Brian Kelly Talks Final Purdue Preparations

Brian Kelly talked about the week of practice and Notre Dame’s final preparations for this weekend’s game against Purdue on Thursday. Video and notes from his media session below.

• Malik Zaire got some practice in this week, but the still hasn’t been fully cleared.  Kelly said that it is possible he could play this week. 
• Kelly said that it is possible that Tarean Folston and Greg Bryant could see the field early this year and that last week’s game was much different in terms of what they needed out of the RBs in terms of protections and being split out wide.  He said later that they don’t have a problem with playing either back.
• When asked if his team’s confidence was shaken following the loss to Michigan, Kelly said that confidence comes with making plays and that his team still expects to win and that he didn’t think they were lacking confidence.
• Kelly wants to see a smarter, more disciplined team this week. He said that there were times last week when the Irish didn’t play smart or disciplined.
• The coaching staff had to insert their personalities a little bit and take over practice this week following the loss to Michigan.
• Kelly said that they aren’t holding back the freshmen backs right now, but that the situation didn’t present itself to play four and five different running backs last week.  That could change week to week.
• Tommy Rees had no ill-effects to his knee this week after suffering a bone bruise.  Kelly joked that they were going to run him 15-20 times this week.
• No other injuries of note for Notre Dame this week.
• The Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks visited Notre Dame for practice today.  Chicago GM Dan Bowman is a Notre Dame grad.