Notre Dame's Yeatman and Ruldolph Will Replace Injured Ragone This Season

Mike Ragone, Notre Dame's projected starting Tight End, is done for the year this afternoon after deciding to go forward with surgery on his left knee. 

Ragone tried to practice on the knee for a few days before deciding to go with the surgery. He will now be shelved for the 2008 season.

With Ragone out, the Irish move from a little experience at tight end to virtually no experience there.

The starters role will now be a tossup between Will Yeatman and freshman five-star recruit Kyle Rudolph.  Yeatman, a junior, enters with more game experience than Rudolph but appears to have a lower ceiling of capability compared to Rudolph. 

Charlie Weis and company will likely use this as a way to break Kyle Rudolph into the mix a bit quicker than they had planned.  He may not start right away, but he is going to see valuable playing time on Saturday's this fall.

Tight End will be a position the Irish will focus on in the coming years.  Although Weis and Co. have recruited well for the position, there are still big shoes that have to be filled with the departure of John Carlson.

Carlson, now of the Seattle Seahawks, parlayed excellent junior and senior seasons into a first day pick in the NFL Draft.  Irish coaches hope any of the tight ends on the roster hit their stride quickly.

With Notre Dame still at least a year away from seriously contending for a BCS bid, this injury does not hurt as much as it would if it were to happen to a slightly more experienced team.  As much as it does hurt to have the starting tight end out for the season, there are positives that come along with it.

Yeatman was likely to see the field this year in a backup roll while Rudolph likely was going to roam the sideline like most freshman tight ends do have since Charlie Weis took over as head coach.  With the injury to Ragone we now will see both on the field a bit more now, which could pave the way to more success in the coming years.

Instead of having Ragone gain experience this year and potentially turn into a budding star next fall the Irish will have a deeper rotation now at tight end next year.

It may be a tough concept to grasp but this injury to the Irish is not as big of deal as some have made it out to be.  It is expected that Ragone will be back and ready to play by spring practice and with Notre Dame rules, will gain an extra year or eligibility in all likelihood.

Obviously Ragone is not going to want to stay out of the lineup next fall as nobody wants to lose their job to an underclassman.  I assume this will make him work that much harder to get in better shape than he was in when the injury occurred.

This sets up a true competition at tight end next year which will only benefit the team.  The worst case scenario now comes out to be perhaps our offense loses some lust this fall, but next season there will be at least two tight ends on the roster deserving of quality playing time.

Not only will the competition for playing time be great, but the potential is also there to run an offense out of more two tight end sets if both succeed the way Irish fans hope they do.

Sure it may be troublesome to think about entering this year, but the injury to Ragone can benefit Notre Dame in the near future.