Jordan Botelho is expected to have no restrictions come summer time as he recovers from a season ending knee injury, suffered in the 3rd game of the 2024 Notre Dame football season against Purdue.

For now, he’s continuing to work towards getting fully healthy during spring practice. While many of the players on the team are practicing, Botelho is in a side group doing different types of workouts with the training staff to get healthy.

“I feel good,” Botelho said Wednesday. “Each week we are doing a lot more. I’m excited for the progression. Coach Landow has us doing good exercise. I look forward to every day attacking the work he has for us.”

Botelho was having a break out start to the season with 12 tackles and a sack when he was injured.

“It was hard at first but once Coach Freeman told me I had the opportunity to come back, I was very thankful and blessed and I knew I just had to get back to where I want to be and just push every day,” Botelho explained.

Botelho will now enter his 6th and final season with the Irish, looking to build on his great start in 2024.

“He’s always been driven,” says Notre Dame defensive line coach Al Washington. “His hunger has always been high but I think now that he decided to come back, this is his last run at college football and he is putting everything he has into it.”

And because he’s a super veteran on the roster, Botelho has grown into someone younger players look up to.

“He’s a great leader and battling back,” fellow defensive lineman Loghan Thomas says. “He’s always working, always in the Gug – meeting, watching film with us and always helping us to reach our goals as much as reach his goals too.”

The players aren’t the only ones noticing the way Botelho has stepped up in the defensive line room.

“He’s doing a great job in terms of what he’s able to do but his leadership has been phenomenal for the guys as well,” Washington says. “He’s competitive. He’s eager to get back out there but when that time comes, we are going to drop that leash and let him go be Jordan and attack.”

Botelho can’t wait for that day to arrive.

“I’m really hungry and looking forward to attacking each day and just getting back out there with the boys and proving myself again,” he says.

And while the desire to get back on the field and play is strong for Botelho, so is the mindset to trust the process that’s right in front of him.

“I gotta be smart because if I do something right now, I could hurt myself,” Botelho concedes. “So just listening to [Coach Washington] and following the plan is a good thing.”

That doesn’t mean he’s not trying to get Coach Washington to let him do more.

“Today he was like, ‘can I do this’ and I was like ‘no, get away from me,’” Washington relayed. “We have to be smart about it. That’s what you want–that’s how good players usually are.”