Pair of players end Notre Dame football careers with medical scholarships

The Notre Dame football team lost two of its top 2022 defensive line commits on the same day. Both players, Aiden Gobara and Tyson Ford aren’t transferring out. Instead, their playing careers appear over.

The university announced on Friday morning that Gobara and Ford are being placed on Medical Scholarships. That means that at the very least, their playing days in South Bend are over. Though they’ll stay with the school for now to continue their education. The school did not say what exactly spurred the move. However, both have been banged up for a while now.

Notre Dame football players end careers

Gobaira, a native of Virginia, redshirted as a freshman and then tore his ACL in fall camp last August ahead of his second campaign.. 

In 2022, Gobaira worked on Notre Dame’s scout team as a freshman. Before his injury, defensive coordinator Al Golden felt he was on track to get significant playing time in 2023.

The highly rated recruit picked Notre Dame over 16 other programs during his recruitment as he held offers from Arizona State, Duke, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, Virginia and Virginia Tech. 

Tyson Ford could eventually unretire

Irish head coach Marcus Freeman announced that Ford was taking a break from the team this spring. In his statement, he alluded to the fact that the defensive lineman needed some time to reflect and make decisions. For now, it seems that Ford has come to the conclusion that he is not in a position to continue playing, at least not in the immediate future.

The former four-star prospect, played in two games during his two seasons at Notre Dame football and both came in 2023. Ford, a St. Louis native, saw his first game action against Tennessee State before appearing in the home finale in Notre Dame’s win over Wake Forest.