Notre Dame may have to live with mistakes at tight end

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The fallout of Durham Smythe’s season-ending injury is less about Notre Dame being without a starter and more about losing its most experienced tight end.

Smythe entered the season as Notre Dame’s No. 1 tight end from a group of five that all were expected to play. He was the only one with a catch at the college level — one reception for seven yards in 2014 — and offered the steadiest ability as both a receiver and blocker.

Without Smythe, who tore his MCL against Virginia in Week 2, Notre Dame had to rely on a group of greenhorns against Georgia Tech and came away with mixed results.

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“We got at times good play and we got at times poor play,” Kelly said. “And the poor play was assignment poor. It wasn't technique or effort poor.”

Kelly pointed to freshman Alize Jones’ fumble late in the second quarter, which gave Georgia Tech the ball on the Notre Dame 34 with under a minute left. The worst-case scenario was the Yellow Jackets quickly reaching the end zone and taking a one-point lead into halftime, the best-case was a missed field goal (which happened when Harrison Butker pushed a 43-yarder wide left).

Notre Dame’s tight ends have played largely mistake-free football in the Brian Kelly era, from Kyle Rudolph to Tyler Eifert to Troy Niklas to Ben Koyack. But all those players had time to develop, whereas Jones and redshirt freshman Nic Weishar are being thrown into the mix with little experience. Sophomore Tyler Luatua played last year but is stronger as a blocker, while Jones and Weishar have strong pass-catching skills.

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Since the talents of those players can’t be combined, Notre Dame may have to live with some mistakes as Scott Booker works to accelerate the learning process for his tight ends.

“(The) effort's great,” Kelly said. “We think that they are all going to be really good players. We are living right now with some mistakes and looking at it and going, as long as we coach it and teach it and get better week-to-week, we should be really good at the position, but it hurt us at certain times in the game that we had some young guys out there making some mistakes.”

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