Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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said. "He really is an accomplished player, and he's less about potential and he's more into that production as well." During the spring, Kelly challenged Folston to become a more vocal leader and improve upon the solid foundation of his freshman season. The sophomore feels he is improving, even if being vocal is not natural for him. "He just wanted me to continue to work and say stuff, and step up as a vocal leader and just lead by example. I feel I've been doing that a lot more lately in terms of practicing hard and stuff like that," said Folston, who added that maturity probably prevented him from doing so earlier. With Navy up next for the Irish, it's easy to recall Folston's breakout perfor- mance as a freshman against the Mid- shipmen. He registered 18 carries for 140 yards and scored the game-winning touchdown in a tight 38-34 victory. When the Irish travel to FedEx Field, Folston will do so as a more mature player and a complete back. "I think I've developed a pretty good rhythm," Folston said of his time at Notre Dame. "I'm not going to talk too much about myself. I feel I've devel- oped pretty good and I still have a lot of things to work on. "Us as an offense, we need to put up a lot of points and [score] on every pos- session." That was the case in the four-point win against Navy and quarterback Keenan Reynolds at Notre Dame Sta- dium last November, and could tran- spire again. Either way, it's likely the Irish will find themselves in a shootout at some point the remainder of the reg- ular season, and entrusting Folston to find the right balance between strength and finesse makes for a notable advan- tage. ✦