Impact 2000: #10 Grant Irons/Arnaz Battle
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
December 19, 2000

(UHND.com) - This is part one of a ten story series indexing who we felt had the most impact on the 2000 season based on what they contributed to the team.  This list will not contain a player simply because they had an injury that resulted in someone stepping up.  As this story shows however, it can contain players who were injured, but refused to let that completely end their season.

This was supposed to be the year that the much heralded high school star Grant Irons was supposed to live up to the lofty All American expectations and lead the Notre Dame defense.  Fate had its own say on that matter though.  Early in the Nebraska game, the second game of the year, Grant went down with a season ending shoulder injury.

While this list is for the players who have had the most impact on the season, Grant is on here because despite being injured and unable to play, he still attended every practice and meeting that he was able to.  He was out on the practice field everyday with the team, keeping up with them step for step.

Grant came to Notre Dame with a lot of expectations.   He was one of the nation's elite prospects coming out of high school at linebacker, but an increase in weight moved Grant to defensive end.  Since his freshman year he has been plagued by injuries however.  He missed time in each year he has been at Notre Dame and will be back next year because of medical hardship.

Even though he did not play much, he still had a large impact on the team through lading by example and helping out the defense with pointers.   You could see him talking with the younger defensive linemen including his replacement, Ryan Roberts, often on the sidelines during games telling them what he was seeing and what he thought could work.

Arnaz Battle was supposed to be the "man" this year.  After two years in the shadow if Jarious Jackson, this was supposed to be the year Battle stepped up and showed that his '98 USC performance was a fluke.  He had taken nearly all the snaps in the summer and spring to get ready for his role as starting quarterback.  Just like with Grant Irons, fate had its own little say so.   Battle too went down with a season ending injury in the Nebraska game and missed the remainder of the year.

While many players might have been devastated by such an injury after waiting so long for the starter's role.  Arnaz accepted the injury and gave his full confidence to Gary Godsey and then Matt LoVecchio.

Battle was there the whole time for Matt LoVecchio, who has proved to be more than your average freshman quarterback, helping him improve as a quarterback.  In fact, Lovecchio's maturation process has ended up moving Battle to flanker for next year.

Arnaz now has two years of eligibility left at flanker for Notre Dame and will be receiving passes from Matt LoVecchio.  While many players might have been selfish and not accepted the move, Arnaz embraced it, realizing that it was better for the team.