Gray bouncing back from Week 2 nightmare

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Gary Gray initially described his situation coming off Notre Dame's Week 2 loss at Michigan as "just a little adversity" that his teammates helped him overcome.

Pressed further, the cornerback confessed it was more than that.

"I mean, it was a lot," he said. "We lost the game, but I mean, they stuck behind me, so they still believe in me and I still believe in myself, so that's all that matters."

Gray, a fifth-year senior who has started 26 straight games for the Irish, experienced a nightmare at the Big House, low-lighted by the game-winning touchdown catch he surrendered to Roy Roundtree with two seconds left.

Cornerbacks coach Kerry Cooks, not wanting the disappointing performance to get to Gray -- and knowing that the obligatory "24-hour rule" is easier spoken than exercised after a bad game -- immediately went into the film room and showed Gray that all wasn't lost.

"As a coach you pull out some of the old clips, and you remind Gary Gray what he did and how many plays he's made on numerous great wide receivers in big games and that shows him that, 'Hey OK, it wasn't a fluke, I just didn't play up to my abilities, I didn't play technically sound. Michigan's got good players and that is what it is, it's behind us now,' " Cooks said. "But you do things like that, you show him what he's done in the past to help him move forward in the future. Just kind of as a reminder that, 'You know, things happen. Short-term memory. This is what you've done. You didn't do it this game. But this is what you've done. This is what you're capable of. We've got confidence in you as a staff.'

"His teammates rallied around him and let him know that they have confidence in him as a player and he went out and just performed well."

Cooks shared with Gray a saying he often heard throughout his four-year NFL career, a cliche that helped him bounce back after rough outings:

"They get paid, too, to make plays," Cooks said of receivers.

Notre Dame touted Gray as one of the top cornerbacks in the country this season, though fellow starter Robert Blanton has garnered more attention so far through six games.

Gray, the most decorated recruit of the Irish's defensive backfield, admitted to being a little shaken after the Michigan game but was picked up by his teammates the next day.

"I think that throughout that game he was kind of wondering what was going on," Cooks said. "Because if you watch the game closely on tape, he was in position to make some of those plays and just didn't come up with them.

"But coming out that following week in practice there was nothing different. He knew that he had to come out and he needed to improve on some certain things from a technical standpoint and he did those. He was positive. He was excited. He went out that very next week and played ball."

Gray has steadily improved his play in the four games since, and his game-opening interception at Purdue in Week 5 set the tone for a rout.

Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco called Gray one of the stalwarts of the defense, saying he hasn't missed a beat in practice following the prime-time blemish.

"The demons he was going through, we all work with," Diaco said. "But he really didn't let them -- I don't know how long it caused him to decelerate, but we didn't see it. By the time he came to work he was ready."

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/50170/gray-bouncing-back-from-week-2-nightmare

New England Patriots Denver Broncos Arizona Cardinals Kansas City Chiefs San Francisco 49ers Seattle Seahawks