Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Riggs learned from several team‑ mates, but once he had the system down he turned to helping others. While not playing the nickel back po‑ sition anymore, Riggs logged plenty of snaps there with the Gators. Irish senior Matthias Farley had logged none prior to this season, making a move up from safety. Riggs returned to his old ways of being the elder statesman. "We bounced some stuff off each other," Farley said. "He played nickel down there so he's more experienced coming into it than I was, having played it in games and things like that. He definitely has helped me a ton." Nobody was genuinely surprised that Riggs picked up VanGorder 's system quickly. Sure, it helped to have teammates feeding him tips every chance they had, but it also helps that he is a student by nature. Most football players take a reduced class load in the fall, compensating for the credits with some in sum‑ mer school, to avoid an overloaded schedule between film study, prac‑ tice and academics. In the Executive MBA program, Riggs does not have that luxury. Instead, he is taking six graduate school classes in addition to his crash course in VanGorder 101. Irish head coach Brian Kelly knew this would be the case when he re‑ cruited Riggs from Florida, yet he also knew Riggs could manage the load, at least for one year. "We wanted to make it work," Kelly said "I wanted to make it work for Cody. "It's a heavy load. He was on my radio show a couple weeks ago and we had a chance to spend a little more time [together]. We were just talking about his experience at Florida com‑ pared to here. He doesn't know if he could do it for four years here, based on the workload. It's academics and football, and really nothing else for him." When Kelly says "nothing else," he means it. How does Brown know how packed his nephew's schedule is? The two used to talk a few times a week. Even though Brown has made it to every Notre Dame game this sea‑ son, that is no longer the case. "We don't talk as much," Brown said. "That's evidence No. 1 that he's got a demanding schedule. He's al‑ ways on the run." While Riggs did break Brown's long jump record, and promptly called his uncle to rub salt in the wound, he does not have one thing his uncle does — a touchdown with Notre Dame (Brown ended his Irish career with 12 scores). Then again, he has an interception, and his uncle cannot claim one of those. Despite the 14 years separating the two, they are as competitive as any brothers. That's why Brown "jok‑ ingly" pulled out of their last foot race, when Riggs was still in high school. "If he could cover me, I'd never admit it. I was smart enough to cut off those battles as soon as he started college," Brown said. "The last time we raced he was a sophomore or a ju‑ nior in high school, and I made sure to not finish the race because he was a lot faster than I thought." ✦