Wednesday was Brian Kelly’s first press conference since the events of last weekend. Following practice he met with the media and provided some updates to the 2016 Fighting Irish football team:
Kelly brought up the Fulton Five incident from last weekend saying that he was (paraphrasing here) super pissed off about the situation. Interestingly, he claimed to not know who the gun was “owned” by but mentioned that anything would have to be very serious for him to kick someone off the team re Max Redfield.
The other four players in the car (Coney, White, Williams, and Stepherson) have been at practice and are still with the team. If it were up to Kelly they would be available for the Texas game but they will have to wait and see what type of ruling comes down from the school. At any rate, most people thought there’d be at least a 2-game suspension for each of the players but in the last 48 hours it’s been swinging much harder in the other direction where they might not miss any games and instead serve some other form of punishment.
The situation with Devin Butler–who was charged with two Level 6 felonies for resistant law enforcement and battery of an officer–hasn’t changed relative to the football program. Butler put in a plea of not guilty on Wednesday but remains suspended indefinitely from all football activities.
Moving on, likely starting weak-side defensive end Jay Hayes is back healthy again following a high ankle sprain. He should be ready to go for Texas which is good because the Horns have two enormous running backs and Hayes will help slow them down.
We also have a named starter at right guard in redshirt junior Colin McGovern. From less than 30 snaps last year, to an injury filled spring, the Illinois native fought off several challengers to get the nod. Now, we’ll see if he can hang on to the job. For now, it makes sense to use an academic senior on the road in front of 100,000+ in Texas.
Although both quarterbacks will play against Texas a starter hasn’t been named…yet. We’re going to have a blast if this isn’t announced by next week. It’s going to be a long, long, long weekend of football before we get to Sunday night in Austin.
Toss the spring hype for Corey Holmes into trash bin–not only has preferred walk-on Chris Finke earned a scholarship…
…but he’s now passed Holmes for reps in the slot and is the backup to C.J. Sanders. Kelly said all they were waiting for was more consistency from Finke before giving him a scholarship. If Zaire takes over at quarterback and completes some passes to his former high school teammate be prepared for NBC to be all over it with multi-week packages.
After some prodding from the media due to a 7th straight year without a quarterback being named captain Kelly said Zaire and Kizer would both be good captains–they were both under consideration.
By the way, the captains were officially named today in Mike McGlinchey, Torii Hunter, James Onwualu, and Isaac Rochell. Nice balance of two guys on each side of the ball and also players who were national recruits but not super elite guys, either. Talented, but they’ve bought in to the program.
Josh Adams has been gimpy all of August with a hamstring issue and today was the first, per Kelly, that “Adams finally looked like Adams.” Boy, he needs to get into game shape, and quickly.
In the kick return game there have been 3 players sharing reps equally: Sanders, Dexter, and Adams. You can probably throw Finke’s name in there (more for punt return) because Kelly said he’s dynamic.
Kelly put on a brave face when discussing the depth at safety. Not only does no one have to move positions but he said he’s okay with Elliott, Sebastian, or Fertitta adding depth behind presumed starter Devin Studstill. Alrighty then!
HCBK on the safety situation:
As long as the strong herbal scent is gone, BK should be fine with the current fire.
Heh, pretty much.
Should we be waiting for announcement on the four players not dismissed? I was surprised Kelly mentioned Williams on KR. I thought those guys would for sure be out for Tx.
It looks like (per the SBT) the Butler case will be, at the very least, some bad PR for the SBPD.
I’m sort of hoping it is. Not just for Butler’s sake – in pure football terms I don’t really have an opinion on him – but it would be nice if something would happen to bust up the incorrect belief some folks seem to have that the SBPD to Notre Dame is equivalent to the Tallahassee PD to Florida State. We ND fans consistently hear rumblings to the contrary, this being just the most recent.
wow this is a pretty incredible story: http://www.ndinsider.com/football/eyewitnesses-dispute-police-account-of-notre-dame-cb-devin-butler/article_1b5b211a-6a56-11e6-8cb7-3b5aa684cfe0.html
And the truth, as usual, is far more plausible than the “official” story. This is good news. High chance of the charges being dropped.
Given Knepper’s reputation, which sounds well deserved, one would hope that ND, with all its clout, will weigh in heavily on getting him booted if Butler’s story holds up.
I’m not sure there has ever been a less surprising captain than James Onwualu. This guy has dripped hard work and leadership since he was a JR in high school. Probably the one kid I have rooted for more than any other at ND since the moment he committed. Really glad to see him officially become a captain, because I think it means more to him than just about anything.
I also love Rochell’s comments. Rochell and JO are two guys who I would love to see get into coaching eventually, along with Joe Schmidt. I think JO would be a great college coach. Schmidt and Rochell are guys I would love to have coach my hypothetical sons in HS.
Rochelle and McGlinchey were especially impressive.