UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE
T
he devastating moment probably
seems like a distant memory now
for Notre Dame freshman running
back Josh Adams. But his rock bottom
hit only two short years ago during
just another football game at Central
Bucks High School, about an hour
north of Philadelphia.
Adams was doing what he did each
Friday night for the Marching Titans
— everything: running the football,
catching passes, and returning kicks
and punts. But on what should've
been just another kickoff return, and
not on a particularly violent hit, he
tore his ACL.
The injury cost Adams the rest of his
junior season and potentially a whole
lot more since it happened during the
critical recruiting period when prep
players are performing and posturing
for the best scholarship offers.
"One moment I was ranked second
in the state at running back, and then
I dropped quickly down," Adams said
last winter of a promising college ca-
reer put in jeopardy by one freakish
hit. "It definitely made me realize that
the game can be taken away at any
moment and nothing is promised to
anyone, no matter how good you are
or were."
The elite scholarship offers for Ad-
ams all but dried up after his surgery.
Schools such as Boston College, Pitts-
burgh, Rutgers and Temple became
the norm — all fine institutions, but
not exactly pigskin powerhouses. But
one big-time coach saw something be-
yond a surgically repaired knee that
kept his interest in Adams high. That
was Notre Dame head coach Brian
Kelly.
"Just the way he took care of him-
self, all the way down to his family, his
mom, his siblings," Kelly explained of
Adams' character. "There were just so
many other factors there."
Kelly relies on his assistant coaches'
input and his own instincts — not In-
ternet rankings — when it comes to
Risky Recruitment Is
Paying Prompt Dividends
Despite tearing his ACL as a high school junior,
Pennsylvania running back Josh Adams was still
offered a scholarship by Notre Dame.
PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA
