Notre Dame safety Tae Johnson suffers hand injury, won't play vs. Syracuse

Tae Johnson is having a phenomenal season, taking the must-see Notre Dame safety torch from Xavier Watts and Kyle Hamilton and running with it. It might be a while before we see him get to try to add to his team-high interception total, however. 

Blue & Gold learned Johnson suffered a hand injury in practice this week and will not play Saturday against Syracuse, which Notre Dame confirmed on social media. He may be out for longer than just one game as well.

Johnson has 4 INT this season, three of them coming in the last three games. He had 2 on the road against Boston College on Nov. 1, and he returned one for a touchdown last week at Pitt. His first of the season — and his career — came at home against Boise State on Oct. 4. 

Johnson began the season as a backup but he quickly made his way into Notre Dame’s starting lineup. His talent and the way he’s mentally picked up the game as a redshirt sophomore makes him undeniably someone Notre Dame needs on the field as much as possible. 

Per Pro Football Focus, Johnson leads all Irish players with 573 defensive snaps this season. 

“I’ve always said how athletic he is, but he’s now continuing to add that with work and understanding concepts,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said Monday. “Now when you can anticipate things, that’s when some of the success comes, right? He’s anticipating. We’re in zone coverage here. He’s anticipating that quarterback looking there and went and picked it off. 

“He’s just continuing to get better. He is. He’s putting in the work, too. He’s starting to get those rewards. It becomes a little, like, contagious. I want this. Like, I want to get it again. You’ve got to remind them in order to put yourself in that position, you’ve got to put in the work.”

Without Johnson, Notre Dame will turn to a rotation of redshirt junior Luke Talich and graduate transfer Jalen Stroman to play alongside redshirt sophomore and team captain Adon Shuler at safety. Talich has played over 20 defensive snaps in a single game four times this season, and Stroman was a starter before Johnson took his spot.

It’s unclear when Johnson will be able to return. Notre Dame finishes the regular season at Stanford on Nov. 29, and then it’s the waiting game to see if the Irish qualified for the College Football Playoff and when and where that journey begins if so.