Notre Dame senior quarterback Everett Golson has an “AC sprain” in his right shoulder, Irish head coach Brian Kelly said in his Sunday afternoon teleconference.
Emmet Farnan | The Observer
Emmet Farnan | The Observer
“There were certainly a couple of throws when [Golson] first did it where he put the ball in the ground,” Kelly said Sunday. “You could see that it affected him then. He said he was fine after that, but obviously we missed some throws, especially in overtime.”
Kelly added that junior defensive lineman Sheldon Day and freshman defensive lineman Daniel Cage both have knee sprains and underwent MRIs Sunday. The degrees of the sprains are still unknown, Kelly said.
Notre Dame graduate student safety Austin Collinsworth, who suffered an MCL strain in August and a dislocated shoulder in October, had “no issues physically at all” after the Northwestern game. Collinsworth had three tackles and returned a fumble 32 yards for a touchdown against the Wildcats on Saturday.
Kelly address two-point conversion attempt
After fielding several questions Saturday about Notre Dame’s two-point conversion attempt with a 40-29 lead and 10:34 to go in the game, Kelly took full blame for the decision Sunday.
“Oh you know, I feel terrible about the loss because obviously we’re all part of it,” he said. “If we go and kick the extra point, who knows how the game ends, right, so that’s on me.”
Despite Kelly’s assertion Saturday that Notre Dame’s kicking-game struggles played a major role in the decision to try for two points, he admitted Sunday that special teams play wasn’t necessarily the first consideration in the decision to attempt the conversion.
“I think probably more than anything else, chasing the points, and that was probably the first thought, and then the kicking game,” he said. “I don’t think the kicking game was the first thing that came into my mind.”
Tranquill moves into starting lineup
Freshman safety Drue Tranquill made his second career start Saturday in place of sophomore safety Max Redfield, who had started the first nine games of the season.
Kelly said the change was necessitated by a lack of production at the position.
“We thought that Drue gave us a better chance at that position,” Kelly said. “But we’ll evaluate it from week to week, but no, we felt like we weren’t getting the kind of production we wanted there, and that’s why we went with Drue.”
Tranquill had seven tackles and recovered a fumble against Northwestern.
“Drue has a little bit better feel for the game,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t mean he’s there. He certainly made a lot of mistakes in his first start. But we just felt like tackling and football knowledge, he may have been a guy that we wanted to give a shot, and we gave him a shot at starting, and now we’ll evaluate where we are at that position today and tomorrow.”
Emmet Farnan | The Observer
“He’s really just a freshman,” he said of Redfield. “But we felt like he needed to see the game from the sideline, and hopefully he’ll be able to learn more and understand what’s going on and take that to the practice field, and hopefully we see more and more development.”
Redfield is far from the only defensive player with room for development, Kelly said.
“We’re in the process of still developing a lot of young guys, so nobody has made yet themselves into that consistent player, and Max is not the only one,” he said. “There’s a number of guys in that similar boat.”
