Notre Dame Football: Avery Sebastian Just One of Brian Kelly's Many Roster Moves

On Thursday, former Cal safety Avery Sebastian made his transfer to Notre Dame official. After graduating in December, Sebastian will play out his eligibility in South Bend, Indiana.

This represents the latest in a series of nontraditional roster moves made by Brian Kelly.

Following the playbook laid down by former Florida defensive back Cody Riggs, Sebastian will look to make an immediate impact in the Notre Dame secondary. His road to the field is a short one, with the safety position being a spot with depth chart concerns.

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Partnered with veterans Max Redfield and Elijah Shumate, Sebastian gives the Irish some breathing room at the position—especially as Drue Tranquill and Nicky Baratti recover from injury.

It also serves as another example of Kelly and his staff working to maximize the efficiency of their roster.

Transfers and Notre Dame haven't always mixed. With the university's First Year of Studies program creating challenges for scholarship athletes to achieve admission, under Kelly we've seen roster moves that have paid dividends—some large and some small.

Wide receiver Amir Carlisle's transfer from USC was only the beginning. Kelly used the graduate transfer rule to enhance his special teams as well, bringing in Wake Forest punter Alex Wulfeck to backstop Kyle Brindza.

Wulfeck may have only served as a pooch punt specialist, but he paved the way for a move like Riggs'. This one-year experiment was so successful—even with Riggs battling an injury for the second half of the season—that Sebastian jumped at the opportunity.

Sebastian's addition adds another scholarship player to a roster that looks to be pushing capacity.

Kelly acknowledged as much on signing day, knowing that there are difficult fifth-year decisions and moves to come.

"It's an extremely fluid situation, and I'm not trying to be coy with anybody," Kelly said about getting to 85 scholarships. "We really have until the first day of classes to get to 85. And we're going to need every one of those days."

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One place to improve the team without weighing on the scholarship count is the preferred walk-on program.

With middle linebacker Joe Schmidt serving as the poster boy, Kelly has had great success bringing in excellent football players without dedicating scholarships.

As Lou Somogyi of BlueandGold.com reports, the Irish are bringing four more preferred walk-ons in for next season, building on the quartet of quarterback Montgomery VanGorder, wide receiver Keenan Centlivre, offensive lineman Sam Bush and cornerback Grant Hammann.

Quarterback Robert Regan, lineman Lincoln Feist, and linebackers Brandon Hutson and Devyn Spruell may not be immediate contributors, but they enhance a depth chart and scout team that can do more than give the starters a good look in practice.

Somogyi explains the logic behind Kelly's move, working beyond the best 85 to establish a 105-man roster:

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Football Bowl Subdivision teams are limited to 105 participants (no more than 85 on scholarship) between the start of fall camp and the first game or start of school, whichever comes first. The preferred walk-ons in most cases were offered football scholarships at smaller-level schools, or sometimes even at the Football Bowl Subdivision tier, but opt to compete at a higher status.

They don't have to try out, as used to be the tradition of walk-ons, but they have to come to campus early (June enrollment for summer school) and the institution will pick up the tab for housing and food during preseason practice. 

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"That is so important that I can have a demo squad that I can put there that can help us prepare for the team that we're playing that week," Kelly said, according to Somogyi. "We've got some guys that can actually help us prepare, and we need to continue to develop that as we move forward."

In a turbulent offseason that has Kelly rebuilding a coaching staff that's lost three members since signing day, the Irish haven't taken their foot off the gas with spring practice set to begin in the first week of March.

And with Sebastian's addition as just the latest roster move by Kelly, it's clear that Notre Dame's head coach will continue to optimize his team before the 2015 season begins.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand.