Cavalier Corner Digital

✦ News & notes By Lou Somogyi ferent things. … Hopefully he'll use the experience that he had against USC, and he'll take that as a learning experience and translate what he does in practice now into games. "He knows what it looks like. Now it's incumbent upon him as a competitor — and he's a competitor, and he wants to succeed." Whoever lines up at quarterback will be facing an Air Force defense that ranks in the bottom five percent collectively in virtually all the major defensive categories. Tommy Rees Cleared To Practice Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly stated during his weekly Tuesday press conference that the team's medical staff has cleared senior quarterback Tommy Rees to practice for this week's game at Air Force, and all signs point to him starting against the 1-6 Falcons. At the 9:16 mark of the third quarter during last weekend's 14-10 victory against USC, Rees was rocked by Trojans linebacker Lamar Dawson on a sack that resulted in a strained neck for the quarterback. Kelly said as long as Rees' neck continues to feel good through the rest of the week he'll be under center Saturday afternoon. "We believe that Tommy is going to be ready," Kelly said. "He was cleared [on Tuesday] to practice. So we're moving forward that he will be the starter." Senior Andrew Hendrix stepped in for Rees during the second half last Saturday, and during his six possessions (not including taking two knees in the closing seconds) the Irish recorded only one first down. None of Hendrix's four pass attempts were completed, with two hitting the sod well short of the intended receiver. Another pass play resulted in him losing grasp of the football, nearly resulting in a lost fumble deep in Notre Dame territory. The read option, which had been Hendrix's change-up niche this year, also did not yield fruitful results, with Hendrix's six carries netting five yards, but Kelly put that more on the offensive line. "We need to block it a little better," Kelly said. "We had some missed assignments out there on Saturday. Our reads have been pretty good. Our blocking has not been where it needs to be yet. We left Andrew out there on some islands where he should have had some better looks." Quarterback Drama Continues All signs point to Rees, who suffered a strained neck in Notre Dame's 14-10 triumph over USC last Saturday, starting against Air Force this weekend. photo by bill panzica The Irish head coach acknowledged that he and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Chuck Martin were both surprised at how ineffective Hendrix was because he had performed so much better in practice situations. However, Hendrix will remain the top backup option, while freshman Malik Zaire is solely an emergency option that the staff would rather keep on the sidelines this season to preserve a year of eligibility. The one change in the practice routine this week — in addition to having more down time during fall semester break — is that Hendrix will take more reps with the first unit in place of Rees, while Zaire will take more snaps with the second unit. "We've got to prepare Andrew," Kelly said. "He's got to get some more reps, clearly. And Malik's got to get some more reps. Looking good in practice and playing in the games, obviously, are two dif✦ Page 11 Turmoil at the quarterback position is old hat to Brian Kelly the past six years. At Cincinnati in 2008, he had to use four signal-callers at one point to get his first BCS bid. The next year during a 12‑0 season, his Bearcats made a seamless transition to Zach Collaros after starter Tony Pike was injured mid-season. Freshman Tommy Rees helped salvage the 2010 season while replacing injured starter Dayne Crist. In 2011, Crist was banished to the bench after just one half, and at the end of the year Andrew Hendrix appeared to be on the cusp of wresting the starting position from Rees. In 2012, first-time starter and sophomore Everett Golson, with a huge help from Rees, surprisingly directed Notre Dame into the BCS National Championship Game. This year, Golson went into academic exile in the spring and five-star recruit Gunner Kiel transferred to Cincinnati. "This has not been the easiest run in four years here at Notre Dame with quarterbacks," Kelly said of the latest drama with Rees bouncing back from his neck strain. "We're prepared for it at this point." The offense has never truly gotten off the ground for Kelly in his four seasons at Notre Dame, with the Irish never finishing

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