In between crisscrossing the country reeling in recruits, Brian Kelly returned to South Bend for an important recruiting weekend and the year-end 2010 Football Awards Show. He also took a few minutes to recap season one with the media. (If you’d like to see the entire thing, our friends at UND.com have you covered.)
As always, here are some highlights, with a few observations included.
I mentioned it yesterday, but Kelly put any speculation to rest and announced that David Ruffer is going on scholarship.
“What I can report today is that we are going to award David Ruffer a scholarship for next year,” Kelly said. “I can make that announcement today. I will meet with our other fifth-year seniors on Monday and we’ll have an announcement on Tuesday relative to the remaining players.”
Kelly said that every fifth-year candidate applied to return, meaning Harrison Smith, Gary Gray, Taylor Dever, Mike Ragone, Andrew Nuss, and Matt Romine all have the option of coming back to school. According to Irish Illustrated, he also said after the press conference that taking Nate Montana off scholarship isn’t on his list of potential roster moves to get under the 85 man roster maximum.
I’m going to assume Smith, Gray and Dever are all back as starters. I’ll also assume that the coaching staff will continue recruiting Troy Niklas and Savon Huggins. That means there are two roster spots for the combo of Ragone, Nuss, Romine, Niklas and Huggins.
Of course, if Kelly’s spoken with a veteran who hasn’t cracked the lineup and might want to transfer (i.e. a Deion Walker), that’s something he’ll know about and we won’t, especially if those players want to finish the semester and not fall behind academically.
We’ll find out more on Monday, but as I’ve said before, too many viable roster options is a good problem to have.
***
What a difference a spring makes. Last season, the coaching staff walked on egg shells as they gave Dayne Crist, six months off ACL surgery, virtually every rep in spring practice. This year, there’ll be six quarterbacks on the roster, with Crist reportedly ready to go.
“We think we’re going to be able to really do a lot more of those similar kinds of things and keep him involved and competing within our spring practice format,” Kelly said about Crist.
That said, there’s a very real problem of getting six quarterbacks reps and Kelly has spent a lot of time putting together a plan.
“I have formulated in my mind some real clear guidelines as to how we’re going to move forward there,” Kelly said. “Suffice to say, I’m pretty clear on the styles that we have and how to utilize those styles within our offense.
“We can’t work with six quarterbacks,” Kelly stated. “There will be some paring down. There will be some guys that understand if they’re not in that top four, they’re not going to be able to get reps at the position.”
That could mean position switches, that could mean roster moves, it could mean just about anything, but you’ve got to think the battle starts with Crist and Rees, includes Andrew Hendrix, and potentially Everett Golson, who enrolled early to get immediate work.
It’s amazing to think that after being thrust into a scholarship position because he was the No. 2 quarterback as a walk-on, Nate Montana could drop out of the top four quarterbacks but still be on scholarship.
***
When talking about position switches, Kelly tiptoed through some small moves before dropping a relatively large bomb on everyone.
“What our identity became, compared to what it was at the start of the season, you could make the case now that Theo Riddick should be a running back,” Kelly said. “Or an offensive lineman that played tackle should play guard. Or you’ve got three or four tight ends, how are you going to use them all? As I said, Year 2 for us is less about laying down a system of offense or defense or special teams and more about utilizing the players we have that can help us win football games.”
We can parse words and take guesses what offensive linemen might shift inside or out, but the news that Kelly would consider moving Riddick back to running back after successfully teaching him the Z-receiver position is pretty amazing. When pressed further, here’s what Kelly said.
“I think we’re going to have that conversation as a staff,” Kelly said. “I think we’re going to have to vet that out. I’m not ready to do that right now.”
It could be to get TJ Jones more playing time in the slot, or it could be to use Riddick in more of a Percy Harvin-like role, but it’s almost refreshing to know that the coaching staff isn’t afraid to move one of its best returning players if they think it’s going to help the team.
***
When asked about his star receiver coming back, Kelly was pretty adamant that he landed the number one recruit on his board.
“He’s the No. 1 signee, no question,” Kelly said. “If there’s a sixth star, he gets a sixth star. And it’s more than just what he does on the football field. He’s a workhorse. He sets the bar for how our guys work in the offseason and those are obviously big pieces.”
To give you a better idea of what type of kid Michael Floyd is, Kelly recounted the morning Floyd told him his decision.
“He informed me in the morning that he was coming back,” Kelly said. “Our conversation really from there was about how we wanted to release it. As you know, Mike is not a big press conference guy. Of course, we wanted to have a press conference, and we were even going to serve food. It was going to be a big event. He didn’t want to do that. We met, he said let me think about it, I’m going to sleep on it. He came back the next morning and informed me that he was coming back.”
***
If you’re looking for one paragraph to encapsulate what year one of the Kelly era looked like to the head coach himself, here’s the quote of record:
“The program, the first year, the first coat of paint is a phrase I use a lot,” Kelly said. “That’s the relationship that we build with our players in year one. It’s my philosophy coming about through the year, the message and how we expect our players to represent Notre Dame - all of those things took place in year one. Other than winning only eight football games, which is not enough to win in the first year, we accomplished a lot of the real foundation principles of a championship program. Our football team was better at the end of the year and will continue to progress as we move into year two.”