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ndsmcobserver.com | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020 | The Observer
Team reports two COVID-19 cases Observer Staff Report
Two members of the Notre Dame football team tested positive for COVID-19 last week, the team announced in a statement Tuesday morning. According to University Physician Dr. Matt Leiszler, the two positive tests came from a total of 248 COVID-19 tests
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he offers more in the vain of Skowronek and McKinley. Where this really gets interesting (for lack of a better word) is the slot receiver/ second tight end spot. Avery Davis has been consistently listed as the starter at the X position this season. Lawrence Keys III is backing him up, and each of them can do some good things on jet sweeps or quick outs, but they haven’t proven to be ultrareliable guys. The Irish could opt for — and have already frequently implemented — two-tight end sets at the expense of the slot receiver. That’s not a bad option considering the fact that Michael Mayer is a S-T-U-D Stud, and Tommy Tremble’s blocking/pass catching versatility is solid. However, without speed guys like Austin and Lenzy on the outsides to stretch the defense, they’re limited by the lack of burners. A lineup of Tremble, Mayer and any two of Skowronek/ McKinley/Wilkins is not going to develop routes quickly or incentivize Clemson to unload the box until they make plays downfield against their corners. Lastly, this could be
administered to Notre Dame football student-athletes from Monday to Sunday, the statement said. According to the statement, neither of the two student-athletes who tested positive traveled for Saturday’s game at Pittsburgh, and no close contacts were identified. As of Monday, three players are in isolation and another player
is in quarantine as a result of being identified as a close contact, the statement said. The undefeated Irish (5-0, 4-0 ACC) are coming off one of their most convincing performances of the season after routing Pitt 45-3 at Heinz Field and are ranked No. 4 in this week’s AP and Coaches’ polls. Notre Dame travels next to
Atlanta, Georgia to take on Georgia Tech (2-4, 2-3 ACC) at Bobby Dodd Stadium this Saturday. Notre Dame’s campus has experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases during October. In the week leading up to the Pittsburgh game, the number of new cases peaked Tuesday with a total of 28 positive tests, according to the University dashboard.
something, but take it with a grain of salt. Ian Book offered praise for Jordan Johnson at Tuesday night’s Notre Dame player media availability, saying the freshman receiver made some really good catches in practice. Since we’re at the point where the Irish have only one more opponent before facing the Tigers, it seems like wishful thinking that new faces without any significant playing time or actual catches (like Jones, Johnson and Xavier Watts) would get involved. It would certainly be welcome, and maybe the coaches really are working on getting Johnson up to speed. Alternatively, it might just be some gamesmanship. Maybe Book was told by the coaches or took it upon himself to try and help Johnson’s confidence after a difficult first semester for the St. Louis product. Regardless though, aside from the tight ends, the running backs will also need to play a role in the passing game. Chris Tyree and Kyren Williams have to get involved in screen passes and wheel routes to keep the Tigers on their toes. Maybe Nov. 7 is when the coaching staff resurrects the 75-yard screen to Williams that we saw against Duke. Or maybe they get another running back involved…
Why can’t Ian Book throw over 6 yards? Did you watch the game Saturday? Granted, Book’s ‘development’ at quarterback over the last three seasons has been nothing short of bizarre. He’s gone from an accurate and precise pocket passer who feasted on the short-tointermediate game (although less so the intermediate) to flat-out bad in the intermediate and very good on deep throws (when he had Chase Claypool to sling it to) to a game manager struggling to see open pass catchers but seemingly growing as a dualthreat quarterback. I assume that what you are getting at here is Book’s general lack of accuracy downfield. I really can’t explain that, or any other aspects of his regression, as anything other than a mix of the pressure of the Notre Dame starting quarterback job, defense’s having enough film to game plan for Book, a lack of physical ability to throw downfield without some strain and the lack of receiving threats that can get open and make contested catches against any defense. But the thing is that Book has also been struggling on short throws this year, as could be seen with a couple of low throws to Avery Davis
against Pitt. It’s really difficult to pin down what exactly Book’s problem is, and he’s definitely got a few of them. But for what it’s worth, as a starter (and I know Brian Kelly is a broken record with this), Book is 25-3 and undefeated at home. He is now tied for third in career 300-yard passing games at Notre Dame (7), is second in total offensive yards (8,343) and career touchdown passes (63), behind only Brady Quinn (11,944 and 95), and may pass Quinn, Tom Clements and Ron Powlus for career wins as a starter (29) barring an unforeseen conclusion to the season. Say what you will about him, but he is a winner, and all that really matters is whether or not Notre Dame beats Clemson with Book starting under center. Which gets us to our final comment… RETURN TO GLORY!!! Let’s wait until about 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 7 to determine the validity of that statement. Then we can reevaluate on Dec. 19. That’s all for this week. I can only imagine what it will be like next week, so have those hot takes ready. It’s gonna be a fun one.
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Contact Hayden Adams at hadams3@nd.edu
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as their first scheduled away game against Wake Forest was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak within the locker room. Now it seems the Irish are getting into the groove of a season, even if it is a season different than any other. The Irish are looking to keep the ball rolling following one of their most convincing wins of the year against Pitt. Kelly looked ahead to the team’s next competition at Georgia Tech. “[Georgia Tech head coach Geoff] Collins has done a great job of transforming a triple-option team into a pro-style offense in a very short period of time,” he said. “He’s got some of the bigger offensive linemen that we’ve seen. And we’ve thought we had big offensive linemen. But these are so different than what Georgia Tech obviously has had in their program. Now he’s got some transfers from the SEC, some big physical offensive linemen, he’s got a young freshman who is going to be an incredible talent at tackle. So he’s recruited very, very well and making this transition to a pro-style offense. It should be a great football game and one that we need to continue to ascend and play at the level that we played at last week against Pittsburgh.” One question that Kelly may not have been expecting to field after his first resounding win was one he has been being asked all year, about his wide receiving corps. “I’m not here to make apologies, there are no excuses — you gotta be ready to play with what you have and the fact of the matter is no one really cares, so we weren’t going to sit up here and complain about what our situation was, we were gonna deal with the situation that was at hand,” he said. “A lot of them were because of injuries and not having the continuity, but you know everybody has problems and you deal with it and you work through it. We’re gaining some continuity and I said it many times — I believed in this group when we got continuity within the offensive structure and particularly the passing game, it would look better and it would get better and Ian would feel a lot more confident getting the ball out on time. We’re getting there and we’re getting better. We have another level that we need to get to and we hope to continue to work on that in practice so when we get to Georgia Tech this weekend we see another level that we get to.” Kelly was also asked about the progression of sophomore punter Jay Bramblett, who played quarterback at Hill Crest high school. “There were times last year that he did too much because he wasn’t used to not being fully engaged in a practice setting, he was used to being a starting quarterback,” he said. “There were clearly some times where he punted his leg out and coming into a Saturday he was tired. I just think the maturation, the understanding of how to prepare himself is being to show itself.” Contact Jimmy Ward at wward@hcc-nd.edu
