Notre Dame will have leading receiver Javon McKinley available this weekend at Boston College after he suffered a head injury late in Saturday's win over Clemson, Brian Kelly said Thursday
McKinley is expected to get out of the concussion protocol Thursday and has practice this week. He leads the team with receiving 366 yards.
"He has been full go," Kelly said. "We’ve just kept him out of contact. He should get his full clearance status today. That looks to be a certainty."
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Receiver Braden Lenzy, meanwhile, will miss the game. It will be his third straight absence, but is expected back Nov. 27 for the Irish's game at North Carolina. He suffered a hamstring injury Oct. 24 against Pitt.
Kelly also said as of Thursday, there are not any players on the travel roster who would be unavailable because of positive COVID-19 tests or contact tracing situations.
Here are some of the other topics Kelly discussed.
On Handling COVID-19 Since The Team's Outbreak
"It was a – I want to be careful with the word 'wake-up call' – but a reminder that our players needed to be even more focused on masks and social distancing and the things that go along with handling this virus. Since that time, they have been outstanding. We have taken further precautions, as I have mentioned many times.”
On The Rising Number Of Postponed Games
“We test Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Testing has now become part of the coaching daily habits in terms of who’s available and who’s not. I hope I never get used to it, but it is part of what we do now as part of our daily check-ins.
"I don’t come in every day wary or afraid or not thinking we’re going to play. I’m just not at that point. Since our outbreak, we have never had a scenario where we have let our guard down in any fashion. What you’re seeing is this spike was Halloween-related in a large degree. We’ve had one here, our guys – knock on wood – have done well in testing this week.”
“We had another test this morning. We’ll continue to monitor that. I don’t come in every day worried that we’re going to be shut down, because our guys have been extremely responsible. But the virus is as the virus is. It’s just out there and you never know.”
On Boston College Wide Receiver Zay Flowers
“He’s explosive with the ball in his hands. They feature him in a number of different ways. If you look at Clemson, they have two or three explosive players. He is their player. He’s separate. BC has other good players, and he’s a great player. He separates himself from the pack in that way.
"BC knows that, so they’re trying to utilize him in a manner that he’s touching the ball as many times as he can. It allows you to focus on him in the crucial situations and create a game plan that really can focus on putting guys in position to leverage him.”
On The Clemson Game And Practice Following It
“I don’t know that I’d categorize it as crisp. We were in a physical football game that took a lot out of us. It is about managing week to week. We didn’t expend a lot of energy the two weeks prior, in a sense. Some of our numbers in terms of plays on defense were really low. They were much higher this week. It was a different week. But it was focused, it was intentional.
"Our player load per minute was equal to last week’s. I’ve pulled back on the volume, which I thought was the right thing to do as we got ourselves back from a very physical game. Today, we’ll have our fastest practice because I think I was prudent in the way we went about our schedule Tuesday and Wednesday.”
On Boston College’s 1993 Upset of Notre Dame
“It’s more about where your mind is at and who you’re playing. If you’re playing a JV team, it wouldn’t matter. That BC team that Notre Dame played, it was a nationally ranked team. It was a really good football team. This is a really good team you’re playing. It matters who you’re playing. We’re playing them in their red bandana game, which is their most sacred game. And there’s certainly a lot to the BC-Notre Dame game.
"We talk about much more in terms of how we’re preparing for a team that is a really good football team and certainly that you’re the No. 2 team in the country, you have a target on your back. That’s much more relevant than the historical significance of the game. If you understand that, you’re going to get the preparation you need to play at the level you need to play at.”
On Phil Jurkovec Pondering A Position Switch At Notre Dame
“I never had the conversation with him. Phil is a competitor. He wanted to play. I’m sure he thought about all the options available to him or what he perceived to be available to him. But we never had the conversation about, ‘Hey, we’re moving you to tight end.’ At the end of the day, whatever the narratives are, he’s a competitive kid who wanted to play.
"He wasn’t going to play this year in front of Ian Book. That’s the bottom line as it relates to where he was in our program. He was competitive, he was doing the things we asked him to do, but he wasn’t going to start in front of Ian Book.”
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