Starting senior defensive lineman Jarron Jones will miss the entire 2015 season after suffering an MCL injury in his right knee during Notre Dame’s training camp, head coach Brian Kelly announced Saturday.
The injury occurred early during a practice, Kelly said, when a player rolled on Jones’s knee. He called the incident “kind of a freak deal,” and said Jones will undergo surgery next week.
After being battered by injuries late last season, the Irish defense was just getting back to full strength. Jones was coming back from a Lisfranc injury that forced him to miss the last two games of the season, while senior Sheldon Day and graduate students Jarrett Grace and Joe Schmidt were reaching full speed after missing time.
The absence of Jones leaves a hole in the middle of the line, as he started the first 11 games of 2014 and recorded 40 tackles, 7.5 for a loss, along with 1.5 sacks and two blocked kicks. Kelly said Saturday his spot will likely be filled by freshman Jerry Tillery and sophomore Daniel Cage.
Jones was not the only Irish player absent from practice Saturday. Senior running back C.J. Prosise, who is challenging junior Tarean Folston for time at running back, has a hip flexor that will keep him from going full-speed for at least another week, Kelly said. But he is not worried about Prosise losing ground in the battle for playing time.
“He knows the offense so well. We felt really good about his run tracks and his ability to know the offense," Kelly said. "I think how it affects us more than anything else is that we don’t want to wear out Folston.”
To combat that possibility, Kelly said he has given senior Josh Anderson, the oldest running back on the squad, more carries during practice as the younger backs develop.
Freshman linebacker Josh Barajas will also be sidelined for two weeks with a pulled hamstring.
