The Notre Dame Seniors in the Senior Bowl.

What did you think I was going to say?

The Irish had 4 senior representatives invited to this year’s NFL Senior Bowl, but only three were able to play:  Trevor Laws, Tommy Z and John Sullivan all had pretty solid performances.  Stud TE John Carlson unfortunately contracted some kind of whacked out flu that knocked 18 pounds off his body in a few short days, so he had to bail out from the week’s festivities.  Word is that he’s feeling better, but obviously he just couldn’t be ready to play.

From all reports, the ND seniors performed well.  Laws was double-teamed through much of the afternoon, but still made a big impact on the North squad’s defense, registering 5 tackles and 1 sack as well as a fumble recovery. (Good for 3rd on the North team in tackles) Despite the double teams, Laws regularly pushed his olinemen backwards, collapsing the pocket and creating pressure.  Laws also won a game award for Most Outstanding Lineman.  Given the competition and Laws pre-senior-bowl-week status, that’s a heck of an accomplishment.  Expect to see his stock rise come draft day.

Tommy Z also had a solid game, making good reads and reacting to the ball well.  Zibby racked up 5 tackles putting him just behind Laws for team tackles on the North at #4 on the squad.  Zibby also had a fumble recovery, and showed off his return skills with an explosive 38 yard punt return.  Zibby was awarded the Long Distance Play of the Game Award (Is that award sponsored by AT&T?  What is up with that name?), for the, um, long distance he ran with the ball…yeah.

Finally, Center John Sullivan looked fully healed from his late season injury.  Despite being part of a new line, John performed well, which likely helped assuage some of the concerns out there after John “led” the extremely bend-able ND O-line this past fall.  No shotgun for JS though, so one still has to wonder if he’s gotten past whatever mental block was giving him issues with shotgun snaps this past Fall.

All in all, it was a great turnout for a small but respected group.  I expect that all of their stocks went up this week with their hard work and significant results in the game.  Check out this link for highlights of the game - which actually was pretty exciting.Oth

Relevant notes on how to catch up on these fellas and their NFL journeys:

Trevor has a blog.

Zibby did an interview with the Chicago Trib on how things are going so far.

Yes, John Carlson was sick.

And, apparently, Sullivan is keeping things low key.  Cuz I don’t have a link for him.  But word to you Sully.  Word.

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