Michael Floyd: "I've met with the Office of Residence Life and, while I don't plan to discuss the details, I'm grateful that I still have a chance to earn my degree from Notre Dame and be a member of the football team. I know that I still need to meet requirements set by the university and Coach Kelly, and that I have a lot of work to do that and to prove that I've grown from this experience. I'm sorry again for the poor decisions I've made and for letting so many people down."
Brian Kelly: "Michael has shared with me the outcome of his hearing with our Office of Residence Life, and I'm happy that he has the opportunity to move forward both academically and athletically here at Notre Dame. However, this does not change the fact that Michael is still a suspended member of our football team. As I said last month, part of the reinstatement process to our team involved conclusions to the legal and university disciplinary matters. Another part was behavior modification and improved decision-making skills. While I have been pleased with the progress Michael has made in the last few weeks, there is still work to be done to convince me he has matured and that he is willing to accept the consequences of his actions, learn from them, and become a better person. Until that happens, he will not be an active member of our team."
We read your statement and what is your overall reaction? Do you think it is fair?
“I can only comment on what I do as a football program. As you know, Michael is suspended and that’s indefinite. This isn’t about anything but how I handle our players. You know how I handled Mike from the very beginning. This is not about football. Everybody has jumped to conclusions that Mike Floyd is going to play football. Mike has so many things on his plate that he has to handle before he can even think about football. Again, academically and personally, he has a lot of things in front of him. There are a lot of hurdles that he is going to have to go through before we even start to think about football. We are so far removed from the football end of this. What I’m pleased about, what Michael told and shared with me, is that he is going to be in school. As you know, the most important thing for Michael Floyd is to get his degree and that is really part of the reason why he came back. People can say that he would be a top draft pick. He’s close to getting his degree and what I am happy for him, relative to what he told me, is that he gets a chance to finish his degree. I think we’ve put the cart before the horse relative to Mike Floyd as it relates to football.”
A lot of people are going to say Notre Dame is just like everybody else when it comes to suspending star players. How do you respond to that?
“I think you know how I handled Mike Floyd from the very beginning. Our players are going to be held accountable and responsible. He has a lot of hurdles in front of him. A lot of things have to occur and come together in the right way. That’s why I continue to say from the outset, we are so far removed from the football part of this. He has a lot of things he has to take care of first.”
How have you been pleased with the way he has handled things?
“As you know, it’s only been three weeks. Let’s assume he may need some time to get things in order. He is doing the right things and we have put together a plan that he has to follow, and he wants to follow. He’s the one who has said, ‘Listen, I need to do these things to be right.’ He has followed through with those, but it’s only been three weeks. So, there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of hurdles he has to cross first.”
Could you elaborate on any of those hurdles?
“No, I’m not going to get into any of the personal issues that Michael is confronting. I think everybody knows he has some legal hurdles that he has to continue to work through as well. Again, football is the last thing that I am thinking about with Michael Floyd and that he should be thinking about.”
In the past there have been players who haven’t had this chance to finish their degree. What does that say about the football program and its relationship with Res Life?
“I don’t know if it’s simply about a football relationship. As I said, we are all educators at Notre Dame and, obviously, I can’t look into decisions that were made in the past. I can only live in the present. I’m pleased that he is going to get a chance to get his degree. The football stuff, if it works out, fine. He is 25 hours from graduating from Notre Dame. So, obviously, that’s how I look at it.”
Do you have a drop-dead date as far as a decision time?
“No, this is fluid. This is everyday evaluating. He might come in tomorrow and say, ‘Coach, I can’t do this.’ or ‘It’s too difficult.’ or ‘This is something I think can make work.’ It’s a fluid situation every day. Talking to him and making sure he is taking the right steps to: No. 1 get his degree; and No. 2 personally he has to take care of things that we have talked about that are absolutely crucial to his success as a student and a young man.”
Is there a chance that if he meets all the conditions, he won’t miss any games?
“I think right now when we are talking about Mike, I haven’t reached any kind of thought process as - that’s a game or two games or three games or what he did requires a five-game suspension - I haven’t even ventured into that yet. It’s too early. We are three weeks post of a very, very serious event that occurred. It wasn’t a small event. This was serious. So for me, my focus has been on our football team and developing our players that are here. As it relates to Mike, it’s simply been about his personal development. I haven’t given it even a thought, let’s say, about we have South Florida, maybe we will just ….. I haven’t even got into those kinds of equations. Quite frankly, I think it’s too early to tell if we are even going to be able to get to that from my perspective.”
Is there a stated alcohol policy for the team?
“Yes, there is something I have used over 22 years that I think is an effective way to educate and teach kids to make good decisions. It’s not just me; it’s the utilization of the resources that we have available to us. I am not a professional counselor when it comes to these things, but I’m pretty good at reaching out and finding the right people that can come up with those answers. I think you can tell, this is not my first time dealing with a young man that has had an incident. We are going to make sure that we provide him with the resources and the proper perspective. That’s one thing I want to make sure we’re clear on, football is not even in the equation right now. It can’t be.”
Did the Mardy Gilyard experience help you with this?
“Oh yeah, I think so. I think there is a number I could draw on. My time at Central Michigan, we had a number of incidents that I had to go in and really look at the players as young men, more so than football players. I think your experience allows you to separate the two because they are students. They are young men. They are 18-22 year olds. When I signed up for this duty, relative to coaching 18-22 year olds, if it was just about football all of the time, I wouldn’t still be in this business. I would long be retired. I wouldn’t be doing what you’re doing (laughing) but I certainly would be doing something else.”
Aren’t you going to be part of the media during the NFL draft?
“Only from a perspective of a college football coach. I have no idea how those guys are rated by the NFL people.”
Can you talk about the spring game being on television?
“Versus is obviously a partner now with NBC and Comcast. We are excited about that. Tom Hammond will be doing the game so the NBC talent will be there. It’s going to be exciting, and I hope we can live up to the expectations of being on TV. Right now, we are a little thin in certain areas, but we’ll make it exciting and it will be a good opportunity for us to showcase our football team on Versus.”
Does that change how you are going to run that game or is it business as usual?
“We are going to try and get many game scenarios involved. Obviously, two quarterbacks will not be in live situations; but two will. So I think we’ll get some excitement, more so than the typical spring game.”
Could you give us an update on injuries?
“Let’s start with Jonas (Gray). Jonas has a gastroc strain. We thought he had a knee sprain but it ends up being a more high calf gastroc outside. So your first thought is some kind of LCL but it looks really good. He was moving around today and we’ll have him back on Monday. He did not practice today other than doing some light jogging. Chris Watt has a high ankle sprain. He’s in a cast as our athletic trainer, Rob Hunt, likes to put those in a cast to immobilize them right away. He’ll be in it for a total of five days. The cast will come off Wednesday and we’ll see where we are from there. I would say he’s questionable for the spring game.”
How is Daniel Smith coming along? Is he back yet?
“No, it’s a slow process. As we’ve gone back to look at this, we probably had a deficiency in that leg when he came on campus. So this is almost about strengthening as much as it is about hamstring. This is a little bit more than a typical hamstring. We are grading it about a 30 percent deficiency in that hamstring. There were some things that were going on there, so we’re kind of making up for lost time. We’re going to get him back, but whether he gets back for the spring game is questionable.”
Is it the same leg that he had surgery on when he was in high school?
“No, it is not.”
Is there any timeline for the recovery of Anthony McDonald and Cam Roberson?
“I think we’re going to be alright with Anthony. Things look pretty good with his surgery. I believe he’ll be an August 1st guy and be able to get in there and start repping. Obviously, it’s disappointing for Anthony because he’s missing some crucial time, and it’s a very competitive situation and Kendall Moore has been the beneficiary of that work. He’s getting a lot of reps right now. Cam is a long process, but he’s in good spirits and he’s in rehab already. I wouldn’t count him out. Sometimes when you get in these long rehabs, and I’ll give you a great example, Dayne Crist. He is just an absolute warrior and hopefully he never has to go through it again, what he has been able to do. Cam exhibits some of those characteristics in the training room. He wants to get it done and you know he’s going to come back. It’s just going to take time.”
You talk about wanting to build depth during the spring. Is there anybody in that group that has surprised you a little bit?
“I don’t know if there’s anybody who has said, ’I am ready to take over a starting position.’ But I know we are building confidence where, if they get called as the next man in, they will be confident that they can go in. I think it’s similar to Tommy Rees. I don’t know if we have really talked about Tommy at this time, but we are building confidence in him. And I think that’s what we are doing more so than a guy particularly going in and saying I’m going to take that job.”
With the thinning ranks, have you done less hitting this spring than you would have liked to?
“I would like to have hit a little bit more, but it is not going to be something that takes away from winning because we can do so many other things. I think if it was my first year I would be a little bit nervous right now. I’ll tell you this, if it was my first year, we would probably have less bodies because I would have hit anyway (laughing). You would probably like to hit a little bit more. We probably had 50 live reps the whole spring, and we would be 50 on a normal Saturday. So we are well behind that, but it is not going to hold us back because we have so many guys that understand what we are doing and how we are doing it.”
With a guy like Aaron Lynch, do you have to manage people’s expectations outside of the program about him or do you just let it rip?
“I think we should all recognize that Aaron Lynch is 17 years old coming into the University of Notre Dame. He is not ready to handle all those things. He is doing some really, really terrific things. We really love Aaron. Part of it is that he has been able to come in here in a very, very competitive academic environment and hang in there and fight. I think I am more proud of what he is doing off the field, and I can say that probably for all our early enrollees. Guys, I’m going to tell you, they get thrown in a very competitive environment, almost more so than football, when it comes to academics. They are fighting their tails off. I think that is what I am most proud of those five guys.”
Have you been surprised at how well Prince Shembo has adjusted to his new position?
“I would be less than honest if I told you he was going to pick up this position with 100 percent certainty without any hesitation. Once you put somebody in space that is used to playing in the box and playing at that inside backer position, you need to see it. He is shown to me that he can play in space and let’s not mistake the fact that he is a great pass-rusher. So he has to come off the edge as well and we weren’t able to do that last year. We didn’t activate Kerry Neal as much as we did Darius Fleming so it’s pretty clear, if you are going to fan your protection one way or the other, you are going to fan to Fleming. Now, pick your poison. Who are you going to fan to? Shembo, is he going to get the back or is Fleming going to get the back. We are a different dynamic with Prince out there.”
How is the competition at the nose guard position?
“I think what we are seeing is a young player in Louis Nix getting more and more reps. His question is going to be work volume. How many top-end plays can we get from him. Can we get 20; can we get 25? Let’s not forget Sean Cwynar, he was a battler for us last year. He ate up a lot of innings, if you will, if I can use that analogy. He could come in there and do a solid job. Unspectacular, but I’ll tell you what, boy, he did his job and helped us win football games. That kept a good rotation, so when Ian Williams got back in there, we couldn’t play Ian a ton but Sean would go in there and do a great job. So with Sean and Hafis (Williams) and obviously Louis, we think we’ve got three guys that can get the job done for us.”
