Tunnel Vision

Kory Minor took a leap of football faith four years ago, across half a continent and into the gold-tinged arms of a nondescript little Midwestern school called Notre Dame.

And, after four years of huge games and thundering emotional rides, on the eve of his final regular-season game, Minor, stirringly, finds that the long journey has taken him home again.

For the fourth and last time on Saturday at the Coliseum, the La Verne native will suit up as a Fighting Irish linebacker against USC.

“I’m going to walk through a tunnel onto the field for the last time in the regular season, and when I come out, it’ll be back where I came from,” said Minor, one of three Irish co-captains. “That’s kind of neat.

“That kind of makes it feel complete. The right way to end a college career, you know?”

These are reflective times for Minor, who starred at La Puente Bishop Amat High alongside USC cornerback Daylon McCutcheon.

McCutcheon stayed close to home, and has started for the Trojans for four seasons.

Minor went far away, and started for the Irish for four seasons--sitting out only one game because of injury, this season against Michigan State, Notre Dame’s only loss.

“I remember very clearly when I first got here and I was a freshman, a little homesick, and going through that tunnel [at Notre Dame Stadium] for the first time,” Minor said. “That’s what I’m thinking for this game.

“I’m thinking that I’m ending my college career with two home games, one at Notre Dame and one in L.A.”

At a pep rally last week before Notre Dame’s final home game--a wild victory over Louisiana State--Minor’s mother, Kim, went to the microphone and surprised her son and the rest of the audience with a moving thank you to Notre Dame for taking care of her son.

And for turning him into a man.

He was stunned, and proud.

“I didn’t know what she was going to say,” Minor said. “But she got up there and she was great. I knew she felt that way, but to hear her say that before all my teammates and my coaches and the people who were there, it was incredible.”

Said assistant head coach Kirk Doll: “His mom did a marvelous job at the pep rally. Sometimes as a coach you spend more time with these players than you do your family. They kind of become a part of you.

“It makes you feel good that they realize sometimes we’re like a parent, you’ve got to correct them. I feel real proud of what Kory’s done, and he has a chance to play after this year. He’s grown up, and he’s a Notre Dame man.

“I think that’s a success.”

While this season has been surprisingly successful for Notre Dame, which still has a chance to get into a major bowl game, for Minor it started with minor injuries. Only recently has he regained his playmaking presence.

The 6-foot-1, 245-pound Minor started all but one game of his freshman season, and every game afterward until the second game this season.

On Sept. 12, Minor paced the sidelines, out of uniform because of turf toe, while Michigan State tore apart the Irish defense.

But he is injury-free now and last week against LSU he had two sacks, forced a fumble and generally was the best defensive player on the field.

“Now it’s going pretty well,” he said. “We started off slow . . . but personally it’s gotten a lot better for me lately. I’ve been playing better, and I think this team knows we can play with a lot of people.”

Minor, however, says that Coach Bob Davie has warned the players not to be preoccupied with the school’s financial stake in getting an at-large bid into the Bowl Championship Series--which would be worth millions of dollars to the school.

As of now, the possibility is only marginal.

“Coach Davie says we’re not going to see the money, so it makes no difference to us, it isn’t going into our pocket, so why should we worry about it?” Minor said. “Our jobs are just to play as well as we can, and be the best team we can be.”

Minor mainly plays the “drop linebacker” spot in the Irish’s multiple-front defensive lineup, having primary responsibility for the tight end.

But throughout his Notre Dame career, Minor has been an effective pass rusher, recording a career-high eight sacks in his sophomore season.

As a freshman against USC, Minor grabbed Trojan quarterback Kyle Wachholtz in the end zone for a fourth-quarter safety, helping wrap up a 38-10 victory.

“He has been a big-play guy,” Doll said. “I think back as a freshman in Washington, we played up in Seattle, he missed the check but he made the big play we absolutely needed [in the fourth quarter of Notre Dame’s comeback victory]. He should’ve gone inside, but he caused a fumble on the play.

“Throughout his career, there have been games [where] the turning point was [when] he made something happen. He has a little flair about him.”

Minor’s high school coach at Bishop Amat, Mark Paredes, now at Riverside North, said that Minor always knew he wanted to go to Notre Dame.

“Oh yes, that definitely was the place for him,” Paredes said. “I can remember when he was a freshman, talking to him, ‘Hey, what school do you want to go to?’ He said Notre Dame . . . I said, ‘Well, better keep your grades up and work hard.’ He sure did that.

“Notre Dame’s a place that’s good for him. Bishop Amat High School is similar in a lot of ways, somewhat of a family atmosphere, a perfect place for him to develop.

“Many of the times when kids do go away, it’s just the thing they need. Sometimes kids who stay close to home end up getting tangled up in some things that might’ve affected them. . . . They just don’t grow as much.”

Said Minor: “I definitely am more mature. Being away from my mom, having to pay my own bills, paying my own rent--don’t have my mother there to do that for me. I definitely am more mature. I’ve had to become a man.

“Some of the guys who stayed home, I don’t think they’ve had the chance to do that. You go away, and you become a better person. I know I have.

“I wanted to come home many times but we stuck through it and here I am at the end of four years.”

And guess who’ll be looking back at him from across the field?

For his part, McCutcheon said that it’s always special to play against Minor.

“It’s always exciting playing against him. Both of us will be playing our last regular-season game,” McCutcheon said of Minor. “It’s fun going out and listening to his name on the loudspeaker, him and me playing on the same field again.”

Minor said that once he gets through the tunnel and onto the field, he’ll be looking over at the USC players, trying to catch McCutcheon’s eyes.

He has done that the last three times they’ve played, Minor says, and though he never quite zeros in on McCutcheon amid the throng, he feels as if, symbolically, it’s an official greeting among old high school teammates.

“I know we’re both kind of looking for each other,” Minor said. “Daylon’s a great guy, and I do miss playing with him. But these were decisions we each had to make. And when I knew he was going to SC and I was going to Notre Dame we each were, ‘Hey, we’re going to be playing each other four times!’ ”

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Staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.