2018 Notre Dame Football Preview

2018 Notre Dame Football Preview

Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview

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102 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW in all 25 games the last two years, finish- ing third on the team last season with 85 total tackles and second with 10.5 tackles for loss. "He has taken what could have been catastrophic and turned it into positives, and that's just his mindset and spirit," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said when asked about his star player's unwavering commit- ment to the program and mission. "That's the kind of kid he is, and that's why he's a captain." Football Isn't Everything Athletics are an essential part of Tran- quill's life — he actually considered a pro- fessional baseball career out of Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, Ind. — and an NFL career is the preferred path that he will pur- Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly freely admits that his two-time team captain, Drue Tranquill, can be "intimidating" in the eyes of his Irish team- mates — but not in the way most would assume Kelly meant when describing his hard-hitting linebacker. Make no mistake, as a fearless player and one of Notre Dame's leading tack- lers last season, Tranquill is plenty daunting on the field. But Kelly said his fifth- year senior can be equally intimidating off the field, in a good way. "One thing with Drue is sometimes he's hard to identify with," Kelly said. "Here's an incredible student, graduates from our engineering program, an incredible workout partner in terms of what he does in the weight room, nutrition. "He just does everything so well, so sometimes he's intimidating in a sense." Intimidating? Perhaps. Yet it's that devotion to detail that has allowed Tran- quill to squeeze every ounce of opportunity out of his four-plus years on campus and to become the face and the voice of the Irish this season. Tranquill was named on 85 percent of the team/player ballots when captains were voted on be- fore spring football. "He has really matured in his time here as well," Kelly continued, "from not be- ing one of the top recruited players here to a two-time captain." One of the traits that made Tranquill such an easy choice for captain- ship is his willingness to play wherever he is needed to best help the team. The 2018 campaign w i l l m a r k t h e t h i rd straight season that Tran- quill will have a new de- fensive coordinator, and each of those three coaches had a d i f- ferent plan on where and how to use him. Tranquill played safety in 2016, moved to rover — a hybrid safety/linebacker — last season, and under first-year defensive coordinator Clark Lea this season he will start at Buck linebacker. It's a position switch that moves Tran- quill closer to the action, but will force him again to learn and master a new position and the art of playing in tighter quarters and through more traffic. "I've learned something from each position I've played," said Tranquill, ad- mitting that his career development may have been stunted some with all the position switching. "All of them will contribute to help me be a more holistic player and have a better understanding of football as a whole." The move from rover to Buck was part of a recruiting pitch that Kelly and Lea put together in an attempt to lure Tranquill back for a fifth season in order to improve his stock in NFL circles. "[The coaches] had gotten feedback from NFL teams," Tranquill explained. "We all understood that this is what I need to develop at [to play in the NFL]." Tranquill earned his engineering degree last December, he's suffered two season-ending knee injuries at Notre Dame, he's getting married this summer, so moving on to an engineering or a NFL career would have been understandable, at least to everybody but Tranquill. "Honestly, I just love this team so much, love this university and the opportunity to play," Tranquill said. "In my heart I knew I wanted to be part of this thing for one more year and finish what we started five seasons ago." Rated as only the No. 303 overall player in the country as a junior at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, Ind., Tranquill had limited scholarship of- fers before his senior season there in 2013. Growing up less than 100 miles from Notre Dame, Tranquill attended an Irish recruiting camp as a high school junior and fell in love with the campus. The only problem was that no offer from the Irish coaches seemed to be in the works, so he verbally committed to Purdue, before the dynamics changed during the early part of his senior season. Tranquill said that Notre Dame assistant coach Mike Elston called and asked for him to reopen his recruitment and reconsider his commitment to Purdue. Elston explained that a scholarship offer was coming, but Notre Dame was in a "dead period" on the re- cruiting calendar so no contact be- tween players and coaches was allowed, per NCAA rules. "Which is why I hadn't heard from them," Tranquill said. "I told him I would definitely reconsider and open things back up. "It was the toughest de- cision I have made thus far in my life, but it was an opportunity to grow academi- cally, on the foot- ball field and in my faith." — Todd D. Burlage Tranquill was Notre Dame's third-leading tackler with 85 stops last year and also ranked second with 10.5 tackles for loss. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA Whatever, Whenever And Wherever

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