TALLAHASSEE – To be a Notre Dame football player under Tyrone Willingham is to enjoy little idle time. If there isn’t practice, there are meetings. If there aren’t meetings, there are walk-throughs.
Focus, focus, focus.
Which leads us to wonder if there’s some genetic link between Willingham and his starting running back, Ryan Grant of Nyack. From the time he was a youngster, Grant has displayed a focus that at times has left his parents, Vincent and Patrice, marveling at their child.
“When he was about seven, he began collecting baseball cards, and he would read all of the information on the back of the card,” said Patrice Grant. “Then he bought that Topps collector’s book so he could find more information and learn the value of the cards.
“One day we were in a store and he was talking to clerk who mentioned something about one player,” continued Patrice. “Ryan said, ‘I don’t think that’s correct.’ He made his father drive him home. He got his book, looked up the information and had his father drive him back to the store so Ryan could show the clerk that he was correct.”
Focus, focus, focus.
Grant knows he and his Irish teammates will have to take their focus and the rest of their game to a higher level today when they face Florida State in Doak Campbell Stadium. The Irish are 7-0 and ranked ninth by The Post.
FSU, ranked 15th, is 5-2. Coach Bobby Bowden says the ‘Noles are two plays away from being undefeated. One of those plays, of course, was a last-second missed field goal that would have upset No. 1 Miami.
“We try to make sure someone from the family is at every one of his games, but we weren’t able to get anyone to the Florida State game and his mother and I felt badly about that,” said Vincent Grant. “Earlier this week he spoke to his uncle and told him he was glad no one was coming. He said, ‘This week is all about business. Now I can just focus on the game and not worry about anyone in the stands.’ “
Last week Grant had his breakout game against Air Force, running for a career-high 190 yards, or 80 more than he gained all of last season.
“I got about 15 messages, 10 e-mails and six phone calls after the game,” said Grant. “My mother was joking with me. She said, ‘You couldn’t get 10 more.’ I hear Notre Dame fans in the tri-state area are coming out of the woodwork, but as a team, we just have to stay focused.”
Which is something that comes naturally to Grant.