Notre Dame tight end Kevin Bauman out for season with partially torn ACL
Kevin Bauman can’t catch a break. The senior tight end partially tore his ACL in Notre Dame fall camp, and he’ll be out for the entire 2023 season.
It’s the second time in 11 months Bauman has torn his ACL. He only played in three games in 2022 before the first of the two tears.
Bauman is the oldest scholarship tight end on the Notre Dame roster. Without him, the Irish are down to juniors Mitchell Evans and Davis Sherwood, sophomores Holden Staes and Eli Raridon and true freshman Cooper Flanagan.
Evans and Staes have been Notre Dame’s top two tight ends in camp with Sherwood playing a role as the third guy in line. Flanagan has immense upside, but he’s still learning the ropes at the college level. Raridon, meanwhile, still is not 100% recovering from his own second ACL tear in less than a year. That occurred last October five games into his freshman season.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said Raridon could be ready by Aug. 26’s season opener exactly two weeks from Saturday. Raridon told the media at the beginning of camp he was eyeing a return to full activity around then.
“We’re still on that same timeline,” Freeman said. “We’re just continuing to phase him into more and more of practice.”
Notre Dame, of course, is trying to keep tight end production up in the wake of Michael Mayer moving on to the NFL. Mayer, a second-round draft choice of the Las Vegas Raiders, set Fighting Irish program records for career receptions (180), receiving yards (2,099) and touchdowns (18). Without Bauman, Notre Dame’s five scholarship tight ends that are slated to play this season have caught four passes for 50 yards and one touchdown — combined.
It’s not like Bauman was going to add much to those totals; he only has five catches for 59 yards in his career. But he was still the most experienced tight end in a Notre Dame room that is seriously longing for just that — experience.
That said, Evans and Staes have been impressive in camp. In a practice made fully available to the media for viewing earlier this week, Staes caught a pass to set up the Notre Dame offense in the red zone. Then Evans caught a touchdown on the very next snap. Both throws came from Irish starting quarterback Sam Hartman. It’s imperative for that duo to form a strong rapport with QB1 going into the season.
