College Confidential

Notre Dame's Kelly says NFL teammates "will respect" Te'o despite girlfriend hoax once they get to know him

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly predicted San Diego teammates “will respect” former Irish linebacker Manti Te’o, a second-round pick who duped in a fake girlfriend scandal that surfaced in January, once they get to know their new teammate.

Kelly, in Arlington today to tour Cowboys Stadium in preparation for the team’s Oct. 5 appearance at the venue against Arizona State, said he talked to the Heisman Trophy finalist after the linebacker fell out of the first round to offer support. But Te’o, Kelly said, remained upbeat to the point that “he cheered me up.”

Asked about Te’o dealing with the hoax as an NFL rookie, Kelly said: “It really didn’t impact him. All the wanted was the opportunity to get on a football team and put all of this behind him. Now, he knows, the first couple of weeks, he’s probably going to get ribbed about the situation that he went through. But he’s a man of strong character and that locker room will respect him once they see how he works on a day to day basis.”

_ Jimmy Burch

Kelly says former ND star Lewis-Moore, a Weatherford grad, making "good progress" from knee surgery

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said today that defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore, a Weatherford High School graduate taken with a sixth-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens, has made “really good progress” in rehabilitating a torn ACL suffered Jan. 7 and has not ruled out the possibility of playing as an NFL rookie this season. More underwent surgery soon after the injury.

Kelly said Ravens officials have indicated they plan to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach with Moore when he gets to the team’s training camp in July rather than placing him immediately on the physically unable to perform list with an eye toward spending the 2013 season on injured reserve.

“The last two weeks going into the draft, I probably got more conversations (from NFL executives) on Kap than I did on Manti Te’o and Tyler Eifert,” Kelly said, referring to Notre Dame’s two highest picks in the 2013 draft. “He’s a very intriguing prospect. He played at 310 pounds in the national championship game and was playing very well … He’s seen as a high-value pick in the sixth round. I know coach (John) Harbaugh was excited to see him on the board at that point.”

Asked about the Ravens’ plans in regard to Lewis-Moore in 2013, Kelly said: “They’re not sure whether he’s a PUP (list) guy yet. They’re going to wait and see. He’s made really good progress.”

_ Jimmy Burch

Notre Dame's Kelly envisions future expansion of college FB playoff system

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly has more experience with national championship games than most of his peers.

He coached in last year’s BCS championship game and won two of his three consecutive appearances in Division II title games at Grand Valley State (2001-03). After a Thursday tour of the place that will host the first championship game played under the new College Football Playoff umbrella, Kelly said Cowboys Stadium offers “an incredible venue” to crown major-college football’s initial champion of the playoff era.

But he made it clear that the four-team playoff following the 2014 regular season is only the start to something bigger, in his estimation.

“I don’t know that four is where we’re going to finish this thing. I think it’s a great entry into where we want to go,” said Kelly, who toured the stadium in preparation for his team’s Oct. 5 matchup in Cowboys Stadium against Arizona State. “Moving forward, I think the focus … will be on whether it’s eight or 16 (teams) or whatever the number is.”

Although Kelly envisions and supports a larger playoff field in the future, administrators with the College Football Playoff have stressed that they will not expand the bracket beyond the four-team model during the 12 years of its inaugural cycle. The initial title game in that 12-year cycle will be played at Cowboys Stadium on Jan. 12, 2015.

Because the Arlington facility also is the site of the 2014 Final Four and will be the venue when the AT&T Cotton Bowl hosts semifinal games in the new playoff format, Kelly said “all eyes are on this geographic area and, in particular, this venue.” To him, that makes the decision for Notre Dame to move one of its 2013 home games to Cowboys Stadium as part of its “Shamrock Series” a case of excellent timing. And a recruiting coup.

“There’s no question that when you talk about playing in Cowboys Stadium, that gets every recruit’s attention. They know that venue and they want to play here,” said Kelly, whose roster includes three Texans expected to contribute this season: RB/KR Cam McDaniel (Coppell), WR Torii Hunter, Jr. (Prosper) and CB Jalen Brown (Irving MacArthur).

_ Jimmy Burch

BYU Looks More and More Like Notre Dame Every Game

Since BYU is better than the rest of us and announced it's going independent in football, it's very appropriate that its football team begin to play more and more like the other "too good for you" school - Notre Dame.
The Cougars look overmatched in Friday night's game ... against Utah State.
Both teams were 1-3 coming into this game.
Unless this game changes in a hurry, BYU could very well be 1-5 when it comes to Fort Worth on Oct. 16 to play TCU. The Cougars' next game after this debacle is San Diego State.
TCU was banking on BYU helping its strength of schedule. Right now it looks as if playing BYU will mean about as much as playing New Mexico.

- Mac Engel

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Notre Dame Is Not a Quality Opponent

The Irish are at it again. This time they lost to No. 16 Stanford in a thriller, 37-14, at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend televised on the Notre Dame Broadcasting Company.
The Irish under first-year head coach Brian Kelly are now 1-3. This was their first loss to a ranked-opponent at the time they played them.
What is a little disconcerting is that of two of their losses - Michigan and Michigan State - both are now ranked partly because they defeated the Irish. That is pure poppycock. Beating the Irish anymore is no more than a win against Bowling Green or Toledo.
Of course, the way the BCS is set up I won't be surprised if a 10-loss Notre Dame team makes the Fiesta Bowl.

- Mac Engel

Early Hangover Observations

The ACC is in serious contention with the Big East as the Biggest Joke Conference in America.
In Week 1 it was a suspended-riddled North Carolina team losing against LSU. Then Va Tech continued the poop parade by losing a glorified home game against Boise State.
But what the ACC managed to do in Week 2 is really impressive.
* No. 13 Va Tech manages to lose a real home game against I-AA James Madison. The Hokies were supposed to be a sleeper national title team. Now it appears they will be asleep for the rest of the season.
* No. 12 Miami demonstrated it's not even close to its proud "U" days as it was defeated by Ohio State, 36-24.
* No. 17 Florida State got popped by Oklahoma by a modest 37 points.
* And No. 15 Ga Tech managed to lose against a Kansas team that lost the previous week to I-AA North Dakota State.
What does this prove? It's not who you beat it's who you know.
The ACC is in the same club as The Big East; both conferences are littered with overrated pretenders. But both will have teams in the big-cash, rich-kids only BCS games in January.

* Preseason polls are garbage. Get rid of them.

* Houston's defense is better under first-year and former Dallas Cowboys d-coordinator Brian Stewart. The Coogs proved that in their 54-24 win against conference rival UTEP on Friday night.
Most of the Cougar love will go toward QB Case Keenum and their PlayStation3 offense; but if the Coogs are going to flirt with the BCS their defense has to be decent. It has been so far, and the Coogs are 2-0.

* Michigan rallied to defeat Notre Dame in South Bend today. The Wolverines are going to be one of the big surprises this season. You can hate Michigan coach Rich Rod' all you want, and probably with good reason. But the guy wins. Guarantee you the people in Columbus, Ohio are noticing this. QB Denard Robinson looks like he may be figuring this thing out; if he does, the Big 10 has another contender.

* In one week Kansas coach Turner Gill took the Jayhawks from one of its worst losses in the past decade to one of its best. How KU managed to score 3 points in a home loss against I-AA North Dakota State and seven days later score 28 points in a defeat of No. 15 Ga Tech in the nation is one of the great early season surprises.

- Mac Engel

Scheduling suggestions for Irish

Notre Dame obviously missed a chance to help this season's team by not scheduling Army (3-7). The Irish have lost to the two other service academies the last two weeks. Oh, and there's two other teams Notre Dame could add to the schedule -- the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Both are Division III teams. The Irish might be favored in both of those games.

-- Wendell Barnhouse