Notre Dame Football: Prized Irish tight end recruit Eli Raridon suffers ACL injury

There was some bad news on Monday. Eli Raridon, the prized tight end recruit from Iowa that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish just signed last week, suffered an ACL tear that will end his basketball season for Valley High in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Raridon is not going to be an early enrollee for Notre Dame this winter, and will report to the Irish in June with the rest of his 2022 class.

Notre Dame signed a lot of great players in the 2022 class, but when I was asked about who is going to be that 3 and done NFL prospect in this class, I didn’t hesiatte to say Eli Raridon — and many Notre Dame writers and insiders share a similar opinion. This kid is going to be really good at Notre Dame and is just blessed with god-given size and athleticism.

While this may not seem to affect Notre Dame’s depth chart for the 2022 season right now, Irish TE coach John McNulty has done a good job getting his freshman tight ends ready to play over the last couple of years. Raridon, however, will have a tough hill to climb coming off of a big leg injury as he begins his college career. I still have no doubts about Raridon’s potential at Notre Dame, but this will likely cause some delay in his early development.

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