Notre Dame Football Notebook

While the majority of Wednesday’s Signing Day II understandably centered on the 27 incoming freshman players, a number of football news items on the staff and current personnel also were addressed. Here were some topics touched on by head coach Brian Kelly or some of his staff members:

Continuity With Clark Lea & Jeff Quinn

The two promotions from within to replace defensive coordinator Mike Elko and offensive line coach Harry Hiestand centered on not radically going away from the upgrade in 2017 that saw the Irish finish 10-3 (with four wins over teams that finished in the AP top 25) and No. 11 nationally.

In both cases, Kelly said the transition should be seamless. With Quinn , whom he worked with from 1989-2009, and then hired as an offensive analyst in 2015, he was chosen among four candidates in great part because of the familiarity involved in 2017. Kelly also said fifth-year senior starting linemen Sam Mustipher and Alex Bars were involved on the committee that interviewed the candidates.

“We picked the best candidate for the job,” Kelly said. “… It's one thing to have skills, but you have to have skills and you've got to fit the culture here at Notre Dame. And when we went through all those candidates, Jeff Quinn was the easy selection for us — and that means all of us. This wasn't a singular decision.”

When Elko left this January to take the same post at Texas A&M, there was some thought he might take Lea with him, just as he brought Lea from Wake Forest. However, Lea was hungry to become a coordinator himself, not just a follower. He wasn’t going to leave for just any job, though.

“In the back of my mind before Mike Elko left, I knew I would have to leave to assume responsibility elsewhere [as a coordinator],” Lea admitted. “At Notre Dame it allows you to be selective. I didn't want to leave because of the affinity I have for this place. When Mike left, I had my sights on this.”

Lea will bring his own personality to the unit but said there will be no drastic alterations from a scheme perspective.

“The goal is to proceed is as if nothing changed,” Lea said. “We will spend the next month digging through last year's film. Defensive evolves naturally, and from a systematic standpoint we will continue to build on this defense we want to build.”

The Quinn/Chip Long Dynamic

Everyone knows about the two-decade long coaching relationship between Kelly and Quinn. The real issue is how would Quinn and second-year offensive coordinator Long mesh.

Quinn said his role as the analyst on offense last year allowed him to broaden his own perspective on strategy and scenarios.

“All I knew was one system, but I like how Chip calls the offense — run the ball, relentless, controlling line of scrimmage,” Quinn said. “I could tell very shortly we were on same page and would work well together in lock step as we move forward.”

“The best thing is he was our right-hand man at tight end and knows how we want to run everything,” said Long of Quinn. “It's going to be an easy transition … We've tried to be mainly a 12 personnel team (two tight ends). It can look different every game, but we want to be physical on offense and establish the run.”

Robert Stiner Hired To Strength & Conditioning Staff

Amidst the promotion of Lea and Quinn and hiring of new safeties coach Terry Joseph in January, overshadowed was the hiring of Stiner to assist Matt Balis in the strength and conditioning office.

Steiner replaced David Ballou, who left this winter to become director of performance at his alma mater, Indiana University.

Stiner worked previously with Balis at Mississippi State (2012-13) before becoming the director of strength and conditioning at the University of Central Arkansas from 2014-16 and last year as an assistant director of football sports performance at the University of Cincinnati, where he also served as the nutrition liaison for the student-athletes.

He was a four-year starter at defensive end and team captain at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi. Stiner earned Mid-South All-Conference honors in both 2006 and 2007. He also captured the 2007 Belhaven Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the Year Award.

Stiner received his bachelor's degree in sports administration from Belhaven in 2008 and earned his master's of education in health and physical education from Valdosta State University in 2011.

“He certainly is a high-energy guy for us in that room but has a great base in knowledge of our velocity training, our elite form training," Kelly said.

New Options At Running Back?

By our count, Notre Dame with the 27 new incoming freshmen has 89 scholarship players, four above the NCAA limit of 85 that it has to be at come August. Kelly said they will be at 85 by then — and hasn’t shut the door on looking at the grad transfer market as well before then.

“We're always open for business,” Kelly said. “We've got to make good decisions that are best for our program … we're always going to keep our eyes open.”

However, that doesn’t mean one always has to look at a grad transfer. Sometimes the answers are within the program already. At running back, for example, the Irish have taken some recent hits with Josh Adams turning pro as a junior and sophomore Deon McIntosh and freshman C.J. Holmes dismissed from the team.

Back in 2015, the Irish had similar setbacks when Cam McDaniel graduated, Greg Bryant (R.I.P.) transferred and Tarean Folston tore his ACL a few plays into the opening game. Yet former safety and receiver C.J. Prosise stepped in and became a 1,000-yard rusher as a senior.

Current defensive back recruit Tariq Bracy was mentioned as a potential option at running back during the conference, because he excelled there as a high school senior.

"It’s a little early for me to comment publicly, but we have some ideas internally that will augment [running back], and I think as we get closer to spring, they'll kind of show themselves and we'll be able to talk about that,” Kelly said. “I'd prefer not to put that out there at this point because we're still in shorts inside running around. As we get closer to spring and it's a spring practice … probably some more additions at that position.”

Nine Fifth-Year Seniors/Position Change

Kelly confirmed that nine fifth-year seniors will return in 2018, which ties the school record number set in 2003 and 2007 (which happened to be 5-7 and 3-9 seasons).

The offense returns starting linemen Sam Mustipher and Alex Bars, receiver Freddy Canteen and tight end Nic Weishar, who is coming off winter shoulder surgery.

On defense there are linemen Jonathan Bonner and Jay Hayes, rover/linebacker Drue Tranquill, cornerback Nick Watkins, and punter Tyler Newsome.

Defensive line coach Mike Elston indicated that Bonner and current junior Jerry Tillery will switch positions. Tillery will move from nose tackle to the three technique slot, while Bonner will shift from the three to nose.

Lea would not confirm whether Tranquill would move from rover to Buck linebacker, but cornerbacks coach Todd Lyght does have at least one other candidate at rover in mind.

“Isaiah Robertson could be an outstanding rover and move down there,” said Lyght of the current freshman safety’s skill sets.

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