Marcus Freeman reveals his first reaction to Charles Jagusah UTV incident

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman is heartbroken for Charles Jagusah. The Fighting Irish offensive lineman suffered a broken humerus in his left arm as a result of a utility terrain vehicle (UTV) accident, which will cause him to miss some time this upcoming season.

Jagusah will be back at some point this season, according to Freeman, though exactly when is not yet known. Given the offensive lineman also sat out most of last year due to a preseason pectoral injury, Freeman feels for him, but is ultimately just glad it wasn’t worse.

“My reaction was devastation for the young man,” the coach said. “The first reaction isn’t the team. It’s not, ‘Oh my gosh we just lost our starting right guard.’ You care for that person that’s gone through a lot. You talk about what he went through last year with his peck injury and now dealing with the arm fracture. Once I knew he was OK, I wanted to know what happened and how it happened.”

The former four-star recruit would have been Notre Dame’s starting left tackle last season had he not suffered that injury. He eventually returned to play three games in the College Football Playoff, including the national championship against Ohio State.

Similarly, Charles Jagusah was slated to start at right guard this year before the accident. Now it’s not clear when he may make his return to the field, having played only five games in three years after redshirting in 2023.

As difficult of a situation as it if, Freeman said there was one positive that he took from the whole ordeal. Jagusah was with a group of his teammates at the time of the accident as they were spending some time off the field with each other. The coach said he thought that spoke volumes to the togetherness of the group, and they’ll surely be able to overcome the loss.

“It was a group of 10-15 players and they were together,” Freeman said. “When I hear that, that’s what you want. We’re on a little break, and they were together. …We preach unit strength, that’s unit strength. Guys together hanging out. It was just an unfortunate, freak accident. A little bit of bad luck. But he’ll be fine. He’ll be good.

“I don’t want to ban them from having fun. I want them to hang out together. I want them to have fun and become a team. Because that’s probably more important than anything else is becoming a team and part of becoming a team takes having a relationship and spending time together. So that’s really how I feel about that.”