Notre Dame News: NFL and Brian Kelly, Here Come the Irish

Notre Dame had 14 players audition for NFL Scouts today and it sounds like a few of them made the most of it.

While Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate appear to be locks to go high, the rest of these players are hoping to be late round pickups or to catch on somewhere as free agents.

Best of luck to all of them. In addition to the workouts themselves, a lot of other very interesting news about the past, present, and future of the program did come out of today’s events. Here is a quick run through:

Clausen still healing
Jimmy Clausen did not work out today, but he does plan to throw on April 9.

Clausen did comment on the misreading of an MRI that led to his playing the entire season with what he thought was turf toe. Had the MRI been read properly, Clausen would have had season-ending surgery. “Obviously, if I didn’t play the season, I’d be coming back.”

Just thinking about what might have happened in 2009 had Clausen been on the sidelines for the last nine games is a little bit scary. Throw in the possibility that both he and Golden Tate might be returning for 2010 had he not played the remainder of the season and it turns into a real mind-bender.  Everything happens for a reason right???

Dayne Crist is ahead of schedule
This is very good news. The more involved that Crist can be this spring, the better. From the sounds of it he will be able to get out there and learn the offense. Interestingly, it sounds like Nate Montana will be Crist’s primary competition in the immediate future.

Position Swaps
The rumors have been flying about position swaps since the second Brian Kelly’s initial presser ended. I had been planning on waiting to at least see an initial depth chart before commenting on said rumors, but since these came straight from Coach Kelly today, we may as well start discussing them. I expect there will be lot of this between now and September 4, as the depth chart will pretty much be written in Jell-O for a little while.

Theo Riddick is officially moving from running back to Z receiver. This will give an explosive player with big play potential more opportunities to get his hands on the football in 2010. It also makes room for….

Cierre Wood who will remain at running back. Rumors had been flying that Wood was going to move to safety. Apparently not. Coach Kelly wanted to find a way to get both  Riddick and Wood on the field. With Armando Allen, Robert Hughes, and Jonas Gray all still on the depth chart at running back, it will be interesting to see how Cierre mixes in there. My way-too-early guesstimate is that Wood will spell Allen, and Hughes will be used in “big” back situations. What do you think?

Steve Paskorz will be moving from fullback to inside linebacker. This is the least surprising development, due to the lack of a fullback in Kelly’s offense and the fact that Paskorz was initially recruited as a linebacker.

Lane Clelland will move from offensive tackle to defensive end.

Of all these moves I find this one to be the most curious. There are currently three other junior defensive ends on the roster (EJ, KLM and Cwynar), and all of them except EJ will be able to apply for a fifth year of eligibility. Senior Emeka Nwanko is also on the roster and two freshmen are inbound this summer.

Meanwhile, I personally see the offensive tackle position as the linchpin in the 2010 offense. With both starters gone I thought Clelland would be competing with Dever, Romine, and Martin for significant minutes. I wonder if this means the staff expects inbound freshman Matt James to step into the two deep? I’m not at all insinuating that moving Clelland is a mistake; I just expected him to be in the mix at offensive tackle based on the depth chart. Interesting.

Coach Kelly throws out a zinger
It seems like every time Coach Kelly ends up in front of a microphone, he says something that gets me a little bit fired up.

“Their attention to detail is not where it needs to be,” Kelly said. “Their discipline is not where it needs to be. They need to care about themselves and their football players a lot more. I’m tired of hearing about the next NFL player to come out of Notre Dame, quite frankly. They need to understand who we are. We’re the Fighting Irish. We’re creating an atmosphere that’s a little bit different than what they’re used to, so we’ve got those things to work on.”

I will openly admit that I have a tendency to be loyal to a fault.

I really wanted to see Coach Weis succeed, and I also really didn’t want to have to watch the program start over again.

That said, I feel a little bit better every day about where the program is headed under Coach Kelly. While my optimism continues to grow, I will fight the urge to start making any declarative statements until I see it on the field. I am fired up about spring football starting in South Bend on Friday, though.

The next era of Notre Dame football is upon us.

ISD has all the details on the workouts , Clausen, and Coach Kelly’s comments .

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