
“Holden is going to have an increased role,” Freeman said. “It’s great to have Mitch back at a time like this when you lose Eli Raridon. Eli was really, really learning and practicing at a high level, playing at a high level and improving. Holden is doing the same thing. He’s continuing to get better. What you’re going to see those with three tight ends — Mayer, Mitch Evans and Holden — being your top three guys. Holden’s game plan and what he’s going to be asked to do will be increased. He’s up for the challenge.”
Raridon, a West Des Moines, Iowa native, was a four-star recruit and the No. 140 overall prospect in the 2022 class, per the On3 Consensus. He originally committed to Notre Dame in May 2021 over Iowa, Iowa State and Tennessee.
