Kelly: Irish crisp again at practice
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly is pleased with how his players are preparing for the Citrus Bowl.
There are some other concerns for the 14th-ranked Fighting Irish as they get ready for No. 16 LSU in a New Year’s Day meeting of 9-3 teams in Orlando, Fla.
When it comes to practice, Kelly said he has been thrilled so far with how Notre Dame has responded to dropping two of its past three games. Attitude and aptitude had slipped, and Kelly said his players “looked like they were in biology class” as he tried to motivate them in the days before a 38-20 loss to Stanford in the Nov. 25 regular-season finale.
“There was no juice,” Kelly recalled, “there was no excitement.”
But at least through the campus bowl workouts before a four-day Christmas break, Kelly said the “quickness and crispness” had returned.
“You can see the sense of urgency that they are starting to practice with,” he said. “A physicalness that we’re looking for was quite apparent.”
But Kelly and Notre Dame have been dealing with a couple of off-the-field problems. The recent suspensions of sophomore wide receiver Kevin Stepherson and freshman running back C.J. Holmes after their shoplifting arrests, and a subsequent suspension for junior tight end Alize Mack after an “internal team matter” are a blow to a program looking to finish the season on a high note.
Less than two months ago, Notre Dame had won seven straight games and played its way to No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Then the Irish yielded 33 points per game and were outscored 133-100 as they went 2-2 in November.
“We didn’t like the way the season ended,” senior cornerback Nick Watkins said. “But we get to go out and prove ourselves one more time so we have a face and a name heading into next year.”
Florida State clarifies eligibility
Florida State said Delaware State did meet NCAA requirements that allow the Seminoles to count their victory against the Football Championship Subdivision team toward bowl eligibility.
Questions about whether the Seminoles had indeed reached six countable wins were raised by fans who analyzed data on athletic scholarships provided by Delaware State and posted the findings on the website Reddit. The analysis found the school had failed to use 90 percent of its football scholarship funds, which is required for an FCS team’s game to be countable toward bowl eligibility for Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.
Florida State released a statement late Friday night saying the information posted was incomplete and failed to account for “a long-standing NCAA rule interpretation that permits institutions to use academic scholarships and other forms of non-athletic institutional aid received by student-athletes in the computation.”
Florida State (6-6) will face Southern Mississippi (8-4) in the Independence Bowl on Wednesday, extending its streak of bowl appearances to a record 36 straight seasons. The Seminoles beat Delaware State 77-6 on Nov. 18 and picked up their sixth victory by rescheduling a game against Louisiana-Monroe that had been originally canceled in September because of severe weather.