Cavalier Corner Digital

✦ NEWS & NOTES BY LOU SOMOGYI NO. 2 QUARTERBACK AN OPEN SLOT Another week brings yet another time of questions about Notre Dame's quarterback situation. Fortunately, this time it's not about the starting position. Sophomore Everett Golson, while unspectacular in his de- but against Navy (12-of-18 passing for 144 yards with one touchdown and one interception), played well enough on the field, and displayed the poise and com- munication skills in the huddle and on the sideline, to merit his No. 1 status. The issue centers on who will be No. 2. Sixteen-game starter Tommy Rees is back taking reps after serving a one-game sus- pension, and he is listed as the "or" with junior classmate Andrew Hendrix on this week's Irish depth chart. Head coach Brian Kelly said both will get work with the second offense dur- ing this week's practices, but Rees will need to get a little extra time on the field to make up for his inactivity during the month of August. "It will be, for me, probably more about making sure that we can get Tommy up to a level where he can be sharp if he's in a position where he had to go into the game," Kelly said. SECONDARY A PRIMARY CONCERN? Navy has annually ranked near the bottom nationally in passing, but one wouldn't have thought that while the Mid- shipmen were throwing for 192 yards at 9.6 yards per attempt last week against the Irish. In their first career starts at corner, ju- nior Bennett Jackson and freshman KeiV- arae Russell combined for a dozen tackles and defended the option relatively well within the team structure. They were left on an island most of the game before the Junior Andrew Hendrix, who connected on 4 of 5 passes for 53 yards while rushing for 20 yards on six carries ✦ PAGE 10 against Navy, is competing with classmate Tommy Rees for the backup quarterback job. PHOTO BY MIKE BENNETT/LIGHTHOUSE IMAGING Irish adjusted to a Cover 2 zone scheme that helped shut down the passing attack. This week, they will face a more tra- ditional Boilermakers offense, and head coach Brian Kelly is not searching for the panic buttons. Each week brings a differ- ent set of challenges and points of empha- sis. Last week, the Irish collectively as a defense shut down Navy's highly potent running game, and that was the first objec- tive during the 50-10 route. Navy averaged 5.4 yards per carry and 312.2 yards per game on the ground in 2011, but could muster only 149 yards on 40 attempts (3.7 per rush) against the Irish. "I don't know if there's an alarm that I'm trying to set off relative to, 'Hey, keep an eye on it; we are in big trouble here.' I don't believe that," Kelly said. "There were a lot of things we were not able to do defensively that were part of our plan that we need to get to work on." The good sign for Notre Dame this week was that most of their early mistakes against the pass were physical slips that can be corrected, not mental ones where the personnel is flummoxed. "From a big picture standpoint, we leave the game knowing that those guys are go- ing to be able to play our system," Kelly said. THE RISING STAR While senior linebacker Manti Te'o has established himself among college foot- ball's elite, sophomore defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt seems to be on course of reaching that destination in the near future. His 77-yard touchdown return of a fum- ble against Navy grabbed the headlines, but the 6-6, 303-pound force was sound in all aspects — technique, strength and quickness. Tuitt made four tackles against the Midshipmen, including a pair of sacks that resulted in a loss of nine yards.

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