Notre Dame tight end Rudolph out for season

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame will have to make do without one of its best players for the rest of the season.

Kyle Rudolph, 6-foot-6, 265-pound junior tight end, needs surgery after severely injuring his hamstring. His recovery could take six months.

"I kind of went in with a positive mindset to my MRI. We were expecting to get all good results and then go get an ultrasound and take a week off and go from there," Rudolph said Tuesday after the Irish practiced.

"To come back and get that news was a little shocking. "

Rudolph, bothered by a hamstring problem in preseason camp, was hurt in Saturday's 23-17 win over Pitt. Coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday the hamstring pulled away from the bone after an injury involving two tendons. Surgery will take place in the next several days.

"Certainly, you lose one of the best tight ends in the country that's a loss. But, you know, not one player is going to stop what we do,"' Kelly said, naming Tyler Eifert, Mike Ragone and Jake Golic as backup tight ends who will need to fill in.

Notre Dame plays Western Michigan at home Saturday.

Rudolph, a starter since his freshman season, has 28 catches for 328 yards and three touchdowns this season, including a 95-yarder against Michigan. In his first two seasons, he made 62 receptions for 704 yards and five TDs.

Rudolph was a Mackey Award semifinalist last season and was a key component in Kelly's spread offense. He had to leave the game Saturday against Pitt in the fourth quarter and finished the game with five catches.

"He felt very good before the game. Exertion caused the injury. ... He's a courageous kid and tried to fight through it," Kelly said.

Kelly said he hadn't discussed what the injury will mean for Rudolph's future as far as staying in school or declaring for the draft.

Rudolph said he hasn't had time to even think about the future beyond his surgery.

"The last 24 to 48 hours has been crazy with getting the MRI and getting the results," he said. "The surgery right now is important."

Rudolph said he initially hurt the hamstring during summer one-on-one drills. It appeared that he'd recovered when he hooked up with Dayne Crist on the 95-yard TD in the second game of the season.

"I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't worried when I was running," Rudolph said. "Looking back it would be interesting to see how fast I would have run with two good legs."

He wasn't sure which play he was hurt on Saturday but it came late in the game before he was taken out. And he added he had no regrets playing this season, even if his hamstring wasn't completely healed.

"In all actuality it was my decision to go when I did and to go as hard as I did," he said.

Kelly said the team's medical and training staff was steadfast in monitoring Rudolph's previous hamstring problems.

"It was a Sunday conversation, literally with our training staff and doctors. It was a daily interaction we had with Kyle," Kelly said. "Just one of those unfortunate things that occurs in a sport like this, and this is an injury that's unfortunately is becoming a lot more common because of the explosiveness of these young men."

It's been a frustrating experience for Rudolph because the injury lingered for so long and now instead of playing, he'll have to advise his teammates from the sidelines once he recovers from the surgery.

"It's something for a while now that's been bothering me and it's to a point where I have to fix it," he said.

Rudolph, from Cincinnati, missed two games last year with a shoulder injury. He had surgery on the shoulder during the offseason and was limited during spring drills.

But he showed the ability to get open this season and his good hands and ability to run with the ball after the catch gave the spread offense and quarterback Dayne Crist another option -- even though he had only one catch each in games against Stanford and Boston College.

Eifert, who has one catch this season and has been bothered by a sore shoulder, said he couldn't really replace Rudolph.

"You don't really fill his shoes," Eifert said. "There's only one Kyle Rudolph. I'll do what I do and take care of my responsibilities."