Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IRISH IN THE PROS and I've got to make the most of it," he said. "It was very tough [to be patient]. The way I looked at it is I'm always just trying to get my craft right. Even if I'm not playing, I'm getting in the mindset where I'm always ready and knowing the game plan. "You've got to be patient, but I was looking at it as an opportunity to work on my craft in practice or the film room and doing all the work I can do. It's a 16-week season and we're grinding ev- ery day, and I knew I needed to prepare my body for that." The performance against the Colts stands out as the one that solidified Gray as a legitimate NFL running back, but it was his 86-yard yard out- ing in the 51-23 thrashing of the Chi- cago Bears Nov. 2 that forced people to take notice of the Beverly Hills, Mich., product. "It felt good to get out there and get multiple carries, and be able to get into a rhythm," he said. "And also having a game like that it kind of confirmed ev- erything for me, that I belonged there and that the guys can trust me and depend on me and that I'll be reliable for the rest of this season if they allow me." That seems like a safe bet after his latest output. It's a remarkable rise from a player who three years ago suffered a season-ending ACL injury during his senior campaign, one that dropped him to the status of an un- drafted free agent. He bounced around from the Miami Dolphins to the Balti- more Ravens before finally settling in with the Patriots in 2014. He sees the parallels between this year and his 12-touchdown breakthrough with the Irish in 2011. "It feels a little bit like that," he said. "Obviously I still have a lot of work to do. It does feel a little bit like that, like all the hard work and everything you put into it kind of comes to fruition. You've got to stay consistent." Although Gray had finally emerged as a senior in 2011, Notre Dame in head coach Brian Kelly's second year had not. With Kelly proclaiming a BCS-or- bust mentality during the preseason, that bubble burst after an 0-2 start with frustrating losses to South Flor- ida (23-20) and Michigan (35-31). Even when the year ended with Notre Dame blowing a 14-0 lead in an 18-14 defeat to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl, Gray saw the program coming together, even if his eligibility had run out. "I definitely knew it," he said. "We all believed in Coach Kelly. We all decided to buy in and we knew we were going to have a lot of success and we knew we were very close in those games and that if we kept following the system he and [strength and con- ditioning coach Paul] Longo had for us, we knew we could be something special." Gray said he often thinks back to the high level of competition at run- ning back during his time in South Bend. Three of those running backs, including Gray, Robert Hughes and Armando Allen, reached the NFL after college. "The fact I went to Notre Dame with the top recruits, every day was kind of like being in an NFL locker room