Brian Kelly on Notre Dame’s 2013 Offensive Recruits

Earlier today we took a look at what Brian Kelly had to say about the defensive recuits he and his staff signed yesterday.  Now we take a look at what the Notre Dame head coach had to say about the new weapons he has to utilize on the offensive side of the ball.

Hunter Bivin – OL

What we have here is a young man with great versatility on the offensive line. He played tackle, he moved to center in the all star game, played flawlessly at that position. Here’s a young man that comes in with the size and strength and the versatility on the offensive line, an area that as you know with five offensive line commits was very central to this recruiting class.

Greg Bryant – RB

Again, when we talk about a specific need within the program, the loss of Cierre Wood, Theo Riddick, Greg Bryant puts himself in a position to compete. What we really love about Greg is, again, a guy that has shown a proficiency of catching the football as well as running physically tackle to tackle. He’s a guy that will and you guys saw this later in the year, the way Theo ran for us between the tackles. We think we get that kind of physical play with Greg Bryant.

Steve Elmer – OL

Steve Elmer is one of our mid year graduates from Midland. Again, I think when you look at all the things, he’s got the size, he’s 6’5″, he’s got great feet, he’s 300 pounds right now, but looks like he could put on as many pounds as we need to in strength and conditioning with Steve.

William Fuller – WR

He’s also a young man that we believe that if there’s a guy that flew under the radar a little bit, it was William Fuller. The thing that really clearly stands out is his ball skills. He can run and catch the football. Any time that we got a chance to observe him, he was running and catching, just terrific ball skills.

Mike Heuerman – TE

That tight end position as you know, we like to use it in multiple fashions, whether he’s split out as a wide receiver or if he’s in line blocking or moving him around, Mike fits that profile. He was an early commit to us. He was part of the interesting Irish Mob, if you will, this year, which was taking its own life form online and through Twitter and Facebook, and he was one of those guys recruiting other players in this class. And I think that’s a great thing.

Torii Hunter, Jr – WR

He comes from a great family and a committed family, and when I say committed, not only to his education but to being the very best. I’ll give you an example: We were in Torii’s home just about a week ago, and as many of you know, he suffered a leg injury, and he’s already up moving around after two and a half weeks. The care and the commitment that he has, here’s a guy that’s only going to get better and physically develop.

Mike McGlinchey – OL

Mike is another young man that as he continues to grow, we worry that Mike Brey is going to take him from us. He could be 6’11” here soon, but he’s another young man that has the athleticism to play the tackle position, but he’s athletic enough that he’s played tight end. We were really impressed with the way he played basketball. He was a ferocious competitor, ran well, and is somebody that is going to continue to get stronger physically.

Colin McGovern – OL

Colin out of Lincolnway West here, and to have linemen from the Midwest is something that we always look for. It would be nice to get somebody every year from this area. Colin is more than just a player from the Midwest; he’s a physical, strong guy that can play inside for us, and really felt early on in this process when we watched him compete, and again, here’s another guy that came up to camp, and we got a chance to see him in person, and that makes such a big difference to us.

John Montelus – OL

6’5″, 305 pounds, and he looks we had a picture of the five offensive linemen together, and I remember just kind of kiddingly looking at John, and John is probably not 6’5″, but he’s well over 6’3″, and he looks short compared to everybody else in that offensive line class. But he’s not short on physical play. He will knock you out. He gets off the ball, he’s physical at the point of attack. He played a lot of tackle. We see him moving inside for us.

James Onwualu 

This is a very talented player, very talented. If you watch him work out I know Coach Longo has got our guys in there already really love his athletic ability. Versatile player, he’s going to be on the offensive side of the ball, but if we ever got into a bind he certainly could play defense, as well.

Corey Robinson – WR

So we think we’ve got a guy early on that has not even come close to tapping his potential. 6’5″ plus receiver, and again, I love the fact that he’s a guy that will come up and get the football. Strong hands, and he runs surprisingly at 6’5″, 6’6″, he runs very well.

Durham Smythe – TE

Another tight end that we really believe fits the style of the offense that we run. He hasn’t even tapped his potential at 6’5″, 230, and he’s 230 right now. He’s going to be obviously a big, physical player for us but has the soft hands and the ability to get out and run routes. We’re excited about Durham coming in later in the process, but getting a chance to meet his family and spending time, it’s a great fit. Durham, he grew up as a Notre Dame fan.

Malik Zaire – QB

What I loved about Malik is when he came up here last spring, he sat in our quarterback meeting room, and in that meeting room you’ve got some really good quarterbacks. When he left that meeting, he made it clear to me that this was the place he wanted to be. He loved the environment, he loved the coaching, he loved the opportunity to come in and run the offense, and that’s looking at great competition and saying, I don’t care about that, I’m going to come to Notre Dame because it’s the right place for me academically, and it’s the right place for me because I’m going to be the starter here at Notre Dame, and we love those kind of guys that have that attitude.