SOUTH BEND, IN (KWQC) – Notre Dame and Ohio State are getting ready to face off in the CFB National Championship, and one player on the Fighting Irish is from the Quad Cities.

Former Alleman four-star recruit Charles Jagusah was initially ruled out for the season with a peck injury, but he made his season debut in Notre Dame’s win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

“Being uncertain about what’s going to happen in the future, but you kind of can’t really worry about that in a game like this,” said Jagusah. “There’s always going to be injuries, there’s always going to be kind of that next thing that happens, but it gave me a lot of time to kind of understand who I am and what I needed to do in order to improve. So I think at the end of the day, like sitting out however many months, it was four months or whatever, it was hard, but it helped me get better.”

Jagusah says that even though he’s had previous injuries, this rehab was difficult.

“I’ve had injuries before where you’re kind of out for a while, but this one was tough, just because you feel good after, like, pretty soon, and you just kind of have to keep waiting, keep waiting,” said Jagusah. “Eventually, kind of things start to come back, and you get to, you get to go do stuff with your team again.”

Jagusah saw action on both offense and special teams making big blocks and plays in Notre Dame’s win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl.

“It was a goal of mine to get back by the end of the year, at least, kind of right when I had that injury,” said Jagusah. “But for me, it was just special, because my team did so much to get there and just to be able to add to what they did was a great feeling for me.”

Jagusah and the Fighting Irish take on Ohio State in the National Championship on Monday. Kick off is set for 6:30 p.m.

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