Eight players in the Notre Dame two-deeps will miss matchup with South Florida

Notre Dame’s football depth chart took a pregame hit as eight players in Monday’s two-deeps were deemed unavailable prior to kickoff of Saturday’s Notre Dame Stadium matchup with South Florida (1-0).

That included three starters for the seventh-ranked Irish (1-0) — safety Kyle Hamilton, cornerback TaRiq Bracy and linebacker Marist Liufau.

A ninth player, wide receiver Ben Skowronek, is also out. Skowronek was not listed by the Notre Dame sports information staff in the pregame release, because he was ruled out early in the week and thus was not listed on the depth chart.

The Northwestern grad transfer suffered a hamstring injury in the 27-13 season-opening win over Duke last Saturday.

Also out are No. 2 quarterback Brendon Clark, making true freshman Drew Pyne the backup to starter Ian Book on Saturday. No. 2 slot receiver Lawrence Keys, No. 2 buck linebacker Shayne Simon, No. 2 defensive end Ovie Oghoufo and No. 4 running back Jahmir Smith were the other players ruled out.

It is Notre Dame’s policy in the pregame reports not to differentiate between injured players being out and those missing because of a positive COVID-19 test or a mandatory quarantine because of contact tracing.

Players not on the two-deeps are not addressed in the reports.

Hamilton did suffer ankle injury in the Duke game and hadn’t practiced at least through Wednesday.

Sophomore Jack Kiser started at buck linebacker, while Houston Griffith did so at safety and freshman Clarence Lewis at cornerback. It was the first career start for both Kiser and Lewis.

Overall on campus, Notre Dame continues to do well with its infection rate. Per the school’s COVID-19 dashboard Saturday, updated at noon each day, Notre Dame had three positive tests out of 496 tested in the last 24-hour cycle.

There are 50 active cases on campus among students and employees and a seven-day positivity rate of 1%.