Dave Duerson, who committed suicide on Feb. 17, was honored by Notre Dame with a private memorial service at Notre Dame Stadium Continue reading…

Lou Holtz preaches patience with first-year Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, whose team is struggling. Yet Holtz can’t fathom why the Irish have not been able to achieve national prominence since he last coached the team in 1996. “It’s a beautiful campus. They now allow the (recruits) to visit in the spring. … You have got a football facility … unbelievable practice areas,” Holtz told us Wednesday. “… You have a great academic institution. And the (football) schedule is much more conducive to winning than it has been. You have a beautiful stadium. You have the NBC contract. … “… What in the world would you want to build a national power that Notre Dame does not have?” — Chicago Tribune

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly and his team returned to practice this week, but it’s been tough going following the death of a student videographer in a practice-field accident and back-to-back tough losses. “It’s been a tough 10 days, but we’ll get through it,” Kelly said, eight days after Notre Dame junior Declan Sullivan died when a scissor lift in which he was filming practice toppled. High winds are believed to be the culprit although an investigation is ongoing. “Adversity strikes and you’ve got to be able to lead through adversity as well.” Kelly said that freshman Andrew Hendrix will operate as the third quarterback in light of Dayne Crist’s season-ending knee injury suffered against Tulsa. Freshman Tommy Rees is the starter and junior Nate Montana will serve as the backup. — South Bend Tribune

Notre Dame’s Dayne Crist clearly hasn’t grasped the complexities of running the spread offense. He is not as accurate as he needs to be and still doesn’t make enough good reads during game. Big problem here. Getting pulled against Navy (after the game was over) was good for him. Sitting and watching was much better than playing and getting berated, which is pretty much how the season has gone for Crist. I’d like to see Tommy Rees get a planned series or two this week against Tulsa. He looked good in mop-up duty. Why not give him more experience? Anyhow, Kelly is the guy that is supposed to develop the quarterback so it’s his job. — Gary Post-Tribune

It’s now about blind faith at Notre Dame, the Irish coach beseeching legions of followers for trust as his first season slides uncomfortably toward wheel-spinning. Brian Kelly officially has begun the hard part of the job. His benefit of the doubt eroded by a 35-17 debacle against Navy on Saturday, he sells optimism when reality suggests another 6-6 finish looms, attempting to earn confidence when everything is new and yet nothing is new. “We’re learning how to play this game,” Kelly said Sunday. “We’re getting to know the way I want the game conducted and played and how to come to work every day. That’s a work in progress.” This, a day after Kelly said progress is occurring “behind closed doors,” that the Irish are “doing the things I want to do internally” and that payoff arrives in “year two and year three and four and five and six.” – Chicago Tribune

There is no NCAA-mandated 20-hour rule this week for the Notre Dame football team to follow, and quarterback Dayne Crist is taking it to heart. And then some.  The Irish junior has been piling up the overtime with ND’s second wave of receivers, trying to microwave timing, chemistry and similar interpretations of coach Brian Kelly’s offensive playbook. Notre Dame (4-3) will have two starting members of its receiving corps, and as many as three, out for Saturday’s matchup with Navy (4-2) at the New Meadowlands Stadium. “The biggest adjustments for those guys is not on the field, but off the field,” Crist said of the fill-ins. “We’ve spent every day after practice, as a group, watching film together and talking through each play — literally making sure we’re on the same page. Then we made adjustments when we didn’t see eye to eye.” The overtime was purely Crist’s idea. Kelly has been keeping the hours down to a usual week’s practice schedule, but he’s shifted the practices to earlier in the day to help ND adjust to Saturday’s unusually early noon kickoff. Notre Dame is on fall break this week, so that means no classes and, consequently, no NCAA limit of 20 hours spent on football. — South Bend Tribune

Toward the end of Brian Kelly’s press conference Tuesday, the emphasis took a hairpin turn away from football, and the Notre Dame head coach was peppered with questions about hamstrings. Injuries to ND’s top three leading receivers — Michael Floyd, Theo Riddick and Kyle Rudolph – could lead to a starting receiving lineup against the Midshipmen of Duval Kamara, TJ Jones, John Goodman and Tyler Eifert. “It’s the nature of college football,” Kelly said. “We’re prepared for it. They’ve gotten enough reps throughout the course of the summer, preseason camp, for us to be confident that we can be successful with our offense as it is.” — South Bend Tribune

Former sports agent Josh Luchs’ explosive tell-all in this week’s Sports Illustrated got Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly’s attention. But it didn’t shock him. “I can’t say that I’m surprised by the allegations that were made or what this agent had to say,” Kelly remarked after Thursday’s practice. “I can’t say I’ve been living in this world of coaching with my head in the ground.” … “When you really get down to it, you’ve got to be able to trust your players,” Kelly said. There’s so much time for them to be away from you that, boy, it’s hard to be standing around every corner and seeing who they’re talking with. “So you’ve got to hope that you have the right kind of kids that are going to make good decisions.”– South Bend Tribune

Notre Dame kicker David Ruffer understands the skepticism when it comes to his ability. The transfer student, who started as a walk-on with the Irish before taking over the starting job, can hardly fathom how his career has evolved. “You can’t really say it is a dream come true, because I never really dreamt it,” said Ruffer, who played golf, not football, in high school growing up in Oakton, Va. Ruffer’s 16 consecutive field goals made, a streak that started in the final three games last season, is the longest consecutive streak in school history. In fact, he’s 16 for 16 in his career. Entering Saturday’s game against Western Michigan (2-3), Ruffer’s perfect mark of 11 for 11 field goals this season is bettered only by Southern Mississippi kicker Danny Hrapmann, who hasn’t missed in 14 attempts. Not bad for a guy who transferred to Notre Dame from William & Mary in 2008, started his kicking career at Siegfried Hall in interhall games and joined the Irish during a bye week two years ago. “When you hear that, your expectations are not that he is going to do what he’s doing,” coach Brian Kelly said. “Now to see what he is doing, obviously, he’s exceeding all of the thoughts that we had.” — Fort Wayne Journal

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly on receiver Michael Floyd and tight end Kyle Rudolph being held in check in recent games: “We have to utilize both of them within our offense, but we’re not going to throw them the ball if they’re double covered or they’re not within the structure of our offense. We feel like we can score enough points if you want to put a guy over the top of Michael Floyd, we still think we can get him the football. But we’re not going to be silly at it. We’re going to be — we’ve got really — Armando Allen has been probably our play-maker if you look at everything that he’s done in terms of running and catching, and if you continue to give us Armando Allen, we’re going to continue to take him.” — Journal Gazette