After a Saturday morning practice, the Irish boarded buses and headed to the lake, the second year Brian Kelly and his staff have taken the team for a little R&R and water activities.
But before he did, Kelly spoke with the assembled media, with the biggest news being that second-string tackle Tate Nichols was doubtful for the opener after dislocating his knee cap.With Nichols down, freshman Nick Martin moved up to the second-team offensive line, playing right tackle with Christian Lombard lining up on the left side.
Here’s more from BK:
On the quarterback derby:
“Too close to call at this point, which is kind of what we thought, we’d need that second week. They both have done very good things. Right now I’d say they’re neck and neck. Today, Tommy got a lot of the first team reps. Dayne’s been getting most of the first team reps. We wanted to be able to give a balanced evaluation. Where your second unit is around Tommy more than Dayne, it could obviously impact your decision. So, Tommy got a lot of those today. it’s still a battle between those two, not that Everett and Andrew haven’t made progress, they just haven’t got as much work.”
You’ve got to start getting the feeling that this quarterback competition is going exactly how Kelly wants it to go, and I’d be very surprised if anybody but Dayne Crist is under center when the Irish take the field against South Florida. Still, it’s a credit to Kelly that he understands that the process needs to be fair, and giving Rees the lion’s share of first-team reps when Crist has been getting more in the first week is only smart.
On the many hats of Theo Riddick:
“He’s an extraordinary athlete. I think we know what he can do. He was feeling his way through it last year, he was learning a totally new position. You just see his comfort level. It’s confidence for Theo Riddick. We’ll have the ability within our system to put him in the backfield if we see that as a need. We’ve worked on it. It’s available to us. Whether we need to do it or whether we feel it has to happen is another thing. But we’ll always be prepared if we ever get short handed that Theo can line up at the running back position and get reps for us.”
While he might not be quite as dynamic, Theo Riddick could be the Percy Harvin of the Irish offense this season, with Urban Meyer’s visit to Notre Dame this spring giving Kelly the chance to pick the brain of Harvin’s college coach for tips on how to use him.
It’s tough to really know how high Riddick’s ceiling is because his best work came in a down stretch for the Irish, and he injured his ankle just as his season was about to take off. From Kelly’s first comments at Notre Dame, he’s thought of Riddick as a dynamic player. If he can be that this season, the Irish offense could take a quantum leap.
On handling Manti Te’o as he enters his third season:
“I think we handle Manti a little bit different as a coaching staff. I think we know what he’s capable of doing. I think we’ve spent more time with him fundamentally more than, ‘Hey, get in there, show us what you can do.’ so I think his role is a little bit different. He still has the same leadership qualities that he brings to the table. I think we focus more on we want to see what he does in individual work and fundamental work than what he really needs to do in team time.”
While Te’o was likely 100 percent healed from a minor knee injury he suffered during the bowl victory against Miami, Kelly and the defensive coaching staff knew there was no reason to temp fate with their star linebacker during spring drills, and will continue to keep him out of the physical fray during preseason camp. Te’o is as physically gifted of a linebacker as there is in the country, now it’ll be up to him to cut down on mistakes and missed tackles during his third year as a starter.
Freshman Troy Niklas is one to watch:
“He’s a guy that can play both the “cat” and the “dog.” His ability to play in space is extraordinary. Whatever adjective that you would use, you would throw one on that kid. His nickname is Hercules. He’s a pretty special kid.”
If there was one guy in the recruiting class that I thought was a sleeper, it was Niklas, the Los Angeles Times’ lineman of the year. It’s clear that the athleticism that had Cal, Stanford, USC and Florida interested in the freakishly sized athlete is something that could get Niklas on the field immediately. After a year or two in Paul Longo’s strength and conditioning program, Niklas could be doing some scary things on the football field.
A few quick bullet points:
* Good for Ben Turk, who Kelly credited as the specialist making the most progress.
“I would say of all the kickers, probably the guy that stands out is Ben Turk. He has been of all the specialists, the guy that has made the most progress and we needed him to. We needed to be more versatile. We weren’t able to rugby him at all last year and move him last year. It was not something we could do. Now we can do that. His camp has probably been of all the kickers, the one that I’d underline.”
I’ve been pretty tough on Turk, who has been a pretty mediocre punter in his two seasons as the Irish punter.
* Kelly detailed former wide receiver David Grimes’ return to Notre Dame, giving us some information on what Grimes’ job in the program will entail.
“We wanted somebody that could really identify with what Notre Dame is about. David as a football player here, as a student, he can compare a lot of his experiences here with our players. In the role that he has, which is really student welfare, he can identify with a lot of the problems, transition and other wise, of a Notre Dame student athlete. He’s the perfect fit for that.”