Quarterbacks Shine in Notre Dame's First Scrimmage

Notre Dame and head coach Brian Kelly came away from its first full pad scrimmage with positive feelings about the quarterback position.

Of projected starter Dayne Crist, Kelly said, "Dayne is getting better every day and he's doing a nice job."  Kelly's also confident that his junior quarterback has no effects of the knee injury he suffered last season. 

The Coach also liked the performance of backup quarterback Tommy Rees, who's competing against Nate Montana to backup Crist.  

"Rees has done a nice job.  We'll have to decide where he is, but he's in hot competition to be the No. 2,"  Kelly said.

Kelly's praise spilled over to the whole passing game as he described it as one of the highlights of Saturday morning's scrimmage. 

Pete Sampson from Irish Illustrated wrote, "Not only is the quarterback (Crist) finding his stride, but so are his weapons with Michael Floyd having his best day of camp and Riddick locking down the slot position."

There was concern about Riddick, who missed a lot of spring practice because of shoulder surgery, but apparently he's made a complete recovery. 

"I have high praise for him, he's an elite player, and I think we'll be talking a lot about Theo Riddick as the season moves on,"  Kelly said.

While the passing game impressed in Saturday's scrimmage, the secondary failed to put up much resistance. 

This was a big concern for the Irish last season and remains so in the first week of preseason camp.

As much promise as the offense is showing, and Kelly seems confident that Armando Allen can carry the running game, there are other positions on defense where questions still have to be answered.

While sophomore Manti T'eo and junior Darius Fleming look like definite starters at linebacker, two of the other four have not been decided.

Back to the offense. 

Kelly was also impressed with sophomore tight end Tyler Eifert and called his play in yesterday's scrimmage "outstanding".

The offensive line still has to find a center and a right tackle.  But Kelly likes what he's seen from the three starters and said some pretty good battles are going on for the center and right tackle position, "So whoever wins it, we know we've got a pretty good starting five."

It seems like Kelly finds himself in a similar situation as he was with his former Cincinnati Bearcats—the offense is ahead of the defense.

With all the talent in place at the skill positions, the defense remains the concern as the Irish head into the season, but overall Kelly seems to be very happy with what he's seen from his new team.

The Irish open the season at home with Purdue on Saturday, Sept. 4.