Brian Kelly Heaps Praise On Linebacker Nyles Morgan

Irish head coach Brian Kelly doesn’t think there’s been much talk about linebacker Nyles Morgan this spring, and he attributes it to the junior’s strong spring as he enters 2016 as the starting Mike linebacker.

Much of the criticism directed toward the coaching staff last season surrounded the middle of the Irish defense where Joe Schmidt at times struggled to regain his form from before suffering a season-ending ankle injury in Nov. 2014. Notre Dame’s defense struggled for a second straight season under coordinator Brian VanGorder, and many times Schmidt was the lightning rod for criticism.

Now the job is Morgan’s, and the head coach is pleased with the Crete, Ill., native’s production.

“There's not been a lot of talk about Nyles Morgan, which is kind of interesting,” Kelly said. “Here's a guy that didn't play much last year and stepped into the middle linebacker role and there was always a lot of talk about Coach VanGorder's system and it's so complicated and you've got to communicate and no one's really talked about Nyles and it's because Nyles has been that good this spring.

“He's gotten our defense lined up effortlessly. There's been great communication and he's played extremely well at that position. I think a lot of it has to do with how hard he works at the game. It's really, really important for him. Certainly his first two years here helped him immensely in terms of learning the defense. My point being that we haven't talked a lot about him because he has been really good this spring in running our defense from that position.”

Morgan was the star of Saturday’s practice, which was open to the media, while working from sideline to sideline and overpowering a number of his Irish teammates with his strength.

Notre Dame expects it to be foreshadowing for what could be a breakout season for Morgan.

Quick hits

• Senior receiver Corey Robinson will see a specialist Tuesday regarding the concussion that has now kept him off the field for more than two weeks. Kelly was not ready to speculate Saturday about whether it might be one concussion too many for the Notre Dame student body president to return to the playing field.

“I think you have these evaluations and I think his family will be involved in it so you can make a great decision on where you want to go,” Kelly said. “He hasn't alluded to one way or the other. He's doing this because he certainly cares about playing football. If he didn't, he probably wouldn't go through this evaluation. He would just say, 'I'm done.' Clearly he feels as though football is important and he wants to get obviously the medical expertise necessary to make an informed decision. We're supportive and Corey's a very thoughtful kid and his dad's going to be part of the process. His family's going to be part of it and I think that's great.”

• Sophomore receiver Equanimeous St. Brown was limited at Saturday’s practice after falling on his shoulder in Friday’s practice, which led to some soreness per Kelly. The head coach added it is not the shoulder that required season-ending surgery last fall.

“We just wanted to be careful,” Kelly said. “He was out there fully dressed. We just didn't want to put him in in a contact situation. He did all of his individual drills, but we wanted to make sure he would be good for next week.”

• Kelly said the quarterbacks will be live for at least a portion of Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game in Notre Dame Stadium. He said it might just be for one half, but he wants to see Malik Zaire and DeShone Kizer in contact situations.

“I think [the game] will help immensely, absolutely,” Kelly said. “We'll make them live a little bit. I don't think it will be the whole game, but they will have blue jerseys. They've got to be able to run a little bit. We'll let them compete a little bit. Maybe just the first half. I haven't made a definitive decision on that yet, but they clearly need to be involved with the game. They run. That's what they do. That's the identity of our offense. The quarterback's going to be a running threat as well.”