Health of Notre Dame QBs central as Top-10 showdown looms
One topic of conversation that Brian Kelly could not wait to get past has finished.
He's now Notre Dame's all-time winningest coach, courtesy Saturday's come-from-behind, fourth-quarter blowout of Wisconsin, and Kelly would prefer the focus remain in the present tense.
That other topic? Well, that's the Notre Dame quarterback situation. And with Kelly unable Monday to declare Jack Coan fully healthy, questions will linger this week about just who the Fighting Irish will have behind center Saturday when they host consensus top-10 Cincinnati in a Kelly Reunion Bowl ripe with College Football Playoff implications.
“The quarterback situation is such that I think I mentioned after the game if Jack is healthy, Jack will be our stater,” Kelly said during his standard Monday press conference. “Tyler (Buchner) felt really good (Sunday) after treatment. Declared himself really good.
“We'll see when we get on the field (Tuesday). I really can't give you an assessment until we get on the field.
“If (Coan) looks good, he'll be our starter and Tyler Buchner will play like we had before we went into this last game. If he can't, then Drew (Pyne) is ready to go and it appears that Tyler is going to be in pretty good shape to play for us. So the two quarterback situation, depends on which two from that standpoint.”
Notre Dame (4-0), ranked NO. 7 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 9 in the AP Top 25, played both Coan and Buchner against Toledo and then Sept. 18 against Purdue – when the true freshman Buchner injured a hamstring and did not return to the game.
Buchner was deemed unavailable for the game against Wisconsin, and when Coan exited with what Kelly termed “a soft-tissue injury,” Pyne stepped up to help close out the Irish win.
A sophomore and former Under Armour All-America selection, Pyne converted on 6-for-8 passing that included a touchdown-strike to Kevin Austin Jr. as the Fighting Irish transformed a 13-10 deficit into a 41-13 romp.
Kelly said he was not surprised by the decision-making and quick release of the 5-foot-11.5-inch Pyne.
“Yeah, (Drew) is pretty good at it,” Kelly said. “He's had to be good at it. That's how he was successful. When you recruit somebody that's standing on the yellow pages to be 6-1, you've got to see it and the ball's got to come out. He's really good at that stuff. We knew what we had with him, that he was going to be a guy who saw it, got it out and move through his progressions. Kind of what he did on Saturday.”
KELLY ASSESSES OFFENSIVE LINE
That Notre Dame is undefeated with an all-new starting quarterback, multiple new starters along its offensive front and while transitioning into a new defensive scheme across the ball under Marcus Freeman is no small feat.
Especially with a deeper dive into the numbers of that Irish offensive line. The group is on its third- and fourth-string left tackles in redshirt-freshman Tosh Baker and true freshman Joe Alt, after injuries first to freshman Blake Fisher and redshirt-freshman Michael Carmody.
Marshall transfer Cain Madden is playing Power 5 teams week after week for the first time in his career, and Zeke Correll is helming the left guard spot, in a rotation now with Andrew Kristofic, rather than his more customary center position.
It all leads to the Irish being woefully inadequate running the football. Their 80 yards rushing per game matches that of LSU and puts both programs sharing a No. 122 national ranking.
Notre Dame, per advance stats, also ranks dead-last in average rushing yards before contact.
“We'll keep coaching them, we are who we are,” Kelly said. “From a production standpoint, it's everybody, it's the quarterback, it's our tight ends, everybody's got to be on the same page. It's our running backs who did a really, really fine job in protection on Saturday. But it's everybody.
“The O-line is always going to get the scrutiny and that's kind of my point, but this isn't just throw the O-line under the bus. Everybody's got to pitch in. Coaching, players, and we've all got to get better and we're committed to doing that.”
Though not every sack can be traced to a breakdown along the offensive line, it's worth noting that Notre Dame has surrendered 21 sacks through four games – or just four fewer than it allowed through the entire 2020 season.
PROTECTING HIS PLAYERS
Kelly on Saturday was flagged for a dubious unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty against the Badgers, as he protested Wisconsin’s double-teamed takedown of star safety Kyle Hamilton.
Kelly shared his point of view on the incident.
“We had it pretty clear (on video). I mean, you know, when two guys take a run at somebody, I guess that's not targeting somebody, but if you try to stop somebody from going into the end zone, that's targeting,” Kelly said.
“We just don't have it right, yet. Your eyes should tell you what's going on in the game, but sometimes we hide behind the rule book. It wasn't officiated in the manner that I thought it should have been. So they thought because I went 3 feet out on the field that I should get a flag for them not officiating it correctly.”
HEALTH REPORT
Aside from monitoring the situation at quarterback, Kelly said that defensive tackle Kurt Hinish remains in concussion protocol and his status this week against the Bearcats is unknown.
C'Bo Flemister, out the first four games for unspecified reasons, is cleared to play this week, per Kelly.
