Notre Dame football’s return to campus is underway. Players could travel to South Bend starting Monday and will begin quarantine prior to the June 22 start of voluntary workouts and the July start of full-team activities.
This summer and the 2020 season in general are still complex topics that evoke more questions. Head coach Brian Kelly met with reporters via Zoom on Tuesday to answer them, among other discussion topics.
Here are five of his notable talking points.
1. Kelly said Notre Dame is planning as if it will not host recruits on campus for the foreseeable future, perhaps all the way through the season and the end of 2020.
The NCAA’s dead period that began in March has been extended through July 31, with the potential for future elongation.
“We get into August and everyone is wrapped up in camp,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t seem to me that’s going to be reasonable. School starts on the 10th. We seem to think with all the precautions being taken relative to your own campus and testing, how is it you can fly in a family that hasn’t been tested, put them up on campus at your hotel and let them walk around campus freely?
“That seems to be hard to navigate through this in the fall. There’s still work to be done. I don’t think it’s going to happen quickly. If it does happen, we’ll be excited about it but we’ll be cautious and have to ask a lot of questions. We’re operating as if you will not visit this campus this recruiting season and we have to take our campus to you.”
2. Earlier Tuesday, Kelly went on NBCSports’ Lunch Talk Live with Mike Tirico and said Notre Dame and some opponents could explore moving games scheduled for NFL stadiums back to on-campus sites.
Notre Dame plays Wake Forest at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., and Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
All are one-off games moved to those locations. Pitt also shares Heinz Field with the Steelers for its home games.
Asked to clarify his earlier comments, Kelly said he was responding to a question about things that could still be in flux and are not final.
“What are the things we have to keep in context with what our schedule looks like?” he said. “What happens in the Big Ten and Pac-12, because those are the games that shape our schedule, maybe outside of Western Michigan. We feel we can be whole with the ACC.
“That coupled with the venues becomes schedule issues Jack Swarbrick is going to have to work out. The NFL is talking about capping attendance in stadiums. Questions come up like, ‘Does it make sense to go to an NFL stadium that seats 60, 70 or 80,000 and have 25,000 or 30,000 and impact the gate to a level where you can’t afford to be there. Those are things that have to be worked out before we can say, ‘This is the schedule.”
3. May graduate transfer additions Nick McCloud and Trevor Speights both bring veteran “player maturity” as well as on-field help.
Both were needed, Kelly said. They will begin classes in June.
“They’re well respected in their locker room by their teammates,” Kelly said. “We’re inserting guys into a strong culture and a winning culture we don’t have to be concerned with.
“I know Trevor has been banged up, but we feel confident after sharing medical information that with a clean bill of health, he will be a fine football player for us. We feel we added maturity in the locker room and guys who can play at positions of need at a high level.”
4. Notre Dame has established a “unity council” in light of the racial injustice discussions of the last two weeks.
Kelly said the team met in full on June 1 to discuss the topic and decide what the best steps were from there.
“That will start within our program to address any racial inequities we have,” Kelly said. “Then will then look toward campus as to where we can be a change-mover, then local government in terms of where we can be effective and national government. You have to talk about it and be heard, but it has to be actionable.
“It will not just be players. It will have some support staff as well. We’ll have a cross-section. Males, females, black, white, Hispanic.”
5. The team will be tested on June 19, three days before voluntary workouts begin.
Before that, players will have to quarantine at the on-campus Morris Inn for three days if they drove and seven days if they flew. The hotel will be the team’s summer home and all meals will be provided there.
From there, testing will happen every two weeks, which coincides with the move into a new “phase” of summer workouts and practices. There are three phases.
“You will not be able to go into the football building until you have been tested and tested negative,” Kelly said. “Then it becomes CDC guidelines relative to masks inside, distancing, temperature checks. Every two weeks as we enter a new phase, we begin the process over again. Then we get into weekly testing for games. We’re in a situation where everyone is going to be testing weekly who plays in the NCAA.”
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @ToddBurlage and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.
