Notre Dame Notebook: Brian Kelly Talks Michael Mayer, Bo Bauer, Braden Lenzy, Backs

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly spoke to the media after a 28-3 victory over Virginia on Saturday. Here are the highlights from his press conference.

On Michael Mayer’s performance 

“He’s a freak. We targeted him. Now, they doubled him on a couple of throws. We went to Kevin (Austin) on the touchdown. That was a third down and they ran in and out coverage on him and doubled them. So, our read was to go to Kevin in the one-on-one and Kevin comes up with a great play. But yeah, he was targeted. We were going to try to get him the ball. Obviously, he makes a great catch.. He takes it off the guy's helmet. So, that's just the kind of player he is.”

On Bo Bauer’s play

“Bo did some really good things. He's extremely active. He gets our checks. We had a number of checks when they went into the Wildcat. So, we had to get those communicated. But he's extremely active. He's around the football and does a really nice job for us.”

On Braden Lenzy’s play

Braden Lenzy got a lot of recognition from us. He was gritty tonight. I mean, that was a gritty performance from him as a senior. The reverse, he finished that runs strong. The touchdown catch, launching into the end zone. Even the pass interference- fighting back for the football. Those are gritty catches. And I used that word in a sense of you can easily give up on those plays. But he got himself dirty tonight. And that goes a long way to winning football games. And he was a heavy contributor for us.”

On Logan Diggs’ performance

"He’s patient and he's physical, right? He sees the hole. I think one of them, you probably wouldn't even look at it as his best run because you're going to think about jumping over and hurdling, which, you know, obviously catches your eye. But it was his last run where they sent the corner from the boundary and spiked the defense to the field. He sets the run and he cuts it back for seven-yard gain. It was a veteran run. And he's going to be a really good back. I mean, I can't wait to get him in the weight room with coach (Matt) Balis. He's already 215 pounds right now. He's strong. And he's going to be a special player.”

On Ryle Mills’ performance

“He got the game ball. Riley Mills was on every kickoff. As you saw, we had him on the kickoff because we wanted to break their double team. And he certainly did that. He caused the penalty, a personal foul because they couldn't block him. And then, we had the smart idea of moving him to defensive end today and he got three sacks. So, Myron (Tagovailoa-Amosa) being out really short-handed us. So, we kicked him out to the end position, and he responds with three (two) sacks. I don't know if that's good for us or not good for us. I think he's probably earned his right to stay there.”

On Ramon Henderson’s play at cornerback

"We don't just say, ‘You're ready to go.’ It's been loading work on him and getting more confidence in his ability to play the position. He's fast. He's long. He plays the ball really well in the air, as we saw tonight, as an ex-receiver. It's really been about confidence and recognition. And he's been showing that and it's been coming. And it showed itself in a big way tonight.”

On when Drew White and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa were ruled out

“Not until game time. They tried. We gave out 10 flu tests, which prompted the COVID tests as well. And nobody had COVID, but when you do a flu test you have to do COVID testing. And so, it was a difficult week for us. We had a number of guys out. I will tell you there are some guys that are not feeling one hundred percent that played tonight as well.

"Drew (White) had 103 temperature yesterday. Got it down. Myron (Tagovailoa-Amosa) was one-on-one in pregame, and we were just not going to put him in that kind of situation. Nana (Osafo-Mensah) was sick most of the week. He answered the bell. Ramon (Henderson) was sick. He answered the bell. I could go on and on...During the week, we had upwards of 13 players in and out of practice. They hung together, they kept fighting. Rob Hunt did an incredible job of getting this football team back on the field.”

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