Blue and Gold Illustrated

UNDER THE DOME accelerate it. C.J. is get- ting a ton of carries, and we certainly can't afford to lose him. He's a horse right now. "Those guys need to continue to learn during the week so we can get them in. We want to get them in the game, but we can't afford to have key mistakes during the game. We had some key mistakes [versus Geor- gia Tech], especially in the red zone, that we've got to clean up — and we clean them up during the week." Freshmen defensive tackle Jerry Tillery, who has made huge strides and is benefitting from his early enrollment last spring, is helping re- place injured senior Jar- ron Jones. Tillery had 52 of the 70 defensive snaps against Georgia Tech, while sophomore Daniel Cage had the other 18 in the rotation. Against Tech's triple option, Tillery's agil- ity and athleticism were needed. Against power teams like Pitt, Boston College and Stanford, Cage might be used more frequently. "Jerry could get cut and get right back up, and that's really where he was outstanding — his ability to get right back up and into the play," Kelly said of Tillery's performance and volume versus the Yellow Jackets. "But I still see Daniel being with Jerry as equal in those in- side tackle positions." With the season ending knee injury to sophomore safety Drue Tranquill against Georgia Tech, freshman safety Mykelti Williams also was pro- moted from mainly scout team work to potential game-day activation. Fortunately, Kelly feels good about the quality depth and balance Notre Dame has been able to build through recruiting the past several years. "We believe we've got enough guys that can go in and play champion- ship football," he said. "You just hate to lose quality guys which you have invested so much time in, because there is a bit of a learning curve for those guys when they come in the game." Kelly also acknowl- edged there is only so much reserve power be- fore the law of diminish- ing returns set in. "We can't afford to lose any more players at key positions like quar- terback, running back. You start to get into true freshmen, and that will be obviously a significant change in what we look like," Kelly said. "Drue Tranquill was a very important player in our back end of the de- fense because of his ver- satility. "We are still at a point where we have guys that can come in and step in, but there's no question that we have to be able to stem the tide here with these injuries." ✦ NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL TICKETS 25 YEARS IN BUSINESS Call today for Special Discount 1-800-925-2500 www.NotreDameTickets.com

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