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✦ QUOTING KELLY "I'm excited to see our football team play. We have got a first-time starter at quarterback. ... We have some young players playing in the secondary, so it's going to be really an exciting game as the head coach watching these guys compete for the first time." Wood is suspended for the first two games: "Theo [Riddick] certainly is a guy that has a lot of experience at the wide receiver position. So you have somebody that is extremely effective at catching the football. He's a guy that was bred for this position in terms of if you call it a hybrid or whatever you want to call it. "Running the ball is his first love, and it's something On options at running back now that senior Cierre that he's accustomed to through high school and his first year or so here. We cross-trained him, so he fits terrifi- cally right now. "George [Atkinson III] is making progress every day. He was strictly the tailback. He was in the I ,and he was a guy that was getting the ball seven and a half yards deep. Now he's moving into different venues as a receiver, and he's continued to evolve in that position." On handling suspensions and whether or not it's a chance to teach players: "I don't know if I think of it in terms of, we have to overcome adversity, as much as, you understand that as a head coach with 18- to 22-year-olds, that you hope that everybody makes good decisions all the time. I hope my son makes good decisions; my daughter. "I think we all get disappointed, but we also know that they are young. We want them to learn from the mistakes that they made. And in this instance, we are hoping that Cierre and Justin [Utupo] will learn from their mistakes. "But I don't think it filters into the team that, oh, my goodness, somebody gets suspended, we have to over- come adversity. I think they see it more as if you don't live up to these standards, this is what's going to happen. Let's keep moving forward. At least that's the sense that I get." Head coach Brian Kelly has been pleased with the leadership sophomore quarterback Everett Golson has shown since being named the starting quar- terback for the Navy game. [Wednesday] morning at 5:00 a.m. That literally will be the first change in terms of the preparation of our football team relative to going to Ireland to play the game. We have really kept a similar schedule in terms of our preparation." On playing in Dublin: "The first change will be the-field issues don't crop up: "Not necessarily. I don't think that that necessarily comes with the job description as much as I expect all of our players to be diligent on pure accountability. It's one of our cornerstones to our 'A Team,' which is: 'You know what to do; let's make sure that the others know what to do, as well.' "So don't think it just comes with the captains. I think On leaning on your captains to make sure other off- what comes with our captains is great representatives of our program, and not just vocal representatives in terms of media. But when they say something in the locker room, they are going to be heard, as well. ✦ PAGE 8 "They are also a great opportunity for me to have communication with our leaders. Of course, we have a unity council that helps to assist in that, as well. But I think they just represent all of the things that we want in our program, and we can put them and push them out front." On how Everett Golson has responded after being named the starting quarterback: "I would say that he understands the role of being a leader in our quarterback position. If he comes out there and he's not full of energy and he's not excited, that has a tendency to filter through the ranks. And that's never been the case. "If he showed that at all during his audition for the start- ing job, he wouldn't be the starting quarterback at Notre Dame. He's always had that; Andrew had that; Tommy's always had it; Gunner's always had it. All of these guys understand the nuances as it relates to the position." PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA