Battle has had struggles in football, but none as
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on Nov. 1, 2002.
Tough for Arnaz Battle has nothing to do with a football field.
Tough isn't starting your college career working as a backup and when you finally start that first game, play arguably the worst game of your life.
Tough isn't entering your junior season as the starting quarterback, only to break your wrist and miss the rest of the season and lose your job.
Tough isn't trying to switch to wide receiver, and then breaking your leg, leaving you wondering whether you made the right choice and if you're ever going to reach the NFL.
Battle didn't learn about toughness on a football field. He learned over a decade ago, when he was nine years old and found his three-year-old brother floating face-first, dead, in his grandmother's pool.
"Things could be worse, that's the way I look at it," said Battle. "The death of somebody so close to you reminds you that football isn't everything."
Football struggles
The fifth-year senior is used to seeing headline writers play off his last name. "A New Battle Plan", "The Battle Back", "Battling Back" — Battle's seen them all, and dozens more.
But he knows the catchy phrases aptly describe a football career teeming with adversity.
When he arrived at Notre Dame in 1998, coaches saw him as the crown jewel of the recruiting class and a player that would emerge as the next great Irish quarterback.
Yet he was stuck playing behind Jarious Jackson and barely made it onto the field his freshman year. The one game he did start, the season finale at USC, he estimated he knew only 70 percent of the offense, mostly running plays, and dismally finished 7-for-19 for only 94 yards passing with two interceptions.
That game haunted him his entire sophomore season, as he stood on the sidelines and watched Jackson inch closer and closer to breaking all kinds of Notre Dame passing records even as the Irish tumbled to a 5-6 record.
But Jackson graduated, and Battle began his junior year as the undisputed starting quarterback. Finally, Battle remembered thinking, he had a chance to show people what he could do.
On the first play from scrimmage during Notre Dame's second game of the season, against top-ranked Nebraska, Battle started scrambling and got drilled by a Cornhusker defender, landing on his left wrist. The next day, fans started scrambling for anatomy books to find out what a navicular was, because that's the bone Battle broke.
At first, the coaches couldn't wait to get Battle back. When former Irish head coach Bob Davie asked how the Irish reacted to Battle's injury, Davie responded, "You mean after we stopped crying?"
But attitudes started to change in a hurry. Battle sat the season out to preserve a year of eligibility and watched freshman Matt LoVecchio lead the Irish to seven straight wins and a BCS berth.
At some point in the season, coaches approached him with the prospect of a position change. The reason? According to Battle, the coaches told him that LoVecchio would enter the spring as the starter, and if Battle wanted to find playing time, it would probably come at wide receiver.
So Battle transplanted from quarterback to receiver, a position hadn't played since his freshman year of high school, and had to earn playing time behind future NFL draft picks David Givens and Javin Hunter.
The playmaking potential coaches raved about never materialized. Battle broke his leg midway through the season and missed four games. He only caught five passes all season and didn't score a touchdown.
Throw in a coaching change in the winter, a new offense and a whole lot of uncertainty, and Battle started to think about life after football.
"There's a lot of people out there who have the talent to make it to the next level, but I think you have to be in certain situations," Battle said. "I never doubted my ability, but I doubted my opportunity. I didn't know if I'd get an opportunity to show what I had."
Family first
If Battle needed inspiration, he looked to three places — God, his family and his left bicep.
After his brother drowned — an event too painful for Battle to describe in detail — Battle carried around a picture of his brother in his wallet. But after he kept losing his wallet and the picture, someone suggested he get a tattoo.
So before he came to Notre Dame, Battle had his brother's face engraved on his arm — a constant reminder of how bad things can get, as Battle is fond of saying.
"I'm going through so many tough times, and I'm able to appreciate my blessings," he said. "I can appreciate that things could be worse, and so I'm enjoying this moment. You can be high one time and low the next time, but you just have to appreciate it and live everything to the fullest."
Much like the family pulled together when Battle's brother drowned, they rallied around Battle as his football career spiraled out of control. Nearly every day, he talked with either his mother or grandmother. They told him everything would be fine, that things happen for a reason.
What that reason was, Battle still doesn't know. He's grateful to his family for their support, and part of his motivation for reaching the NFL is getting money to give to his family. And he knows he's a stronger person because of everything he's endured.
"The Lord, He tests you to see how strong you'll be, and I believe I've been through a strong test," Battle said. "Things are going to work out for me."
Breaking out
Battle admits he felt some trepidation before the first official team meeting with Tyrone Willingham. He was worried the coach would try to move him around to a different position or worse, not even play him.
But Willingham and offensive coordinator Bill Diedrick never considered a change. Diedrick didn't want to take the most experienced receiver out of an already-depleted wideout corps and Willingham wanted to give Battle the chance to flourish as a receiver.
"That was very reassuring. I needed to find a home, and I think I found it," Battle said. "Jumping back and forth was very hard to make that transition, and then having people say you should go back to quarterback, it was tough. But I finally found a home."
The coaches' confidence in Battle was relatively high, considering the receiver only caught five passes in his career and had never caught a touchdown pass. Yet they called him the team's playmaker, the go-to guy when the Irish needed a clutch reception.
"He had speed, strength and athletic ability," said Diedrick, reflecting on his pre-season prediction. "What else do you want?"
"If he was able to transfer those skills and that mentality to his position, he would be a young man we could count on," Willingham added. "He has really started to live up to that role."
It took time, but Battle grew increasingly confident as a receiver. Finally, everything seemed to come full circle when he caught a 60-yard game-winning touchdown pass with less than two minutes remaining against Michigan.
That catch was just the beginning. Two weeks later against Pittsburgh, Battle seemingly took over Notre Dame's only extended drive of the day, making a pair of tough catches before hauling in a tough catch in the end zone. He finished with 10 catches for over 100 yards.
Then came a 112-yard receiving performance against Air Force and a stunning 65-yard touchdown on Notre Dame's first play from scrimmage against Florida State.
"I would have thought I would have been in this situation early in my career, but obviously things didn't work out," Battle said. "I say things happen for a reason, and the things that happened to me just made me a stronger person. It helped me realize to not take my blessings for granted. The good things that happen to me, I've learned to appreciate them, because I know things can be a lot worse and go the opposite way."
Then Battle stopped for a second and paused.
Even though he had on a long sleeve shirt, he momentarily glanced toward his left arm, at his brother. The message was clear.
His football career has been tough.
But not that tough.
All Sports Stories for Friday, November 22, 2002
