The Irish prepare for multiple opponents during bye week

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame battles the injury bug while focusing on Stanford during the bye week.

While preparing for the annual meeting against Stanford, the Irish also battles the injury bug. Specifically, at the viper (defensive line) position. After losing Jordan Botelho for the season due to an ACL tear against Purdue, Botelho's replacement Boubacar Traore, is now out for the season with an ACL tear, sustained in the 31-24 win over Louisville.

The injury list continues: Tae Johnson (S) out for game; Cooper Flanagan (TE) ankle: questionable; Gabe Rubio (DT) foot: questionable; Billy Schrauth (G) ankle: questionable; Joshua Burnham (DE) ankle: questionable; Christian Gray (CB) shoulder: expected to play; Jordan Faison (WR) ankle: questionable.

Injuries aside, Notre Dame is coming off a much-needed win over Louisville, but the performance was questionable. The Irish had two pivotal fumbles in the week five win, plus five penalties for 45 yards.

"Our focus for the bye week was, number one, we had to improve. We have to improve as a team, and that's improved at our fundamentals, to prove that the tactical execution of what we're doing and improve on some of the unforced errors that that we've committed," Freeman said.

"The second thing I want to do is make sure we prepare for our upcoming opponents. Offensively, we continue to prepare for Stanford. Defensively, we prepare for Stanford. Also took a minute to work on some triple option stuff, as we know we have Navy in a couple weeks in an army following that, and we had to recover. Our guys were banged up, and we had to be smart in terms of how we prepared and improve, but also actually recover at the same time," Freeman added.