Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune finally got the quote of the offseason, on the record, from the man himself.
Brian Kelly has finally committed to ink what many of us have been hearing for weeks. If (and that’s still an if) Michael Floyd continues on his current path and “changes the way he’s lived his life,” he’ll play every game for the Irish in 2011.
The whole thing is a good recap of Floyd’s situation and is worth reading, but here are Kelly’s specific quotes when talking about his star wide receiver:“We’re looking at Mike as an ‘all in or not’ situation,” Kelly told the South Bend Tribune. “ In other words, he’s changing his life or he’s not. If he changes the way he’s lived his life, he’ll play every game for us. If he doesn’t, he won’t play one down here at Notre Dame.
“He is at that level. This is not, ‘I’m going to slap you on the hand and sit you for two games’ — because I don’t want to read about him in a year, where it says, ‘Ex-Notre Dame player arrested for X-Y-Z.’ That will be a failing on my part if that happens.”
“He had a number of things he had to take care of, and he’s checking off the boxes,” Kelly said. “But he’s got a number that are still out there.
“One that he did get past this spring was his academics. He had to have a specific GPA, and he did. He’s got some community service stuff he’s still got to do for Res Life. He’s got court coming up on June 7, and he’s got to pass that.”
If you were trying to guess a good timeline for when news on Floyd’s “return” to the team would be, you’ve had to expect something out of South Bend this time of year, with spring semester finished and many Irish athletes preparing to return for summer session. Kelly’s disciplinary plan for Floyd has likely been in place since spring practice, with Kelly deciding to let Floyd dictate whether or not he’s worthy of wearing the Irish’s blue and gold for one more season.
“There’s no gray area anymore,” Kelly said. “There just can’t be. Too many times it’s been, ‘I’ll change.’ Look, you’re parenting a young man whose close to being a teenager. As much as it hurts to say, ‘He’s done at Notre Dame,’ if he doesn’t change his life, he’s done at Notre Dame. he’s not going to play here.
“Having said this, I’m very optimistic. I’m not going to paint a bleak picture. He’s done some things, that I can’t get into relative to changing his life, in which reports back from professionals are really optimistic. But he’s got to handle all these things before we start thinking about playing in the fall.”These next two weeks are important ones for Michael. He’ll likely clear up any of his legal hurdles at his court date in early June, and he’ll have another semester to start on the aggressive track laid out after last season to get his degree at the end of the fall semester. Again, there’s no real reason to get your hopes up just yet, but Irish fans at least have to be happy that Floyd has taken care of the business at hand, something he pledged to do.