COLLEGE FOOTBALL LOOK AHEAD

Replacements settling in for No. 6 Irish

The Sports Xchange

September 29, 2015 at 9:30 pm.

The replacements aren’t perfect fits yet, but young players who have stepped in following a spate of injuries to Notre Dame starters appear to be starting to settle in.

“I think I’ve got a pretty good feel for the pulse of the team and its leadership core and then how these younger players fit into that group,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said this week.

“They really like each other and enjoy playing, (but) we’re still kind of sorting out the certain roles for the players on this football team.”

Eight major contributors are out for the season heading into Saturday as No. 6 Notre Dame (4-0) travels to No. 12 Clemson (3-0).

Among the newcomers is redshirt freshman quarterback DeShone Kizer, who stepped in following a season-ending injury to Malik Zaire.

Sep 26, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer (14) runs the ball in for a touchdown against the Massachusetts Minutemen at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Sep 26, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer (14) runs the ball in for a touchdown against the Massachusetts Minutemen at Notre Dame Stadium. (Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports)

“He has a presence about him, a command presence that, when he goes out there with the other 10 players, you don’t feel like you’re putting a freshman quarterback out there,” Kelly said.

“He’s learning along the way, there’s things that he hasn’t seen before,” Kelly added. “There will be mistakes that he makes this weekend as well. But I think that it’s his presence that allows the other 10 players to have a great deal of confidence that they can go out and be successful.”

Notre Dame is in the unaccustomed position of slight underdog as it meets Clemson for only the third time ever and first since 1979.

The Tigers, who are ranked ninth nationally on defense, are among six ACC programs the Irish face this year, the most from any one league in team history.

By contrast, Notre Dame won’t play any Big Ten teams for the first time in a century.

The Irish are 4-0 for third time in four years. It’s the first time the program has posted consecutive 4-0 starts since 1988-89.

They’re looking to go 5-0 all-time in the week following a visit by the Pope to the United States. The run began with a 17-0 win over Army in 1965 following a visit by Pope Paul VI.

NOTES, QUOTES

PLAYERS TO WATCH:

–WR Will Fuller now has 22 career touchdown catches, tying Rhema McKnight (2002-06) and Derrick Mayes (1992-95) for fourth in school history.

–RB C.J. Prosise went over 100 yards rushing for the third straight game with 149 against UMass. The last Notre Dame player with three consecutive 100-yard games on the ground was Darius Walker in 2005. His 495 rushing yards are the most in a three-game stretch since Julius Jones had 600 from Nov. 8-29, 2003.

–P Tyler Newsome’s 52.4 yard average per punt was a program record for a minimum of five attempts, surpassing the 51.9 of Geoff Price vs. Michigan in 2006.

–RB Josh Adams posted his first career 100-yard rushing game with 133 yards on 13 carries, to go with a career-long 70-yard rush for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.