Kelly prefers Irish QBs to Ohio State’s
Brian Kelly said defensive tackle Jarron Jones (Lisfranc injury) will be ready for fall camp along with linebacker Joe Schmidt.
Notre Dame is in a good position with two quarterbacks who are more than capable of starting.
Brian Kelly was asked Wednesday morning about areas of the team he would consider its strengths. Notre Dame’s head coach started by talking about his quarterbacks, and said he prefers the duo over any other group in the country – including Ohio State’s three quarterbacks.
“I think that there’s certain areas that I think at the quarterback position, maybe other than Ohio State, I would take our two quarterbacks,” he said. “And I would take our two over Ohio State’s. But in terms of depth, I don’t know that anybody has a better situation than we do with the two quarterbacks that we have.”
Jones, Schmidt will be ready for fall camp
Kelly was adamant middle linebacker Joe Schmidt (ankle) and defensive tackle Jarron Jones (Lisfranc injury) will recover in time for summer conditioning.
“Both of those guys are already moving at a level that when they come back in June, they’ll be, oh yeah, they’ll be ready to condition,” Kelly said. “And we’ll get them ready through our summer conditioning program, no question.”
Both will be involved in the nine offseason training activities Notre Dame will hold between June 5 and 25.
Prior to spring practice, Kelly commented about safety Drue Tranquill’s remarkably fast recovery from an ACL tear he suffered in November.
Tranquill will be held out of Saturday’s spring game, but that isn’t to say he’s physically unable to play.
“He’s moving extremely well,” said Kelly. “I mean if we had to play, if we were playing a game on Saturday, he could play. We just don’t need to play him. It would be crazy to put him out there.”
Potential fifth-year options submit applications
Seven possible fifth-year seniors have submitted their applications to Notre Dame’s academic-athletic review committee prior to last Friday’s deadline. Kelly said he should have confirmation on where the fifth-year options stand, “pretty soon.”
The list of players who submitted applications includes:
-QB Everett Golson
-LB Jarrett Grace
-LB Joe Schmidt
-OL Nick Martin
-CB Matthias Farley
-TE Chase Hounshell
-WR Amir Carlisle
Kelly compared Notre Dame’s roster overflow to a professional sports team that needs to meet a requirement by a certain date.
“And we’ve got until we kick off against Texas to get to 85,” he said. “It’s a salary cap, right? You’ve got to get to your salary cap. We’ll get to 85.”
Hill will rush the passer this fall
Kolin Hill is working at Sam linebacker this spring with Greer Martini and James Onwualu, but he will rush the passer this fall.
“We’ve played him more as a down player this spring and we want to continue to develop him as somebody that can pass rush for us in situations,” Kelly said. “So that’s really been his training has been more in that position where we think he can continue to develop and get bigger and stronger and add some athleticism as an edge player.
“He’s playing Sam, but when we kick our front over he’s been able to put his hand down too. So again, we’re just trying to take advantage of where we can get him on the field and be active with him.”
Kelly said Doug Randolph, working in the rush defensive end position, is in a similar situation.
“Both of those guys are getting a ton of work in the spring, and again, with the hope that they an give you some athletic edges in third down and long situations.”
Irish in favor of preseason game
Saturday’s spring scrimmage is the only game Notre Dame has scheduled until it opens the season with Texas on Sept. 5.
But if the logistics were worked out, would Kelly be open to scheduling a preseason scrimmage with a different team? The Irish head coach said playing a different program before the regular season would benefit his team.
“(…) We’ve actually talked about this as head coaches, how it would benefit greatly to have that kind of opportunity, especially if you kept it local,” Kelly said. “And we would certainly be in favor of doing something like that, and I think there’s a number of coach.es. It always gets too, all right, what are the finances, what are the TV arrangements.
“Those always get in the way of just doing a simple thing. And that is how that would benefit going into the season. Certainly with the kind of early season schedule that we play, you can understand how we would be very much in favor of something like that.”
Day and Jones staying on defense
The first play of the second half in Saturday’s Blue-Gold game won’t be one drawn up by Kelly or his offensive coaching staff.
Notre Dame is giving one fan the chance to call the opening play of the second half. One in particular gained traction on social media Tuesday.
Kelly was asked jokingly Wednesday about the likelihood of Sheldon Day or Jarron Jones playing a down at quarterback like former defensive lineman Louis Nix did in the 2013 spring game.
He said there is still a chance the Irish will use the play, but Day and Jones will stay away from the offensive side of the ball.
“I’ve heard about this…only because it’s been brought up to me, because they clearly feel as though they should be involved in the offense,” Kelly quipped. “I think when we gave the ball to Irish Chocolate there a couple of years ago, Louis Nix, they feel like they should be part of the offense.
“I will tell you they will not come near the offense, either one of them. So that will be reserved for both Everett and Malik. So even though if that might be the play, we’ll figure out somebody else to carry the ball.”
Day caught wind of Kelly’s comment on social media shortly after his press conference.
