Tag: Mitchell Evans

How Twitter reacted to Gator Bowl: Irish side

Just guessing you’re very happy right now.

If a 100-yard pick-six wasn’t going to intimidate Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl, nothing would. After South Carolina’s O’Donnell Fortune picked off a [autotag]Tyler Buchner[/autotag] pass to tie the score on the aforementioned play, everything looked like it would come apart in the end. Instead, Buchner wrapped up game MVP honors with this 16-yard touchdown pass to [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag], giving the Irish a 45-38 they wouldn’t relinquish:

As soon as the Gamecocks turned it over on downs with the help of some dumb penalties on their part, Irish fans were ready to celebrate the program’s first bowl victory in three years. It punctuated a 9-4 season that will serve as a passing grade for [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag]’s first season at the helm. To end with that and a ranking in the final poll is a good year in anyone’s book. If you don’t believe that, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t, take a look at some of these postgame tweets from Irish fans:

Six hidden plays that helped determine Notre Dame’s loss to USC

Which plays stood out to you?

The Trojans built a double-digit lead right before halftime and never really looked back as the Irish failed to come up with big drive and enough stops to defeat USC 38-27. There were swing moments in the game, some went the Irish’s way, but most of them didn’t. Find out which hidden, although not all of them were, plays made a huge different in Notre Dame’s loss to USC.

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Five hidden plays that helped decide Notre Dame’s defeat of Navy

A win is a win and these plays helped the Irish get there

Touchdowns and turnovers don’t always tell the story as there are plenty of smaller plays that help dictate a game. These are those plays for Notre Dame as they escaped with a closer than expected 35-32 victory over Navy.

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Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s Mitchell Evans’ direct-snap touchdown

Remember this kid?

With all the hoopla surrounding [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] this season, it can be easy for Notre Dame fans to forget about [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag]. You might have forgotten about him anyway because he only made his season debut against Stanford. Finally, he had a chance to show his value late in the second quarter against UNLV. [autotag]Drew Pyne[/autotag] set him up with a 21-yard run to the Rebels’ 1-yard line, and then, with Pyne having gone to the sidelines with a potential injury, Evans took a direct snap and found the end zone with ease:

Maybe Evans hasn’t been able to do anything as far as what’s expected of a tight end these days, but you never know when your number is going to get called in any given situation. Evans took this particular situation and shined in the best way possible. It gave the Irish a 30-7 lead, and fans were grateful for it. Here are some of the things Irish fans said on Twitter after the touchdown:

Notre Dame loses another tight end for season

The third Notre Dame tight end to tear an ACL at practice in almost exactly a year.

The injuries continue to pile up for Notre Dame. On Thursday it was announced freshman tight end [autotag]Eli Raridon[/autotag] will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL. Raridon underwent ACL surgery less than a year ago (December 2021) but was ready for fall camp and contributed as a true freshman.

[autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] stated Raridon suffered a non-contact injury to the same knee he had surgery on last year. Freeman confirmed the injury occurred during practice this week and will again require surgery.

Raridon was seeing the field a significant amount as a true freshman, playing 30 snaps against North Carolina and 35 against BYU before seeing less against Stanford as sophomore Mitchell Evans returned to play after undergoing foot surgery in fall camp.

With [autotag]Kevin Bauman[/autotag] already out for the year with an ACL injury, Notre Dame is left with junior [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag], sophomore [autotag]Davis Sherwood[/autotag] and true freshman [autotag]Holden Staes[/autotag] as the only scholarship tight ends on the roster.  Cane Berrong is expected to be available again soon after suffering a torn ACL as a freshman last fall.

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Notre Dame football: Freeman leaves door open for Logan Diggs at Ohio State

How much would this help if he’s able to go?

When Notre Dame sophomore running back [autotag]Logan Diggs[/autotag] tore his labrum in the spring game this past April the assumption was that his at least first month of the 2022 regular season was over.  Fast forward a few months to the start of fall camp and although there is no guarantee that it isn’t, Marcus Freeman isn’t so certain Diggs won’t be able to go in the opener at Ohio State on Labor Day weekend.

Freeman spoke Friday after the opening practice of fall camp and discussed who would be unavailable for the opener.  He mentioned wide receiver [autotag]Joe Wilkins[/autotag], tight end [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag], and running back [autotag]Jadarian Price[/autotag] but did not mention Diggs.

“Now, there’s a progression for some guys getting back. We can’t just go (from) zero and put them in there 100. So, we have some guys on limited reps. Obviously Logan Diggs and we have Marist Liufau on some limit reps today. But for the most part, those three other guys we know will be out for the first game. And then we expect those other guys that may have limited reps today to be ready to roll.” – Marcus Freeman

That certainly isn’t a guarantee by any means but it at least gives a bit of hope that Notre Dame won’t enter the Horseshoe just under a month from today with only Chris Tyree, Audric Esteem, and Gi’Bran Payne as their only available scholarship backs.

If you look at how Ohio State lost their two games last year it was from a heavy dose of the opponents running game, something Notre Dame will be looking hard to exploit in hopes of pulling the upset.

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Notre Dame tight end undergoes surgery, to miss majority of season

The Irish lose depth at tight end for a good part of the season

The first major injury that head coach [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] will have to overcome will be with one of his tight ends, [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag]. Although Evans is star [autotag]Michael Mayer’s[/autotag] backup, he was still expected to be a major contributor the coming fall.

The Notre Dame Football PR team announced via their Twitter account that Evans had surgery on July 14th to repair his fifth metatarsal. The injury was suffered during offseason training, will take the majority of the season for Evans to recover from. Catching just two passes this past season for 21-yards, the rising sophomore was expected to take a bigger role.

Freeman will now have a choice on how to handle Evans future. Do they opt to hold him out the whole season and take a medical redshirt? Do they play him right when he’s is deemed ready by the medical staff?

Most of that depends on how the season goes and the health of Mayer. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road for Evans.

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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

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Notre Dame at Virginia Tech: Third-Quarter Analysis

We have a tight one here.

We still don’t have an idea of who will win this tight contest between Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. All we know is the Irish won’t be able to afford many mistakes if they want the victory. One critical mistake late in the third quarter means they find themselves behind, 22-21.

The Hokies’ offense came out firing to begin the second half, facing only two third downs over a six-minute drive. It nearly resulted in a 13-yard touchdown pass to Tayvion Robinson, but an ineligible-receiver penalty wiped that out. The Irish’s defense held firm in the red zone after that. John Parker Romo kicked a 26-yard field goal, so the Hokies still were able to get the lead out of their first drive of the half.

Tyler Buchner nearly threw an interception on the ensuing Irish drive, but it was dropped. Jay Bramblett punted the ball 52 yards, pinning the Hokies at the 17-yard line. Three plays later, TaRiq Bracy intercepted Braxton Burmeister to set up show at the 29. The Irish needed only four plays to find the end zone and retake the lead, which happened on a 10-yard Kyren Williams run in which three Hokies defenders missed tackles.

The Hokies failed to get out of their own territory on their next drive, but their bigger concern was Burmeister grabbing his right shoulder after hitting the turf hard after a run. There is no word yet on whether Burmesiter will play in the fourth quarter. In the meantime, the Irish had to start their next drive at their own 2 after a 53-yard punt from Peter Moore. That field position turned out to be important when Jermaine Waller picked off Buchner and ran 26 yards for a touchdown.

The Irish had the last word on that misfortune when they intercepted the two-point conversion pass. Still, they let the Hokies grab momentum again in the waning moments of a quarter. And if that wasn’t enough, Mitchell Evans was ejected after the final play of the quarter for targeting. None of that will get it done.

Does Freeman’s youth give Notre Dame a leg up in Styles recruitment?

This could help Notre Dame in his recruitment

Notre Dame has made some very positive recruiting inroads in Ohio recently, with a 2021 signees Lorenzo Styles Jr. and Mitchell Evans and 2023 commit Brennan Vernon. The familiarity in the Styles household has really given Brian Kelly and the Irish a leg up recruiting Lorenzo’s younger brother Sonny’s recruitment.

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Even though their father played for the Buckeyes, that didn’t stop Lorenzo from signing with a different Midwest power and it seems like that might be the case with Sonny as well.

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In a recent interview the younger Styles broke down what may be an extremely obvious advantage that Notre Dame has over Ohio State, Marcus Freeman.

Sonny recently told (subscription required) Bill Kurelic that the two programs have “a lot of similarities. Position wise what they want me to play is pretty similar. The two defensive coordinators are kind of different. Coach Freeman is a younger guy but very successful.”

Although he didn’t discount OSU’s defensive coordinators NFL experience, Kerry Combs is certainly older than Freeman, he’s turning 60 later this fall. With Freeman just entering his mid-thirties, at 35, this could be seen as an advantage over the Buckeyes in Styles recruitment.

Will it be the determining factor? Probably not, but any advantage that the Irish can get over Ohio State is a welcome one.

Rivals expects multiple 2021 Notre Dame three-star players to thrive

The scouting director for Rivals, Mike Farrell is high on a pair of three-stars in Notre Dame’s 2021 recruiting class.

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Let’s make it clear off the bat, being a three-star prospect doesn’t mean you can’t be a very good collegiate player. Plenty of lower ranked players go on to have great careers; recruiting isn’t an exact science.

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I’ve always been very high on Louisiana running back Logan Diggs and Rivals scouting director Mike Farrell agrees. He believes Diggs will outperform his ranking; he was named one of Farrell’s three-star prospects that will surprise. Farrell thinks the situation could be similar to a former Clemson star’s, “this one was easy for me as we could be looking at another Travis Etienne kind of rankings mistake.”

If Farrell is correct with his comparison, Diggs will go down as one of the best ever in South Bend. Travis Etienne is the all-time ACC leader in rushing yards. He finished just shy of 5,000 rushing yards during his career for the Tigers. That’s huge praise for the final signee of the 2021 Notre Dame recruiting class.

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Diggs wasn’t the only Irish recruit to be named to Farrell’s list; tight end Mitchell Evans also was named. This one is a completely different situation, as Evans was primarily a quarterback for his Wadsworth high school team.

It’s no surprise when the best athlete on a high school team plays quarterback, you want that player to have the ball in his hands as much as possible. Due to this, Evans didn’t have much film as a tight end thus a lower ranking among the recruiting services.

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Farrell sees the “6-foot-7 tight end target who is raw sound(ing) like a recipe for success in the Fighting Irish offense.” After what Michael Mayer showed last year, along with contributions from Tommy Tremble and George Takacs, the tight end room looks to be loaded for the foreseeable future.

I expect for both Diggs and Evans to have productive careers in the Blue and Gold. The excitement for the 2021 class continues to grow.