Brian Kelly Talks First Week of Notre Dame Fall Camp 2014

Notre Dame returned to campus after spending the first five days of their 2014 fall camp at Culver Academy.  After the practice session that was open to the media, Brian Kelly met answered questions about the first week of camp.

Here is the video of the media session along with notes and highlights from Kelly’s 20 minutes with the media.

• Matt Hegarty and Ben Councell were both out of practice on Saturday because of concussions.  Kelly said that they are both going through the standard protocol and are both on the “backend” of that process.
• Torii Hunter is going to be out 4-6 weeks because of a grade 3 groin tear.  Tough break for a kid who was coming off that nasty broken leg
• Sam Mustipher has a midfoot sprain.  He should come out of a boot this weekend and should be moving around.  Kelly said that they are not overly concerned with the injury.
• Devin Butler missed some time today but Kelly said he just needed an IV.  Keivarae Russell missed a bit of time but Kelly said it was precautionary and probably just a little bit of overuse from the first week so they wanted to be cautious.
• Mike Denbrock was back out on the field but is not fully back.  Kelly said that he will be able to do about an hour a day for the next week or so and then gradually increase his time from there.
• Chris Brown was “clearly” the best wide receiver for Notre Dame in the first week of practice.  Kelly said that Brown really seized the opportunity that he had in spring when Davaris Daniels was out.
• Kelly said that Greg Bryant needs to cut down on mental errors and trust his offensive line more and not just rely on his athletic ability between now and August 30.   Kelly would like to see Tarean Folston show more of a “I want to be the starter and I don’t want to share the ball with anybody” attitude from him.  Kelly noted that it seems like they need to push him a little more than he’d like to.
• The team will be practicing in Notre Dame Stadium on Monday to get some practice in on the new FieldTurf.    He said that because there is still only field in the stadium they wouldn’t ever consider practicing exclusively in there.  The staff likes breaking the units up across the two practice fields they have.
• Corey Robinson has begun to start to pick up the nuances of the wide receiver position in his second year and is not just relying on his size and ability.
• Tyler Luatua is going to play this year as a true freshman.  Lutua is close to 270 lbs already.  Kelly said that they haven’t had the kind of physicality out of the position like Luatua brings previously at Notre Dame.
• When asked about the QB race, Kelly said that now that installation has been complete, he can start to really evaluate the quarterback position and look for separation.  He noted that if you name a quarterback this early, there never really was a competition – you already knew who your quarterback was.
• Jhonny Williams, Jonathan Bonner, Kolin Hill, and Daniel Cage were four freshmen that Kelly listed when asked which frosh in the front 7 would help right away.  He said none would probably be every down players but that they can help out the defense with the pass rush on third down.
• The most notable omission from Kelly’s list above was Nyles Morgan – the highest rated recruit in the class of 2014.  Kelly said that they are bringing him along but it is a lot to learn.  He made a comparison to Manti Te’o saying that even after Te’o’s freshman season, he still had a long way to go.
• Expect to see Cody Riggs play a couple of positions for Notre Dame this fall. Kelly didn’t mention specifically but obviously corner and nickel are two.  There is also still the possibility that Riggs gets a look at safety depending how those positions shake out.
• Kelly expects to decide on a starting five along the offensive line and start to build some chemistry with the group this week.  They have tried a lot of different lineups in the first week to find the right groupings and it will be a priority of the staff to make some decisions there this week.
• Steve Elmer is still playing like a guard at the tackle position so far in camp after all of the guard he played.
• It certainly sounds like Austin Collinsworth has a strong grip on the starting position opposite Max Redfield.  When asked about Max Redfield quarterbacking the defense, Kelly said Redfield won’t be doing any of that – all of it will be done by Collinsworth.  If Collinsworth were to go down, Matthias Farley would move back there and take on that role.  No mention at all by Kelly if Elijah Shumate.
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