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Football Notebook: March 23

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Head coach Brian Kelly said spring practice this year is more about creating a positive teaching environment that focuses on technique and execution.
Head coach Brian Kelly said spring practice this year is more about creating a positive teaching environment that focuses on technique and execution. (Joe Raymond)
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Other notes and quotes from Brian Kelly’s press conference after Notre Dame’s third spring practice.

Wednesday’s stories:

BGI Video: Spring Practice, March 22

Notre Dame Day Three Practice Report

Photo Gallery: Spring Camp Day Three

Notre Dame Practice Report: Defense And Run Game

BGI Video: Brian Kelly Post-Practice, March 22

Notre Dame’s Elijah Taylor Out For The Spring

Notre Dame Gets Physical On Day Three Of Spring Ball

Notre Dame’s Brandon Wimbush Spent His Spring Break Training In San Diego

Notre Dame Tackling Right Side Of Offensive Line

• Kelly said that junior quarterback Brandon Wimbush will be a “runner” in the Irish offense this season, though it’ll likely be in a different form than what DeShone Kizer did in 2016.

“Do we want him to carry the ball 20 times? No,” Kelly said. “I don’t think we’ll have a situation where we’re calling quarterback power or singular runs. He’s going to have options, hand it off, throw the ball out on the perimeter. You’ll see more of that than you will prescribed quarterback runs.

“We had a little bit more of that last year with Kizer. You’ll see that he has an option to get the ball out of his hands more so than just prescribed runs.”

• Kelly was asked about junior safety Nick Coleman, who struggled during his time as a cornerback in his first two seasons with the Irish.

On National Signing Day, defensive backs coach Todd Lyght revealed that Coleman would be moving to safety this spring, a move that Kelly thinks has upside.

“The big thing will be Nick’s continual development in tackling,” Kelly said. “You’ve got to tackle back there. His ball skills are really good, we’ve seen that he’s able to play the ball. He’s got athleticism, we just want to continue to build on his tackling skills.

“If we go through the spring and say, ‘Well he’s tackling really well,’ we’ll feel pretty good about the move.”

• On the topic of safeties, senior Drue Tranquill is getting time as both a safety and as a rover, a new position in defensive coordinator Mike Elko’s scheme that puts another player closer to the line of scrimmage.

Junior Asmar Bilal, who played linebacker in 2016, is seeing a lot of the first-team snaps at rover early in spring practice. Kelly said with Notre Dame’s early season schedule of run-heavy teams (Temple, Georgia, Boston College and Michigan State), the 6-2, 229-pound Bilal could be the answer at rover.

That doesn’t mean Tranquill doesn’t have value in the defense.

“We all know what his strengths are. He’s a solid tackler,” Kelly said of Tranquill. “I don’t think there’s any safety in college football that wants to get matched up one-on-one with a skilled slot receiver.

“This would minimize that, him playing close to the ball as rover. He’s pretty quick off the edge. We put him in a really good position in maximizing his skill set, plus he’s a smart player too.”

• This spring isn’t as much about position battles and setting the depth chart as it is teaching, Kelly said.

“We’re playing one or two fronts right now, and we’re not playing a ton of coverages,” Kelly said. “We’re more interested in technique and execution. It’s more about creating a positive teaching environment and letting these kids play.”

• Kelly said the practice arrangement has been tweaked in order to get more of the team periods in.

“We had missed some opportunities in these morning practices to really get all of our team time in because we were up against the clock. In other words, we had to get them out of here [for early morning classes]. So I’ve installed our 11-on-11 periods, our team periods, earlier in practice, to make sure that we get all those reps in.

“Consequently we’ve moved our seven-on-seven periods later,” he said of the pass-only drills. “So those are the ones we won’t get to. So we won’t be able to throw the ball really well, but we’ll be able to run it really well. So I hope everyone is happy about that.”

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