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Season-ending knee surgery sidelines Gi’Bran Payne for Notre Dame football

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7 months ago

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Season-ending knee surgery sidelines Gi’Bran Payne for Notre Dame football

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SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame football running back Gi’Bran Payne recently underwent reconstructive surgery for a torn ACL in his right knee and is expected to miss the entire 2024 season, the school announced Thursday.

A valuable third-down weapon last fall, Payne rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns as a redshirt freshman. He averaged 3.7 yards per carry, often being asked to convert in short-yardage situations despite his comparatively diminutive size.

Notre Dame associate head coach/running backs coach Deland McCullough called Payne “the silent assassin” in a packed room of talented backs, noting in late March that Payne was “more explosive” and had increased his vertical jump from 32 to 37 inches.

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At 5-foot-9 and 203 pounds, Payne added nine receptions for 58 yards and two more touchdowns. He also returned a pair of kickoffs and was in the mix as a punt returner during spring drills.

Payne led all rushers with 58 yards on 10 carries in the Blue-Gold Game on April 20, but he hobbled off after his final carry and gave way to sixth-year transfer Devyn Ford, who had converted to safety at the start of the spring.

This latest setback adds to a string of problems in Payne’s right leg. His final two seasons at Cincinnati’s La Salle High School were marred by a broken right ankle (2020) and torn meniscus in his right knee (2021).

A track standout who was part of La Salle’s Ohio state champion 4×100 relay team in 2021, Payne originally signed with Indiana but switched to Notre Dame in mid-April of 2022. The Hoosiers released him from his national letter-of-intent, and Payne eventually followed McCullough to the Irish.

A nagging right hamstring injury carried over from Payne’s final track season and slowed him at times during a redshirt year in 2022. When he was on the field, however, Payne proved reliable in pass protection, maintaining leverage and mastering other detail areas as a third-down back.

“Gi’Bran doesn’t make mistakes; Gi’Bran maximizes,” McCullough said in March. “Gi’Bran is football smart, (a) situational master. He’s bringing his lunch bucket to the table every day. He’s kind of the lead guy as far as details and handling his stuff.

“Physically, he’s got more than what people think. Short yardage-wise, he’s got a low center of gravity. He’s got pad level. He knows how to get skinny in between there.”  

Central Michigan grad transfer Jake Tafelski was added after spring practice as a walk-on running back and special teams coverage ace. It’s also possible that Ford will return to running back after experimenting on defense.

Redshirt sophomore Jadarian Price and sophomore Jeremiyah Love are expected to lead the way at running back this fall while freshman Aneyas Williams impressed as an early enrollee during the spring. Freshman Kedren Young also enrolled early but was slowed by a hamstring injury in the spring.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is on social media @MikeBerardino.

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