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Notre Dame Notebook: Brian Kelly Miffed About 'Faking It'

“Fake news” has become a popular term in recent years.

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly suppressed using it when he was asked during Sunday afternoon’s teleconference about the supposed faking of injuries by the Fighting Irish during Saturday night's 23-17 loss at No. 3 Georgia.

Brian Kelly addressed various topics from the 23-17 loss at No. 3 Georgia.
Brian Kelly addressed various topics from the 23-17 loss at No. 3 Georgia. (Photo by Ken Ward)
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On Georgia’s first drive of the third quarter while trailing 10-7, quarterback Jake Fromm accelerated the pace some while the Bulldogs moved from their 32-yard line to Notre Dame’s 15-yard line in four plays — before junior rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah had to be administered to on the field.

A CBS camera showed Owusu-Koramoah walking fine before suddenly plopping on the field. It was greeted by boos from the record Sanford Stadium crowd of 93,246. This created some controversy during the telecast and a firestorm on social media.

“Owusu was evaluated for a concussion,” Kelly responded. “He was brought to the tent … it’s hard to be booing at a young man who suffered an evaluation for a concussion. Quite honestly, Georgia doesn’t play very fast, so I found that quite interesting that there would be such a number of questions on something like that.”

Later during another drive, graduate student and Buck linebacker Asmar Bilal also went down, but Kelly said that was a case of cramping.

“Again, it’s a non-story, a non-issue,” he said. “It happens in college football all the time. Guys go down and they’re going to be administered to. I’ve seen games played against us where [there] were many, many more. Not really sure why you’re even asking the question.”


Injury Update

Junior receiver Michael Young (shoulder), sophomore running back Jahmir Smith (turf toe) and sophomore receiver Braden Lenzy (reportedly concussion protocol) all were “probable” to play this week against 4-0 Virginia, per Kelly.

Meanwhile, junior running back Jafar Armstrong is progressing fine after his abdominal surgery in early September and a best-case projection could have him returning for the Oct. 12 game versus USC.

The Irish head coach said that even though the Georgia game was one of the most physical games he’s seen in nearly three decades as a head coach, the team came out clean in the training room.

“When we play physical games, we always seem to come out of it pretty good,” Kelly said.


Role Reversal For Marist Liufau

The freshman linebacker (pronounced lee-Uh-fow) from Hawaii appeared on three of Notre Dame’s four special teams and graded out exceptionally well — which was hardly surprising to the staff.

The plan all along was to play him four games while still preserving a year of eligibility.

What’s unusual with Liufau is in virtually all of these cases those four games would be used against the weakest opposition, i.e. New Mexico, Bowling Green, Navy and maybe one other foe. Liufau didn’t play last week against New Mexico, but the coaches wanted him to make his debut on the grand stage in a big-game environment at Georgia while not using up the four-game allotment allowed for redshirting.

“We made a practical decision he could handle himself against the very best opponents,” Kelly said. “He’s a guy that can go out there and play with anybody.”

The door might be a little more open now for Liufau to go beyond the four game limit, although Kelly said he won’t commit to it at this point.


Quick Hits

• Notre Dame was whistled for six illegal procedure penalties on offense, one of the most disappointing aspects of the Georgia game to Kelly. The crowd noise played a huge factor in it.

“We used silent count all week,” he said. “We had our Saturday walk through and we went 15 minutes of silent cadence. Unfortunately in the moment of the game [quarterback Ian Book] just went back to muscle memory and what he had done so much [with clap signals] … We’ll have to work on it and clean it up.”

• Tight end Cole Kmet caught a single-game Irish tight end record nine passes (for 108 yards and a touchdown) in his first game back since shoulder surgery, and Kelly praised the physicality with which he played. Plus, his threat down the seam now can open up other avenues of the offense.

• The running game is more about damage control right now before Armstrong and Smith return. Kelly admitted there was no commitment to it at Georgia because of the thinness at the position, but he was quite pleased with the pass protection.

“When you put that much pressure on your offensive line and [opponents] know you’re throwing the football, that’s a pretty good job with the group up front in sorting things out,” Kelly said.

• The continued improvement of the linebackers was lauded, particularly fifth-year senior Asmar Bilal at Buck. The overall defense was fast and physical and “never flinched.”

“We gave it to Georgia,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t that they took it as much as it was we gave it to them. A lot of that was because of our defense setting the tone.”

• One of the most pleasant surprises of the year has been the exceptional play of freshman punter Jay Bramblett — the Irish won the net punt average versus Georgia by 18 yards — and the consistency of junior starting kicker Jonathan Doerer, including kickoffs.

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