Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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specialists visited Winston-Salem. Antognoli, a Fresno, Calif., product, is a high school All-American punter who originally committed to play at Harvard but caught Notre Dame's attention while kicking at the Semper Fidelis All-Star Game in Los Angeles last January. Chereson led the state of Pennsylvania with 51 kickoff touchbacks as a senior at Erie Cathedral Prep. He also set a school record with a 52-yard field goal during a game. He isn't likely to be a punter, but could help lessen Brindza's load elsewhere, if only in practice. All three additions to the kicking department can help Brindza avoid taking too many reps and wearing his leg down during the season. "It's a challenge for any kicker to manage those reps," Kornblue said. "Once you have an injury, you don't have time during the season to rest it. He has to really be careful with the reps he is taking every day and every week." Brindza said his leg ran out of juice toward the end of his freshman year and felt slightly weaker again last season when the weather turned cold. Ideally for the Irish, one of Notre Dame's new kickers would be prepared enough to take some of the duties off of Brindza's plate in the fall. If he is consistently the best in all three departments, though, Kelly won't hesitate to use him to do a little bit of everything. It seems unlikely that anyone would unseat him as a placekicker after several clutch performances last fall. He made big kicks in a number of close games — Purdue, Michigan, Stanford, BYU and Pitt — and at USC he kicked a school-record five field goals to help the team finish the regular season without a loss. ✦ Best Feet Forward Wake Forest transfer Alex Wulfeck, who averaged 39.7 yards per punt for the Demon Deacons as their starter in 2011, will use his fifth season of eligibility at Notre Dame. photo courtesy wake forest Quick Facts Position Coach: Scott Booker (2nd year at Notre Dame) Returning Starters: KR George Atkinson III and K/KO Kyle Brindza Departing Starters: LS Jordan Cowart, PR Davonte' Neal and P Ben Turk Projected New Starters: P Brindza, PR Amir Carlisle and LS Scott Daly Top Reserve: K Nick Tausch and P Alex Wulfeck Waiting Their Turn: P Andrew Antognoli and K John Chereson Newcomers: Antognoli, Chereson and Wulfeck Moved In: None Moved Out: None Other Departures: None FYI: Brindza is rated as the 16th-best draft-eligible kicker in the country this year by Phil Steele's 2013 College Football Preview … Former Notre Dame quarterback and current wide receiver Luke Massa is the first-team holder for extra points and field goals heading into training camp … Walk-on Hunter Smith could be Scott Daly's backup long snapper — not to be confused with former standout punter Hunter Smith, who went on to a lengthy pro career after kicking at Notre Dame. Notre Dame has relied on reserves to fill up most of its special teams for the first three seasons under head coach Brian Kelly. The coaching staff tried to keep its starters off the field as much as possible during punts and kickoffs to help them stay fresh and avoid injury while the team was trying to restock its depth. That won't be the case in 2013, Kelly said. The Irish head coach said one of the things he took away from the BCS National Championship Game was the need to keep your best athletes on the field as much as possible. Going forward, expect to see more of Notre Dame's starters staying on the field for special teams duty. "I'm standing on the sideline for the national championship game and we're ready to kickoff, and Alabama has 11 starters on kickoff return — kickoff return, which nobody wants to be on kickoff return," Kelly said this spring. "The emphasis for us this spring is to really embrace their roles. I want starters to be part of our special teams units. The spring really is for us to integrate frontline guys into ST. That kind of decision has to come from me. I've made that and we're going about it in the spring to really put our best players on ST." The new plan is Notre Dame's latest to try to produce better results on special teams after an unsuccessful trip to the drawing board in 2012. The Irish finished 116th in the Football Bowl Subdivision in punt returns last season, averaging 2.19 yards per return with freshman Davonte' Neal — who has since transferred to Arizona — as the main returner. The kickoff team didn't fare much better. That group finished 93rd nationally with an average of 19.6 yards per return. The coaching staff said it was equally worried about the lack of big plays made by the kick and punt coverage teams. Notre Dame didn't get beat badly by another team's return unit last season, but it also failed to deliver any blow, special teams coordinator Scott Booker said. "Some of our special teams lacked the big plays last year. In punt, obviously, the game changing-play is getting the ball back," he said. "… We shouldn't just concede every time you punt the ball that they're going to get the ball. Let's attack the ball, let's tackle, let's strip the ball and try to get the ball back." To get those types of plays, Booker will call on athletic starters — defensive backs KeiVarae Russell, Bennett Jackson and Elijah Shumate come to mind — as well as an athletic group of incoming freshmen. Kelly said there are already a handful of players he expects to jump into the first unit of certain groups when they show up for fall camp. Five-star outside linebacker Jaylon Smith has the athleticism to make an impact right away, as do fellow physically mature defenders such as Doug Randolph, Max Redfield and Michael Deeb. — Dan Murphy 110 ✦ Blue & Gold Illustrated 2013 Football Preview 108-111.Specialists.indd 110 6/25/13 2:44 PM