Brian Kelly Talks Final Temple Preparations

Brian Kelly met with the media briefly on Thursday for the final time before the Irish kick off the 2013 season against Temple this weekend.  Video of Kelly’s media session and notes below.

• Nick Martin will make some of the line calls but will get some help from Tommy Rees since he is a young center making his first career start. 
• Malik Zaire will not be able to play on Saturday so Luke Massa took reps as the 3rd quarterback this week as he recovers from mono.  Will Cronin, a walkon, was the scout team QB along with freshman CB Rashad Kinlaw.  Kelly is hopeful Zaire will be back soon.
• Massa will also hold for extra points.  Kelly said they could play him at quarterback if they had to, but he doesn’t want to play him unless he has to in an emergency situation.
• Josh Atkinson has been training at wide receiver but Kelly said that he is going to time to adjust to wide receiver.  He lauded Atkinson’s speed already stating he he is “fast as heck”.
• CJ Prosise will be asked to do specific things but won’t be an every down player at the slot like Robby Toma was last year.  He will have a specific role in the offense.  What that role is will be seen on Saturday as Kelly wasn’t giving any hints of what his role is today.
• Kelly said he is a lot more confident about taking the ball on offense if they won toss this year than he was his first couple years at Notre Dame.
• James Onwualu and Cole Luke are the two freshmen that Kelly said have come the farthest since the start of camp. Onwualu is catching the ball more consistently and running better routes than when he first go to Notre Dame in the Spring.  Kelly praised Luke for being able to play corner and nickel.
• Kelly said that they feel they are in a better place from a conditioning standpoint with both Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt this year than they were last year.  In a game where a team is going to play straight at them like Stanford or Michigan State, Kelly said they could play every down, but if a team tries to spread them out they’ll need to rotate in.  With warm weather predicted for Saturday, Kelly said they are going to have to play a lot of players regardless.