Quick-Hitters From Brian Kelly’s Thursday Press Conference
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly spoke with reporters Thursday afternoon, the day after his team opened training camp. Notre Dame is practicing again Thursday and will put pads on Friday for the first time since December.
Here is a rundown of some of the topics Kelly touched on and his comments.
• Kelly highlighted a few freshmen that stood out this summer and specifically pointed to running back Chris Tyree as someone he expects to play this year.
“He’s a lot stronger than we thought in terms of lower-body strength,” Kelly said. “He’s not a specialist who just plays in the slot or gets hand-off sweeps. He’s a guy who can run the football downhill between the tackles, too.
“He’s not going to get 30 carries — don’t get me wrong — but he’s a guy who’s going to play as a freshman. He has been impressive.”
• Both freshmen tight ends — Michael Mayer and Kevin Bauman — have also stood out, Kelly said. Mayer was the nation’s No. 3 tight and and the second-highest rated player in Notre Dame’s freshman class.
“Mayer is a guy who has innate ability, size, quickness, escapability as he releases off the line of scrimmage,” Kelly said. “He’s an impressive young man in everything he has done.”
On Bauman, Kelly added: “Here’s a guy if he’s not coming in at the same time as Mayer. …Everybody’s talking about him. He’s a really good tight end. He’s a guy I don’t think we can hold off the field either. Very impressed with him early on.”
• Kelly was complimentary of the summer progress from Notre Dame’s three graduate transfers: Wide receiver Bennett Skowronek, safety Isaiah Pryor and cornerback Nick McCloud.
“When you take fifth-years and a transfer that’s coming in with one year, you need to be right,” Kelly said. “It seems by all indications, we got a great glimpse of Ben with him being here early [in the spring] and Pryor.
“Both of them were the leading [offseason] point recipients this summer in their position groups. Pryor had over 1,000 points as a DB. Among the wide receivers and tight ends, Skowronek edged out Kevin Austin with about 1,200 points.”
McCloud arrived in June and has impressed as well.
“This was a step up for him in terms of the training,” Kelly said. “He really took hold of it and made great strides through the six weeks he was here to the point where he finished our six weeks in the 650 [point] range; 750 was the [Kyle] Hamiltons and [Shaun] Crawfords.”
• Kelly thinks the best of quarterback Ian Book will show up this fall and he has seen steady improvements in all areas of his job.
“His leadership has been outstanding,” Kelly said. “It was really good last year, and it’s even better now. He has developed a single-minded focus of what he wants this team to accomplish and what he wants for him. It’s a championship or bust. Everything he does is so intentional on a day-to-day basis. He’s not distracted by the noise of the position in which he’s a leader and quarterback at Notre Dame.
“I think he’s so much more comfortable being in the position he’s in more than anything else. He’s stronger, he’s fitter. He’s going to have a great year. There’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to see the best version of Ian Book this fall.”
• Kelly has been pleased so far with his team’s handling of COVID-19 protocols and making smart decisions in their daily lives.
“You’re not going to go through a pandemic and not have positive tests,” Kelly said. “We’re going to continue to be transparent. We’re going to have our good days and our bad days. I think we’ve been vigilant when it comes to education. We have an informed student body, one that understands their behavior will dictate in a large degree how positivity rates go up and down.
“This is really about practicing good habits. If you do that, you have a good chance of being successful in a very difficult time. Notre Dame so far has understood that. But we saw this when we flattened the curve as a country and we got all giddy and thought we had it licked. This is something we have to do for a long time.
“This is hard. This is where you have to show some grit and stick with it day in and day out, or it’s going to jump up. We’ve seen that nationally. Good start, long way to go.”
• Kelly said he would keep the December signing period in place, even if the recruiting dead period continues until then.
“The option should be out there for those that are sure about their decisions,” he said. “It doesn’t make much sense to pull that off the table if someone is certain about a decision.”
• Notre Dame is thrilled to add the challenge of playing for an ACC title this year.
“We didn’t have a column on the goal chart. We’d have to go back and redo it. Our players are excited, though, they get a chance to play for an ACC championship. … They know it’s a great challenge and know to a large degree, it runs through Clemson, S.C.
“But there are great challenges on our schedule with some good football teams.”
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