Brian Kelly Talks Navy

Brian Kelly met with the media on Tuesday to talk about Notre Dame’s upcoming matchup this weekend against Navy.  Kelly gave out updates on the Irish injury front and talked about his team as they head into November with a BCS game still as their goal.

Notes from Kelly’s session and the full video are below.

• 60 players played in the Air Force game – the most that have been involved in a game since Brian Kelly has been at Notre Dame. Hopefully there will be more of the same this week as Notre Dame could use the reps for its younger players.
• Kelly said that playing the option two weeks in a row is part advantage and part disadvantage since the Irish get to see it back to back weeks, but Navy now also has a week of game film to breakdown on how Notre Dame defends the option.
• Louis Nix is progressing well after missing last week.  Kelly listed him as questionable at this point.  Kelly said that they won’t play anyone who isn’t able to practice and if you read between the lines is doesn’t sound promising that Nix will be playing this weekend.
• In other injury news.  Chris Watt and Sheldon Day look like they will be able to go this weekend while Ishaq Williams will be out this weekend.  Day had an MRI which revealed a bone bruise and no further damage to the ankle that cost him so much time earlier this season.   DaVaris Daniels got a little banged up last week too but Kelly doesn’t think it will impact him at all this week.
• Chase Hounshell has been in pads, but Kelly said that he doesn’t think we will see him play this year.
• Kelly joked that Cam McDaniel had to clear going to Good Morning America with his fiance first before he could go but that he didn’t have a problem with it at all.
• In terms of the differences of the Navy and Air Force option attacks, Kelly said that the Air Force offense has more options to it such as running the “power” often.  Navy on the other hand executes the triple better than anyone else in the country according to Kelly.  Kelly also mentioned that Navy is able to change subtle nuances to their offense that can make a big difference such as they did in 2010 with using an unbalanced line.
• Kelly said Steve Elmer is a very smart kid who won’t have a lot of missed assignments.  He needs to get physically stronger but he is long enough to be able to make up for some things.
• In terms of Keivarae Russell’s development and improvement this year, Kelly said that he came into the year as more of an athlete playing corner back but has become much more of a student of the game.   Kelly also talked about Russell needing to change his demeanor this year in order to get to the next level – something Kelly believes he has done this year.
• When asked about projecting a player like Corey Robinson who played against a low level of competition, Kelly mentioned that the staff has to trust its instincts and referenced his experience at the Division II level for being able to project players like that.
• Speaking of Corey Robinson, Kelly talked a little bit about some concerns over Robinson outgrowing football if he starts to get to the 6’10” range.  Kelly said that they are confident he could sustain a couple more inches and still be able to play the wide receiver position.   Kelly later talked about how Robinson is going to only get stronger and better as he grows into his body during the off-season conditioning with Coach Longo.
• Kelly mentioned that the staff is hearing that Kona Schwenke might have a future at the next level from reports they’ve gotten.  He praised him for being a lean 305 lbs at 6’4″.
• Kelly liked what he saw out of Tarean Folston last weekend giving him some praise for his elusiveness and his cutting ability.   He did mention that Folston needs to improve on the little things though.