Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME AVERY SEBASTIAN COULD RETURN IN 2016 During the offseason, former Cal safety Avery Sebastian opted to use his graduate transfer opportu- nity to spend his fifth-year senior campaign at Notre Dame. It turns out, that final season of eligibility might not be until 2016. Sebastian has been out since suffering a broken foot in the 38-3 win over Texas Sept. 5 and, according to head coach Brian Kelly, is still a few weeks away from seeing the field again. "He's walking around, and [it] probably would be two, three weeks to even get him to the level of play," Kelly said Oct. 27. "Just one of those things where bone growth has been slow for him. He's been on a stimula- tor for bone growth. It just has not come back to the level that most do. "So if we can't see progress in the next couple of weeks, then we'll have to decide." By decide, Kelly means whether the Irish would want to play him that late in the 2015 season or save him for a possible sixth year in 2016. "He's eligible for a sixth year because of back-to-back years of injuries," Kelly said. "So we'll have to see what he's capable of doing for us over the next couple of weeks. It's just been a difficult injury in the sense that it usually heals up quickly, but that he hasn't had the bone growth neces- sary." Sebastian played in 23 games as a freshman and sophomore before injuries limited him to eight contests in his final two seasons with the Bears. Because only one of those came in 2013, he is eligible for a sixth season if 2015 follows the same path. The depth chart makes it likely that Notre Dame will wait to play Sebastian until 2016. Fifth-year senior Matthias Farley and senior Elijah Shumate will both graduate following this season, and the returners include junior Max Redfield, who has produced mixed results this season; sophomore Drue Tranquill, who will be coming off of consecutive years with season-ending knee injuries; and senior safety Nicky Baratti, who has missed significant time because of several shoulder surgeries. Thus, Kelly might decide that Sebastian's greater value is on the 2016 squad. This season, Shumate has developed into the kind of player Kelly has envisioned for a few years. The head coach said his play is "skyrocketing" and added he wished the senior could return for another season. Alongside Shumate, the stability is not the same. Following Notre Dame's bye week, Kelly was blunt about the production at safety between Farley and Redfield. The two went in and out of the lineup during most of October. Redfield produced what Kelly called his best performance in an Irish uniform with 14 tackles at Clemson Oct. 3. Since then, it's been about finding the hot hand or, in this case, the least cold hand. "Honestly, what I want and what we have are two different things," Kelly said. "Both those kids are committed to being the best players that they can be and we are coaching them every single day. Are you following my drift? We're working hard with them every day. "We just feel like both of those guys are going to give us what we need at the position and it's going to be one where both of them are going to have to help us win." — Andrew Owens SEBASTIAN