Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Jarrett Grace On The Shelf For Spring Notre Dame's dearth of depth at inside linebacker will reach its low point this spring while the Irish wait for the arrival of incoming recruits at the position and, more importantly, for injured junior Jarrett Grace. Grace, who broke both his tibia and fibula in a win over Arizona State on Oct. 5, doesn't expect to be healthy enough to practice in pads during spring practice. He will have to wait until August to test his damaged leg in full contact situations. The X-ray of his shattered right leg was hard to look at during his first weeks of recovery, Grace said. He still needed the help of a crutch and occasionally a scooter to get around campus in early December. A rigorous rehab schedule has helped him keep the rest of his body in shape while his bones settle. "It's been intensive. Every day, sometime multiple times a day," he said. "I'm just really attacking and just trying to get back as soon as possible, but at the same time not pushing too much. That bone is taking a while to heal because it was so severe." Prior to the injury, Grace was slowly coming into his own as the middle linebacker of the future for Notre Dame. He spelled fifth-year senior Dan Fox in the first three games before taking over the starting role in the three games before the broken leg. He had a team-high 41 tackles when he went down midway through the second quarter against the Sun Devils. "It was a good year," Grace said about the first six weeks of the regular season. "I was learning with every play. I made my fair share of mistakes, but at the same time I was building confidence." The second half of the regular season wasn't Junior linebacker Jarrett Grace, who was leading a total loss, he said. Grace absorbed as much as the team in tackles with 41 before suffering a brohe could on the sideline by watching the game ken leg versus Arizona State Oct. 5, will anchor a while it unfolded. He said he tried to get inside depleted linebacking corps next fall. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND the head of former defensive coordinator Bob Diaco while diagnosing each play as it happened. That gave Grace, who still has two years of eligibility remaining, a fresh perspective on his role in the defense. Team doctors told Grace he should be "feeling athletic" and able to run by the time the team reconvenes for spring drills in March, but the bone won't be far enough into the rehab process to test it on the practice field. — Dan Murphy