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Notre Dame wide receiver Beaux Collins will remember this run to the College Football Playoff for several reasons, one of which is how he sprinted down the halls of a New Orleans hotel as a fun-loving kid.
That’s how some of the Fighting Irish dealt with an unexpected day off before last week’s Sugar Bowl, a timeline set in motion by tragedy after a man used his speeding truck as a weapon in the nearby French Quarter, killing more than a dozen people.
Collins, his Notre Dame teammates and their coaches are now in Florida, where they will face Penn State in the Orange Bowl for a trip to the national championship game. They deftly navigated a series of challenges in their march through the postseason.
“It was wild,” Collins said. “Hearing the news was definitely sad, hearing about the people who lost their lives. So we had to take some time to think about how lucky we are to still be alive, breathing, able to play the game called football. There are people out there who put their lives on the line for us; we have to admit that.”
While every school selected for the first 12-team playoff has its own stories of overcoming adversity, Notre Dame’s playoff run was historic.
The Irish (13-1) have already played — and won — more games than any team in the program’s storied history and come within two wins of snapping a 36-year state championship drought, the school’s longest since winning its first title in 1924 .
A playoff semifinal against the Nittany Lions (13-2) will mark the deepest January Notre Dame has ever played; another win would extend the Irish’s longest streak to 16 games. Coach Marcus Freeman responded by reducing contact in practice to keep players fresh, a good workout for the NFL’s 17-game schedule.
The players reached the finals before the first round victory over Indiana.
Notre Dame’s challenges extend far beyond football and include family, faith and destiny.
The Irish split their first-round practice week by balancing finals and football, something near and dear to fullback Christian Gray’s mother, who still tracks his grades. Notre Dame spent the next week planning for second-seeded Georgia while taking time off to celebrate the Christmas holiday that is so sacred at this Catholic institution.
Then everything was suddenly put on hold by what happened in the French Quarter. Inside the team hotel, the players began to reflect on life as they considered what they could do to help.
That’s when center Pat Coogan and right guard Rocco Spindler decided someone needed to lead Notre Dame onto the field with an American flag. Coogan did.
“Me and Rocco were just talking in our room, we were sharing a hotel room and then I went to (associate sporting director) Katy Lonergan and our equipment manager and asked if we could find him,” Coogan said after sending his condolences again bereaved families. “It was really special, and football is a game that can unite people in the midst of tragedy. regardless of the color they wear.”
Back at the hotel, Notre Dame’s game day schedule was in tatters.
Instead of playing the game in prime time, organizers moved the game to mid-afternoon, forcing coaches to adjust on the fly and costing the winner a day of preparation for this week’s semifinals.
While all that was happening, Collins and his teammates found other ways to cope.
“We had several additional team meetings. We were running like a sprint down the hallway of the hotel,” Collins said. “It was a fun experience, spending a little extra time with my guys down there. The biggest thing was just staying focused on why we were down there in the first place, which was to win the game.”
