Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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senior Kendall Moore at Will and for- mer preferred walk-on Joe Schmidt, awarded a scholarship last summer as a junior, at Mike. Behind them were two current fresh- men that redshirted last season: Mike linebacker Doug Randolph, a medical redshirt after shoulder surgery, and Will linebacker Michael Deeb. "What you're looking at in both of those positions right now are guys that are similar in body type, but they will have different jobs," Kelly said. "We're going to have to sort out their traits and what their skills are to dis- cern the Mike from the Will." The Irish head coach listed inside linebacker, defensive line and quar- terback as the three position groups that will likely have the most question marks entering 2014. "That will probably be the one ques- tion that I'll get asked and probably have to answer the most in the spring," Kelly said of inside linebacker. Don't expect any complete answers to be in place at the end of spring. Much will be contingent on how Grace's recovery progresses in forthcoming months. ✦ Secondary Options With the plethora of bodies in the secondary — not even including 26-game Florida starter Cody Riggs, who will enroll in June — and a shortage of experi- ence and options at inside linebacker, a nickel pack- age might become more of the base defense for the 2014 Fighting Irish. Both Riggs and Notre Dame's Matthias Farley, who has started 19 career games, could help as a nickel if needed, or cornerback Cole Luke or another safety could too against spread teams. "A lot of our [defensive] personnel are first- and second-down personnel," said head coach Brian Kelly, referring especially to the front seven, most notably inside linebacker. "As you can see in our recruiting last year and this year, we're recruiting more third-down personnel — guys that can be on the field more on third down, rush the passer, linebackers, safeties." Consequently, Kelly expects the 2014 defense to have a week-to-week approach, depending on the opponent's strengths. "It's going to be more game plan structured than it's been in the past than saying, 'Hey we're a three-down team that morphs into the four-down," Kelly said. "… We just need to continue to recruit some more of those guys that can get after the quarterback." — Lou Somogyi Matthias Farley, who has started 19 career games at safety, moved to cornerback this spring and could emerge as an option at nickel back. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL