Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 AUGUST 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED N otre Dame fresh- man phenom Phil Jurkovec has some- thing that Irish gradu- ated senior Jay Hayes wishes he would've — a dress rehearsal. U n d e r n e w N C A A guidelines adopted in June, Jurkovec — the hotshot incoming Notre Dame rookie quarter- back — will be allowed to play in up to four games this coming sea- son without losing his redshirt year, providing he and the other Irish freshmen a chance at some early playing time while still preserving four full seasons of eligi- bility beginning in 2019. Hayes, on the other hand, was pulled from the redshirt list late during his fresh- man season in 2014 when injuries along the Irish defensive line forced him into just a handful of snaps in three game appearances, enough to prematurely cost him a full season of eligibility. "It was a difficult decision," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said of hav- ing to play Hayes for the first time that season in mid-November. Adding more insult to his lost eli- gibility, Hayes was then asked to sit out his entire sophomore season in 2015 to reclaim the redshirt year he lost in 2014. Hayes appeared in 10 games in 2016 and started all 13 games in 2017, but he clearly wasn't happy with how the first two years of his Notre Dame career unfolded or how his playing time was handled. Hayes took to Twitter in 2015 to suggest the Irish coaches had quit on him and stated simply last April, "Thank You! It's been real!" when he announced he would play his final season somewhere else as a gradu- ate transfer (first picking Oklahoma before winding up at Georgia). How differently would this story have played out for Hayes and Notre Dame had this new four-game red- shirt rule been in place in 2014 and the talented defensive end would not have lost an entire season of eligibil- ity by appearing in just three games? Under the new rule, players still have five years to complete four sea- sons of eligibility for their careers. But these welcome new guidelines essentially give each student-athlete five years to complete four and one- third years of eligibility, and provide players such as Jurkovec and all the other freshmen around the country something to look forward to and strive for beyond scout team duty during practice and clipboard duty on game days. Kelly typically plays about a third to half of his freshmen each season. He hopes to play all 27 of them this year. "Giving them an opportunity to play in a real game situation, you can't duplicate that," Kelly said. The advantage for the players un- der this new rule is obvious: it pro- vides a chance to stay engaged and prepared during practice because your number could be called on any given Saturday. For the fans, the rule affords an opportunity to see their favorite newcomers now, and not a year from now … one in particular. "I'd love to get Phil Jurkovec some playing time this year," Kelly said of a rookie quarterback who was destined to sit out all this season under the previ- ous redshirt rules. And for the coaches, these four "free" games provide an even greater evaluative advantage, though the strategy on how to budget this play- ing time could be tricky. Do you hope and look for blowouts against let's say Ball State in week two or Vanderbilt in week three, and play all 27 freshmen in those games to see what you have early in the season? Or, as Kelly suggested, is the better plan to de- v e l o p t h e f re s h m e n through much of the year and save their four games for late in the season when injuries mount, legs tire and voids need to be filled? "We've not played well in Novem- ber, and we think this rule can really help," said Kelly, who is only 9-12 as a coach in November games since 2013. "I think we'll target some indi- viduals on some games, but … look for this group to really add some depth to our November schedule." Now, the potential for misuse of the new redshirt rule exists, mainly at the secondary program level where a power conference school could be- come infatuated with a player from a smaller school during the four-game sample and then gauge transfer inter- est. However, that type of poaching happens already. It's difficult to argue that this rule doesn't benefit all parties, especially at a program such as Notre Dame with a roster loaded with talented freshmen this season and a top re- cruiting class under construction for 2019. It's just too bad Hayes never got his dress rehearsal. ✦ New Redshirt Rule Is An Overdue Blessing UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com Defensive end Jay Hayes was forced into action as a freshman due to injuries to other players and burned his redshirt year by playing just a handful of snaps in three games. The new rule adopted by the NCAA during the offseason will now allow rookies to play in four games whenever without losing a year of eligibility. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL