Doug Randolph‘s career at Notre Dame is over. The reserve defensive lineman will no longer compete on the field, as a spinal injury has ended his career.
Randolph wasn’t expected to battle for a starting job, though he was a contender to take snaps in the weakside defensive end rotation. Now he’ll serve as a student assistant, similar to the role Tony Springmann filled after injuries took him off the field.
With a newly released spring roster, here are few other changes that caught my eye:
Fifth-year candidates Nicky Baratti and John Turner are no longer with the program. Offensive lineman Mark Harrell is with the team. As is long-snapper Scott Daly, as always assumed. Interestingly, graduate student, and former walk-on, Josh Anderson is still on the spring roster.
Starting defensive tackle Jarron Jones is the only other fifth-year starter while Avery Sebastian stays in South Bend for a second season after arriving as a graduate transfer from Cal last summer. An early-season foot injury qualified him for a sixth year of competition.
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Two big position switches are in the mix, mostly to bolster the depth chart behind some front-line options. Rising senior Jacob Matuska is moving from the defensive line to tight end. After being listed as a 295-pound defensive lineman as a junior, Matuska is down to 275 pounds on the spring roster (Kelly had him pegged at 271) and he’ll likely fill the role of Chase Hounshell as an in-line blocker.
Matuska, a very good tight end as a high school player, already impressed the staff with his athleticism during testing.
“One of the numbers that really surprised me was Matuska. We moved him over to tight end, 6'4½, 271, and he ran 4.9,” Kelly said. “So there’s a big in-line guy for us that ran a whole lot better at 4.9.”
John Montelus is working with the defensive line. After spending the last three seasons as an offensive lineman, Montelus will try and add some depth to the interior of the defensive line.
An intriguing body type and power player, watching Montelus brawl from the other side of the line will be interesting. After showing up as a 340-pounder out of high school, Montelus has reshaped his body, opening this spring at 310 pounds. Whether that helps the Massachusetts native break through remains to be seen.
Redshirt freshman Ashton White will work with the safeties this spring after being listed as a defensive back as a freshman. He’s up to 190 pounds after being listed at 182 last season.
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Kelly also finalized the remainder of his football staff. While the position coaches and coordinators stay the same, Kelly detailed the comings and goings of the analyst and GA staff.
Harland Bower will be one of the team’s defensive graduate assistants. He’s replacing Mike Hiestand, who will be the defensive coordinator for NAIA program Ave Maria. Clay Bignell is the team’s other defensive GA, replacing former Irish captain Maurice Crum, who took a full-time staff job at Indiana State. Bignell was a GA last year at Northwestern (along with former Irish QB Tommy Rees) and was a standout linebacker at Montana State as a college player.
Pryce Tracy moves from special teams analyst to offensive graduate assistant. He replaces Ryan Mahaffey, who is now the offensive coordinator at Northern Iowa. Marty Biagi will be the new special teams analyst. He spent last season at South Dakota and before that coordinated special teams at Southern.
Former Wisconsin center Donovan Raiola remains at offensive GA while Matt Mitchell takes on Jeff Quinn‘s analyst role. Quinn will remain within the program, the former head coach at Buffalo and trusted Kelly confidante replacing Aaron Wellman as the assistant director of strength and conditioning. Wellman was hired by Ben McAdoo to run the New York Giants strength department. He had been with the Irish for one season after running Michigan’s strength department.