Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME tion's conclusion and determines a sentence, if necessary, within a few days after that. However, when Notre Dame an- nounced a fifth player's involvement, quickly identified as Hardy, the statement also read: "As Notre Dame's internal in- vestigation relating to po- tential NCAA violations reaches its conclusion …" Perhaps the Aug. 28 re- lease meant the investiga- tion had only neared its end as it pertained to the NCAA, but such parsing of clauses can lead to any conclusion, every conclu- sion and no conclusion all at once. Rather, the four-week delay in officially forming the pertinent committee and holding the neces- sary hearings likely traces to the road this process has gone down — an un- precedented path, accord- ing to Kelly. Trail blazing takes time, and only cau- tion can prevent an errant axe to a foot. The delays and caution have provoked frustra- tion not only among Irish fans, but also presumably of the five student-ath- lete's parents, at least one of which has expressed his grievances publicly. To that chagrin, Kelly points out the university remains consistent with how a student (or, more specifically in this in- stance, a student-athlete) is informed of possible discipline — be it from a dorm violation, a failed drug test, an honor code violation or any other alleged offense. The stu- dent is notified, not the student's parents, and this investigation has up- held that pattern. "Certainly this is a na- tional story, so it takes on a different significance, I understand that," Kelly said. "The time element has obviously changed the dynamics here as well, but on a consistency basis, on a day-to-day ba- sis … it's the student that is on the front line. It is the student that's dealing with this directly. It's the student that then talks to the parents about it. "I'm not here to be a sound piece for our ad- ministration. I'm telling you what I experience as a football coach on a day-to-day basis with our players as it relates to those items." Aside from a sched- uled speech from Jen- kins to university faculty 7145 Heritage Square Dr. | Granger, IN 46530 | (574) 234-2919 BALL_Van Horne_EH BLACK_1_2_BGReport.pdf 1 6/11/2014 9:31:47 PM