{"id":60096,"date":"2024-06-01T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=60096"},"modified":"2024-05-31T20:24:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T00:24:57","slug":"running-back-gibran-payne-lost-for-the-2024-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/06\/01\/running-back-gibran-payne-lost-for-the-2024-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Running Back Gi\u2019Bran Payne Lost for the 2024 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame announced this week that junior running back Gi\u2019Bran Payne<\/a> underwent a successful surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on his right knee. Payne suffered the injury after carrying the ball 10 times for 58 yards during Notre Dame\u2019s Blue-Gold Game<\/a> in the spring. In a blow to the Irish\u2019s offense, Payne is expected to miss the entire 2024 season.<\/p>\n

Irish running backs coach Deland McCullough<\/strong> said of Payne earlier this spring on Irish Sports Daily<\/em>, \u201cGi\u2019Bran is like the silent assassin of the whole thing. Gi\u2019Bran\u2019s vertical went from 32 to 37 inches. It shows the guy is a more explosive player and Gi\u2019Bran doesn\u2019t make mistakes. Gi\u2019Bran maximizes. Gi\u2019Bran is football smart, a situational master\u2014all these things. He\u2019s bringing his lunch bucket to the table every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we continue to move forward, you\u2019ll see more of that from him,\u201d McCullough added. \u201cBut short-yardage-wise, he\u2019s got a low center of gravity, at pad level, he knows how to get skinny and other things like that. The same things he brings to the table as a short-yardage back as far as leverage, he brings to the table as a pass protector.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Immediate Future Without Gi\u2019Bran Payne<\/h3>\n

In a backfield that featured Audric Estime<\/a> last season, Payne still managed to carve a valuable role in the unit as a short-yardage weapon. He rushed for 168 yards on 45 carries a season ago and scored two touchdowns on the ground last year and two through the air. He added nine receptions out of the backfield. Interestingly, Payne had more carries on third down than any other Irish running back in 2023. Payne rushed for a career-high 35 yards and a touchdown against Stanford in last year\u2019s season finale.<\/p>\n

Payne was expected to play a significant role in the Irish backfield this season. He demonstrated improved explosiveness in the Blue-Gold Game<\/strong>. It was especially noticeable with his initial burst. Payne\u2019s setback is the latest in a string of injuries he has suffered since high school. He had a broken right ankle in 2020 and a torn meniscus in his right knee in 2021 in his final two seasons at Cincinnati\u2019s La Salle High School. While Payne\u2019s injury is a blow to the Irish\u2019s offense for the coming season, Notre Dame still has experienced ball carriers Jeremiyah Love<\/a> and Jadarian Price<\/a> to anchor the position.<\/p>\n

Newcomers Will Need to Step Up<\/h3>\n

Payne\u2019s absence this season should accelerate playing time for talented freshmen Aneyas Williams<\/strong> and Kedren Young<\/strong>. With Payne out for the season, the Irish must expedite the development of Williams and Young. Williams flashed in the Blue-Gold Game. He carried the ball 10 times for 39 yards and scored a touchdown.<\/p>\n

In his press conference following the Blue-Gold Game, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman<\/strong> singled out Williams. \u201cAneyas played well. He played really well,\u201d Freeman said, \u201cand it was good to see live. We didn\u2019t have a whole bunch of live periods throughout the spring. The thing for me is that what prevents running backs from playing at a young age is protection, right? It\u2019s pass protection. It\u2019s not being able to run with the football. That\u2019s why we recruited him. We know they can run with the football. Being able to trust them in pass protection\u2014he\u2019s grown tremendously there. And he\u2019s the one that stuck out to me more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Gi'Bran
Photo courtesy: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame announced this week that junior running back Gi\u2019Bran Payne underwent a successful surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on his right knee. Payne suffered the injury after carrying the ball 10 times for 58 yards during Notre Dame\u2019s Blue-Gold Game in the spring. In a blow to the Irish\u2019s offense, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4854,"featured_media":60101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10906,11,17],"tags":[32879,33354,10490,32880,6850,259],"class_list":["post-60096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-cfb","category-independents","category-news","tag-aneyas-williams","tag-blue-gold-game","tag-deland-mccullough","tag-kedren-young","tag-marcus-freeman","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}