{"id":74507,"date":"2025-06-14T14:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T18:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=74507"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:13:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:13:50","slug":"notre-dames-jordan-botelho-sidelined-for-four-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/06\/14\/notre-dames-jordan-botelho-sidelined-for-four-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Notre Dame\u2019s Jordan Botelho Sidelined for Four Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame defensive end Jordan Botelho suffered a torn pectoral muscle and will miss four months. Botelho started the 2024 season on a strong note before injuring his knee in the third game of the season, a 66-7 win over Purdue. His latest injury, which reportedly occurred in offseason training away from campus, required surgery last week. Botelho is the Irish\u2019s most experienced edge defender.<\/p>\n

While Botelho\u2019s torn pectoral muscle is an obvious setback for the Notre Dame defense, it will give him more time to heal his knee. If his recovery remains on schedule, Botelho should be able to return to the field in October. The Irish are slated to play arch rival USC in South Bend on October 18th.<\/p>\n

Two weeks after Botelho went down last year, Boubacar Traore<\/a> also suffered a season-ending knee injury. With both Botelho and Traore coming back from significant injuries last season, the Irish could start the 2025 slate thin at the edge position. As a result, seniors Joshua Burnham<\/a> and Junior Tuihalamaka<\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0along with sophomore\u00a0Bryce Young,<\/a><\/span>\u00a0will have opportunities<\/a> to step up and lead the way. Sophomore Loghan Thomas<\/a> and redshirt freshman Cole Mullins<\/a> should also see more reps in the coming season. Thomas played in all 15 games as a freshman, amassing seven tackles and one-and-a-half sacks. Mullins was sidelined for part of last season with a meniscus injury.<\/p>\n

Tuihalamaka racked up 49 tackles, five-and-a-half for loss, and three sacks in his first three years with the Irish. Burnham has 49 tackles, 11 for loss, and three sacks in 28 games. Young made 23 tackles, three for loss, and had one-and-a-half sacks last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sep 21, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish defenisve lineman Boubacar Traore (5) pressures Miami Redhawks quarterback Brett Gabbert (5) in the second quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Losing Jordan Botelho is a Blow to the Irish<\/h3>\n

A native of Honolulu, Botelho elected to return to Notre Dame for a sixth season after rupturing his patellar tendon. All told, Botelho has recorded 77 career tackles, 16 for loss, and 11.5 career sacks. According to Pro Football Focus<\/em>, Botelho also has 49 career pressures. He had his best game last year against Texas A&M. Botelho recorded a career-high six tackles\u2014three solo\u2014and added a team-best two quarterback hurries in the win over the Aggies.<\/p>\n

Given his veteran presence, Botelho’s absence from action for at least four months is undoubtedly a blow to the Fighting Irish. Fortunately for new defensive coordinator Chris Ash and head coach Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame has plenty of talent with Traore, Burnham, Tuihalamaka, and Young poised to play more prominent roles. Without question, though, Botelho\u2019s experience and disruptive play on the edge will be sorely missed, especially in key early-season matchups.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just look at the group, the defensive end group in general\u2014I think there\u2019s several playmakers there,\u201d Ash said to Blueandgold.com<\/em>. \u201cThose guys, they\u2019ve got length, they\u2019re explosive, they\u2019re physical. They can rush the passer, they can play the run, they can drop in coverage if they need to. There\u2019s a lot of things that those guys can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depending on his recovery time, Botelho could return in mid-October, potentially providing a much-needed boost for the latter half of the season. And just in time to face the Trojans and to prepare for a possible playoff push.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Image: MANDATORY CREDIT GREG SWIERCZ \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame defensive end Jordan Botelho suffered a torn pectoral muscle and will miss four months. Botelho started the 2024 season on a strong note before injuring his knee in the third game of the season, a 66-7 win over Purdue. His latest injury, which reportedly occurred in offseason training away from campus, required surgery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4854,"featured_media":74510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,17,35676],"tags":[459,35189,6850,259,84],"class_list":["post-74507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-independents","category-featured","category-news","category-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-chris-ash","tag-jordan-botelho","tag-marcus-freeman","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-usc-trojans"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74507"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74512,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74507\/revisions\/74512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}