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Corey Holmes Trying To Get Up To Speed With Notre Dame Receivers

Corey Holmes (foreground) is expected to break through as a junior after redshirting last year as a sophomore.
Corey Holmes (foreground) is expected to break through as a junior after redshirting last year as a sophomore.

On the Notre Dame practice field this Friday, which marked the halfway point of spring drills, a grand total of 36 career receptions were represented on receivers coach Mike Denbrock’s group. Thirty-five of them belonged to senior Torii Hunter Jr.

Last year’s top three wideouts — All-American Will Fuller, Chris Brown and Amir Carlisle — have moved on to the next stage of their football lives. Furthermore, senior Corey Robinson, with 65 career catches, is going through a cautious concussion protocol that leaves his football future unclear.

The overall receiving corps is greener than a St. Patrick’s Parade in Dublin, Ireland — so much so that early entrant Kevin Stepherson has been noted as potentially having the best hands on the unit. Lining up with the first group, in addition to Hunter at the X (field side), were sophomore Equinameous St. Brown (one career catch) at the W (boundary) and junior Corey Holmes (zero receptions in two seasons) at Z (slot). Behind them were Stepherson, Miles Boykin, redshirted as a freshman last year, and sophomore walk-on Chris Finke at slot (sophomore CJ Sanders is sidelined for several months with a hip flexor). They too have a combined zero catches.

The 6-0 ½, 190-pound Holmes became the most intriguing figure prior to the spring because of recording the team’s fastest hand-timed 40 — 4.39 — during the team’s winter combine, and added a breathtaking 41-inch vertical. He maybe was the most enigmatic too because it’s not as if those numbers caught the staff by surprise.

Holmes always has had straight-line speed, but it was mitigated by the lack of what three-time Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Walsh referred to as “functional football speed” — which includes the ability to track the ball, run precise routes, manipulate cornerbacks, maximize speed with pads on, etc.

“There's track speed and there's in-line, straight-line speed and then there's, quite frankly, football speed,” echoed Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. “I think that's been the struggle for Corey the first couple years is to get that to translate through playing fast and playing with confidence. He's gaining the confidence and we're seeing definitely a different football player.”

Holmes could hold his own with Fuller (who ran a 4.32 at the Indianapolis Combine) in sprints, but what made Fuller “faster” were his superior ball skills, including adjusting his body or route to the flight of the ball, plus supreme confidence.

“Although he runs at the same speed, he's not playing at the same speed yet,” explained Kelly of Holmes. “I think he's capable. He's certainly not there yet, but he's moving and trending in the right direction.

“He’s done a much better job in the last year or so of learning how to play fast,” Denbrock said. “He’s translated that better than he has at any point so far. He just needs to continue to be reminded – and when he sees it on film when he’s not running quite full speed like he can, he sees it. He knows that’s something that he needs to continue to address, but he’s done a better job than in the past.”

Holmes is the first to acknowledge he hasn’t arrived as a major college receiver yet, especially after having to redshirt as a sophomore to facilitate his development. After making late-game appearances as a freshman in 48-17 and 31-0 blowouts of Rice and Michigan to open the 2014 campaign, Holmes has gone 24 consecutive Notre Dame games without seeing game action.

“What it was for me was consistency,” Holmes explained. “Consistently going out there and know my responsibilities and what I had to do.”

During his crisis of confidence, Holmes often turned to his father, David Holmes, a star defensive back at Syracuse in the 1980s (including the 11-0-1 team in 1987) and the 92nd overall pick (fourth round) in the 1989 NFL Draft.

“My daddy [would] tell me all the time, ‘Trust your speed. You’re fast, just trust it,’ ” Holmes said. “I kind of get caught up in trying to make people miss instead of just showing the speed at times … just pushing myself and running full speed all the time.”

The staff made the decision to redshirt Holmes after the August training camp last year. Adding to Holmes’ sting, although never enough to contemplate transferring, was that freshmen such as St. Brown and Sanders had moved ahead of him in the rotation.

“These were the type of talks I was having with my dad, who really kept my head on,” Holmes said. “Because at first I was like, ‘Man these young guys that came in here, they’re getting some of the reps that I should be having.’ What I told myself was, ‘I can’t worry about other people. I have to worry about myself and better myself as a player.’ … It wasn’t about until halfway through the season that I finally just stopped worrying about other people and started to just worry about my own game.

“It was hard at the time, but I just looked it as a year for me to get bigger, faster, stronger, work on my game. I just took it as a blessing in disguise. It was a really humbling experience all of last year.”

A product of Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas powerhouse program, one of Holmes assistant coaches there was Pro Football Hall-of-Fame wideout Cris Carter, who referred to Holmes as “the next big thing” to come from Aquinas.

As it stands this spring, Hunter is the centerpiece of the receiving corps, including the top downfield threat, while Holmes is working toward getting to where Hunter was last season as a junior, when he caught 28 passes after nabbing only seven the year prior.

“He’s got top-end speed, elite speed,” said Kelly of Hunter, who ran a 4.43 this winter but possesses better “football speed” than Holmes at this point. “He can compete with the very best in the country.

“Corey is trending that way. He's not there yet. He's got to play with more confidence and attack the football a little bit more aggressively.”

For now, Hunter is truly attempting to get up to speed.

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