Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/187176
Under the Dome Although Rees has a huge amount of detractors on the outside, Kelly said he is definitely the starter and his veteran QB knows how to tune out the "noise," both the positive and negative. "If you're the starting quarterback at Notre Dame and you can't handle those things that are inevitably going to come your way after a loss, then you can't be the quarterback at Notre Dame," Kelly said. Freshman Malik Zaire is the third option but nowhere near ready to compete yet, according to Kelly, especially after a recent bout with mononucleosis. "You're not going to see Malik, unless we get into an injury situation," Kelly said. "We only have the three quarterbacks, so we have to keep him ready to go. But I'd prefer not to play him unless we have a medical situation." Sod Problems ✦ Gimme Five Bye weekends during the regular season used to be rare in college football, mainly because not as many games were played. In Knute Rockne's final 12 seasons at Notre Dame that stretched until 1930, the Fighting Irish had one bye. In Joe Kuharich's four seasons from 1959‑62, Notre Dame never had a bye during the regular season. However, with the regular season now at least 12 games and in some cases 13, a bye or two becomes mandatory during the course of the season. Notre Dame has two this year, with Oct. 12 the first and Nov. 16 the other. Brian Kelly is 2-1 at Notre Dame after bye weeks. His 4-5 Irish defeated No. 15 Utah in 2010, lost 31-17 at home to USC in 2011 and romped past Miami 41-3 last year. Here are the five best records by a Notre Dame head coach — with a minimum of five games played — the week after a bye: Coach (Years) Record Pct. 1. Bob Davie (1997-2001) 8-1 .889 2. Lou Holtz (1986-96) 11-2 .846 3t. Frank Leahy (1941-43, 1946-53)5-1 .833 3t. Ty Willingham (2002-04) 5-1 .833 5. Ara Parseghian (1964-74) 5-1-1 .786 On Oct. 3, the university installed new sod in Notre Dame Stadium that it hopes will hold up through the rest of the 2013 season. Maintenance workers had to come onto the field during several television breaks during the Sept. 28 Oklahoma game to take care of divots. Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick has expressed his disappointment in the sod's durability, and the fact that it was in such poor condition even before October this year doesn't help. Head coach Brian Kelly has campaigned previously for the installation of FieldTurf, and his plea might gain some momentum. "I made it pretty clear what I want for a surface, and that has not come to fruition at this point," Kelly said. "We're going to put the grass down and we're hopeful that will get us through the season." Military Games The government's shutdown Oct. 2 bars it from paying for football road trips by the military academies. However, it doesn't appear Notre Dame's Oct. 26 game at Air Force or its Nov. 2 game at home versus Navy will be in jeopardy, regardless of how long the shutdown lingers. Notre Dame travels to Colorado Springs, Colo., for Air Force, and it is in talks with a third party that would finance Navy's travel to Notre Dame Stadium.