Notre Dame Health Close To Full Strength Heading Into Stanford Finale
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With just one game remaining in the regular season, Notre Dame’s health is in solid shape going into this Saturday’s regular season finale at Stanford. Zeke Correll remains the biggest question mark for the game in Palo Alto. Correll had a streak of 23 consecutive starts at center end when he was a scratch for last Saturday’s game against Wake Forest.
"He was not close,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said of Correll on Monday. "He wasn’t clear. He was in concussion protocol and he’s still in. We expect him to be back this week. But then again, that's up to the doctor’s decision.”
Correll is a fifth-year graduate student who still has one more season of college eligibility due to the waiver granted by the NCAA due to the 2020 pandemic season. Redshirt freshman Ashton Craig made his first career against Wake Forest with Correll out.
"We have a lot of confidence in Ashton,” said Freeman. "I’ve seen it in practice. I’ve seen it just from talking with Coach (Joe) Rudolph and I’m really proud of the way he performed and his opportunity he had here on Saturday and I’m really positive about the outlook of our future at the center position.”
Jayden Thomas played on Saturday, but he was limited due to a lingering hamstring injury that has bothered him for more than a month and a half. He missed the late September game against Duke when the injury occurred that week and he missed the Clemson game two weeks ago as well.
Thomas played against Wake Forest but finished the game without a reception. He has gone without a catch in two of the last five games he has played in.
"JT, again, was not a hundred percent and he’s still progressing back to his full hundred percent,” Freeman explained. "Because when he’s at a hundred percent, man, he can really help us on offense.”
Another receiver, Matt Salerno, played in Notre Dame’s first two games of the season against Navy and Tennessee State before missing the next eight games with a lower body injury. He was back on the field against Wake in a limited capacity.
"This was his first week of any live action,” said Freeman. "So, we were able to get him in there some.”
Salerno had one catch for nine yards in the opener against Navy. This is his sixth season at Notre Dame.
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