Triple plays in baseball are a rare event.
Notre Dame freshman tight end/pitcher Cole Kmet’s current on-going triple play — football, baseball and academic excellence — might be even more uncommon in collegiate athletics.
• Kmet already has earned one monogram in football when it appeared he would be redshirted at his position with the 2017 presence of fifth-year senior Durham Smythe, senior Nic Weishar, junior Alizé Mack and fellow freshman Brock Wright — who was an early enrollee and rated as the nation’s No. 1 tight end, just ahead of Kmet at No. 3.
Yet Kmet saw action as a position player (two catches for 14 yards) and on special teams. This spring, he is vying for at least a co-starting role.
“Awesome,” replied Fighting Irish offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Chip Long instantly when asked about Kmet’s progress in spring drills earlier this week. “It’s what I thought he’d be. What’s amazing to me is he’ll come in Sunday around 3 in the morning from baseball [returning from road trip]— and be the first one at weights at 6:30 a.m., and doing a great job.
“I don’t know how he does it, to be honest.”
• For the 10-12 baseball team (4-5 in ACC play), Kmet already has made 10 relief appearances as a pillar out of the bullpen. The 6-6, 255-pound southpaw’s team-high three saves happened to come against traditional superpowers LSU and Florida State on the road, and this past Friday he picked up another versus Wake Forest (a Super Regional team last year along with the Tigers and Seminoles) prior to football practice on Saturday (turning down head coach Brian Kelly’s option for some rest) — and another relief appearance on Sunday.
His 22 2/3 innings pitched are third most on the team, and he has limited the opposition to a .238 batting average while recording a 2.78 earned run average — which is ninth best in the ultra-competitive ACC.
• Last but not least to complete the triple play, Kmet has recorded a 3.5 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale at Notre Dame. After leading St. Viator to the Illinois Class 3A state title in baseball last June, he assimilated himself right into summer school in college later that month, and after six months of football made the transition to baseball virtually seamlessly.
“I’m just kind of making sure I’m having fun with it,” Kmet said Sunday afternoon after throwing 18 strikes on 26 pitches late in Notre Dame’s 9-3 loss to Wake Forest. “If I’m getting too stressed about it, then it may get a little hectic. … Being able to balance everything can get difficult at times, but I’m making it work and it’s been a lot of fun so far.
“Football is obviously why I’m on scholarship here. I want to be able to continue my development in that sense.”
While the rest of the football team had an opportunity to decompress some from the day-to-day grind during March 9-18 spring break, Kmet traveled with the baseball team to play eight games in Florida.
While the football players again will have four days off for Easter break after this Thursday morning’s practice, Kmet will travel with his baseball teammates for a three-game weekend series at Duke.
Then on Tuesday it’s back to football practice, plus two mid-week baseball games.
His schedule usually begins with 6:30 a.m. workouts on non-football practice days, classes from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., baseball workouts and then study time. Notre Dame director of football performance Matt Balis has worked closely with Kmet to ensure his body does not get overworked.
“He’s been great about what days I’ve been pitching, and certain workouts I can do and can’t do, modifying certain things so I can still throw and still get my development in,” said Kmet, who said staying consistent with his nutrition program has been a challenge as well. “Making sure I stay on top of all of my meals, keep my weight up. I’ve been able to do so, but that’s kind of been a thing I tend to forget about sometimes.”
However, there are no regrets about filling his schedule so tightly this year and in the coming seasons.
“It’s always been a dream of mine,” Kmet said of playing both sports at the collegiate level. “I never wanted to quit one or the other. I noticed this is the best place for it, seeing other guys have done it in the past … I like being in-season a lot.
“It’s a lot of fun. Staying competitive is a good thing for me, I really enjoy that.”
The “others” he references as having thrived in the past on the mound at Notre Dame were football All-American Jeff Samardzija (2003-06), who has made well north of $200 million as a Major League Baseball pitcher the past decade and is currently with the San Francisco Giants, and current Portland Trail Blazers reserve Pat Connaughton (2011-15), who helped lead the Irish to the basketball Elite Eight in 2015 but also was a fourth-round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 2014.
“Samardzija just basically said make sure you keep going to class and always ask for help,” Kmet said of his previous conversation with the former two-sport Irish sensation. “It’s not as bad once you get into the rhythm of things.
“He’s been right so far about that.”
Once spring practice ends April 21, Kmet might take on an expanded role as a pitcher for Irish head coach Mik Aoki, but probably not yet as a full-time starter in the rotation.
“We were able to use him twice coming out of the bullpen [this past weekend], or we can game plan to the sixth inning and take us home for a one-time usage over a weekend,” Aoki said of the plans for Kmet the rest of this season.
Kelly and Aoki remain in constant communication about not overextending him.
“We always try to keep the best interests of the student-athlete first and foremost in our minds,” Aoki said. “I know Coach Balis in the weight room has been really good, amending certain things, giving him a day off here and there … staying in compliance with NCAA rules.”
As a senior at St. Viator, Kmet also batted .443 with 12 home runs and 47 RBI, which could make him an appealing position player down the road. However, because Kmet is not in baseball the full year, it’s a completely different animal adjusting in a collegiate level batting box.
“Swing is a repetition and timing thing, and that will be a little bit of challenge for Cole,” said Aoki, who likely will concentrate more on his development as a pitcher. “It’s easier to transfer the pitching. And mentally he’s mature out on the mound.
“Things don’t bother him all that much. Running through a tunnel to 81,000 people probably trains that a little bit. Connaughton was kind of the same way. … They just come in and compete and play.”
In his first appearance as a college pitcher at LSU in February, Kmet earned the save against former Irish manager Paul Mainieri’s juggernaut at LSU with four innings of exceptional relief work in which he allowed one hit, and right away Aoki knew he had a winner in Kmet.
“He’s a strike thrower first and foremost,” Aoki said. “He’s a kid who is fearless in terms of putting his stuff into the strike zone. … There were two times [at LSU] he went to 3-0 counts, and I know in talking with Coach Mainieri he said, ‘I gave him the 3-0 take, I gave him the 3-1 take — and he comes back and finishes those hitters every time.’
“For a freshman to do that in front of 12,000 people and a place that LSU has come to get really accustomed to walk-off wins, that’s a pretty special deal there.”
“Definitely a lot of adrenaline running,” Kmet recalled of his performance at LSU. “Very excited, pretty cool that I kind of I came full circle, the fact that I was actually doing both [sports].”
His curve ball and change-up will continue to be worked on to augment his fast ball that travels in the low 90s, but with Kmet it goes beyond just the radar gun.
“He’s got the most important thing: the mental toughness to go out there and compete,” Aoki summarized, adding that a passion to do both takes special sacrifices.
As with Connaughton and position player and former football wideout Torii Hunter Jr., both of whom played for Aoki, Kmet likewise possesses the demeanor to prosper in both sports, and was immediately accepted by teammates.
“No one begrudged it,” Aoki said of Kmet joining in January after not being part of the fall workouts. “No one in our clubhouse was jealous or envious or ticked off that they had maybe lost some innings or an at-bat.
“I think all of that is because it’s all driven by three terrific kids. They’re humble and they’re willing to work hard and do anything you ask them to. They get along with all the kids, socially they do the right things, they’re smart in terms of their interactions with their teammates.
“Some guy comes in saying, ‘Hey, I’m the hot shot whatever sport recruit and I’m here to bless you with my presence.’ I think most of our clubhouse would tell the guy to go take a long walk. It makes it so much easier that Cole is just a really, really good kid.”
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