Riggs ready for last ND hurrah

From a 6-0 start to a 7-5 regular season. From a healthy, integral part of a suffocating defense the first half of the season to a banged up unit - himself included - holding on for dear life.

But for the 5-foot-9, 185-pound Fort Lauderdale, Fla., product originally recruited by Notre Dame -- and the nephew of former Irish wideout Bobby Brown -- the experience will last a lifetime.

“I said it this summer how they accepted me and embraced me, and it hasn’t changed since,” said Riggs of his Irish teammates. “Everybody has helped me, and I feel that’s the best part of the experience here: the camaraderie that I had with everybody in just a year.”

Riggs chose to take his fifth and final year of eligibility from Gainesville to South Bend after missing the 2012 season with a fractured foot after just two games. He started all 12 games at safety for the Gators in 2013, completed his undergraduate degree, and then took the Notre Dame challenge for his final season.

The Irish will tell you Riggs was a godsend. When KeiVarae Russell was sidelined for the season due to suspension, Riggs teamed up with sophomore Cole Luke at cornerback to give the Irish the type of tight coverage defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder needed with his aggressive approach up front.

Following the Navy game, Riggs was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his foot, which prevented him from participating against Arizona State. The Sun Devils hung 41 points on the Notre Dame defense and scored 55 total.

Riggs started against Northwestern and Louisville, but was limited. Come USC week, he tried to answer the bell, but once again was sidelined. It was a long month for the St. Thomas Aquinas High product.

“I probably would have been better off if I had just sat down and stayed off my foot instead of going in there and trying to play,” Riggs said. “That made it worse and that’s what prevented me from playing in the last game.

“If I had to do it over again, I probably would have sat out so I could have been more of a help to my team. But that’s the nature of the game. You want to help. You just want to help your guys now.”

Riggs tried to treat the injury as a day-to-day setback, but every time he put his foot down on the accelerator, he had a relapse.

“I was just trying to push through a stress fracture, stress reaction, whatever it was,” Riggs said. “In pre-game I’d feel good and then the next thing you know, I’d step wrong or step on the back of somebody’s foot and it was back where it was.

“It’s something that gets worse the more you play on it. Every time I thought it was healed, it wasn’t.”

Riggs said he knew by Tuesday of USC week that his regular season was over. But with the NFL draft coming up and one more chance to get on the field for the Irish, he’s declared himself fit and “should be ready” for LSU.

“I want to thank this staff for accepting me and bringing me in,” Riggs said. “I had a great experience with those guys in the secondary, and just the whole team in general.

“They didn’t have to do what they did for me. The guys on the team didn’t have to accept me the way they did.”