Drue Tranquill Tries To Draw Positives From Season-Ending Injuries
Drue Tranquill remembers the moment vividly.
Late in the second quarter of Notre Dame’s third game of the season, the then-sophomore safety suffered a torn ACL while celebrating after breaking up a pass in the end zone. As if that wasn’t bad enough luck in itself, it marked the second time in two seasons the Fort Wayne, Ind., product went down with a season-ending knee injury.
“I felt my knee kind of give way and I kind of was screaming like, ‘No, not again,’” Tranquill said. “The physical pain was really bad right away and it was kind of the emotional pain of knowing I’ll never play with guys like Matthias [Farley] and Joe [Schmidt] again.
“It was kind of a realization that I was about to go through eight months of what I just went through again. Very difficult.”
Tranquill is a projected starting safety, replacing Elijah Shumate. Head coach Brian Kelly praised Tranquill’s emerging leadership skills at the beginning of spring ball on a unit looking to replace the leadership void left by Schmidt, Farley, Sheldon Day and others that have since departed.
Attempting to find positives in what many would view as a bleak situation, Tranquill said he tried to study the game as much as possible from the sidelines for the remainder of the 2015 season.
“It’s all you can do at that point,” he said. “You’re physically out, so your mental game is really the only thing that can grow. Your leadership can grow as well. It’s just encouraging guys and helping that ‘Next Man In.’ It’s kind of how I saw my role develop the past couple years. It’s just being more vocal with my leadership and just taking younger guys and helping them because ultimately we’re only as strong as our weakest link and we have to get those guys and we have to get depth.”
Unfortunately for Tranquill, he had already learned the skills necessary to stay positive during a long rehabilitation process.
“I think it’s just your mindset going forward,” he said. “A lot of guys tend to dwell on, ‘Dang, I’m out for the season.’ But once you can kind of turn the corner and flip the switch in your mind and just see it as a learning opportunity, you can progress and move forward a lot faster.
“The second time around, it was hard — but I got over myself in a day or two and said it’s only going to get better from here, so I have to put my head down and get back to it.”
As a freshman, the safety registered a substantial amount of playing time on third-down packages for the Irish. He sees the value he brings to that situation, but also thinks he is ready to be an every-down safety.
“It was great competition with Shumate last year,” he said. “We were kind of going back and forth, but they can obviously use me in a lot of different packages, so I presume they’ll do that the same this year.
“Obviously my role as safety will take up a little bit more, so I'm excited for that. … I’m assuming they’ll use me in some different packages as well.”
Tranquill finds himself looking forward to what he hopes will be a bright 2016 rather than the injuries that ended his freshman and sophomore campaigns with the Irish.