Irish's Laws can't do it all

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Trevor Laws needed all the support a family could muster.

Notre Dame had just dropped its fifth straight game to start the season, the latest disenchantment coming at Purdue, where the Irish delivered only flickers of improvement. Like always, Laws shined much brighter, dropping a career-high three Boilermakers in the backfield.

But as the fifth-year senior began to discover that afternoon, All-American production from one doesn't mean victory for all.

Laws stewed after the game, answering questions in near monosyllabic grunts. Then he sought out his family outside the locker room for a group hug.

"I think that's when he started realize that, 'I'm not going will this team to victory no matter how hard I play or how much I play,' " said his brother, Drew Laws, the veteran's off-campus football counsel. "I can't make this team win."

In the coming days, cousins sent e-mails and aunts called. They all wanted Laws to see his personal success through a forest of team failures.

And thanks to those affirmations, he finally did.

"It's definitely a bittersweet feeling," Laws said. "When the game gets over, we lose and somebody comes up to me and says, 'Oh, you had 11 tackles and played great.' But you look around the locker room and you just lost the game."

Make no mistake, Laws hasn't accepted losing as 1-7 Notre Dame begins its November stretch of off-the-radar games with Navy. But the veteran has put it in a healthy perspective.

Laws deserves some gratification for pacing the Irish in tackles with 67, leading all defensive linemen nationally in stops and playing his way up multiple draft boards.

A late pick, according to some analysts before the season, Laws now appears a good bet for the middle rounds even though he's playing a position he will leave behind in the NFL.

He's an end in Notre Dame's 3-4 scheme, but at 6-feet-1, 296 pounds, Laws is a defensive tackle at the next level. Charlie Weis said Laws has helped his stock by training at tackle and end in college, showing scouts he can fit at multiple positions regardless of body type.

"There's a whole bunch (or pros) that he reminds me of," Weis said, "those pains in the butt that were in the backfield all day."

Laws' personality remains harder to define, an aberration in a sport that often rewards uniformity. When friends went home over Notre Dame's bye week, Laws hung out with former teammate Jeff Samardzija and bought concert tickets.

When the Irish broke for summer in May, Laws left football behind during a trip to England, France and Switzerland.

"He has such a capacity for enjoying whatever he's doing," said his mother, Yevetta Laws, a self-described product of the hippie generation. "He's not thinking about a need for the limelight, the need to practice football or lift weights. He was enjoying that moment completely."

That outlook extends to football too, sometimes relieving the stress of a testosterone sport.

In one position meeting, defensive-line coach Jappy Oliver lit into nose tackle Patrick Kuntz, creating an uncomfortable silence. Laws filled the gap with a nonsensical sound effect that sent the players into hysterics.

"That's Trevor. He's out to have a good time all the time," Kuntz said. "He's such a free-spirited dude."

But that's no indictment of a work ethic that has put Laws on pace for a historic season. If he continues to amass tackles at his current rate, he will become the fourth Irish defensive lineman ever to hit triple figures.

That's all while facing regular double teams as Notre Dame's lone threat on the line.

"A lot of guys in that situation would have backed down," Kuntz said. "He's playing like we're undefeated right now, and that's one of the best things we could have on this team."