2 min read • September 22, 2022
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Josh Downs injured his left knee in a fourth-quarter game against Florida A&M University. This was the team’s first game of the 2022 season. Since sustaining the knee injury, Downs has missed the team’s last two games.
But according to Matt Zenitz of On3, Downs is on track to be available for the game against the Fighting Irish. Last season Downs broke single-season records with 101 receptions and 1,335 receiving yards. He was close to breaking another record when he scored a touchdown in eight consecutive contests. Last year Downs had 10 receptions for 142 yards against Notre Dame. His return will be a big boost to UNC’s offense.
Antoine Green was the number two wide receiver option for the UNC Tar Heels. He was second on the team in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdown catches. But, he injured his collarbone during a team scrimmage at fall camp. He missed the team's first three games recovering from the injury. Nevertheless, UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo told the media on Monday that Green will practice this week. The return of Green could be huge for the Tar Heels passing offense, and it couldn’t come at a better time than Josh Downs expected to be playing.
“When they are healthy, and they are back in the mix, you are going to play the best people, and we want to play a lot of people, so all this does is just add more bullets to your gun, and you try and still distribute the ball around like we have been doing,” said Longo. “Having more weapons back is always a good problem.”
Notre Dame started the season by losing to a high-ranked Ohio State football team. Then they played Marshall University, a team that has beaten less than five ranked opponents in the school history, and lost the game. They found out after the match their starting quarterback Tyler Buchner was out for the season. Backup Drew Pyne, who lost the job to Buchner in fall camp, had to take over the reins as the starting quarterback.
In his first start of the season, Pyne went 17 of 23(73.9%) with two touchdowns and, most importantly, got the Fighting Irish their first win. He is only averaging 5.9 yards per completion, though, and a big part of that is the loss of multiple Notre Dame wide receivers.
The team lost their leading wide receiver to the NFL draft last season, Kevin Austin, and their second-best wide receiver, Avery Davis, is out for the season with a torn ACL. Their starting receiver tandem of Lorenzo Styles and Braden Lenzy has a combined 16 catches and zero touchdowns on the year.
The team has only thrown three touchdowns in three games this year, two to tight end Michael Mayer and the other to running back Chris Tyree. The team’s lack does depth at receiver could cause them to lose the game.
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