Most Notre Dame faithful cannot wait for some vaunted freshmen to take the field. Thanks to possibly steamy conditions on Saturday, the wait might be even shorter than expected.
The heat for the opener against South Florida might not be as oppressive as it was during the Irish’s Thursday workout, but anything close will force Brian Kelly to go to his bench early and often. And that means shuttling freshmen like Aaron Lynch and Stephon Tuitt in perhaps as soon as the first drive.
“We have to be really good at substitution,” Kelly said Thursday, when asked about the heat. “Some of those young guys have to play early.
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“When it’s a lot hotter, the Tuitts and the Lynches and the Troy Niklases and (George) Atkinsons and all those kids – you’re probably going to start seeing them in the first dozen plays. Maybe sooner. When the weather is like that, those young guys that have to gain experience, you’re not going to have to wait too long to see them in the game.”
One young guy who is available but unlikely to play is Tate Nichols, whose recovery from a dislocated kneecap has gone swiftly enough that he’s cleared for action Saturday. Though the offensive linemen probably won’t get it.
“He’d be an emergency situation but he was really the last guy that was kind of in-between, relative to injury,” Kelly said of any personnel issues. “All hands on deck, no excuses.”
Extra points: Kelly underscored the obvious expectation to win every game by adding a quality component to that. “I have an expectation of how we play four quarters of football — that is, we’re going to get after you,” he said… Kelly said he’s likely to go on offense first, with a veteran unit, if the Irish win the coin toss… The younger brother of standout Irish linebacker Manti Te’o was running around the Guglielmino Athletics Complex on Thursday. Deadpanned Kelly: “We already offered him.”
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