Notre Dame Spring Football is Underway: Notes on Brian Kelly's Press Conference

With spring camp opening, Brian Kelly had a presser yesterday where he touched on a variety of issues.  This is in addition to his statement Monday afternoon where he announced that Michael Floyd would be suspended indefinitely from all football-related activities until his issues, both legally and personally, were resolved.  Some points of interest from yesterday, with all notes taken from this transcript:

On the QB derby: Dayne Crist will be limited, similar to the plan used for him last year when he was coming off the ACL injury.  He'll do drill work, but probably will see little live action.  The two candidates without starting experience, Everett Golson and Andrew Hendrix, will not be wearing a red jersey all of the time.  Kelly wants them involved in the running game, and that means getting hit. 

On injuries: Sean Cwynar will miss all of spring camp and Manti Te'o will miss a majority of it as both recover from surgery.  Doesn't seem like either's recovery time will be anything that bleeds into September.

On position changes: Making official stuff we knew a lot earlier, Bennett Jackson is now at cornerback, Austin Collinsworth is at safety and Luke Massa will be at wide receiver.  Early enrollee Brad Carrico will slide from defense line to offensive line, although I imagine he is almost a guarantee to get red-shirted this year.

On filling the potential Michael Floyd void: Kelly is pretty much looking at all comers, including the experienced (John Goodman), the inexperienced (Daniel Smith) and the enigmas (Deion Walker).  Kelly singled out Walker, saying that the highly-touted wide receiver who has seen little time on the field was a changed man and the head coach expected big things from him.  Although the idea of moving Theo Riddick to running back was flirted with following the Sun Bowl, the junior wide out will remain at that position.

On replacing Armando Allen and Robert Hughes: Kelly talked extensively about Jonas Gray and how the senior tailback will be leaned on heavily in the coming season.  With Riddick staying at wide receiver and only the seemingly non-workhorse (I'm assuming due to size here) Cierre Wood in front of him on the depth chart, Gray will have plenty of opportunities.  He had fumble trouble early in his career and didn't get many touches last season (although he ripped off a huge run against Utah), but Gray was a four-star recruit who should be able to produce.

On the new kids: I will just quote Kelly on Aaron Lynch and Ishaq Williams, because it makes me very happy:

Well, if you just walked into the weight room you go, boy, that's what they look like.

Talking about Aaron Lynch, physically, he's as developed as some of our juniors and seniors. Physically he looks great. But as we all know, you have to play the game more than just physically, it's the mental end of things that he's going to have to pick, the discipline, how to practice the right way. There's a big learning curve.

But I will tell you this: Having him here now, really helps our chances of him being a key contributor for us in the fall. Same thing with Ishaq. Physically a gifted young man, again, I think the transition is a whole lot easier for him to be a guy that, again, whether it's situational or not, really improves our depth and our competitiveness on the defensive side of the ball.

The depth in the defensive front seven is ridiculous.

On the linebackers: Kelly threw a lot of names out for the playing time vacated by Kerry Neal and Brian Smith.  Justin Utupo, Kendall Moore, Anthony McDonald and David Posluszny were all mentioned at inside linebacker, in addition to incumbent Carlo Calabrese.  On the outside, Prince Shembo, Danny Spond and Dan Fox were brought up, although I imagine Steve Filer will also get a long look there.  Ishaq Williams will also likely be playing the rush linebacker position when he starts seeing the field.

As far as conditioning and getting ready to battle in the trenches, Longo Beach as been very effective.  Everyone's updated numbers can be found here, but a few that stand out:

Louis Nix: 6'3 340
Ethan Johnson: 6'4 300
Kap Lewis-Moore: 6'4 295
Kona Schwenke: 6'4 285
Tate Nichols: 6'8 320

Some very smart people point to Tomahawk Nation's look at front seven size when evaluating the potential of a defense to be elite.  Their magic number is 1780, and if you add up Johnson, Nix, KLM, Te'o, Darius Fleming, Carlo and Shembo, their weights of today equal over 1900 pounds.  They're some large gentlemen, and should their skill level be equivalent to their size and pedigree, the Irish defense could be rather dominant up front this year.

So with that said, what do all of you want to see out of spring practice this year?  Is there anything to take from spring practice, or is it just a chance for the players to get a few more reps while giving desperate college football fans something to write about during the offseason?