ESPN

Brian Kelly sits down with Jenn Brown and talks about taking over at Notre Dame.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Nate Montana, unfamiliar with the spotlight, sheepishly approached the podium following Saturday's Blue-Gold spring football game at the University of Notre Dame.

"Do I just talk?" he asked.

"No, they'll ask you questions," an Irish official responded.

Son of Joe had himself another enjoyable spring game, (albeit against a mostly second-team defense) out-dueling probable starting quarterback Dayne Crist. Montanta completed 18 of 30 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Gold team to a 27-19 victory over the Blue squad.

Montana shined last April, then left Notre Dame for Pasadena City College to continue his development under center. Coach Brian Kelly, making his debut at Notre Dame Stadium, liked what he saw from Montana, though he'd prefer to see it on a routine basis.

"I thought Nate was pretty good," he said. "Nate does some things really well, and then I'll lose him for a couple of plays. It's more about him playing (more)."

Saturday was more about Crist, who finished 20-for-31 for 172 yards and one score, throwing two interceptions -- only one of which was his doing after receiver Duval Kamara dropped an easy ball.

As charming as Montana's performance was, it isn't unrealistic to believe this is the last time we hear from him. Kelly brought in a good crop of quarterbacks, some of whom won't arrive until the fall, and the walk-on with legendary lineage just isn't consistent enough to make a lasting impact.

It was the most live snaps Crist's taken at Notre Dame and his surgically-repaired knee held up as well as his wits, indicating he's ready to take on the life-in-a-fish-bowl challenge that comes with being the face of the Irish program.

"A world ahead right now," he said. "It was a little overwhelming at first, but now everything has started to slow down a little bit, and everyone has been able to kind of settle in and just go out and play."

Kelly was less concerned about grading Crist's performance as he was with the process as a whole.

"I thought he did some good things, threw the ball in the seam, the vertical, push throws that we've tried to get into our offense quite a bit," he said. "As he feels more comfortable, he'll be able to slide and extend plays longer."

Kelly did do a decent job balancing the teams to gauge just exactly where his squad is going into the summer. And there were plenty of positives to take away from the performance in front of 27,241 fans.

"You can look good, you can run fast, you can do all those things," Kelly said. "But can you play the game of football? Today, we intentionally wanted a competitive situation ... so we could find out who are those guys who have the innate ability to play the game."

A few guys who did just that were:

Sophomore tailback Cierre Wood - Wood, though Kelly referred to him as "Woods," rushed for 111 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 10 carries, including a 44-yard bolt to the end zone in the third quarter. With senior Armando Allen (8-41) pegged as the starter, Wood and junior Jonas Gray, who totaled 57 yards and a TD on eight takes, are primed to make a strong push in August after looking far more explosive.

Freshman receiver T.J. Jones - Jones was an early enrollee this winter and will see the field early this fall. The 5-11, 185-pounder caught four passes for 56 yards and a TD (thrown on a rope by Crist to the left corner of the end zone). With junior star wideout Michael Floyd flirting with a move to the slot, Jones is a lightning-quick weapon ready to join the mix. "Right now he's in a starting role," Kelly said. "I mean, he can play for us right now."

Senior defensive end Emeka Nwankwo -- That's a mouthful. And he's a handful coming off the edge. Nwankwo, who didn't see any action last season and only recorded two tackles as a sophomore, picked up five Saturday, including one for a loss. The 6-4, 280-pounder looks comfortable in the new 3-4 defensive scheme and likely solidified his place along the line.

Closing the door on the draft

During the first quarter of the spring game, it was announced that former Irish offensive tackle Sam Young was selected by the Dallas Cowboys 179th overall in the sixth round of the NFL Draft. Dallas surely was impressed with Young's durability after the Florida native set an Irish record for career starts with 50.

In the second quarter, fellow lineman Eric Olsen, who shifted to center as a senior last season, was picked 183rd overall in the sixth round by Denver. Olsen started 31 consecutive games, including three different positions, to close out his career in South Bend.

Safety Kyle McCarthy went undrafted.

It may be a violation of some unwritten code at the University of Notre Dame, but dynamic wide receiver Golden Tate is ready to fraternize with a man who represented the enemy for all of Irish Nation.

With the 60th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks plucked Tate from the board in the second round Friday night with a lot of encouragement from first-year coach Pete Carroll.

Though Carroll's USC Trojans trod heavily over the Irish in recent years, Tate had no trepidation about heading to the Pacific Northwest.

"I can promise you they won't regret it," Tate said Friday night. "It's a blessing and I think it's a great situation and I can't wait. This is going to be the start of some great things, I think. I'm sure the first day I get there coach Carroll and I will mess around with each other and joke around."

Tate's well-documented numbers while in South Bend were serious enough to keep him within the projected draft window of late first round to late second round.

Not since Derrick Mayes was selected 56th overall by the Green Bay Packers in 1996 has an Irish receiver been drafted so high. Recruited out of Hendersonville, Tenn., as a running back, Tate (5-9, 195) left Notre Dame as the school's all-time leader in receiving yards (2,707), second in touchdown receptions (26) and tied for third with 157 receptions.

Tate hauled in 93 passes for 1,496 yards last season as a junior, winning the Biletnikoff Award, hardware presented to the nation's top WR. He's the first to do so at Notre Dame. Tate also boasts a school record with 15 games over 100 yards receiving.

The Seahawks hope to cash in on his elusiveness on special teams after he rattled off 1,196 career kick/punt return yards.

"I can promise you that they won't regret it. Whatever they want me to do, I'm going to do it the best I can and help put the Seattle Seahawks in a position to win. If they want me to be a kick returner, whatever they want me to do, I'm going to do it the best I can. I'm all in."

The Seahawks took Oklahoma State offensive tackle Russell Okung with the sixth pick and safety Earl Thomas (Texas) with the 14th pick in the first round. Tate was Seattle's first selection in the second round and he has a chance to make an immediate impact for an organization looking for a game-breaker opposite T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

"This is a guy who gave us all kinds of problems," Carroll told ESPN's Chris Berman shortly after the selection. His versatility, his ability to return (kicks), his run after the catch, his toughness, his competitiveness ... he's really a guy who can dominate the field."

Carroll will stress running the ball in his West Coast offense and Tate is capable of producing out of the backfield or under center in the Wildcat formation.

"I'm hoping that the coaches will see that," Tate said of his willingness to line up from multiple positions and his perceived ability to see the field right away. "The film says it all. Coach Carroll saw it with his own two eyes that I can do a lot of things. I will make plays. I'm just going to come out from day one and produce and be the hardest-working guy on the team."

Tate on Clausen slipping late
Former Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen provided perhaps the most drama of this year's draft, slipping to the 48th overall pick by the Carolina Panthers in the second round. Tate remained in contact with Clausen throughout the process and said the QB was patient and unconcerned.

"We sat and texted each other and he was encouraging to me and I was encouraging to him," Tate said. "We're not the general managers, we're not the owners, we don't know what they're taking into consideration. I got his back and he's got my back. But when we play (Carolina) he's going down."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- During the 2008 season, Notre Dame cornerback Darrin Walls sat on the edge of his couch in Pittsburgh watching the Fighting Irish on NBC.

Screaming at his television, he felt hopeless, itching to get back on the field. The closest he came was as a paying customer, stuck in the stands one afternoon.

Gone from South Bend for personal reasons that year, Walls missed the spring workouts leading up to the 2009 campaign before rejoining the Irish in the fall.

Walls had been one of Notre Dame's brightest NFL hopefuls after his sophomore year, but upon his return often looked as stale as the popcorn trapped between the cushions he perhaps wished he had stayed on.

"Taking a couple months off, it was tough to get back in the groove," Walls said after Wednesday's practice. "It was tough; I've known these guys for years now and I knew we had the talent to be pretty good. We just weren't producing the way we should have. It was tough dealing with it."

Walls wasn't the only player to blame for secondary's mediocrity last season, when the Irish posted a pedestrian 6-6 record.

Notre Dame ended the year 86th in the country in total defense, giving up nearly 400 yards per game and slipping 47 spots from the previous two years. Walls, fellow corner Gary Gray and safeties Kyle McCarthy and Jamoris Slaughter finished a revolving-door season in which they allowed just over 227 passing yards per outing, 76th in the nation.

"I think it was the last loss for the seniors (that was the hardest)," the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Walls said. "Watching my classmates go out with a loss. I felt sorry for those guys. We didn't play up to our ability all year and those guys went out on a rough ending."

His career, had he remained on campus two years ago, would have ended the same way. Under coach Brian Kelly's new regime, Walls has another opportunity, and defensive backs coach Chuck Martin is hoping to see more consistency from his players this season.

"I think they're great kids, fun to coach and are real smart," Martin said. "They want to be coached and don't mind being challenged. Darrin is probably the most mature because he's played the most.

"I think they did a lot of good things. But like any team that's 6-6, they were too hot and cold. I could put together a pretty good highlight reel for a guy like Darrin and say, 'Ah, he had a pretty good year.' But you can also put some together where he was struggling. The difference is being that every-down player."

Like when the Irish had Michigan on the ropes at the Big House Sept. 12, then let the Wolverines move efficiently downfield in the closing minutes. Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier capped the comeback drive by hitting Greg Mathews with 11 seconds left as Walls watched from out of position. It was the first real indication that Notre Dame's last line of defense was tentative and unreliable.

"It was hard to let your teammates down," Walls said. "You want to do well for them. So you try to play well for them, not just yourself. [With the new coaches] you need to be broken down. We went 6-6 and that's not Notre Dame football. The players know that and the coaches know that.

"Technique-wise, I know I can be a lot more aggressive than I was in the past. That's something I've really focused on. We are going to be well-conditioned and mentally tough. You already see a difference from last year."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- As the mercury rose Wednesday at the LaBar practice fields, so did Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly's blood pressure.

Throughout the Fighting Irish's second day of spring practice in full pads, Kelly fumed about the slow pace and mental misfires, irritated with all the straggling.

"We're a work in progress," he said. "We stink right now. We're just so far away from where we need to be in terms of attention to detail. This was a step back for us today.

"We're not on the same page right now. You're an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old playing at Notre Dame and it's 70 degrees out and I have to motivate you? I gotta be out here motivating a 19-year-old Notre Dame football player to come out here and get after it?

Other than the perceived strides made by defensive personnel, Kelly provided plenty of scrutiny for just about every other unit -- starting with junior-to-be quarterback Dayne Crist.

Crist, who is likely Jimmy Clausen's replacement this fall, may have beaten the clock in terms of a speedy recovery from right knee surgery in November, but he's not anywhere near up to speed in Kelly's eyes.

"Sloppy fundamentally," Kelly said about Crist's progression. "He's about as sloppy (as can be). Footwork's gotta get better. He's got really good football intelligence, but maybe we put a little too much out there in terms of our offense. I got to look at maybe scaling this back a little bit. His weakness right now are fundamentals and stressing that every day."

The Irish have a week to digest the sweeping changes implemented at the start of spring camp before their next practice on April 7.

"We just have to get better," said freshman star linebacker Manti Te'o, whom Kelly publicly called out last week, saying the Hawaiian product and his 63 tackles (fourth-best on the team) "wasn't very good" last fall. "I just try to motivate my teammates. When I'm tired, I know the rest of my brothers out there are tired to. If I was tired, I'd want someone to help motivate me and give me a push. So I try to be that wind beneath their wings. Seeing them succeed will help me succeed too."

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- When Brian Kelly was introduced as head football coach at Notre Dame in December, he worked Irish Nation into a foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy with a spirited news conference. On signing day, he tried to temper moonstruck expectations while celebrating a quality recruiting effort.

An abbreviated courtship with the nation's top prep talent yielded Kelly and Co. a 2010 class ranked 21st by ESPN.com. It was a solid first at-bat. But even the hubris-fueled Kelly humbly acknowledged it wasn't a home run. Fact is, this is exactly what he expected when he inherited a program in severe need of a spit-shine.

"You need time to recruit," Kelly said Wednesday. "You need success if you want to be able to continue to recruit the very best. Clearly, we did not have either one on our side this time. We will. So the proof of our work as a staff and ultimately how I'll be judged is going to be down the road with this class, but more importantly next year's class as well."

Read the full story.

If Fremd senior offensive lineman Christian Lombard doesn't end up in the NFL, his high school coach, Michael Donatucci, believes he could pen a self-help guide.

"He should write a book on how to handle the recruiting process," Donatucci said.

Lombard's recruiting story is the opposite of most you hear these days. From the start, Lombard knew what he wanted -- high-end academics along with a solid football program. He also decided early he was going to end his recruitment early. He wasn't going to prolong it for extra attention. When he found his criteria in Notre Dame, Lombard ceased his recruiting in January 2009 and committed. He also didn't need to put "strong" or "soft" beside his verbal. Once he decided on Notre Dame, he was going to Notre Dame. End of story.

Read the full story.