Sugary sips to the Sugar Bowl: How two heroes set Notre Dame CB Christian Gray up for superstardom

NEW ORLEANS — There’s not much Notre Dame sophomore corner Christian Gray wouldn’t give for a soda from a QuikTrip in St. Louis. It’s not that the contents of the Coke were anything extraordinary. The person he shared those sugary sips with, though?

That individual sweetened a world that can be so sour.

Gray lost his grandfather, Edward Covington, when he was a freshman in high school. Covington picked Gray up from school every day and took him to QT for the drink and, often times, a small toy from Dollar General. He hardly ever let Gray go empty-handed.

Those are things fathers and sons typically take part in together, but Gray lost his to an illness when he was 4. He hasn’t had a dad for essentially the entirety of his cognitive lifetime. He had a father figure, though, until 2020.

Covington.

“My parents, they were there,” Gray’s mother, Shonda, told Blue & Gold. “They were my supporters in raising my kids.”

Shonda works in education. She’s held jobs ranging from elementary teacher to principal to a front office gig with the St. Louis public school system. Each position came with long days that kept her away from home — away from Christian and his sister, Lael, who’s a year older.

When she couldn’t be with them, the Covingtons — Edward and Shirley, who passed away in May of 2023 — were.

“I get teary eyed just being asked about it,” Shonda said. “But it’s a good thing. It’s tears of joy.”

It was gas station sodas, Wii bowling and Cardinals games for Gray with his grandpa. Morals, leadership, discipline and orderly conduct, too, being that Edward was a military veteran. Gray never got into the kind of crippling trouble that can come after kids of single-parent households. Thank Edward for that.

With his grandma, it was learning how to bake. Gray still fires up the oven to make his favorite desserts, red velvet cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. He’s a “fighter,” as dubbed by Notre Dame defensive backs coach Mike Mickens, but he’s a “goofy individual off the field,” also as described by his position coach. The latter was born out of baking sessions with Shirley, a soul who was as saccharine as the drink she shares a name with.

Simply, Gray grandparents had a profound impact, across the spectrum, on him at an impressionable period. They’re gone now, but they live on through his actions. Moreover, the memory of them gives Gray life — and motivation, power and purpose.

“My grandparents helped me strive to be where I am right now,” Gray told Blue & Gold. “Without them, I’d be in the dirt right now. I ain’t going to lie to you. I just really appreciate them for that.”

Gray’s not in the dirt — unless he’s tackling an opposing player on a natural grass field, of course, as he effectively did on a key early-game, tone-setting fourth-down stop against Notre Dame’s rival, USC, in the Fighting Irish’s regular season finale. He’s tasked with making comparable critical plays on a turf surface at the Superdome tonight, starting at corner for Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia with a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals on the line. Almost doesn’t seem real.

Edward in particular would have given as much as Gray would give now to share a soda with him to see his grandson play in a blue and gold uniform in a game of this magnitude. Covington was a Notre Dame fan. His favorite Fighting Irish player was Jerome Bettis. Had he lived long enough to see Gray suit up for the Irish, he’d have certainly bumped Bettis down to No. 2.

No disrespect to the Bus, of course. Just every ounce of due respect to his grandchild.

Shirley never saw Gray play at Notre Dame either. She got sick the day before his commitment ceremony. She went on recruiting trips with him, though, reveling in the reality of her grandson soon becoming a college football player. She would certainly be in the Superdome stands with her husband rooting for No. 29 — a number Gray wears in college because it’s what he sported in high school when his grandparents saw him play in person — if they hadn’t passed.

So would his dad, for that matter. The Christian he knew was a preschooler. Now he’s a starter at arguably the biggest brand in college football. He panned out, admirably, against all odds.

“As I watch Christian go through this, I am so blessed,” Shonda said. “We are so grateful and blessed as we watch him walk through this, knowing where he came from, knowing the obstacles, the adversity. He’s been through some things at an age that I didn’t experience.”

‘You got to let it go’

Gray hasn’t been immune to adversity on the football field, either, as talented as he is. It never hit him harder, ironically, than in the same USC game he started off with a strong tackle to get the Notre Dame defense off the field.

The Trojans picked on the Gray in the passing game. No other way to put it. They targeted the man he was covering 12 times and completed 8 passes for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns. He was flagged for multiple pass interference penalties, too.

If that sounds like a poor performance, well, that’s because it was. Gray knows that. He also knows what anybody who’s ever watched him the last two seasons knows — he’s really, really good at what he does. He’s not not a bad player. He just had a bad game.

So bad, in fact, he literally screamed at the top of his lungs on the Notre Dame sideline to let out all of the frustration that had been brewing with each pass completed against him. With each tossing of a yellow hanky. Gray hadn’t allowed more than 4 catches or 42 yards against him all season prior to what transpired in Los Angeles. He had two calls go against him in the first 11 games of the year.

In as peculiar of a position, mentally, as ever, he didn’t know what to do. So he screamed.

“You got to let it go, you know?” Gray said.

Notre Dame graduate senior cornerback Jordan Clark, in addition to head coach Marcus Freeman and Mickens, did not scream. They calmly encouraged Gray, though, a perfect juxtaposition to the jitters he let loose through self-induced vocal therapy.

Gray credited that trio, particularly, for the interception he returned the length of the field for a touchdown that essentially put the game out of reach. Notre Dame won, 49-35.

“At the end of the day, he showed his mettle when he made an interception and saved the day for us,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said. “God bless him. Great kid. Fighter.”

Gray scored the Irish’s penultimate TD soon after the people in his corner — Freeman, Golden, Clark, Mickens and many more — put their hands on his shoulder, literally and figuratively.

“It was just trying to be a brother and a friend,” Clark told Blue & Gold. “In those moments in games, they’re throwing flags on you, sometimes it’s hard to bounce back. Playing DB is a difficult thing. I just wanted him to calm down and get back to himself, get back to thinking clear, going through his process of playing football. Whenever he is locked in, he’s as good as it gets.”

“Seeing him fighting through, it was a proud moment,” Mickens added. “That’s who he is.”

Who he is — who Shonda and her parents raised him to be. Gray feels their presence when he needs them the most. Even on his worst day, he was still a light for Notre Dame in a key victory.

He won’t ever forget where the light came from. The best thing he ever did was come to terms with the idea of his grandparents never having left his side spiritually even though they’ve passed physically.

“At first I didn’t accept it,” Gray said. “It was too hard. I didn’t like it at all. In the back of my mind, I didn’t have a talk with God about it. I didn’t talk to anybody about it. I just kept it in. My mom asked me questions about it, and I just told her everything. I asked God for forgiveness.

“Now, I accept their passing. I was very appreciative and very grateful for them being on this planet.”