Notre Dame football suffers massive setback on offensive line
It’s officially that time of Notre Dame fall camp, and there’s still plenty of excitement over the season. However, there’s also some bad news every now and then. When going full bore in practice, players are going to get hurt.
However, the offensive line is the only unit on the Fighting Irish that could be hit harder by a season-ending injury than the others. And yet, that group received a massive blow on Monday.
During practice on Saturday, Aug 3, OL Charles Jagusah injured his shoulder, tearing his right pectoralis muscle, & DB/special teams player Marty Auer injured his left knee, tearing his ACL. Surgery is upcoming for both Jagusah & Auer, & both are expected to miss the 2024 season.
— Notre Dame Football PR Team (@NDFootballPR) August 5, 2024
Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman announced to the media that offensive tackle Charles Jagusah suffered a devastating injury late last week. The lineman, who was competing for a starting job, tore his right pectoralis muscle. He’ll undergo surgery shortly and is out for the entire 2024 season.
Notre Dame football suffers massive setback on already thin offensive line
The news that Jagusah is out for the season was terrible for several reasons. The fact that the Irish are thin at offensive line was definitely right at the top of the list. There’s also the fact that he seemed to be making real progress this spring.
“I feel really good about [Charles] Jagusah,” Freeman said back in March. “He’s going to be solid at that left tackle position, and I knew it — again, I got to spend a lot of time with him on the scout team last year and he’s just continued to get better and better, and he’s had a great spring.”
Jagusah’s injury also likely means that a position battle that had quite a bit of intrigue has now likely been settled. The problem is that it needed to be settled on the field.
Aamil Wagner looked like he was going to nail down one of the tackle positions. It had been thought he’d likely be opposite Jagusah. Instead, Tosh Baker will step in. The problem there is that Baker hasn’t looked great in practice so far.
Baker’s Pro Football Focus offense grade was 47.2 in 118 snaps in 2023. While his dedication to Notre Dame football is admirable, he simply may not have what it takes to start for a program looking to win a national championship.