Blue and Gold Illustrated

UNDER THE DOME Getting To Know … JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER TORII HUNTER JR. Nickname: "A couple of the guys on defense call me Bones, after I broke my leg a while back." Major: "IT management with a finance concentration, and an art studio minor." Favorite movie: "'Blue Streak.' Martin Lawrence, he's just one of my favor- ites, and the movie was hilarious." Favorite TV show: "'Tom and Jerry.' I just grew up watching it and I still watch it today." Favorite place around South Bend to eat: "We actually got a new pizza joint on Eddy Street called Blaze Pizza. I love it." Toughest player you've played against: "It's tough going against [Notre Dame cornerback] KeiVarae Rus- sell in practice. He's disciplined, it's tough to get him to move." Favorite music: "Smooth hip hop. I like a little calm stuff, not the crazy stuff." Favorite part of playing for Notre Dame: "Just being able to be around a bunch of guys who have the same interest as me: getting an education and playing at a high level." Drue Tranquill Is The Latest Casualty Another game … another season-ending injury. Celebrations inside the Notre Dame locker room after each of the first three victories this year have been tempered or even somber because of fallen teammates. Starting running back Tarean Folston suffered an ACL tear in the opener versus Texas that has sidelined him for the year, and the next week the Irish also lost quarterback Malik Zaire and tight end Durham Smythe for the remainder of 2015. Versus Georgia Tech Sept. 19, the latest victim was sophomore safety Drue Tranquill. Through the first two quarters, Tranquill had played exceptionally well against the Yellow Jackets, high- lighted by two tackles for loss and two passes broken up in the end zone. On the second, he celebrated by doing a leaping shoulder bump with captain and fifth-year senior linebacker Joe Schmidt — only to tear his ACL on his landing. "What do you say about a kid that gets up and [shoulder] bumps and doesn't turn his ankle, but he tears his ACL?" a crestfallen head coach Brian Kelly said the next day in his teleconference. "I don't know what to say anymore. "Folston is running and he tears his ACL with no contact. … It's just one of the craziest things. You can't explain it, so it doesn't do us any good to really spend much time thinking about it, other than we feel terrible for Drue, for Malik and for all of the players that we've lost." "I hardly ever celebrate after plays, but that was a really great play and he was really excited so I got really excited," Schmidt said. "Things happen … you can't tell people to stop celebrating on plays." Kelly said he hasn't said a word to the players about curbing their enthusiasm on the field. "We talk so much about taking care of each other in practice, and we do such a great job of staying up

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