He still has to work on catching the
ball vertically down the field. But he
catches the ball out of his break at full
speed, and it is a unique trait that he
has that I have not seen since I've been
here at Notre Dame, and we'll con-
tinue to work with him.
"Defensively, I thought [senior cor-
nerback] Cole Luke played very, very
well. Played well at the nickel. Forced
the ball extremely well. [True fresh-
man safety] Devin Studstill tackled
exceedingly well. I thought [senior
safety Max Redfield] played well.
"So there was a number of really
good things. Great communication,
organization of our fronts, with [junior
linebacker] Nyles [Morgan], a lot of
good things."
With the spring game in the rear-
view mirror, however, Kelly knows
eventually a tough decision will have
to be made at quarterback.
"I think I'm going to have to make
a judgment call," Kelly said. "What
I saw was Malik develop more of an
understanding of what we did offen-
sively last year. The offense developed
under Kizer during the year, not Ma-
lik. So he was at a bit of a disadvantage
coming into the spring, and I thought
he caught up.
"So now that he has a better un-
derstanding of everything that we're
doing, I think now you've got the race
and that will obviously be decided
through camp."
Both Kizer and Zaire were more
True freshman wide receiver Kevin Stepherson displayed explosiveness while hauling in four passes for
70 yards.
PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA
