Quick-hitters: Brian Kelly on injury updates, North Carolina, tempo offense
Thursday's practice will be a pivotal one in determining sophomore running back Chris Tyree's status for Saturday's game vs. North Carolina (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC), Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said.
Tyree left the Oct. 9 game vs. Virginia Tech with a turf toe injury and did not play in last week's 31-16 win over USC. Early signs are promising. But Thursday afternoon will reveal a lot more.
“We’ve made the progress necessary for him to be penciled in on kickoffs today," Kelly said. "He will get the first-team reps on kickoffs and he will get second-team running back reps. He will have to show us today at full speed he’s ready to go. We like where we’re at going into today’s practice.”
Notre Dame knows it won't have Kyle Hamilton (knee) this week. The sidelined junior safety has spent this week acting as a coach.
Kelly met with reporters for the final time before Notre Dame plays North Carolina. Here are some of the topics he addressed.
On freshman OT Blake Fisher’s (meniscus) recovery process
“Blake is ahead of schedule, but that doesn’t mean we will put him on the field this year. He is doing really well, healing extremely well. You don’t know really how people respond to surgery and how their tissue heals, how those things come together.
“Things have come together really quickly for him. He’s moving around already. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to put him on the field any quicker, but he is ahead of our rehabilitation schedule.”
On the surprise effect of going up-tempo vs. USC
“All we really did was try to pick up our pace a little bit, but it certainly wasn’t a pace USC plays at. All defenses are now accustomed to playing teams that play at a quick pace, especially in the Pac-12. Whether it’s UCLA or Oregon State, they all play at a pretty good pace. I don’t think that’s an issue, really.
“That pace of play didn’t really allow us to do much more other than execution. We’ll continue to fall on execution over just playing fast. You can play fast and sloppy and it’s three-and-out.
“More than anything else, we got our quarterback to operate a little quicker, which allowed him to play a little freer. It’s not a surprise element as much as it was we were executing better because our quarterback was feeling much more comfortable being allowed to move the offense a little bit faster.”
On the nine-overtime game between Illinois and Penn State and how it affects game prep
“You can’t carry nine two-point plays, so you’re going to some of your third-and-short plays or going to some plays you’d use on fourth down. It did get us an opportunity to look at doing more things with two-point plays, there’s no doubt, but you’re probably carrying two or three of them and then going to your inventory in short-yardage situations.
On the safety position without Kyle Hamilton
“I would add KJ Wallace into the mix as well. That would be the four-player rotation at the position with [Isaiah] Pryor and Wallace as the other two safeties [behind starters Houston Griffith and DJ Brown].
On sophomore safety/linebacker Xavier Watts
“He had a calf strain and it set him back a little bit. We were hoping he would be further ahead with his development where he wanted him. We’re really high on him. I’ve probably been his biggest advocate.
"Unfortunately, the young man has had some soft-tissue injuries that have put him back a little bit. But he’s ready to go this weekend. He would be the fifth at safety if we were called to go that far down. He has been cross-training at safety and the nickel position."
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