Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/680997
BY LOU SOMOGYI N otre Dame's six-week sum- mer school session begins on June 13 and ends the final week of July. Enrolling for the summer session will be the remaining 18 members of the 23-man freshman class that signed in February. Five others were early enrollees that began their aca- demic curriculum during the spring semester and partook in the 15 spring practices from March 16 to April 16: wide receiver Kevin Step- herson, defensive ends Daelin Hayes and Khalid Kareem, and safeties Devin Studstill and Spencer Perry. When junior tight end Tyler Luatua announced that he would be returning to South Bend instead of transferring to BYU as originally planned in January — Notre Dame had the NCAA limit of 85 players on scholarship. Unofficially, the class breakdown of scholarships is as fol- lows: • Five sixth- or fifth-year seniors. This includes running back Josh An- derson, a former walk-on who was awarded a scholarship in 2015. • Fifteen fourth-year seniors. Right guard Steve Elmer, who had 30 career starts, opted to graduate early this May and move on with his life beyond football. Wide receiver Corey Robinson, the school's student body president, is included, but he and his family are debating whether to remain in football after suffering numerous concussions. • Twenty-one juniors. This in- cludes defensive end Grant Blanken- ship, who was suspended from the team the final week of spring prac- tice but had the door left open by head coach Brian Kelly for a possible return. His status with Notre Dame was uncertain through mid-May. This class also includes quarter- back Montgomery VanGorder, who originally arrived as a walk-on. • Twenty-one sophomores. • Twenty-three freshmen. ✦ NUMBERS CRUNCHING Notre Dame could enter the summer with 85 scholarship players when freshmen arrive