Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS on YouTube to study his habits in the backfield. With his size, Prosise has already demonstrated an ability to rush inside the tackles and provide some punch to the Irish ground game. "I quite frankly thought it would be a more difficult transition for him, but it has come a lot easier than I thought," Kelly said. "He looks like a natural running back, he can see things, he's exceptional at the second level. He's got better speed than any of our backs. "He's almost 218 pounds. He's a big, long back. and he's still running routes for us, too. He knows the pass- ing game." When pressed about whether Prosise would play at wide receiver or running back in the fall, Kelly would not com- mit to one or the other, saying only that he will have a chance at both in an ef- fort to find the best 11 players to start. The experiment with Prosise is an in- novative one. When Kelly revealed his plans to cross-train the Petersburg, Va., senior (Prosise redshirted as a fresh- man) at the beginning of the spring, most expected that his eventual contri- butions in the rushing attack would be on jet sweeps like in 2014. But he has proven to be a dependable all-around back. While Folston (889 yards and six touchdowns) improved as a sopho- more last season and Bryant (289 yards and three touchdowns) still has the traits to be a game-changing presence, the presence of Prosise and resulting competition should only help those two grow their respective games. If there's one word to sum up Notre Dame's efforts during the spring, 'ver- satility' comes to mind. Junior Will linebacker Jaylon Smith cross-trained at the Sam position, and fifth-year senior Mike linebacker Joe Schmidt and sophomore Mike linebacker Nyles Morgan will do the same at Will. The Irish are intent on developing players to be flexible enough to play multiple positions, and that's a result of the roster 's depth. Never before has a Kelly-coached Notre Dame team had this much talent on one roster. For once, the program has actually strug- gled meeting the 85-man limit. Kelly also has a track record of find- ing success with position switches. Theo Riddick moved from slot receiver to running back in 2012 (after origi- nally playing running back as a fresh- man) and was the offensive key to the 12-1 season. KeiVarae Russell was a running back before moving to cornerback when the Irish lacked depth there in 2012. Matthias Farley moved from wide receiver to start 11 games at safety in 2012 after redshirting the year before. Since then, he's also become a main- stay at nickel back. Troy Niklas began as a linebacker before Kelly moved him to tight end. Two years later, he was a second-round pick in the NFL Draft. There are more examples, and at the end of Prosise's career his move might be just as key as any other. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com