Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME NOTRE DAME LINEBACKERS ARE IN STATE OF FLUX In back‑to‑back games versus Navy (Nov. 1) and Arizona State (Nov. 8), Notre Dame started two different freshmen at linebacker positions. Greer Martini was inserted at Will linebacker versus the Midshipmen so that sophomore Jaylon Smith could be moved to the flank for that particular game against the triple option. The next week, Smith was shifted back to Will, but freshman Nyles Morgan had to start at the Mike linebacker slot because of a season‑ending ankle injury to senior Joe Schmidt, the team's top tackler at the time. Schmidt had surgery Nov. 3 and his timetable for recovery is approximately six months, meaning he likely will not be able to take contact work in spring practice. In his starting debut at Mike, Morgan was where Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly expected he would be as the quarterback of the defense: confused. "As he gets more accustomed to what's going on out there he will be able to react," Kelly said. "Way too much thinking, I think, put him in a position where he wasn't able to fire in the manner that he's capable of. It was a lot for him to handle in his first start." However, the Irish head coach said he didn't think there was a major cor‑ relation between Schmidt's absence and the defensive line playing what he admitted was the worst game collectively this season in the 55‑31 loss to the Sun Devils. He did admit that Schmidt might have been able to better set up a "soft edge" along the front on a couple of occasions. Down the road, there will be some decisions to make at the Mike position: • Once Schmidt is healthy and returns for a fifth season as expected in 2015, "It's more of a situation that coaches felt like we're getting some pass rush in different manners from different players that have picked up the slack in that position." • Because Hunter has been backing up classmate Fuller at the X receiver position, and Fuller is so dif- ficult to take out of the game, Kelly said Hunter will also work in the slot (Z) and at the boundary (W) "because we like what we see." "We don't necessarily want to take Will off the field to get [Hunter] on the field," the Irish head coach noted. • Fifth-year senior cornerback/punt returner Cody Riggs made the trip to Tempe, Ariz., with the hope of being able to play, but after warming up with the team, it was determined that a stress reaction in his foot he suffered against Navy the previous week wasn't ready to perform. "There is no fracture," Kelly said. "A stress reaction is just that he's got inflammation and a sensitivity in that foot. Rest is going to help, so this rest helped him a lot." The staff is hopeful he will still be able to aid the secondary this season and was cleared to play part time against Northwestern. "It's something that we're going to have to really monitor the rest of the year," Kelly said. "We'll prob- ably have to cut back a little bit in his practice and really kind of make sure we can get him through the rest of the season."