Notre Dame football set to welcome a healthy Ashton Craig vs. Wisconsin

SOUTH BEND — So much for a cautious ramp-up regarding Notre Dame football center Ashton Craig.

Forty-seven weeks after suffering his second torn ACL in as many seasons, the senior from Lawrenceburg, Ind. is listed atop the depth chart for Sunday night’s Sept. 6 opener against unranked Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.

“He has a lot of experience,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said Monday Aug. 31 at his weekly news conference. “There’s a calmness that he brings because of his experience. He’s a really, really good football player and he’s really progressed throughout camp with his workload and has gotten himself to a place where he’s ready to go.”

Barring any setbacks during practice this week, Sunday’s start would be the 13th of Craig’s college career, dating to the last three games of 2023.

He was knocked out for the season in Week 3 at Purdue in 2024 (left ACL) but returned for the season-opening loss at Miami in 2025.

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In Game 6, however, Craig went down in the second half against North Carolina State with an injury to the same knee. Backup Joe Otting took over for the USC game and started the final six games of the regular season with little dropoff.

Craig received practice time at right guard during fall camp, but the Irish are still deciding between Sullivan Absher and converted tackle Styles Prescod for the starting spot.

If Prescod wins the job, that will make Craig the only member of Notre Dame’s Week 1 offensive line to start in the same spot he handled last season.  

“There’s a level of comfort with (Craig),” Freeman said. “There’s a lot of comfort and confidence we have in Joe Otting, but to have Ashton out there is going to be something that helps our offense.”

In other injury news, linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is listed as questionable for the opener and wideout Quincy Porter is out.

Viliamu-Asa practiced at a high volume in fall camp after rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered against Syracuse on Senior Day.

Porter, the Ohio State transfer, had a clean-up procedure on Aug. 21 after January surgery on his left patellar tendon.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football set to welcome a healthy Ashton Craig vs. Wisconsin