SOUTH BEND − Thirty-one.
Those are the number of steps needed to ascend to the second floor of the Irish Athletic Center for whatever reason.
That area is where selected members of the Notre Dame football team gather to meet the media on Tuesdays during the regular season. Not everybody gets the call to make that walk at the conclusion of practice. Walk-ons don’t make that walk. Scout teamers don’t make that walk. Backups rarely make that walk and under no circumstances does an injured player make that walk.
You make that walk, you better be a dude.
When defensive lineman Howard Cross III was one of 10 players selected to meet the media on Sunday (which really felt like Monday) in advance of Friday’s College Football Playoff first-round game (8 p.m., ESPN/ABC) against Indiana (11-1), it was a big deal. When head coach Marcus Freeman announced during his press conference that Cross was ready to play, he paused after saying his name “Howard Cross …” and you wondered he’d finish by saying … “is not available.”
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He’s available. Having Cross climb those 31 steps meant that for the first time in at least 31 days (36 and counting to be exact as the week began), the sixth-year graduate student was healthy enough to play in a football game at week’s end. That was a good way for the Irish (11-1) to start a big week.
Cross had played no football since suffering a high left ankle sprain in the second quarter of the Nov. 9 win over Florida State. He hobbled off the field that night, hobbled to the blue medical tent, hobbled to the locker room and then eventually returned to the sideline. When that game ended, Cross walked slowly off the field, his left ankle heavily wrapped. He had a look on his face that said he wasn’t happy.
Cross knew then that it would be a few weeks before he could again play football. He missed the Virginia game. He missed the Army game. He missed the USC game, which may have hurt the hardest. The last place you want to be during a rivalry game at the level of USC is stuck on the sideline as a spectator. No shoulder pads. No helmet. No chance to contribute beyond being a cheerleader.
“I don’t have pads on, but if I did …” Cross said Sunday. “That part kind of sucked a little bit.”
Sucked a lot. All of it. Each week he wasn’t on the field sucked. Yes, he was getting healthy while letting his ankle heal. Each game he missed would (hopefully) pay off in an extended postseason. That’s not how Cross viewed it, no matter how anyone tried to convince him otherwise.
“Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, you don’t have to worry about anything,’” he said. “Watching everybody play and you’re like, ‘Yeah (raises his fist in a mock cheer), you can’t play.’ It’s not a great feeling.”
How not great?
“It’s the worst feeling ever,” the 6-foot-1, 288-pound defensive tackle said.
Cross knew that high ankle sprain feeling. He’d done the same thing two years before, and guessed that he was limited for two, maybe three weeks. Maybe it should’ve been longer, but maybe he never let on the seriousness of it. This one was serious and would take longer. Cross wasn’t going to rush back no matter how much he wanted to rush back. Being healthy enough to play wasn’t enough. If he was going to play, he was going to go all out. Every snap. Until then, rehab it, rest and wait.
“I didn’t want to come back at half speed,” he said. “I wanted to be in the mode where I could produce. Not just like, I can come out and hold my own and hold up on the field. I want to come back and do well.”
Cross wasn’t anywhere near that the first two weeks. Then three. Maybe a week after USC, Cross felt healed to the point where he could cut it loose. Move and grind the way a D-tackle needs to tussle in the trenches. Maybe two weeks ago, just around the first of the month, Cross felt good to go. So, let’s go.
“It’s felt better for a while, but the confidence to come and to do well has come back,” he said. “I came back to practice and was like, you know what? Yeah, I’m ready. No pain.”
That’s a gain for an Irish defense that missed him. That needs him. There were times over the last three weeks of the regular season when Notre Dame’s defense looked good without No. 56 there in the middle. Times when the group was downright dominant. Without Cross, they looked and felt incomplete. Like a key puzzle piece had fallen under the table.
The final picture, no matter how well the Irish played, wouldn’t look – or feel – finished.
“He’s definitely a difference maker,” said safety Adon Shuler. “His presence, his dog, his mentality is something that trickles down to everybody on the field. Great to have him back.”
Fellow defensive tackle Rylie Mills seconded that emotion. Sophomore Donovan Hinish held his own stepping into the starting spot long manned by Cross, but when Mills looks over and sees Cross alongside, all feels right in the Irish defensive universe.
“I love playing next to him,” Mills said. “Howard’s Howard. He adds a unique level to the game. I’m pumped.”
As is Cross, who carried a disposition Sunday of someone who couldn’t get to game day fast enough. He’s tired of answering questions about the ankle. He tired of waiting on the ankle. He tired of rehabbing the ankle. He’s ready to get back in the game. It’s been a long climb, longer than those 31 steps.
Cross appeared in nine games this season. He made 23 tackles, 5.5 for loss and had four sacks. Friday is his first action since Florida State. It’s been a minute since he’s done this football dance. How many snaps might he get against Indiana? We’ll see.
“I’ll go out and I’m sure I’ll figure it out,” Cross said. “When you get in the groove of the game, you’re going to be fine.”
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
