Reviewing the Redshirts is an off-season project meant to resurrect discussion about the 2022 Notre Dame freshmen who retained a year of eligibility and discuss their possible impact in 2023 and beyond. The Fighting Irish were able to redshirt 17 players this past season while 1 player medically retired (Joey Tanona) and another player has transferred already to Syracuse (Jayden Bellamy).
Today we’ll take a look at a highly rated tight end who was on track to burn his redshirt but suffered a really discouraging knee injury.
TE Eli Raridon
Hometown: Des Moines, Iowa
Height: 6-6 3/4
Weight: 245
247Sports Composite Ranking: 4-star, No. 5 TE, No. 3 IA, No. 173 National, 0.9310 score
18 Stripes Grade: 95.3
Murtaugh’s Blurb from the Class Grade:
Probably the most athletic pass-catching tight end Notre Dame has signed in recent memory. He moves so well for his height and genuinely looks like someone who will break off a bunch of long touchdowns in college. Maybe a little too skinny to jump right into a bunch of playing time for the Irish. Having him rehab his knee injury and take a redshirt year while he gets bigger and isn’t dealing with Michael Mayer’s shadow will be good, I think. I like his physicality and blocking ability too. His ceiling is extremely high.
I personally handed out a 96 for Raridon during last year’s recruiting cycle which is tied with 8 others since the 2015 class for my 2nd highest grade, only eclipsed by a pair of 97’s for Jaylen Sneed and another player whose evaluation whiff I’m definitely not publicizing. Jump into the comment section and see if you can guess it.
Raridon tore his ACL in late 2021 during his high school basketball season and then tore the same ACL in his right knee in late October during his freshman season with the Irish.
Need at Position: Medium-to-Low
Including Raridon, Notre Dame will head into 2023 with 6 tight ends on the roster which isn’t a small number. That includes former walk-on Davis Sherwood who saw the field occasionally in 2022. Also, rising redshirt junior Kevin Bauman tore his ACL just about one month before Raridon and is making his way back to full health this off-season, too.
The unit as a whole has 11 career receptions, so while yes it’s Notre Dame and good things are expected, someone like Raridon could end up being a key piece to the 2023 team.
Expected Spot on the 2023 Depth Chart: 3rd String
I was going to start out by saying perhaps it’s better if Raridon comes along really slowly in his ACL recovery, almost to the point where you think about keeping him on the sidelines for the majority of the 2023 season. I can’t imagine tearing an ACL again, for the 3rd time, all in consecutive years. That would be super tough to come back from mentally and physically.
If healthy, the future is still so bright for Raridon and in his case it’s important to remember he still has 4 more years at Notre Dame. I am really high on his skill-set and it’s tempting to get him going right from the first game in Ireland but maybe more patience is the smart thing to do.
Then again, he will have 2 more months of recovery time for this 2nd injury compared to last season and even if he’s not playing in games he’d still be putting tons of pressure on his knee during practice and workouts anyway. I am sure that Mitchell Evans and Holden Staes are going to hold down most of the 1st-team reps this off-season. However, Raridon could turn into a big-play target and has to be salivating at the chance to line up next to Sam Hartman at quarterback.
I have to think there are only so many screws you can put into bones around the knee before you run out of options. Graph options become limited too. I feel terrible for Raridon but his chances for another injury to the right knee or a new one to the left must be quite high.
Who else did you give a 97 to in the last 8 years? Which was clearly a misevaluation? Some candidates: jordan johnson, phil, tyree, tommy k, ewell was huge bust but never that high. I guess i’ll go Tommy, a 97 would be pretty far off but not a complete whiff.
Your first guess is correct.
Zero catches through 3 seasons of college football across 2 schools!
I remember seeing the JJ 97 recently on this website. In your defense, it was a defendable position on signing day.
Also kinda makes it funny all the fan clamoring for what the idea of Jordan Johnson was as a true freshman, without realizing that the player behind it never came close to backing up all the hype.
When has that ever happened???
To verify he has torn the ACL in each knee?
If so, Mr.Miyagi would call that balance.
It would be more concerning if twice in the same knee?
Same knee (right IIRC) twice. Tearing the other knee after the first, would be more common. Yes, more concerning tearing the same knee twice.
Well then..
If that happened ND would be losing a good OC. Rees seems to have found his footing as a recruiter and has improved as a playcaller (but I’ll admit he ocassionally has some duds, like early this past year). Can’t blame him for considering a chance to work with and learn from Saban
Assistants change so much in CFB, I don’t even particularly care anyone more when they move on. BUT it would be such a kick in the pants to lose the HC one year then OC the next for lateral moves to the SEC. If we can’t compete for coaches, how are we going to compete for players?
Hopefully if LSU wasn’t attractive enough, Bama won’t be either.
A bit off topic, but as we are in basketball season, the blog Irish Envy has some informative posts on the women’s BB team in their thread for those interested in the subject that this blog does not cover.
2022-2023 ND Women’s Basketball Thread
The poster in that thread, Old Man Mike, is a former women’s basketball coach. Irish Envy was recently bought by a group of posters and is now independent that way. No articles but only comments on topics.