Notre Dame Football

RB Logan Diggs Healthy, Motivated to Turn Notre Dame's Season Around

By Matt Freeman

October 21, 2022

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Notre Dame running back Logan Diggs was fresh off a freshman season that saw him run for 230 yards and three touchdowns.

Then the Louisiana native tore his labrum in the Blue-Gold Game and didn't take contact until the midway point of fall camp.

The good news for Diggs and Notre Dame was that he didn't miss a game, but it also took a couple of games for him to get back into the flow and trust his shoulder.

Over the last three games, Diggs has rushed for 200 yards and caught four passes for 70 yards with a touchdown against North Carolina.

"After the North Carolina game, once I finally got a taste for real success again, scoring a touchdown," stated Diggs. "We ran the ball well as an offense, as the backfield. That just kind of boosted my confidence.

"Every day just looking at myself in the mirror, just asking myself, 'what can I do better?' I really would say probably my preparation and practice. At practice, I'm finishing runs. I'm finishing 20 yards past the defense, just making every situation like a game situation has really paid off for me."

It's easy to tell Diggs has his confidence back as he's shown his power and willingness to run between the tackles as of late.

Running physical has been a challenge Deland McCullough has given his group and it's been well received by Diggs and his teammates.

"We run through the blaster once a week, run with low pads," Diggs said. "If you really think about it, who really wants to tackle 200-plus whatever, running back running at full speed downhill? You're going to break tackles, you're going to get loose. He's just been putting a real emphasis on it.

"I took that as a challenge because coming out of high school, I had a little problem running low to high. So every day, I work on my running with low pads. I've been working on my explosiveness through the hole.”

McCullough, who has coached top backs at the college and NFL levels, has also pushed Diggs to be more consistent at the position and in the small details.

And that includes staying on Diggs even though the sophomore was coming back from injury.

“I felt, at one point, I'm a good back," explained Diggs. "I'm just getting back from injury. I've got to slowly work my way back into it. But he didn't let me do that. He was like, 'You need to go, you need to go now.' And when he pushed me and once you're just throwing into the waters? What are you going to do? You've got to swim.

"I thank him for that, for continuing to allow me to build my confidence and keep on becoming a better running back and a better player.”

At times, Notre Dame's offense has struggled this fall, but Diggs isn't caught up on it. He has confidence the Irish can turn it around and move on from Saturday's performance.

“We're going to keep on moving, keep on growing, and keep all coming together as an O-line, receivers, as a whole team and just keep on striving," stated Diggs. "That's all you can really do. What happened last week, happened? All you can do is move forward.”

While it's easy for players to get caught up on negatives, Diggs isn't thinking about Stanford. It's in the past for him.

“If you want me to be honest, it's not difficult at all," Diggs said of moving on from Saturday. "What happened happened. As a team, we physically can't go back to Saturday, like we can't go back. So it already happened. So all you can really do is keep on moving forward.

"I personally don't feel like it's hard to move on because whatever happens happens and everything happens for a reason.”

Notre Dame also moved on as a team as there is still a hunger on the practice field to improve and continue to move the program forward despite the roller coaster of this fall.

“Everybody's hungry," Diggs said. "Everybody came out to practice pissed off, ready to go, want to come out the ball, ready to get back rolling. The whole team has a short-term memory. Everybody's determined.

"One game, two games, or three games doesn't define who we are as a team. Everybody's ready to get back going.”

And no, Diggs doesn't think losses are motivating and he's confident Notre Dame will be OK at the end of the day because of the culture built in The Gug.

“Nobody's OK with failure," said Diggs. "Nobody likes to fail. Nobody likes to lose, more importantly, especially not here at Notre Dame. This culture and this program is built on winning, so when you feel like you're letting down this team and everyone who came before you, it's super personal.

"Everybody on this team is ready to get after it."