As if claiming its starting quarterback, running back and tight end wasn’t enough, the Injury Gods claimed another member of Notre Dame’s offense during the Irish’s 41-31 win over USC on Saturday night. Left guard Alex Bars will miss the remainder of the season with a fractured ankle.
“Very similar to Malik Zaire‘s,” head coach Brian Kelly said Sunday.
Bars is the seventh Notre Dame player lost to injury this season.
Bars started at left guard against Navy and USC. But, in a positive note, the player he replaced returned to the lineup and replaced his own replacement. Kelly said fellow redshirt freshman Quenton Nelson, who suffered a sprained ankle in a loss to Clemson on Oct. 3, performed admirably in relief of Bars on Saturday.
“He’s not 100 percent, but he went in there and didn’t miss a beat,” Kelly told our own JJ Stankevitz. “That’s the expectation here. You’re going to have to play banged up. We’re never going to put you in there if it’s a compromising situation -- he was not 100 percent, but he knew his team needed him, he went in there and came up big for us.”