Posting on behalf of
@Eric Hansen:
On Sunday morning, the media was able to watch stretching and the first three five-minute periods of practice at the Irish Athletics Center in South Bend as 7 seed Notre Dame continues its prep for a Thursday night CFP semifinal matchup with 6 seed Penn State, Thursday at Miami Gardens, Fla.
I paid a little more attention to stretching than normal to see how RB Jeremiyah Love and NG Howard Cross III were moving around.
Love, who left the Georgia game Thursday with an apparent knee injury, was wearing a brace on his right knee. Once in drills, he fully participated in them, but looked a little stiff.
Cross’ left ankle was heavily taped and he wore a green short underneath his jersey, usually an indication of a player who’s not fully cleared for all parts of practice. It should be noted, though, that neither Love, nor Cross’ availability was reduced to “probable” or “questionable” in the game-by-game injury report issues on Saturday.
Cross rolled the ankle late in ND’;s 23-10 win over Georgia, Thursday in New Orleans. It’s the same ankle he suffered a high ankle sprain to, that caused him to miss the final three regular-season games.
In the limited drills we saw, he was fully participating.
Right offensive guard Rocco Spindler, who played all 64 offensive snaps against Georgia, wore a brace on his right ankle in practice. He missed half the IU game on Dec. 20 with an ankle injury, but appeared to continue to practice full speed on Sunday.
Center Ashton Craig, out since Sept. 14 with a torn ACL, was at practice Sunday riding the stationary bike. I asked his replacement, senior Pat Coogan, Saturday evening about Craig’s engagement with him and the rest of the team.
“I mean, me and Craig are super tight, and he's obviously focused on his recovery, and his recovery is going really well,” Coogan said. “So it's good to have him back more, because he's moving around more. But yeah, we talk all the time, and he's always helping me out with stuff.
“On game days, he's making sure I'm good with just center stuff, honestly, like a towel or a pre-snap, like get a ball to snap in pregame or halftime or anything like that. He's been awesome, and I'm really excited for him and his recovery. He's really been attacking it, and he has an unbelievable future for him as well.”
