(MCT) SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Louis Nix’s mother participated in one Senior Day. For his high school basketball team, not his football team, and the difference is as vast as Notre Dame’s nose guard himself.

“That wasn’t the same thing,” Nix said Monday. “I didn’t get a lot of praise in basketball, besides five fouls in a minute, maybe.”

And because his mother’s work precluded her from attending that football Senior Day, and because that brought her to tears, Nix decided to give her another one. He will return to the Irish in 2013 along with standout left tackle Zack Martin, both players quickly opting to spurn the NFL in decisions announced by Irish coach Brian Kelly.