Brian Kelly met with the media on Tuesday to talk about Notre Dame’s 2013 season opener this weekend at home against Temple. Here is the full video along with some notes and highlights for those of you that don’t have 43 minutes to watch.
- Kelly said that the Irish will have to make some adjustments along the way because they don’t much about Temple given the new coaching staff in place for the Owls.
- Chris Ault spent a couple of days at Notre Dame’s coaches clinic and Kelly mentioned that they will determine how much they will use the pistol from week to week depending on the situation.
- Ronnie Stanley practiced fully yesterday and is a full go. Stanley won the right tackle job in camp with Christian Lombard moving inside to right guard where many feel he is better suited. Kelly did say that it is a fluid situation stating that Steve Elmer could start at right tackle at some point.
- Austin Collinsworth won the starting safety position over Elijah Shumate but both will play. This is a pretty big upset considering how much Shumate played as a freshman last year.
- With the loss of Tony Springmann, Tyler Stockton will be the 3rd reserve DL with Ishaq Williams and Kona Schwenke being the first two.
- TJ Jones will bet he punt return man for Notre Dame this year and really wants to do the job.
- Will Mahone is out this week due to injury.
- For freshman playing time, Kelly mentioned that defensive players who are going to play this year will likely see the field very early on special teams this year while offensive freshmen might not see the field til a little later in the year. This could mean we won’t see much of Greg Bryant this weekend.
- Nick Martin and Kona Schwenke were the two players that Kelly mentioned as being the most improved from the start of camp until this week. Kelly praised Martin’s improvement since the spring and cited his experience against Louis Nix as reason for his improvement. On Schwenke, Kelly said that he could start for a number of teams and be an impact player.
- Kelly praised the freshman’s class ability to blend in with the rest of the team and leave any egos at the door despite how highly touted many of them were coming in.
- Kelly would not name the true freshmen who will be playing on special teams but said that we will see a number of the them on the field on Saturday.
- Kelly was vague about the split of carries among the running backs but said that we’ll see all of them at some point this year.
- Jaylon Smith will start game one because he has been consistent everyday in practice. Kelly mentioned that Smith is in a much different position than Manti Te’o was as a freshman. Smith has “not made the same mistake twice” so far in practice. Smith passed Ben Councell on the depth chart after Danny Spond’s retirement.
- There are three early enrollees on the two-deep – Steve Elmer, James Onwaulu, and Corey Robinson. All three of them will play early.
- On Chris Brown’s fall camp, Kelly said the he was just “OK” this summer. The coaching staff wants to see more consistency out of him but they think he has a very, very high ceiling. Kelly said he has flashes where you say “wow, what was that” but he hasn’t been able to do that on a consistent basis.
- On Ishaq Williams, “He’s done cooking. He’s ready to go.” Kelly said that he is very excited to see him play this week and is expecting big things from him.
- On getting his other quarterbacks on the field, Kelly said that any time you can get your 2nd or 3rd QB in a situation where there isn’t an injury its a good thing, but they want to get off to a good start with Tommy Rees. Translation – Rees is the QB unless he forces Kelly to go to the bullpen.
- Max Redfield will play on special teams on Saturday, but he is not in the rotation at safety just yet.
Hendrix and Rees are not in same category. Hendrix had had 3 years to beat him out and hasn’t. Unless we watch practice everyday we are in no position to judge.
If Andrew Hendrix reads this the way I did re Rees at QB and whether any other QB gets any playing time the answer looks like NO. If ND up 50-0 late in 4th qtr Kelly will probably leave TR in and say he wanted to get him as many reps as possible to be ready for Michigan game. If Hendrix was not pre-med I believe he would have left just like Kiel. TR must be Kelly’s step-son the way he believes the kid “walks on water”. I have been saying for 4 yrs I think Hendrix is “head and shoulders” above Rees as a QB but unless TR breaks a leg (Kelly would probably play him in a wheelchair) Hendrix will get zero playing time for the 4 year at ND. Next year Golson back so Hendrix will never know if he could have played since he never got on the field. Just my opinion.
Yes, I’m sure BK wouldn’t play a QB he felt was far superior to another just to annoy you.
Call me crazy but I’ll trust the guy with 200 wins.
That would be the same guy who called for a pass vs Tulsa with this same QB resulting in that loss?? If we turn the ball over via fumble/interception 2-3 times vs Temple Kelly will do a South Florida and pull his “far superior” guy and pray AH can come to the rescue the way TR didn’t when he pulled Crist. I hope Martin proves a better play caller then Kelly did (particularly in his first two years). I also hope TR can actually hit his open receivers and not rely on acrobatic catches by guys like Floyd vs FSU in the bowl game to save another pick and the many Eifert pulled off last year to save Rees and make him look like our Saviour. My memory of him is him falling down every time he got pressured vs Stanford in 2011 because he was scared of being hit and Hendrix coming in to bail him out. Unfortunately it was left too late for AH to save that one.
I agree about your take on the fair haired wonder boy (TR). I would have liked to have seen more opportunity for AH in these past years. There were times he could have had that.
Ron B, this is an opinion board where opinions are posted. Your opinion is just as valid as any other, even if it means someone may disagree with your perspective. Since you are a Bama fan, I’m guessing you had some disagreements when Bama got beat by a frosh QB in their own house as it pertains to calls that were made by the coaching staff against A&M last year. Don’t be so smug.
Go Irish
Your post would make sense if I was a Bama fan.
Impressive. I believe game tempo, clean play (no turnovers) & player rotation to be relevant even critical.
Show Michigan ‘nada’ strategically.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IRISH