Sophomore Irish defensive back Drue Tranquill, who played a dynamic partial game in a dramatic win over Georgia Tech, is out for the season with a torn ACL to his right knee.
Tranquill likely will undergo surgery in a few weeks, having already had surgery for a torn ACL on his other knee about a year ago. According to a Notre Dame release:
University of Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly announced that sophomore safety Drue Tranquill will be out for the remainder of the 2015 season. Tranquill suffered a torn ACL to his right knee in the victory over No. 14 Georgia Tech on Saturday. Tranquill underwent surgery for a torn ACL on his left knee in November 2014.
At his Sunday press conference, Kelly said that there was a hope for some pre-surgery rehab, apparently to help tee up the surgery more effectively, pushing back the new surgery for about two weeks.
Here is a tweet issued by Notre Dame Football media affairs personnel (it might take a moment to load).
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Tranquill is a 6-2, 225-pound sophomore safety from Fort Wayne. He played extensively as a freshman, including starting three games as a freshman before suffering a season-ending injury against Louisville, a game in which he also had an interception. Tranquill reportedly started against Georgia Tech because he brought hard-hitting to the contest.
Against Georgia Tech, Tranquill had 4 solo tackles, including 2 tackles for loss, and a pass break-up that helped prevent a touchdown and forced a Georgia Tech field goal attempt that was missed.
Tranquill majors in Engineering, one of the more demanding majors at Notre Dame.
While some media might be quick to jump on the cliche of someone supposedly injuring himself while celebrating, a view of the replay during the game made it look unlikely that Tranquill did so. After participating in a dramatic play, Tranquill simply jumped straight up off the ground in celebration. There was nothing unusual about his movement to suggest that it could have caused an otherwise healthy knee to suddenly become injured. It seems more likely that a latent potential for the injury had somehow been building without the fact being realized, and the injury simply picked that moment to reveal itself. Or perhaps the injury started wanting to emerge during the previous play, and the player jumping in celebration just happened to be the next time that he exerted himself with the knee.
One recalls former Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist’s second season-ending injury, which occurred when Crist was simply running out-of-bounds in a natural manner, without being hit, only to then go down with a season-ending injury. Likewise, Crist’s injury seemed to be something that had been building, and was not actually caused by Crist running out-of-bounds at that moment.
As mentioned above, Tranquill actually had his other knee operated on about a year ago. One gathers that the former surgery must have been completely successful, and Tranquill must have demonstrated that he had healed and rehabbed completely from it, to play as strongly as he was. So perhaps there is hope that, after the surgery on the second knee, Tranquill will also rehab successfully and return to the same dynamic intensity and athleticism.
Links & Further Reading
Notre Dame loses S Drue Tranquill (ACL), its sixth player out for season – CBS 9.20.15
Notre Dame safety Drue Tranquill out for season with torn ACL – Sports Illustrated 9.20.15
Notre Dame safety suffers season-ending knee injury – AP/Fox Sports 9.20.15
Drew Tranquill – player bio – UND.com
