Jordan Botelho Healthy And Ready For Notre Dame Season Opener

Notre Dame’s defensive end room had question marks heading into training camp nearly a month ago. As the Fighting Irish enter the 2025 season this Sunday at Miami, they have a considerable answer ready to go. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman was short and concise when asked about the availability of Jordan Botelho for this week’s clash with the Hurricanes.  

“He’s going to be available this week,” Freeman responded when asked about Botelho’s status.  

Now in his sixth year at Notre Dame, Botelho has overcome two separate injuries in less than a calendar year to have himself ready to get back on the field this week. He suffered a torn patellar tendon on Sept. 14 at Purdue in Notre Dame’s third game of last season. He missed the rest of a season that would end in the national championship game.  

Botelho was working his way back into offseason shape late in the spring when he suffered a second setback. The 6-3 Honolulu, Hawaii native was working out on his own after returning home in June when he suffered a torn pectoral muscle that required surgery. He was originally expected to need up to four months to recover, which would have put his timetable to return to play in mid-October, but he is now ready to play nearly two months ahead of schedule.  

“We didn’t expect Jordan to be back for Week One,” Freeman remarked. “Not Week One. The work he’s put in to put himself in a position, physically and mentally, to help this football team just shows you his commitment to this football team. Putting in the work to help this team. He was a guy that I didn’t know if he was going to come back this year. I thought maybe he’d try to go to the NFL. He made the decision to come back. He is a mature individual.” 

Botelho was a freshman in 2020 prior to Freeman’s arrival as defensive coordinator in 2021. The bulk of his early playing time came on special teams. He has 794 career defensive snaps to his credit, with 428 of them coming in 2023 when he started 12 games. He has remained resilient and steady gearing up for his last year in college.  

“The maturity that he has truly displayed in these four years has been tremendous,” Freeman said of Botelho. “Part of the thing is how do you respond to bigger things? How do you respond to not playing as much early? How do you respond to injury? How do you attack rehab? How do you make sure you’re prepared when you don’t even know if you’re going to play?  

Botelho goes into the opener listed as an “Or” with Junior Tuihalamaka at No. 2 on the depth chart behind Boubacar Traore on one side with Bryce Young, Josh Burnham and Loghan Thomas at the opposite defensive end.