Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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played off pretty decent, but when they give me all of my avenues — press man, off man, showing this and showing that — we're going to see what we can do." Head coach Brian Kelly had a different interpretation of Russell's first few days back on the field. "KeiVarae was rusty coming in," Kelly said. "He really needed to be here, and it's great that he's gotten to work. [De- fensive backs coach] Todd Lyght's done a terrific job with all of those guys. "So KeiVarae has gotten so much bet- ter. There was a little too much clutch- ing and grabbing [early in fall camp], and a lot of that was when you're out of pads for a year, you can't duplicate it by jumping on boxes. It looks good on video, but you've got to play the game. You've got to put pads on, and you've got to get out there. And he is a different player than he was when he got in here because he wasn't that good. Now he's back to where, 'Okay, that's KeiVarae!' That's the guy that we remember." Kelly's comment about "jumping on boxes" refers to the workout videos Rus- sell would post while exiled that demon- strated the athletic ability and work ethic that made him one of the most respected defensive backs in the country prior to his suspension. The cornerback still had one last hur- dle to jump after returning to the prac- tice field, however. Closure finally came Aug. 17, when the NCAA notified Rus- sell that he had been cleared to partici- pate in 2015 games. "It feels really good," Russell said. "I Russell started 26 games in his first two seasons at Notre Dame, and earned Freshman All-America hon- ors in 2012 while helping the Irish reach the BCS National Championship Game. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND