SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame lost one of its options at tight end a week into fall camp.
Junior Alex Welch tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will miss the season, coach Brian Kelly said after Saturday’s practice. Welch suffered the injury Wednesday.
The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Welch played in 10 games last season, making one catch for eight yards as the primary back-up to Bishop Dwenger graduate Tyler Eifert.
Notre Dame still has plenty of depth behind Eifert with sophomores Ben Koyack and Troy Niklas, a converted linebacker, and senior Jake Golic.
“We’re lucky,” Kelly said. “To lose a really good player like Alex and have three tight ends, and Jake Golic is getting a lot more work to, we feel good that we’ve got depth at that position that we’ll get the job done.”
Spond update
Linebacker Danny Spond did not suffer a concussion as initially feared Wednesday, and the 6-2, 248-pound junior does not have a head injury, Kelly said.
But Spond will be sidelined as the Irish medical staff try to figure what happened to him.
“We’ve exhausted a number of different tests, he’s come back clean on all of them,” Kelly said. “We’re going to do a little bit more work before we move any further with him relative to contact and getting him on the field.”
Spond was competing for one of the outside linebacker starting spots with Ben Councell. Kelly said freshmen Romeo Okwara and C.J. Prosise will back up Councell until Spond can play.
No timetable for QB
Kelly said he has no set timetable to name a starting quarterback for the season opener.
The third-year Irish coach said he is still installing all of the offense a week into training camp and cannot fully evaluate the quarterbacks until everything is installed.
“I would not be holding your breath for an announcement any time soon,” Kelly said.
