Monday, September 19, 2005 o bserverTHE

Michigan State 44 , Notre Dame 41Monday, November 1, 2010 o bserverTHE

IRISH INSIDERTulsa 28, Notre Dame 27

For the members o f theNotre Dame footbal l team,at tendance at Thursdaynight’s Mass of Remembrancefor Dec lan Sul l ivan wasoptional. But the entire teamwas there when Mass began,sophomore linebacker MantiTe’o said.“ I t was great to see the

Mass, all the people there,that’s great. Only at NotreDame, r ight?” sa id juniorwalk-on safety Chris Salvi,who met Sullivan at footballtryouts in their freshman yearat Carmel Catholic High inMundelein, Ill. Sullivan, a videographer for

the footbal l team, d iedWednesday when the scissorlift from which he was filmingpractice collapsed. His memo-ry was honored throughoutthe day Saturday as NotreDame played Tulsa. Prior to kickoff, the band

dedicated its Trumpets in theDome performance toSullivan, and played the AlmaMater at the conclusion of itshalftime performance.The football team honored

Sul l ivan with a moment ofsilence immediately followingthe national anthem, as wellas a prayer led by UniversityPresident Fr. John Jenkins.Notre Dame and Tulsa playersalso wore green shamrock

helmet decals emblazonedwith the letters “DS” in black.Players attended postgameinterv iews wear ing sh ir tswith the same design.“When you look at this shirt

and the decals on the helmet,i t g ives us anotherboost and anotherth ing to p lay for,”Te’o said.Af ter the game,

Ir ish coach Br ianKel ly spoke aboutSullivan, who he esti-mated was one o fonly a dozen studentworkers he hasknown personal lyover h is 20-yearcoaching career.“I got a chance to

meet Dec lan andknow him because ofall the time he spentin our off ice, espe-cially this summer,”Kel ly said. “As youknow, he was a loverof film and writing.… I ’ve got greatmemories of him justbeing in the film andvideo offices.“You know, you

think you’re strongand able to handle all of thosethings that are thrown at you.This one was very difficult.”Kelly said he knew as soon

as the tower fell that Sullivanwas the one on it. Even though the Irish came

up short against Tulsa, play-

ers said the opportunity toplay was an important part ofthe grieving process.“ I th ink a lo t o f us were

very grateful for this chanceto play today and to get ourminds off of everything that

happened this week,” seniorlinebacker Brian Smith said.“It was really good to get ourteam out on the field todayand just t ry and p lay thegame.”In addition to honoring him

on the f ie ld , Te ’o sa id he

would do whatever he couldto support and consoleSullivan’s family.“My heart goes out to his

family,” Te’o said. “I’m tryingto get ahold of his sister Gwento make sure she is okay; and

that if she needs any-thing, to let me knowand le t my fami lyknow. I t ’s a toughtime for them and wejust have to be therefor them, s ince weare a big family.”Junior defens ive

end Ethan Johnsonechoed Te’o ’s com-ments , say ing thatNotre Dame’s loss toTulsa was of second-ary importanceSaturday.“I view [the game

and the tragedy] astota l ly d i f ferent ,”Johnson said. “Losing[a footbal l game]pales in comparisonto death. I feel horri-ble about losing, butit pales in compari-son to how his familyfeels right now.”Salv i recounted a

part icularly memo-rable speech Sullivan gave fora class in high school.He said Sullivan started the

speech by pretending to bevis ibly nervous, enough toworry his classmates, beforecomposing himself and givinga great presentation. Salvi

sa id word o f the speechquickly spread through theschool.“I actually wasn’t even in

the class, I just rememberhearing about it,” Salvi said.“It just got around the schooland it was funny.”Salvi said one of the tough-

est parts of the past few dayswas communicating news ofthe tragedy to friends backhome.“I t ’s not easy, espec ia l ly

when you’ve got friends call-ing you up asking what hap-pened and you have toexplain to them,” he said.“You’ve just got to take a stepback and take time to thinkabout everything, just reflect,and also have people therefor you to let you know it’sgoing to be okay. I’ve beenfortunate enough to have sup-port f rom fami ly, f r iends ,coaches, teammates.”He said the remembrance of

Sullivan would extend wellbeyond Saturday’s game.“You don’t want to put it out

of your mind because he wasa good person and you wantto remember him and kind ofhonor h im in the way youconduct yourself every day,not just on the football field,”Salvi said. “You want to actlike he would want you to actand you want to play like hewould want us to play.”

COURTNEY ECKERLE/The Observer

Irish coach Brian Kelly and sophomore linebacker Manti Te’o stand along the Notre Dame sideline during a moment of silence in honor of Declan Sullivan. TheIrish will continue to honor Sullivan throughout the season by wearing Irish green shamrock helmet decals with the letters “DS” in black.

Irish pay tribute to Sullivan

“You don’t want to put it outof your mind because he wasa good person and you wantto remember him and kind ofhonor him in the way youconduct yourself every day,not just on the football field.You want to act like he

would want you to act andyou want to play like hewould want us to play.”

Chris Salvijunior safety

By SAM WERNERSports Writer

Contact Sam Werner at swerner@nd.edu

Almost a year to the dayafter tearing his ACL, DayneCrist once again found himselfbeing helped off the field witha serious knee injury.Crist was hurt in the first

quarter of Saturday’s 28-27loss to Tulsa. With threegames left in the season, theIrish will now turn to fresh-man Tommy Rees to call sig-nals with the hope that NotreDame can win two of the nextthree and earn an invite to abowl game.Crist went down when Tulsa

l inebacker Tanner Ant leknocked him out of boundsafter a 29-yard scramble onNotre Dame’s second posses-s ion. Cr is t immediate lygrabbed his left knee after theplay, and Irish coach BrianKelly confirmed Sunday thatCrist underwent surgery torepair a torn patella tendon inhis left knee. Kelly said Cristcould be out for up to s ixmonths with the injury, whichmay rule him out for NotreDame’s spring practice.When talking to Crist, Kelly

said he tried to encourage hisquarterback, reminding himof how well he recovered from

his previous knee injury.“I talked to him last night

and I told him, essentially,somet imes we look foranswers and sometimes thereare no answers,” Kelly said.“Sometimes accidents occur.The second thing I sa id isyou’ve been through thisbefore. You don’t want to gothrough it again, but at leastyou’ve already exhibited thestrength to get through this.”Whi le los ing Cris t i s

undoubtedly a tough blow forthe Ir ish, Rees f i l led inadmirably against the GoldenHurricane and showed that heis a much different quarter-back than the one who threwan interception on his firstever collegiate pass in NotreDame’s 28-24 loss to Michiganon Sept. 11. Despite the inter-ception he threw on NotreDame’s last offensive play,Rees did tally 334 yards andfour touchdowns on the day. When asked about the play

of his true freshman quarter-back, Kelly only needed oneword to respond.“Awesome,” Kelly said. “I

couldn’t be more happy forthe kid. True freshman goingout there, hasn’t played. Hejust competes. Took some bighits, got right back up. I don’tknow if he knew where he

was a couple of times. He’s acompetitive kid — he loves toplay.”When Rees took over in the

first quarter with Notre Dametrailing 7-0, he quickly direct-ed the offense down the field,capping off the drive with hisf irs t careert o u c h d o w npass on a 10-yard comple-tion to juniorr e c e i v e rM i c h a e lFloyd. He alsozipped passesthrough tightw i n d o w sb e t w e e nd e f e n d e r swith regulari-ty, mostnotably on a4-yard touch-down pass to Floyd midwaythrough the second quarter. S ince Rees’ debut in the

Michigan game, Kelly knewthat he needed to prepare hisbackups should they need tolead the offense in the future.He particularly emphasizedthrowing the ball, and he wassatisfied with Rees’ passing

abilities on Saturday.“Throwing the ball is where

he’s at,” Kelly said. “That’swhat he does well. He gets theball out of his hands. He readsthings. [He] couldn’t do every-thing we wanted to do. I don’teven know what the numbers

are — we’vegot to scoremore points,but I love theway the kidcompeted.”After the

game, Reespraised hiscoaches andfel low quar-terbacks forhelping himimprove sincehis f irs tappearance inthe Michigan

game. He said that Crist inparticular helped him raisehis game.“That all comes with how

the coaches prepared me,Dayne’s input ,” Rees said.“This time I was really readyto step up.“[Dayne] just kept tell ing

me, keep pushing, keep work-

ing, how proud of me he was.He really helped me tremen-dously, more than anyoneelse. Having him behind youlike that, he helped me a lot.”Although Rees gained much-

needed confidence with hisperformance on Saturday, hestill feels that he needs to bethere for his teammates.“I just want to be there for

my teammates,” Rees said.“Obviously, [the game] didn’tend up how we wanted to. Igained some conf idence. Ithink the team has some con-fidence in me now. [We] justtry to keep pushing forward,[we] just got to keep pushingand get prepared for Utah.”In the end, Rees was some-

what critical of his own play,but he realized that he kepthis team in the game and thatall was not lost.“You know, I’m not happy

with the last play or a coupleof plays there in the middle ofthe game and such,” Reessaid. “But , you know, I ’mpretty pleased with how I per-formed going out there.

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERpage 2 Monday, November 1, 2010

SARAH O’CONNOR/The Observer

Irish junior quarterback Dayne Crist stands with crutches during the Alma Mater after NotreDame’s 28-27 loss to Tulsa Saturday. Crist suffered a season-ending injury in the first quarter.

While junior quarterbackDayne Crist’s injury garneredmost of the headlines afterSaturday’s 28-27 loss to Tulsa,other injuries to Irish playerswill play a key role in how NotreDame finishes out the final threegames of the season, and severalimpact players also may not suitup for the Irish for the remain-der of the season. Irish coachBrian Kelly addressed some ofNotre Dame’s injury issues in hisSunday press conference.Crist underwent a successful

surgery on the patellar tendon in

his left knee on Sunday accord-ing to Kelly.“The patella tendon had, in

fact, tore,” Kelly said. “It wasreattached. The surgery wentwell, and we’re looking at a six-month recovery time.”The surgery was performed

exactly one year to the day thatCrist tore the ACL in his rightknee in Notre Dame’s 40-14 winover Washington State.Crist’s injury could have an

impact on the eligibility of fresh-men quarterbacks AndrewHendrix and Luke Massa, as theIrish need to prepare a thirdquarterback. Kelly said that theteam would begin working withthe young quarterbacks in prac-

tice this week.“We’re going to begin working

with Hendrix and Massa thisweek, and we will whittle itdown to one because obviouslywe’re now in a situation wherewe have to have another quar-terback that is ready,” Kelly said.

Allen’s endSenior running back Armando

Allen has likely played his lastdown for the Irish, and NotreDame is setting up a date forhim to have surgery on a hipflexor. Allen dressed on Saturdayto run down the tunnel at NotreDame Stadium one last time,Kelly said.“He has a right and left torn

cartilage in the hip, I thinkspecifically the labrum,” Kellysaid. “We treated the first one.Clearly, if you watched him theNavy game, he played hard andplayed with great passion, but hedid not have that second gear hehad earlier in the year.“We dressed him so he could

run out of the tunnel one lasttime because we were prettycertain he wasn’t [going to] beable to play again,” Kelly contin-ued.

Lesser concernsCrist was the only player who

sustained an injury on Saturdaythat will likely miss any timeagainst Utah. Freshman line-

backer Prince Shembo sustaineda concussion on Saturday, butKelly said that he is alreadyimproving. Junior linebackerDarius Fleming sustained anankle injury, but he should be inthe lineup against Utah.Sophomore linebacker Carlo

Calabrese missed Saturday’sgame with a hamstring injury,but he should be ready to playafter the bye week and provide aboost to Notre Dame’s linebackerunit.“Carlo Calabrese is much bet-

ter, we need this bye-week forhim to get back,” Kelly said.

With Crist out for the season, Rees steps upBy MIKE GOTIMERSports Wroter

Contact Mike Gotimer atmgotimer@nd.edu

By MIKE GOTIMERSports Writer

Contact Mike Gotimer at mgotimer@nd.edu

SARAH O’CONNOR/The Observer

Irish freshman quarterback Tommy Rees throws one of his 54 pass-es Saturday. Rees completed 33 of those attempts for 334 yards.

Irish sideline filled with injuries; Allen done for the year

“Awesome. I couldn’t bemore happy [with

freshman quarterbackTommy Rees]. Truefreshman going out

there, hasn’t played. Hejust competes.”

Brian KellyIrish coach

Write Sports. E-mail Douglas at dfarmer1@nd.edu

scoringsummary

Late interception seals ND’s fate

With only 36 seconds left in the fourthquarter, Tulsa cornerback John Flandersand Irish junior receiver Michael Floydbattled for a Tommy Rees pass deep inthe end zone.When Flanders fell to the ground hold-

ing the ball tight, Notre Dame’s chancesof winning the back-and-forth gamewent out the window, as the GoldenHurricane held onto a 28-27 victory.“I would make the call again and I

would hope that the process of learningwould have a different outcome,” Irishcoach Brian Kelly said of the play call.Though freshman quarterback Tommy

Rees had moved the Irish into field goalrange on the drive, Kelly stood by hisdecision to go for the possible touch-down. “We knew we had a one-on-one

matchup with Mike Floyd. We certainlywanted to give that an opportunity forsuccess and score a touchdown there,”Kelly said. “We took a timeout there totalk about it. I think we all know whathappened there.”Kelly said the decision reflects how he

has built his offense to play and he wouldmake the same decision again.“But keep in mind, you better get used

to it, because that’s the way we’re play-ing. If we can get a one-on-one matchup,and we think we can get that accom-plished, we’re going to call that playagain and again,” he said. “We’ll makethat play. We didn’t make it today. But intime we’ll make that play.”Not only did the Irish lose the game,

but they also lost junior quarterbackDayne Crist for the remainder of the sea-son. In the second quarter, Crist ran theball 29 yards for a first down, but felland tore the petallar tendon in his leftknee.Rees stepped in and took over for Crist

after the season-ending injury. Reesthrew for 334 yards and four touch-downs, two to Floyd and two to sopho-more running back Cierre Wood.“He wasn’t expected to play at all, so to

fill that role with Dayne [Crist] going out.He did an exceptional job and he canonly get better,” Floyd said. “That lastplay, it’s nothing he should put in his ownhands — it’s a team effort.”Kelly’s comments concerning Rees’

play Saturday sounded very similar toFloyd’s comments.“[Rees is a] true freshman going out

there, hasn’t played. He just competes.Took some big hits, got right back up,”Kelly said. “He’s a competitive kid. Heloves to play. Throwing the ball is wherehe’s at. You know, that’s what he doeswell. He gets the ball out of his hands. Hereads things.”Finishing the drive that injured Crist,

Rees connected with Floyd for a 10-yardtouchdown to bring the Irish within oneof Tulsa, 7-6. Shortly after the extrapoint attempt left senior kicker DavidRuffer’s foot, Tulsa’s Curnelius Arnickcradled the ball as he raced down thesideline for two Golden Hurricane points.Even after losing the momentum,

Notre Dame took a 13-12 lead into thesecond quarter after a little bit of trick-ery led to Rees’ second touchdown of theday. Rees initially threw a short slantpass to freshman receiver TJ Jones.Before taking two steps, Jones pitchedthe ball to Wood as he flew down thesideline for a 23-yard score.Heading into halftime, the Irish held a

20-18 lead after Rees connected withFloyd for yet another touchdown.Rees wasn’t done yet either. To open

the second half’s scoring, he found Woodfor a six-yard score, bringing NotreDame’s lead to 27-18.Tulsa retook the lead with 3:27 left in

the game of a 29-yard field goal. The 28-27 lead held until Flanders fell to thegrass with Rees’ final pass attempt of the

day.Notre Dame was handicapped

throughout the day as Crist joined seniorrunning back Armando Allen, juniortight end Kyle Rudolph and sophomorereceiver Theo Riddick on the sideline.While Kelly announced before the gameRudolph and Riddick would be held outof action, the absence of Allen was agame day surprise to spectators.“[Armando] may be out,” Kelly said

after the game. “We’re not certain onthat, but he wanted to dress and runthrough the tunnel in case it was his lasttime playing at Notre Dame“It seems every medical report I get, it

ends with, done for the season.”With those players not on the field,

Notre Dame has seen a large showing ofyounger players taking the most impor-tant snaps.“We had a lot of freshmen out there

today, learning how to play this game,fighting,” Kelly said. “You got [freshmantight end] Tyler Eifert ... You got TJJones. [Sophomore receiver] RobbyToma hasn’t played ... They’re battling. Icouldn’t be more proud of those kids.”Rees ended the game, his first with sig-

nificant playing time, with 33 comple-tions on 54 pass attempts.Eifert pulled in five of Rees’ passes for

61 yards, and Jones matched him withfive catches for 31 yards. Toma had fourcatches for 67 yards.Those youngsters will likely lead the

Irish the rest of the season, as NotreDame looks to win two of its final threegames to qualify for a bowl game.“The most important thing still is for us

to get six wins,” Kelly said. “We got towin two out of three now. That’s our No.1 goal, to win two out of three gamesminimally to get to six wins.”Notre Dame has a bye this weekend,

and then hosts No. 6 Utah on Nov. 13.

SARAH O’CONNOR/The Observer

Tulsa cornerback John Flanders intercepts Irish freshman quarterback Tommy Rees’ final pass attempt during Notre Dame’s 28-27loss Saturday. Filling in for injured junior quarterback Dayne Crist, Rees threw three interceptions among his 54 pass attempts.

Notre Dame 20, Tulsa 12Floyd 4-yard pass from Rees (Ruffer kick) with8:10 remainingDrive: 13 plays, 80 yards, 5:05 elapsed.

Notre Dame 20, Tulsa 18Shawn Jackson 66-yard interception return(Kinne pass incomplete) with 0:37 remainingDrive: 0 plays, 66 yards, 0:00 elapsed.

NDTULSA

3rd77

4th03

Second quarter

Notre Dame 0, Tulsa 7Damaris Johnson 9-yard pass from G.J. Kinne(Kevin Fitzpatrick kick) with 9:48 remainingDrive: 9 plays, 67 yards, 3:30 elapsed.

Notre Dame 6, Tulsa 7Michael Floyd 10-yard pass from Tommy Rees(David Ruffer kick blocked) with 6:13 remainingDrive: 9 plays, 78 yards, 3:35 elapsed.

Notre Dame 6, Tulsa 9Curnelius Arnick PAT return with 6:13 remainingDrive: 0 plays, 98 yards, 0:00 elapsed.

Notre Dame 6, Tulsa 12Fitzpatrick 37-yard field goal with 2:59 remainingDrive: 8 plays, 60 yards, 2:59 elapsed.

Notre Dame 13, Tulsa 12Cierre Wood 23-yard pass from Rees (Rufferkick) with 1:21 remainingDrive: 5 plays, 58 yards, 1:38 elapsed.

Third quarter

Notre Dame 27, Tulsa 18Wood 6-yard pass from Rees (Ruffer kick) with8:47 remainingDrive: 9 plays, 81 yards, 2:55 elapsed.

Notre Dame 27, Tulsa 25Johnson 59-yard punt return (Fitzpatrick kick)with 4:59 remainingDrive: 0 plays, 59 yards, 0:00 elapsed.

Total2728

First quarter

statisticsrushing yards

passing yards

Time of Possession

18-34-196

20-1138-616-361-24

4-463-523-242-422-14

33-54-334

16-601-291-204-12

11-1045-615-575-314-67

Rees

WoodCristJacksonHughes

FloydEifertWoodJonesToma

Kinne

KinneDouglasJohnsonNelson

Johnson, D.Johnson, R.RobersonColeJohnson

receiving

rushing

passing

1st1312

2nd76

Fourth quarter

Notre Dame 27, Tulsa 28Fitzpatrick 27-yard field goal with 3:23 remainingDrive: 12 plays, 57 yards, 4:47 elapsed.

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERMonday, November 1, 2010 page 3

By MOLLY SAMMONSports Writer

Contact Molly Sammon atmsammon@nd.edu

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERpage 4 Monday, November 1, 2010

Notre Dame dropped another game against a mid-major

opponent Saturday. The 28-27 loss to Tulsa brought the Irish

record to 4-5, putting any bowl game hopes in jeopardy.

Junior quarterback Dayne Crist left the game in the first

quarter, after suffering a season-ending knee injury for the

second year in a row. In his place, freshman Tommy Rees

racked up 334 yards and four touchdowns,

along with three interceptions.

The Golden Hurricane capitalized on Irish mistakes — scor-

ing two points off a blocked extra point attempt, returning an

interception 66 yards for a score and returning a punt 59

yards for another touchdown.

Tulsa quarterback G.J. Kinne accounted for 274 total yards,

including 196 through the air.

More of thesame

Clockwise from top: Senior nose tackle Ian Williams watches the game from the sidelines while wearing a shirt with the decal in honor of Declan Sullivan; senior linebacker Kerry Nealtackles a Tulsa ballcarrier; sophomore linebacker Manti Te’o finishes one of his eight tackles; sophomore running back Cierre Wood celebrates a six-yard touchdown during the thirdquarter; the Irish defensive line prepares for a snap.

SARAH O’CONNOR/The Observer

SARAH O’CONNOR/The Observer

MAGGIE O’BRIEN/The Observer MAGGIE O’BRIEN/The Observer

COURTNEY ECKERLE/The Observer