Jarrett Grace, LB, Notre Dame
2012 Status: Filler on the depth chart
2013 Status: Filler on the depth chart, but potentially filled with off-the-charts depth
Unless you’re Brian Kelly — and I’m willing to wager you aren’t, because reading hilarious list-style blog pieces is not CHAMPION SH!T — you likely have no idea who Jarrett Grace is. And even then, Brian Kelly might not be all that aware of Grace’s existence (he's never struck me as much of a people person).
But it doesn’t really matter who Jarrett Grace is as a football player or as a human being. The important thing is that he the guy behind Manti Te’o on Notre Dame’s depth chart and because he actually played this year and secured seven tackles (five unassisted) in his limited playing time, that’s all he is. But let’s suppose he knew way more about the Te’o situation than the rest of us, even to the point where he knew it was a fraud and it would end something like the way it did. Suppose he took the entire year off under mysterious circumstances and declared for the NFL draft the moment everything popped off. Surely there’d be questions, and he could answer with gnomic, cryptic jewels: “If only you knew what I did to protect not only that man, but myself”; “The hits I’ve taken in the past year dwarf any I would’ve suffered at the hands of Eddie Lacy”; things like that. The imagination runs wild. Jarrett Grace is the new Leon Sandcastle instead of the current Jarrett Grace.
