UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

The TE roster is a bit thin, and our top two available guys (Kevin Bauman, Eli Raridon) are coming off injury riddled histories. Even if Bauman is fully healthy, he's more of a pure blocking TE / H-back, and isn't likely to be catching a lot of passes.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Cooper Flanagan taking a medical redshirt year for 2025, after that really bad Achilles injury. He's out for at least half the season, maybe more.

James Flanagan seems to be the most talented guy in the room. He may not start as a true freshman, but I wouldn't be surprised if he comes on to seize the spot as he gets comfortable, in the same way that Kyle Rudolph and Mike Mayer did.

That being said, I think that Jack Larsen (redshirt freshman / true sophomore) will also see significant time.



In terms of other positions?

OL: I agree that Will Black is likely to see PT, that he's not going to be redshirted.
WR: Depending on how the trio of talented sophomores do, the freshmen may not have to jump into things right away. This bodes very well for Antavious "Scrap" Richardson, who is still relatively new to the WR position.

LB: Madden Faraimo is the logical choice to hit the 2-deep, but my darkhorse candidate for playing time is Anthony Sacca. The man is a very smart player (much like his old man), has very good coverage skills, and has some of the best lateral movement I've seen out of a linebacker prospect. I can see Coach Ash using him in the same way that we used Brian "Rat" Ratigan a lot as a pass coverage LB (to great effect) for this year, since I believe he's going to be too good to keep on the bench.

By the way, "Rat" is still very much part of the ND football program, being the team's surgeon.