Notre Dame wideout John Goodman says 7-on-7 drills isn’t “real football.” So he’s perfectly happy to see Brian Kelly go with more 11-on-11 sessions during training camp, which began Saturday in South Bend.
“That’s fine,” Goodman said. “We like going against each other and competing. … It gets you in the game more. Seven-on-seven isn’t real football. No linebackers are dropping back and you know when it’s a pass. It’s a heck of a difference when they don’t know if it’s pass or run, there’s all sorts of different combinations you can do.”The reason for the increase in 11-on-11 sessions is the offense’s relative lack of experience, particularly at quarterback. Kelly wants to see Everett Golson, Andrew Hendrix, Gunner Kiel and Tommy Rees in as many realistic game situations as possible before settling on his guy. “We’ve got a number of those guys (quarterbacks) we have to sort out and give them a lot of reps,” Kelly said. He said the veteran defense will benefit, too.“We’ve got over 2,000 live snaps, cumulative, on the defensive side of the ball in returning players,” he said. “That’s a lot of snaps. The 11-on-11 suits the offense a lot more because of our lack of experience in some key psitions vs. the defense. Butour defense is going to be able to get more of the depth work. On one side of the ball it helps our offense and the needs of the inexperienced, and on the other side it’s really helping our defense build the depth.”
