As the season winds down and we begin to think about playoffs, I am reminded of the idea that the season’s champion is not necessarily the best team but the healthiest team. We all had big dreams of a new banner being hung in the tunnel, but as we approach the first 12-team College Football Playoff, the injuries stacking up on the Irish defense do not make me feel any better about Notre Dame’s chances.
This weekend, graduate defensive tackle Howard Cross III joined other notable names — including sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison, graduate defensive end Jordan Botelho and sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore on the bench. Cross went down in the beginning of the second quarter in Saturday’s 52-3 defeat of Florida State and was down on the field for a few minutes before being able to limp off. He went straight to the injury tent.
Cross was back on the sideline with a heavily taped ankle, and head coach Marcus Freeman didn’t know his status after the game.
“[They] said it was an ankle sprain,” Freeman said. “I don’t know if he could have came back ... I think by the time there was a possibility maybe he could have came back, [the game] was over.”
Graduate defensive tackle Rylie Mills, who is quickly becoming the defense’s most dynamic player, talked about the kind of teammate Cross is and how his injury helped to motivate him to come up big the rest of the drive and the game.
“Howard went down and I was just gutted for him. That kind of gave me some motivation. He was great after that. He talked to [the] young guys.”
Notre Dame is becoming a bit thin on the defensive line, with Cross being the third defensive lineman to suffer a potentially serious injury this season. Several of the potential opponents Notre Dame could face in the playoffs, like Boise State and Tennessee, have very strong running games and could power through a beaten-up Notre Dame front line.
That being said, Mills had three sacks in Saturday’s game against the Seminoles, his career high and the most sacks by a Notre Dame player since Isaiah Foskey. The Irish had eight sacks against the Seminoles, a dominant defensive performance, albeit against a fairly weak opponent. There are some bright spots on this line, even with so many injuries. But it is clear that Notre Dame has a weakness that a better team, a playoff team, could take advantage of.
Nevertheless, Mills was pumped up by the defense’s play Saturday night after the game.
“I think we as a defense brought the boom,” he said.
While true for this game, let’s hope that Cross’s injury isn’t all that serious and the defense can have even more of a boom for the rest of the season.
“We said you have to be strong up the middle, and it starts up front with those two seniors, those guy that are veterans,” Freeman said. “They are playing really well. Rylie [Mills] got some individual glory today. He got the sacks, but there’s a lot of people that contributed to Rylie having the sacks. You talk about coverage, and you talk about some other guys up front.”
