The Notre Dame Fighting Irish received some devastating news Monday when they found out that they have lost star tight end Mitchell Evans for the rest of the season.
Evans suffered a torn ACL in their win against the Pitt Panthers Saturday night and did not return after making five catches for 66 yards.
Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman addressed Evans’ injury.
“Mitchell Evans will be done for the season,” Freeman said. “He will have surgery in the next week or so, depending on when the doctors decide to do it. He tore his ACL, and he’ll be out for the season.”
This is a huge loss for the Irish. Evans leads the team in receptions and receiving yards entering game 10. The Ohio native has tallied 29 catches for 422 yards and one score on the year, which included six catches for 134 yards against Duke.
Sophomore Holden Staes will most likely be Evans’ replacement. Staes has 12 catches for 163 yards and four touchdowns.
Irish fans naturally are devastated by the news of the loss of Evans.
Damnit!!!! He was playing himself into a 2nd-3rd round pick. Hopefully he recovers quick and has a great senior season
— Matt (@MarcGoblin) October 30, 2023
TE Mitchell Evans out for the year with a torn ACL.
Tough for him and our offense, was having a fantastic season.
— ☘️ (@WeAreNDFans) October 30, 2023
Our offense went from poop to bigger poop 😐
— CollegePicks (@CollegePicks4) October 30, 2023
Some fans wondered, however, why was Evans still in the game especially when it was obvious that the game was already in hand for them.
Why was he still in the game? And he even after Evans was injured they still had Audric Estime in the game when they have 4 other quality running backs. When the issue has been decided you have to consider risk management.
— Paul Mazur (@PaulMazur6) October 30, 2023
It will be interesting to see how the Irish offense copes without Evans the rest of the season.