Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly met with reporters via Zoom Thursday afternoon for the final time before his team’s season opener versus Duke on Saturday (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC).
Here are some of the topics he addressed.
On The Latest COVID-19 Updates With The Team:
“We haven’t gotten our testing back from Wednesday. They should be here within the next hour or so. We’ve had no COVID-related issues with our last four tests.”
On Defensive End Daelin Hayes’ Captaincy, His Journey To Earning It And His Practice Performance:
“Last year, the injury really gave him a different perspective on playing this game and what he needed to do to elevate his game. I think he saw the success of Julian [Okwara] and Khalid [Kareem], who were great models and set a great standard. It gave him a great perspective when he got injured as to the level he wanted to see himself playing at. You never want someone to get injured to learn some of those things, but it did in fact give him a great perspective of where he wanted to go.
“He started to find his voice before a lot of the turmoil we saw unfolding with the Floyd incident and many others in our country. He spoke on mental health in an exclusive interview he did with the university, which was articulate and introspective about student-athletes and pressures they have. Those two things in particular have set into action where he is today.
“Obviously, what he’s meant to our team in our [Juneteenth] rally, putting that together, and certainly as a player on the field [he is invaluable]. If you’re really good off the field but not on the field, you’re going to get some [captain] votes. He’s done it on both.”
On Linebacker Jack Lamb’s Absence From The Two-Deep And Osita Ekwonu’s Venture To Running Back:
“We still really have a lot of confidence in Jack, but he has been slowed by his injury, which was career threatening. During camp, he had a little bit of a setback with that hip. He has been behind, quite frankly, in a very competitive situation. We expect he’s going to contribute immediately on special teams and continue to work on getting him back 100 percent. … Jack is rounding back into playing shape, but it’s going to take some time.
"Osita, he was going to be a niche player for us on offense — a short-yardage back, a goal-line back. He never really left the linebacking corps. He’s been cross-trained at the position and would continue to spend most of his time with the linebackers.
“If we’re breaking down the depth chart, he’s still with the linebackers and continues to work exclusively with the linebackers. We’ve given him enough work at running back in camp that the couple plays we needed him for, he’s tuned in for.”
On Ian Book’s Claim That Tuesday’s Practice Was One Of The Stronger Ones In A While:
“Working is one thing, working with a purpose — it was as purposeful a practice as I’ve had in my time at Notre Dame. That only can happen when your quarterback is on top of things and you have a returner like you do in Ian Book, have a lot of veterans on both sides of the ball. You don’t do it with a young team. This is a veteran team that knows how to practice in the right way.
"It was extremely purposeful, high-energy, done with intent. There was an attitude with which they went to work. There’s a difference between working with a purpose and just going out there and thinking activity is achievement.
“We didn’t win anything on that day, but we certainly set a standard for what this group can do. If they practice and have a purpose like that consistently, their preparation will be outstanding and they will have success on Saturdays.”
On His Reaction And Concern Level When The Big Ten Postponed Its Season:
“Certainly, when you hear a conference decide not to play, you think there are going to be ripple effects. I said to our staff, in 30 years of being a head coach, I had a hard time envisioning not playing because I didn’t know anything else. Now, it’s hard to imagine we’ve gotten here. From that respect, we’ve had days where we heard noise and saw things like that. We kept our head down and kept going.
“We knew we had good procedures and protocols, good science and doctors that were really following what they believed to be the best protocols and procedures. We were following them diligently hoping we’d get to this point. We didn’t know it. We were probably like everyone else in having some ups and downs in this. The Big Ten not playing was probably one of those bad days, but we were seeing great results.
"There was some internal optimism within the ACC. I was on daily conference calls for the first time in a long time. We felt some comfort as a group we were doing good things and we were feeling confident as a conference we were going to hang in there.”
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