Notre Dame DT Aidan Keanaaina tears ACL in spring practice
Notre Dame will be without another member of its defensive line for the remainder of the spring and beyond.
Junior-to-be nose tackle Aidan Keanaaina suffered a torn ACL in Thursday’s practice, a source confirmed to BlueandGold.com. Surgery is scheduled for the end of March, and he is expected to miss the 2022 season. The news was first reported by Irish Illustrated.
Keanaaina played in four games last season, totaling 33 snaps. He made his first career tackle in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma State. He played in one game as a freshman in 2020. He spent his first two years biding time at one of Notre Dame’s deeper positions.
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With three-year starting nose tackle Kurt Hinish departed, though, Keanaaina was competing for a spot in the rotation this spring. Seniors Jacob Lacey and Howard Cross III are potential starters there. Sophomore Gabriel Rubio is likely to get a look at nose tackle too, as should freshman Donovan Hinish – Kurt’s younger brother – when he arrives in June.
Keanaaina joins starting three-technique tackle Jayson Ademilola (shoulder) as Notre Dame defensive linemen who are out for the spring due to injury. Ademilola, a graduate student, had 49 tackles and a team-best 43 quarterback pressures in 2021. Notre Dame opened spring practice Thursday and concludes it with the April 23 Blue-Gold Game.
The 6-3, 310-pound Keanaaina signed with Notre Dame in 2020 as a four-star recruit out of Denver’s Mullen High School. He was the No. 409 player in the class, per the On3 Consensus. He chose Notre Dame over Ohio State, Florida, USC, Michigan, among others. He has four years of eligibility left due to the COVID-19 waiver given to all 2020 football players and preserving a redshirt in 2021.
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The Irish are replacing two of their four 2021 defensive line starters: Hinish and strong-side defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa. All other scholarship players on the line returned, though. They signed three defensive linemen in the 2022 class: end Aiden Gobaira, end Tyson Ford and Hinish. Gobaira and Ford enrolled for the spring semester.
Notre Dame notched 41 sacks last season, tying the program record. That figure tied for the 12th-most in the country. Defensive end Isaiah Foskey‘s 11 sacks tied for 10th among individual players. Former Ohio State and Michigan linebackers coach Al Washington takes over as the defensive line coach, replacing Mike Elston, who left in January after 12 years on the Notre Dame staff for the same job at Michigan.
