Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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came back and told me they love me and that they were going to do this. That was humbling for me." As it turned out, Grace had to stay in Texas for surgery the next morn- ing. Notre Dame called his family and arranged for his mother and sister to arrive as quickly as possible from Cin- cinnati. The following spring, he wasn't healing the way the doctors had hoped, so he underwent a second surgery that they thought would fix him once and for all. He said he went through a combination of emotions — part deflating and part uplifting. "I just wasn't feeling well," he said. "I was limping very badly still. I was pushing myself and doing all the right things, but at the same time it's like, 'Okay, we're going to do the surgery and it is going to help.' That was the other side of it. I was just going to fo- cus on that side and not look at it as a negative … but like a second chance." During his year on the injury list, while preparing for his potential re- turn, Grace did all he could to stay involved and absorb the new defense being laid out by new defensive coor- dinator Brian VanGorder. "When you're sitting out, you can go one of two directions," Grace said. "You either can sit there and feel sorry for yourself or you can be involved. For me, that was taking mental reps. That was being in the playbook so I could be another set of eyes. If I wouldn't have done that, I wouldn't have been prepared for the spring right now. That was really valuable, and it's something Coach VanGorder talks about — being in the playbook all the time. I was just doing what I was expected to do and following pro- tocol and it's paying off." When he returned to action this spring — he participated in a few seven-on-seven drills during bowl prep, but indicated that all he could do was hobble around — he found himself thrown into a competition at middle linebacker with fifth-year senior Joe Schmidt and sophomore Nyles Morgan. "I don't even think about that. To me, it's all just pure joy and excitement just to even be out there and have an opportunity again," he said. "That's all I'm thinking about and just trying to soak it all in again. For so long I was just standing there watching these guys play, and a lot of these guys are young, so they never got the chance to play with me, so I'm trying to show them how it needs to be done, whether that's with my effort and excitement and enthusiasm. "Whatever my role is come the sea- son, I'm just going to embrace that and give it all I've got." Because he missed all of 2014, Grace could apply for a medical redshirt and be eligible for the 2016 season. But after the long road of recovery just to reach this point, Grace is solely fo- cused on leaving his mark on 2015. "There's been discussions about [a sixth year]," he said. "My priority though is getting accepted into grad school and enjoying this fifth year. "When that time comes, the coaches have said they'd give me full support and they'll look into that and give me every opportunity to continue my aca- demic and athletic career." ✦