Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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standpoint, a deeper football team." Even in the spring, before a tal- ented freshman class arrived, Kelly noted how much depth the Irish had accrued. With senior nose guard Jar- ron Jones out for the season follow- ing MCL surgery, that depth will be tested immediately with sophomore Daniel Cage and freshman Jerry Til- lery. "For Jerry, he's learning our defense every day," Kelly said. "We're a three- down, four-down [linemen] team. We like to bring pressures. There is a lot there that he's learning every single day. "Jerry's just learning how to play defense full-time. He was a part-time defensive player [in high school]." For the first time since Lou Holtz in 1991, a Notre Dame coach is enter- ing his sixth season, but Kelly doesn't think that means he's suddenly com- fortable. "I don't know if you ever get com- fortable in the seat at Notre Dame," Kelly said. "'Comfortable' wouldn't be a word that I would use. What I would MEDIA DAY: NEWS & NOTES • Head coach Brian Kelly has not yet decided on a play caller for 2015 game days, he said. The options are himself and assistants Mike Denbrock and Mike Sanford. "First of all, Mike Denbrock sets the table for everything," Kelly said. "On a day-to-day basis, Mike Denbrock really takes the offense and kind of presents it as I have set it for him, and then he runs with it. When I say run with it, he gets it to the position coaches. So it's important that everybody understands that at the very beginning Mike Denbrock is taking the entire offense and presenting it to the assistant coaches, and then they have to execute what's been given to them. That is the practice organization, the installation — that is the preparation work. "Now when we get into game day, that's a whole different animal. That's where we'll kind of see where we go from there. I've got two guys that I'm going to lean on heavily in Mike Sanford and Mike Denbrock on game day. I haven't really made a decision as to how we're going to call the games at this point." • Offensive analyst Jeff Quinn and special assistant to the head coach Bob Elliott have been "invaluable" to the program's 2015 preparations, Kelly noted. Elliott has focused on special situations, including how to stop the triple-option. Quinn has spent most of his time on the tight ends. "They'll be moved around, so lot of oversight work in areas where they can oversee coaches, players, situations, and both of them have been invaluable," Kelly said. • Kelly joked about ultra-confident starting quarterback Malik Zaire, saying that he would "absolutely kill him" if the signal-caller discussed the Heisman Trophy during media day. Zaire's approach in his throws have developed noticeably since he arrived at Notre Dame. "He's already made some really good progress," the coach said. "Ball placement, touch, things like that, that were not really part of what he did, he was always throwing the fastball and never really changing speeds at all. "These young quarterbacks get rated by their strength of arm, [but should be rated on] touch passes, ball placements and level two balls. Then you really get the sense of the full picture, and those were the things he needed to work on. He's made great progress on those touch passes and those ball placement kind of issues, because he was just a rear-it-up-and-rip-it guy. He's come so far from that." — Andrew Owens