Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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grades. Senior quarterback Everett Gol- son sat out the entire fall 2013 semester — and football season — due to poor academic judgment. Two other athletes — basketball's Jerian Grant and hock- ey's Robbie Russo — were suspended last spring for academic reasons. Jenkins and athletics director Jack Swarbrick contend that this investiga- tion is an example of Notre Dame's sys- tem working to find wrongdoing rather than an indictment of the university's culture or the student-athletes it recruits. Both expressed their support for head coach Brian Kelly, who they say has co- operated fully since learning of the in- vestigation Aug. 14. "I want to say right now we have great confidence in Brian Kelly and his staff," Jenkins said, "and they have been nothing but supportive and helpful in our investigation." "Let's not confuse academic proba- tion, where you don't make grades in a semester, with academic dishonesty," Swarbrick said. "They are very differ- ent things. We have had an instance of academic dishonesty, and I think if you look carefully, we're not talking about a significant number of those at all. "Again, no conclusions have been reached here. I am not prepared to say we've got more of that. We'll find out if we do." According to Jenkins, on July 29 a pro- fessor reported suspicions of students submitting papers and homework fin- ished by others. The Office of General Counsel began investigating the matter, and the university informed the NCAA the morning of Aug. 15. While Jenkins would not confirm whether the university believes impro- prieties were committed in past semes- ters, he said Notre Dame would vacate any victories from past seasons that in- cluded ineligible players. Punishments for students found in violation of the honor code range from a failing grade on a paper to dismissal from the university. He would not speculate on which type of punishment the four players would receive if found guilty. Kelly addressed the academic fraud investigation publicly for the first time Aug. 16, one day after Rev. Jenkins and Swarbrick held their press conference. Swarbrick called Kelly to his office Aug. 14 to relay the news, the fifth-year Irish coach said. "I was informed by Jack and, for me, my emotions were shock and disap- pointment at the time," Kelly said. As of that press conference, Kelly had not yet spoken with any of the four players the university had removed from practice, but said he planned to do so in the next 24 hours. Kelly added that he had not sat down with investigators and does not expect to be called in dur- ing the investigation. Kelly — while reiterating that the investigation is ongoing — said he is proud of the way Notre Dame has han- dled the matter. "We hold our players to a very high standard. … We don't say one thing and do another. … We don't look away," he said. "There are no shortcuts in what we do. "You can't win while taking shortcuts." Kelly said he will not, as the head football coach, take part in the academic investigation and has no timeline for when the matter will be resolved. He