Notre Dame avoids injuries, can it avoid post-Navy letdown?

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Notre Dame's issues with opponents after playing a triple option offense are well-known -- the Irish have a 5-4 record after those games under Brian Kelly, with the only comfortable win coming last month against a bad UMass team.

But despite playing a pair of triple option teams this year, Notre Dame didn't have any players suffer the kind of cut block-caused knee injuries that ravaged its defense in 2013 and 2014. Freshman nose guard Jerry Tillery sprained his elbow and had a bone bruise, but returned to Saturday's 41-24 win and isn't expected to be limited in practice this week.

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Coach Brian Kelly attributed the lack of serious knee injuries -- outside of sophomore safety Drue Tranquill, who tore his ACL celebrating a pass break-up Sept. 19 against Georgia Tech -- to a better plan of practicing for the triple option.

"We actually were cutting all week against Georgia Tech, and we were cutting all week this week and preparing our players for it," Kelly said. "We had no injuries again, knock on wood, this week to anything below the waist for any of our linemen. They're a little sore, obviously, but no major injuries there, again, for playing two very physical teams that play the triple option. So I think that there's some merit to the way we changed up our practice has helped a lot too."

Notre Dame's "Swag team" -- the scout team that ran the triple option in practice -- deserves plenty of that credit, with walk-on quarterback Rob Regan earning the game ball Saturday for his work mimicking Georgia Tech's Justin Thomas and Navy's Keenan Reynolds. But having its defensive linemen prepared for the cut blocks that come with a triple option opponent was a paramount concern not only for games against Georgia Tech and Navy, but the games after.

With an athletic, talented USC team coming to Indiana on Saturday -- yet a team that's in turmoil after coach Steve Sarkisian was forced to take a leave of absence -- Notre Dame will need to avoid that post-Navy letdown. The Irish allowed 55 points against an athletic Arizona State team last year post-Navy, and lost to a middling Pitt side after facing the Mids in 2013.

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And with all the injuries suffered by Notre Dame players earlier this year -- six season-enders, plus one against Texas to safety Avery Sebastian (foot) that's kept the graduate transfer sidelined since Week 1 -- a few more sprains, tears or breaks could spell doom in South Bend. Emerging from the triple option phase of the season with a relatively clean bill of health was a necessary occurrence if Notre Dame is serious about making a run at the College Football Playoff.

"My (Sunday) 1:30 meeting with the doctors has been my most anxious time of the year," Kelly said. "So the last couple of weeks, the last two, three weeks have been pretty good. Hopefully, we get that trend continues because we get USC this week, and then we get a week off. So that's going to be helpful as we move into the back end of the season."

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