Brian Kelly Post-Practice: Aug. 11
SOUTH BEND — A recap and transcription of Brian Kelly's press conference after Notre Dame's sixth preseason practice.
• The team will practice again Thursday at 5:15 p.m., the second session of their first two-a-day.
• Scouts from the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, and San Diego Chargers were at practice.
INJURY NOTES
• Kelly said sophomore defensive lineman Micah Dew-Treadway has a Jones fracture in his foot. Dew-Treadway was operated on Wednesday and is expected to be out eight weeks.
• Sophomore cornerback Nick Watkins had a procedure to stimulate bone growth in his arm, which he broke in the spring. Kelly said it's an "aggressive procedure" and Notre Dame is hoping it "does the trick." The Irish are looking at four weeks before Watkins is back.
• Junior defensive lineman Daniel Cage, sophomore running back Josh Adams and freshman safety Devin Studstill all did not practice Thursday. They are all dealing with minor hamstring issues, Kelly said.
• Senior receiver Torii Hunter Jr. has a "little bit of tendonitis."
"We’re at that point where some guys are going to have some designated … we’ve got 50 GPS units on guys, so we’ve been monitoring their intensity, repetitions, over the last six practices," Kelly said. "For example a couple guys will have the day off this afternoon, some guys were scheduled to be pushed back."
ON EQUANIMEOUS ST. BROWN: He has a tendency to want to catch the ball with his hands up. He’s just got to flip his hands and be a little more aggressive. He’s dealing with an injury on his thumb. First time, and he’s protecting it. He’s got to be more aggressive, more aggressive with your hands and he’s doing a really nice job for us. He’s going to get open a lot, he’s got very good speed, good route runner, but he’s covering up for a bit of a sprained thumb.
ON TRISTEN HOGE AT RIGHT GUARD: Colin (McGovern) has been in there. Hunter (Bivin) has been in there. So we’ve had three guards at that position so far.
ON MILES BOYKIN: He’s a work-in-progress. We know his skill set. He’s got a catching radius that’s incredible. He releases from the line incredibly well. He’s smart, but he’s a bit inconsistent right now and I think that would be the case with all of those guys that are in there. They show flashes, and the flashes are pretty exciting. He’s still got some work to do. He misjudges the ball here and there. He’s a big guy, he doesn’t need to jump. He just needs to stay on his feet and catch the ball more consistently.
ON DAELIN HAYES: He’s that hybrid guy that can drop and come off the edge. I see him in our sub package, he can play over the tight end. He’s been impressive, he’s going to be a good player for us.
WITH WATKINS OUT, DOES THAT ALTER SECONDARY: No, we’re in pretty good shape. We feel like the depth that we’ve got there … it just means that some freshmen will be elevated into a more prominent role.
ON SHAUN CRAWFORD: He’ll get a chance to start at the cornerback position, absolutely.
HAS ANYONE EMERGED BEHIND HUNTER AT RECEIVER: I think what’s happening … you’ve got a lot of things going on here. You’ve got two quarterbacks vying for competition, as well as three receivers who are virtually new to the system and trying to build a relationship with the quarterback at the same time. There’s a lot of moving parts. I think it’s really just a lot of work in progress, where we think that when it’s time to play, we’ll have a pretty good group on the field. It’s just going to take some time for it all to gel together, and it’s not going to be in Game 1. This offense will be productive and will get better as the season progresses.
ON MAX REDFIELD: I’ve been very pleased with Max Redfield. He has elevated to that level of consistent performer. I hate to throw cliches around, but he’s been that guy that everybody was hoping for out of high school. He’s playing at that level, he’s at an elite level. The way he’s practicing, the way his volume has increased where he can go all day and can play at a high level.
HOW DID THE LIGHT GO ON FOR REDFIELD: Maturity. Just matured. He went through a couple of rough spots and decided that being a leader, being in his last year — I’ve seen it over 26 years, sometimes it’s just time. He’s been impressive.
ON THE WILL LINEBACKER SPOT: I would not characterize (Asmar Bilal) being the guy thus far. I’d say he’s one of the guys. It’s Asmar, it’s Greer Martini. Te’von (Coney) is doing a great job. I think all three of those guys — if you would ask me right now I would say that Asmar has to catch the other two guys. Greer is really smart and puts himself in really good positions. Te’von’s been impressive. I’d probably say that Te’von has caught my eye the last couple — we’ve scrimmaged back to back days now, that’s the first time I’ve done that in a long time — and he’s been on it pretty good.
ANY STANDOUT PLAYERS THIS CAMP: Both quarterbacks, they’re good. Dexter (Williams) has been good. Tarean Folston has been really good, both as a runner up inside, physical and showing no effects of his knee. Without a knee brace running the inside zone play with that kind of recklessness that he’s not concerned about his knee. Same with Coney and Greer, tackling with no concerns. Same thing with Daelin Hayes. On the offensive side of the ball, those two guys in particular. KJ Stepherson has made some plays here and there. I think all the receivers will make a play here and there. Defensively, the one guy that has elevated his game to a new level on the defensive line is both Isaac Rochell and Jerry Tillery. Jerry is playing so much more physical. At times he was a little more finesse last year, but he’s playing as a physical three-technique this year.
ON THE QUARTERBACK BATTLE: They have to come together eventually, and that will come to a point where they’re going to have to work together. Right now their concerns are playing time and all that, and that’s fine for right now. There will be a time and place where we’ll bring the whole unit together and the quarterbacks will have to galvanize that.
ON THE QUARTERBACK PLAY: It’s been really good. We’re really spending most of our time trying to — we know what they can do, they have to work on their fundamentals like everybody else, the game is too hard to just kind of walk in there … but we’re trying to make sure we run the offense through their skills. Every day is not, ‘What did you see to decide about Malik (Zaire),’ or ‘What did you see that is going to help you decide on (DeShone) Kizer.’ We already know about both of them. It’s really about focusing the offensive play calls and the offense that we want to run through Malik, and focusing the play calls and offense that we want to run through Kizer. That’s really what we’re doing right now.
HAS THERE BEEN SEPARATION YET: No.
ON PICKING A QUARTERBACK: What’ll end up being more than anything else is what’s going to be best for our team to help us win football games? For me to think of it any other way but what’s best for the team and what’s best overall is how I have to look at it.
ON SPECIAL TEAMS: You look at our special teams situation and it’s just making sure that there’s a growth development with a freshman kicker. That’s an area that you have to always be concerned with. The special teams requires finding the right personalities on that team, and that’s always about making sure you’ve got the right personnel. Evaluation, evaluation, evaluation and evaluating getting the right people on those teams is crucial. More than anything else, making sure there’s really good development from Year 1 to Year 2, especially with the placekicker.
ON HAVING A RETURNER AT KICKER AND PUNTER: We were much more of an uncertainty last year at this time then certainly we are right now.
ON MIKE DENBROCK: To be a great teacher you have to be able to effectively communicate what you know to the people that are in your charge. He does a really good job communicating what the plan and what the message is. He’s got good relationships with all the players and he’s coached a lot of the positions. He’s been offensive line coach, he’s coached receivers, so he has that versatility from an offensive perspective that he’s not going to be one that say throws the football around without worrying about how this affects protection. He’s never going to be somebody that doesn’t recognize the importance of a strong running game, having been an offensive line coach. Having that unique ability to have worked in both of those areas, as well as being a really good communicator, makes him very effective at his job.
ON NIC WEISHAR: So far I would say that he’s made progress in the areas of body control, balance and volume. At this time last year we had lost him for two or three practices already — overheating, not being able to make the practice, inconsistency in terms of just being out on the field. Nic hasn’t missed a practice (this year), and we’ve had some pretty hot days out there and his volume’s been high. Just in that, his ability to be out there every single day and take the load of the position has been a big uptick for us.
ON JAY HAYES: You would start with his growth as a student here. He had his best semester, his growth as a person, that’s where it really starts. We see it on the field as much as we see that growth in the classroom. It generally translates itself on the football field. When they’re having a hard time in the classroom, they’re generally having a hard time on the football field. Jay had his best semester, he’s growing up as a young man and you see that manifest itself on the football field. He’s a physical son-of-a-gun. I remember him on scout team. Tyler Luatua is glad he’s no longer around, and he was a guy that we had to trap and kick out. He’s just a physical, physical football player. A combination of him and Daelin, our edge is a handful. He’s going to be a good fit for us.
ON DEXTER WILLIAMS: Explosiveness. He has very explosive runs with a bit of a reckless abandon. He’s powerful. You might not think of it when you look at him, but he’s very, very strong. His measurables are such that they translate very well as an explosive runner, especially as an inside-out runner.
ON COREY ROBINSON AND STILL BEING ACTIVE WITH THE TEAM: He’s got a great personality and he’s so likeable. I don’t know that he could yell at anybody. He’s a great balance with me. I’ll shout something and he’ll have a smile on his face when he brings that same point to a kid. They love having him around. He can bring his experience. ‘Hey, I remember I ran this route this way and maybe you should try this.’ It’s great to have him around. He’s a positive influence, him and Doug Randolph both are extremely upbeat kids, very smart kids and our team really respects both of them.
ON SIGNS A FRESHMAN MIGHT PLAY: Generally that they possess the want-to. They want to play, they’re not afraid to play. There can’t be a hesitancy when you look at them in the sense that, ‘I’m here to play, I want to play, I’m excited about playing.’ I’d say right now that if you asked me about Javon McKinley, Chase Claypool, KJ Stepherson, those three true freshmen, they want to play, they expect to play. I think you need that from freshmen. Especially from defensive backs. Donte Vaughn, Troy Pride, Julian Love, Studstill, they expect and want to. They want to play. That’s the first thing. If they kind of don’t have that look in their eye, that would be my first concern. All these guys expect to and have a bit of a swagger to them that they want to play.
ON C.J. SANDERS: Pretty smooth performer. He’s a guy that picks it up, but there’s a learning curve there. He’s still learning the game. … He catches the ball, he’s smooth, he’s great in special teams and he’ll be an effective slot receiver for us. With him and Finke, we’ll move other guys in there as well. We’ve got two or three guys that can give us really good production at that position.
ON ROCHELL AND HIS EXPECTATIONS: His movement, his short speed, his first-step quickness, he was a bit of a lumberer at times, he was a win at the point of attack. He’s much more agile. If the quarterback comes out on a boot, he’s going to be there and be effective. Just much more active, great shape physically, holding his weight. He had a tendency to lose a bunch of weight during camp. Physically he looks the part and has done a great job with that quickness and change of direction that we needed from him. He’s shown it.
ON DEXTER WILLIAMS AND HOW HE TURNED THE CORNER: Confidence at Notre Dame. Confidence that he was going to succeed here. In this community. Miami, coming up here and making the transition and having success and knowing that he can be successful here at Notre Dame. He’s done a great job transforming himself physically. He’s stronger and he’s faster. More than anything else is making the climb and the transition from Miami to Notre Dame. Feeling that he’s accomplished, he feels really good about what he’s been able to do, even this summer in the classroom.
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