Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/841614
102 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2017 FOOTBALL PREVIEW face trials of any kind, b/c you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." Beyond the gridiron and classrooms, Tran- quill serves as a mentor for the Core Leader- ship Team for Lifeworks Ministry, and is a member of Notre Dame Christian Athletes, Team Fellowship, the Student-Athlete Ad- visory Council (SAAC) and the Rosenthal Leadership Academy. An offshoot he launched was the "5th Quarter" post-game event as a junior, which shares his story of perseverance with the South Bend community at the Granger Oasis Church. Shortly after the 2016 second semester ended, Tranquill traveled to Jerusalem to take a Notre Dame theology course titled "Three Faiths, Two Peoples: Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land." It included tours of the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth and Bethlehem, an experience he described as surreal and one that spurred his faith. The trip also reinforced his perspective on and thankfulness for each day as a gift, and how idly wasting it is a transgression unto itself because of so many who do not have similar opportunities. On the opening day of fall practice in 2016, Tranquill gathered dozens of team- mates around him, hand in hand, to say a prayer for former Irish teammate Greg Bry- ant, who left the school in August 2015 and died the ensuing May from gunfire in his home state of Florida. "I just consider myself extremely blessed to be out here again, being able to play this game, and I'll definitely cherish that," Tran- quill said. "I was able to keep a perspective on what I was going through and keep a certain reference point, and that really helped me." Strong religious tenets can sometimes be mistaken for passivity. There is no such ap- plication to Tranquill, whose dedication in the weight room, toughness and pain thresh- old have become stuff of folklore around the team. Late in his freshman year during a 31-28 home loss to Louisville in the final home game, Tranquill tore his ACL in the first half, yet played through it the entire second half, even recording an interception after the injury. "His hamstring and quad area is so strong that he passed his ACL test," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said of the exams run by the medical staff during the game. "Then he comes in on Sunday and he's swollen. … We get an MRI — he has an ACL [tear]." In a freakishly fast convalescence, Tran- quill returned to partake in 2015 spring drills, minus major contact work. Early in his sophomore season (2015), af- ter Tranquill's second ACL tear, his younger brother Justin, a freshman safety at Western Michigan, tore his left ACL — and he had been sidelined the year prior in high school with a right ACL tear. Questions arose on whether the Tranquil genetic makeup is pre- disposed to such an injury. "I know my mom was always looking into that," Tranquill said. "I tore my second one, and then he tore his second one two weeks later in practice. It was a laughing phone call of, 'You've got to be kidding me!' It's something where we were able to lean on each other. … It was definitely a cool thing." Only a Tranquill can make even an ACL tear be "cool." Bouncing Back "Greatness lies on the edge of discomfort … A place that welcomes risk takers and those who don't fear the outcome." — Tranquill on Twitter For all the blessings Tranquill always counts, he hasn't gotten where he is without a powerful competitive streak and the ability to deal with setbacks. The 2016 football campaign was a night- mare that defied explanation. "When we sat down with Coach Kelly at the end of the season and before winter break, it was, 'What is our mission and val- ues as a team moving forward?'" Tranquill said. "We realized as a team it aligns with our mission here at the university — and that's a tradition of excellence. "We want to graduate all our players, and we want to win national championships." As a captain, Tranquill's motivation is not to have his name or his school associ- ated with failure. As a future engineer, he wants to help "build" a sound structure. And as an athlete who has rebounded from two major surgeries, he applies the personal to the team. "I've learned a lot going through two knee surgeries," he said. "A lot of what you go through in football translates right to life. I realized the longer I kept my head down and sulked about my situation, where I was at, nothing was going to change. I had to take action before there was change. "What I saw in my recovery was I got away from feeling sorry for myself and started taking intentional action. I believed in myself, that I was going to come back. "I've seen that with this team. We've taken intentional action every single day, and there's a core belief amongst all the guys that there's something special going in the locker room and in this place." It took a monumental fall last year for the entire operation to fully recognize a rotting core within and take action, beginning with six new assistant coaches and a revamped strength and conditioning program. "Change could have definitely gone masked if you have an average season like 8-4. Some things might carry over into next season, whereas if you go 4-8 it's: 'Okay, something has got to change,'" Tranquill said of perhaps the one benefit of having last year's implosion. "But I think even at Notre Dame 8-4 is not really acceptable or toler- ated. Those things that were taking place just within our culture would have been noticed whether we were 10-3 [like in 2015] or 4-8. The media and criticism gave it a lot more hype and juice. "We can feel as guys in the program throughout the past three years that certain things needed to change. I think those things were finally brought to light, and it happened to be during a 4-8 season. I don't necessar- Off the field, Tranquill serves as a mentor for the Core Leadership Team for Lifeworks Ministry, and is a member of Notre Dame Christian Athletes, Team Fellowship, the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and the Rosenthal Leadership Academy. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND "I want that feeling. I want to get back to being a champion in everything that I do. I want to get back to winning, I want to get Notre Dame back to winning national championships." TRANQUILL