“As it relates to the 15 practices, to me, it’s not that big,” Kelly said following his team’s 13th practice of the spring on Wednesday. “But as it relates to coming back on campus as an alum and getting a feel for getting back into that stadium, it’s an event in the spring and I think it should be.”
For the first time, this year’s Irish spring game can be seen on television as Versus will broadcast it live.
“I think it’s great,” Kelly said of the game being on TV. “Knowing what the weather is going to be like, 70 degrees and sunny, you’re going to have a tough choice as to whether you want to watch it at home or come to the stadium.”
Kelly was joking as current forecasts aren’t nearly as promising with a good chance of Saturday being rainy in South Bend. There will be at least a couple of advantages to viewing the game on TV.
“I’ll be mic’d, so it should be interesting on Versus,” he said. “If you’ve got TiVo, you might want to TiVo it. We’ll have the quarterbacks on a headset, they’ll talk a little bit.”
Kelly and the staff will try to balance the two teams with skill position talent while the offensive line with wear green jerseys and play for the both the Blue and Gold teams.
Kelly will reluctantly slow the pace of the game down.
“We will huddle, that’s when 11 guys get together on the offensive side of the ball,” he laughed. “They relive the last play.”
“It’ll be a traditional game in the first half…In the second half, the clock will run.”
Linebacker Manti Te’o (knee), offensive lineman Chris Watt (ankle) and wide receiver Daniel Smith (hamstring) will not play. Wide receiver TJ Jones has been limited with an ankle injury this week, but Kelly expects the second-year wideout to play.
Kelly will be careful with quarterbacks Dayne Crist and Tommy Rees with Everett Golson and Andrew Hendrix handling most of the snaps.
“Dayne and Tommy won’t get a lot of work,” the head coach said. “This is going to be Golson versus Hendrix really, relative to the offense. They’re going to do everything. They’ll be live, so they’re going to run the ball, they’re going to throw the ball. We’ll get a really good feel for both of those guys because we know the other two guys can win football games.”
The Irish will also be careful with Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray, the only healthy scholarship running backs on the spring roster.
“Cierre Wood’s not going to get a lot of carries, I’ve got a good feel for what he can do,” Kelly said. “Jonas is not going to get a lot. A lot of young guys and the quarterbacks are going to run a lot. You’ll see the quarterbacks as probably the biggest end of the running game. They’ll run the ball quite a bit.”
