Pride Wants To Seize The Moment
It’s been a few years, but Notre Dame cornerback Troy Pride Jr. was all in on the Hokies until a trip to South Bend for the USC game in 2015.
“I took one visit for the USC game, and I knew it,” Pride said on Wednesday evening.
Less than a month after the visit to Notre Dame, Pride backed off his pledge to Virginia Tech and committed to the Irish on Christmas Eve.
“I was looking forward to competing in the ACC and playing with some high caliber defensive backs,” Pride said of his commitment to Virginia Tech. “They have a good lineage of those with DeAngelo Hall, the Fullers and Kam Chancellor.”
It’s hard to argue with Virginia Tech’s defensive back history, but Pride fell in love with the culture at Notre Dame and the balance between academics and football.
“Notre Dame is different,” stated Pride. “Notre Dame offers a different style of everything. The stage Notre Dame plays on each week and the academics - you know 4 for 40. The coaching staff was totally different, and I felt comfortable with all the coaches. I knew this was the place I was supposed to be.”
Pride and Notre Dame will make the trip to Lane Stadium this weekend for a Top 25 showdown, and head coach Brian Kelly has prepared his team by blasting crowd noise and Enter Sandman all week during practice.
“I know a couple of the lyrics,” laughed Pride when asked about Enter Sandman. “I’ve heard it a lot. I love it. It’s energizing and gets you going. I’m taking it all in.
“Each week is a special opportunity to play the game. I want to play. When I get a chance to play, it’s the same for me every time.”
As the Irish enter a hostile environment, it’s hard to not think back to Notre Dame’s 41-8 loss at Miami a year ago. Notre Dame didn’t handle the atmosphere well, but Pride is confident this team is different as he and others are looking forward to embracing Lane Stadium.
“It’s about our competitive nature and wanting to be the better team on a stage like that,” explained Pride. “You want everyone to be going against you. You want everyone to be screaming at you and bottles thrown at your bus. You want to prove everyone wrong and have everyone shut up.
“There’s a great picture of Julian Okwara shushing the crowd at Michigan State, and you want that. That’s what competition is, and you want to be in that moment and in that pressure. It’s a privilege.”
The Miami game might be fresh in the minds of some, but Pride and Notre Dame aren’t focused on it.
“It’s been an entire year,” stated Pride. “It’s a totally different team, and we have a totally different mindset. The Miami game has no correlation to what we’re going to do this year and what we want to accomplish as a team.
“We’re going into a hostile environment, and we want to play well. That’s our goal, and that’s what we always want to do.”
Kelly made the Miami game a point of emphasis during the offseason, which led to bringing a chaos period to practice in the spring. Helicopter noise, sudden change and replacing the football with a soccer ball has been documented over the last few months, but Pride believes each period has helped prepare them for Saturday.
“You’re getting ready. You don’t know what’s going on with the chaos periods. We’ve done a lot of different things during the chaos period. With that, you have to be ready for anything. Each and every game, you have to be ready for anything and everything. We’re continuing to prepare for that.”
Pride is quickly emerging as one of Notre Dame’s top defensive players as he has recorded 26 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, five pass breakups and two interceptions from his field cornerback position.
The chance to play field corner was an exciting opportunity for Pride as he can use his full skill set, which includes a 4.3 40-yard dash time.
“I take it as an opportunity to be a dynamic playmaker and a dynamic athlete,” Pride said. “With field, you’re going to get opportunities to play press and off. You have to sound in all areas to be able to break down on a hitch to make the tackle or bat the ball down. You get the full route tree, so you have to be on your Ps and Qs the whole time.
“It’s competition all the time. I keep going back to that word because that’s what football is. I’m always looking for a competitive edge and the best player out there.”