Late Sunday night, the South Bend Tribune, posted news that most Notre Dame football fans all but expected by now: Austin Collinsworth’s ND career is over. After being listed as “doubtful” by Brian Kelly during his post-bowl selection presser, the SBT confirmed that Collinsworth had surgery on his shoulder this past Friday before the football banquet.
Collinsworth suffered all kinds of injuries throughout the 2014 season and reading how banged up he was while trying to play against Southern Cal was borderline frightening as was his overall attitude that he was just waiting for something terrible to happen:
By the time the USC game rolled around, 100 percent was a pipe dream.
“Literally like I got hit by a car,” was how Collinsworth described feeling entering the Nov. 29 game against USC in Los Angeles. “My knee hurt, my back hurt, my upper back and my neck hurt, my shoulder hurt.
“It was like, which one’s going to go? I kinda had that feeling like something’s probably going to go here, just which one’s it going to be. It ended up being the shoulder.”
I know playing at less than 100% in football is common, but this sounds like 50% with an overwhelming feeling of season-ending injury dread. One thing is certain, and that’s that you can’t question the toughness that Collinsworth had this season in trying to fight through his body falling apart.
With Collinsworth now permanently scratched, this likely leads to a safety pairing of Matthias Farley Elijah Shumate* and Max Redfield, assuming of course Max is healthy for the bowl game. I’ve felt that pairing has been the most talented combination all season. Even though Collinsworth is out, at least that part of the secondary won’t be taking too large of a hit and honestly, the secondary will be the least of the Irish’s worries at they face a terrible LSU passing offense ranked 114th in the nation.
*Note to self: Beginning a post at 2 AM is a terrible idea. My bad on the mixup.
Texan by birth, Irish by choice.
First-generation Domer and a former student manager, HLS podcast host, HLS Sim creator, Extra Life streamer, and technical problem haver. You can find more non-Notre Dame related writing on his Patreon.
- Epilogue - January 3, 2022
- HLS Podcast Finale - January 2, 2022
- The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim - December 31, 2021
Don’t you mean Shumate and Redfield starting with Hardy and Farley backing them up?
Yes, I did. Farley was quoted in the article, so I had a brain fart. Thanks, I’ll fix it.