Brian Kelly Post-Practice: Sept. 29

A recap of Brian Kelly’s Thursday press conference…

• Kelly said No. 2 quarterback Malik Zaire has done a nice job with backup role this week.

“He’s being a team player and out there working hard."

On Tuesday, Kelly said Zaire's role is "evolving."

"It's a tough role. It's a tough role. He is understanding what needs to do in that role, let's put it that way. It's evolving. It's evolving."

• Kelly on the defense this week: “The guys clearly know what the plan is. Now we’ve got to go out and execute it."

The Irish have to faced the high-powered Syracuse offense, which is averaging 86.3 plays per game.

"I feel pretty good about where we're at with that process. We can't cover everything, they play fast and we know what we want to do."

• Cornerback Nick Watkins gets his final x-ray on Friday, Kelly said. Decision on his season will be made after that.

• Kelly said the running game hasn’t been as successful as he wants. He wants to check less, but still wants to get out of bad looks.

"You can see that our running game has been not as consistent as I want it to be. We've added a little bit too much check this, check that. Run the damn play. Let's go. There's going to be some looks...we want to get out of bad looks. I don't want negative plays. But I want to be relatively correct, I don't want to be absolutely correct. Sometimes relatively correct with good players is better than being absolutely correct and then really slowing down your team. That might've been the case a little bit.

Kelly has had success in his career with freshmen quarterbacks with the offense not as expansive.

"When I'm forced to kind of go back to what I believe are the tenets of our offense and defense, I kind of revert back to those basics. We need to get to those. Maybe we'll see those."

• Kelly said new defensive coordinator Greg Hudson has to "pass the test" before he becomes part of the recruiting process. Says there will be a role for him.

• Defensive tackle Micah Dew-Treadway will have his cast come off next week. Likely to start moving on Monday. Will activate him as soon as possible.