From Charger To Champion (AFC)

Drue Tranquill in an interview with the Charger Sports Network

The Super Bowl is every kid’s dream, and former Charger Drue Tranquill is getting the chance to live that dream out. Drue’s journey to the biggest game in the world has been quite the impressive one, to say the least.

From the time he arrived at Carroll in 2010 Coach Doug Dinan “Knew he was going to be something special very early in that career,” and boy was he right. After getting called up towards the back end of his freshman season he started to fully showcase what he could do on the field. Stats are difficult to find from his time here at Carroll but during his season he was a total monster on the gridiron racking up 75 tackles with 18 going for a loss, 4 sacks, an interception, 1800 total yards, and 29 Touchdowns. Drue wanted to start his freshman year but Dinan had him play on the freshman team which he says “was great for my development as a player and person.” Drue was one of the best players in the area during that senior season and was able to get noticed by some smaller MAC schools and a couple of B10 schools but schools like Notre Dame and Michigan hadn’t offered yet.

Drue made his college decision in the summer before his senior season with a verbal commitment to the University of Purdue before getting an offer about two weeks after the season had ended from Notre Dame. One of the reasons that he chose Notre Dame was so that his family could still get to see him play, being the oldest of 5 kids he wanted to be close enough to interact with his younger brothers and watch them grow up.

Drue is no stranger to big games, while he was with the Irish he got to go to CFP and play Clemson in the semi-final and went to a bowl game in 3 out of his other 4 years. In his first season at Notre Dame, he was one of 4 true freshmen to start and made some big plays including registering 33 tackles, one TFL, half a sack, one interception, one fumble recovery, one blocked punt, one pass defended, and one quarterback hurry. When the Irish played the Louisville Cardinals things took a turn for Drue, he intercepted Reggie Bonnafon and tore his ACL returning the INT thus ending his freshmen season. His 2nd season was starting off well and then he went to celebrate with a teammate in the endzone after breaking up a pass and tore his ACL again ending the season just 3 games in. His junior season was when he turned it on starting all 12 games and making big plays while he did it. His senior year was dominant after transforming from a safety to linebacker he started all 13 games and led one of the best defenses in the nation.

Drue Celebrating in his Notre Dame uniform.

For the past four seasons, Drue has spent his time in LA with the Chargers. He said his kids liked being on the beach a lot and he picked surfing while he was out there, which you can’t do in Kansas City he said. As a 4th round pick, he never expected to get to play in a Super Bowl, “Some guys play an entire 10-year career and never sniff the Super Bowl, so it’s an honor to make it with the Chiefs.” Drue says he does everything for the Lord and it’s a blessing to represent Carroll and Fort Wayne in the biggest game possible.