The readmission process for Notre Dame athletes DaVaris Daniels and Jerian Grant has been completed. Both student-athletes will return to school and their teams for the summer semester.
When reached for an update, the university’s sports information department released the following statement:
“The University recently granted readmission to a group of individuals, and that group included student-athletes Jerian Grant and DaVaris Daniels. Both will return to Notre Dame beginning with summer school next month.”
While the move may have felt like a rubber stamp, it’s a huge gain for both athletic programs. While covering Mike Brey’s squad isn’t our focus here, a returning starter like Grant is a crucial piece to a team at a crossroads after a disappointing season in the ACC.
But for the Irish football team, Daniels is the only proven commodity in the Irish receiving depth chart. Back with the team for summer workouts, Daniels will return to the squad as the team’s No. 1 receiver, looking to build off a solid season where he caught 49 passes for 745 yards and seven touchdowns.
Brian Kelly has been supportive of Daniels, staying in contact with the receiver while he spent the spring semester back home in the Chicago suburbs. And while Kelly acknowledged Daniels’ raw talent, he also put a challenge to his rising senior receiver.
“He’s immensely talented,” Kelly said of Daniels two weeks ago at a charity outing. “He’s got to have his foot on the pedal all the time. If he does, he’s as good as anybody out there that I’ve coached. But there’s only so many times you can go to the whip... Sooner or later you gotta do it. I think this hopefully is that time where he goes, I gotta be cognizant of the fact I got a lot riding on this, I gotta be that guy every single day.”
Daniels has two seasons of eligibility remaining, though he is still on pace to graduate with his class next May.
