Notre Dame Football: Brian Kelly Updates Quarterbacks, Injuries, Depth Chart

After a three-day holiday break, Notre Dame arrived in Nashville Friday for final preparations for next Tuesday's Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl against No. 24 LSU (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). The Irish held their first of four practices Friday evening leading up to the game, with head coach Brian Kelly addressing the media afterward. 

As it has been for most of Kelly's five seasons at Notre Dame, the quarterback position is the big story. Junior Everett Golson was benched during the regular-season finale against USC, with redshirt freshman Malik Zaire providing a bit of a spark in the second half.

Both will play against the Tigers, but Kelly wasn't quite ready to declare a starter Friday evening.

"I haven't made the decision on who the starter is yet," Kelly said. "Both are getting quality reps. I probably have to make it here in the next 24 hours. They're both going to play, and I'm just going to have to just get a feel for it and the flow of the game."

Having to juggle multiple quarterbacks is nothing new to Kelly.

"I've done it several times over several years," Kelly said "I've gone into playoff games when I was in Division II and had to run option with a guy that couldn't throw it. We can do a lot of things with two quarterbacks. It can be pretty exciting."

Zaire has shown a stronger grasp of the zone-read element of Kelly's offense than Golson has. While Zaire and Golson don't present the stark contrast in styles that Golson and Tommy Rees did, the two are far from mirror images of one another.

"It opens up everything," Kelly said. "Everything is available to you. You're going to see the best from both of them."

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The only notable injury updates were regarding senior offensive tackle Christian Lombard and defensive tackle Sheldon Day. While Kelly did not rule out Lombard for the game, his outlook was pessimistic for the chances of the third-year starter playing in his final college game.

"He's been fighting a back injury, and it's flared up," Kelly said. "He's been limited in practice. He's been a warrior for us. He would definitely play if he was physically able to. That's a major question mark for us."

If Lombard can't go, redshirt freshman Mike McGlinchey will make his first career start at right tackle.

The news was much more positive on defensive tackle Sheldon Day. After missing the last two-and-a-half games with an MCL injury, the junior is expected to be close to full speed against LSU.

"Sheldon Day will play," Kelly said. "We'd like him to play every play. We don't think that's realistic. If we can get between 40 and 50 plays, I think we'd be ecstatic."

With first semester grades finalized in the past week, Kelly said that no players were ineligible for the game due to academics. 

Despite being the healthiest of the four position groups on the Irish defense, the two safety spots has been a revolving door this season for Note Dame.

Junior Elijah Shumate and sophomore Max Redfield are the most talented players at the position on the Irish roster, but they have struggled to stay on the field at times this season. Kelly said both will start and raised the bar for their level of play.

"We still need to see more," Kelly said. "We have higher expectations for Elijah, and we have higher expectations for Max. They know it. I've met with them individually. [Defensive coordinator] Brian [VanGorder] has met with them. They know what they need to do."

Notre Dame has faced just one SEC opponent in the last eight seasons—Alabama in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game. Did Kelly call on former assistant Butch Jones, now the head coach at Tennessee, for some advice on LSU?

"No," Kelly said. "We've talked, because the families are close, but more Christmas stuff than football."

Notre Dame returns to the practice field Saturday. LSU will arrive in Nashville Saturday afternoon and practice Sunday and Monday leading up to Tuesday's game.

Note: All quotes from Brian Kelly were obtained firsthand.