Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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team chemistry and leadership will be as effective or the final record will match the 12-1 ledger posted that sea- son. However, outside of the quarter- back position that saw Everett Golson opt to use his fifth season in 2015 at Florida State, the offense and defense collectively might be the most stocked since the early 1990s under head coach Lou Holtz. The back-to-back Bowl Champion- ship teams under head coach Char- lie Weis in 2005-06 could match most any team in the country from player one through 25, too — but there was a chasm from about 26 through 85. "Everything that we've done has been based upon getting to the na- tional championship game — and then what we had to do at this program to get to the next level," said Kelly in an exclusive interview for Blue & Gold Illustrated's 2015 Football Preview magazine. "One answer was more depth in our football program. We were woe- fully inadequate in 2012 with depth on the offensive line, defensive line and then a few other position groups. We weren't there yet." The 2012 offense was fortunate that the quintet of Zack Martin, Chris Watt, Braxston Cave, Mike Golic Jr. and Christian Lombard did not miss a single start during the 13-game season. Unfortunately, during bowl prepara- tions for Alabama, sophomores Nick Martin and Conor Hanratty had to be the top backups at both tackle and guard positions, respectively. The staff was reluctant to engage in too much contact work because of the limited amount of bodies in some areas. Conversely, Notre Dame most of this year has been several players over the maximum 85-man scholarship limit. The departure of Golson, center Matt Hegarty (Oregon), freshman defensive end recruit Bo Wallace (Arizona State) and sophomore defensive end Jhonny Williams (destination still to be deter- mined) has helped pare it down closer to 85, but the re-enrollment of senior cornerback KeiVarae Russell and the possible addition of senior defensive end Ishaq Williams could still leave a Scholarship Count Has Notre Dame met its "salary cap" of no more than 85 scholarship players in 2015? It depends. This summer the transfer of sophomore defensive end Jhonny Williams and the return of senior cor- nerback KeiVarae Russell put it unofficially at 88 — if you include returning walk-ons who were awarded scholarships last season: sophomore quarterback Montgomery VanGorder and cornerback Connor Cavalaris. However, walk-on scholarships are not automatically renewed each year. If neither of those is renewed in 2015, then Notre Dame would be at 86. If the NCAA clears defensive end Ishaq Williams to play after summer school, then it's a question about whether he would be placed on scholarship. Head coach Brian Kelly said in the spring he could not guarantee Williams one if he were to return to get his degree. Among the 22 projected starters on offense and defense this year, 20 have at least one start (the excep- tions are tight end Durham Smythe and left guard Quenton Nelson or Alex Bars), as do 10 of the reserves (11 if Williams is included).