Eli Raridon Gets His Shot To Be The Next Great Notre Dame Tight End

Notre Dame has a well-earned reputation for great tight end play, but the position is a bit of a question mark heading into the 2025 season. It's not for a lack of talent, but rather a conversation centered around injury histories and youth. The ultimate success of the unit centers around senior Eli Raridon, who enters his final season with a chance to have a long awaited breakout.

With Mitchell Evans off to the NFL, Raridon steps into the spotlight at "Tight End U" and the hope is that he'll become the impact player we expected he would be when he signed with Notre Dame as part of the 2022 recruiting class.

"Hopefully a game changer," head coach Marcus Freeman said of the expectation for Raridon in 2025. "I think he's continuing to progress to be a complete tight end."

Raridon played all 16 games last season, which was the first time in his career he made it through an entire season. The Iowa native played the final seven games of the 2023 season after his sophomore campaign began with him on the bench while recovering from the knee injury that cost him the final seven games of his freshman season.

That was the same knee he injured playing basketball as a senior at West Des Moines (Iowa) Valley High School. Staying healthy is paramount for Raridon, who is currently working through his most healthy period at Notre Dame. That has allowed him to remain on the practice field, which should help him improve his game.

"He’s got to stay healthy. That’s been Eli’s biggest nemesis in his first three years," Freeman noted. "There’s always something that has kept him from practicing or playing." 

Not being able to practice has resulted in Raridon's game not growing as quickly as it would have otherwise, but he got a full spring worth of work in 2025. The expectation is that by being healthy, Raridon can turn his big time talent and potential into impact production on a consistent basis.

"I think he has a high ceiling, but he’s just got to continue to put it together to be a complete tight end," Freeman explained. "You know, he’s gotten high praise from [Mike] Denbrock, who’s coached some of the best tight ends Notre Dame has had. Even when we were at Cincinnati, we had two NFL drafted tight ends.

“He’s got a high ceiling, and he’s progressing," continued Freeman. "But he’s got to stay healthy and continuously be consistent in all phases of playing tight end. Like, potential and consistency are two different things. We need him to be more consistent. He’s got high potential.”

At 6-7 and 251 pounds with long arms, Raridon has elite size and an elite catch radius. When healthy he's also shown big time speed for his size. In limited practice viewing this spring, Raridon was a playmaker and showed off that speed. His big catch-and-run play in the Jersey Scrimmage was one of the biggest highlights of that day.

If Raridon can be that player all the time, and stay healthy, a breakout season is sure to come.