Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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safety, although the Irish did sign Nicco Fertitta and Mykelti Williams. Kelly ad- mitted some position changes to safety might be required, and a fifth-year option from another school would be pursued the way it was last year with cornerback Cody Riggs from Florida. Still, 5-9, 175-pound safety Nicco Fer- titta is a player Kelly projects will be instantly starting on special teams. He made the same prediction in 2013 for James Onwualu and last year for Drue Tranquill, and both came to fruition. Over the past couple of seasons, 11 freshmen have contributed each year, at least on special teams, although in some instances an injury cut short their season (i.e. running back Greg Bryant in 2013). Kelly said it would be unfair at this time to have a preconceived notion of which rookies will see action in 2015. "When we go out there and you're a freshman and you act like a freshman, then you're going to get what a fresh- man gets — that's no playing time," Kelly said. "You get to watch. "It's really up to them. They will de- cide. If they are physically able and they mentally want to compete, let's go compete." At the same time, Kelly said it's fool- ish to burn a year of eligibility on a freshman to use him in only mop-up duty. He has his "100 plays" rule. "You can benefit from about 100 plays," Kelly said of using a freshman. "Anything less than that, there may be some question as to whether you ben- efit enough from that. "You'd want them to be impactful, those 100. They would have to be some kind of situational need, offensively, defensively and special teams." How much length the 2015 team pos- sesses will answer what kind of depth it will receive from the freshmen. ✦