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SOUTH BEND – Most of the spaces in one of the Shields Hall defensive meeting rooms on a recent August night were occupied by Notre Dame football faces who don’t know what they don’t know.
Freshmen treading the college football waters after another demanding/difficult day of practice and film and weights and everything else. Sophomores who believe they know what it takes to climb the depth chart but are stuck on a wrung for some reason.
All of them needing added teaching time at night before they woke early the next day to do it all again. And again.
Noie: CJ Carr doing his best to just be one of the guys
Noie: Plenty to ponder during first day of Notre Dame football fall camp
That’s what should have made seeing one player step into the room and take a seat among the newbies so surprising. Did he get lost in the new football facility and stumble in by mistake? Had to be something like that for someone in his third program and his fifth season with more than 5,300 snaps played in 40 career games under his veteran cornerback belt.
Nope, no mistake. No accident.
DJ McKinney was in that defensive refresher course of sorts on purpose. He wanted to be there. He felt he had to be there. He’s the old new guy of a ridiculously deep and talented and driven position group. He also doesn’t believe the quest for knowledge just ends because you’re old.
It could stop, maybe even should stop. A guy who’s played as much as McKinney has played (two seasons at Oklahoma State before the last two at Colorado), would arrive in South Bend believing that he’s better than many of those young guys. Maybe even some of the old guys, too. That his resume automatically bumps him atop the cornerback depth chart opposite all-everything All-American Leonard Moore.
“The good Lord creates football players and then he creates young men like DJ McKinney, who I believe is made to play corner,” Notre Dame co-defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach Aaron Henry said. “I’m just excited to see where this young man goes. His skill set, there’s no ceiling to it.”
That’s not how McKinney sees it. Guarantee him a significant role because he’s played all that ball? Nonsense. McKinney said as much when he met a trio of reporters on Saturday, August 8 after the third day of fall camp.
No, Notre Dame’s defensive coaching staff never said anything about moving veteran corner (and starter) Christian Gray to nickel this season to clear a spot for him. No, the staff never said that he would be an instant front-line guy to lure him to Notre Dame.
If anything, it was the opposite.
"They said I was going to have to come in and compete,” McKinney said. “Nothing’s given. You’ve got to earn everything. I was ready to get here and see everything, get into the playbook and get my feet wet.”
McKinney got into the playbook in the spring, after his transfer from CU became official. He found an apartment near campus. He moved his belongings from Boulder to South Bend. He finished his spring semester work online. When he wasn’t in class, he was in the Irish football facility attending defensive meetings and learning how it all works at Notre Dame.
Continue reading...
Freshmen treading the college football waters after another demanding/difficult day of practice and film and weights and everything else. Sophomores who believe they know what it takes to climb the depth chart but are stuck on a wrung for some reason.
All of them needing added teaching time at night before they woke early the next day to do it all again. And again.
Noie: CJ Carr doing his best to just be one of the guys
Noie: Plenty to ponder during first day of Notre Dame football fall camp
That’s what should have made seeing one player step into the room and take a seat among the newbies so surprising. Did he get lost in the new football facility and stumble in by mistake? Had to be something like that for someone in his third program and his fifth season with more than 5,300 snaps played in 40 career games under his veteran cornerback belt.
Nope, no mistake. No accident.
DJ McKinney was in that defensive refresher course of sorts on purpose. He wanted to be there. He felt he had to be there. He’s the old new guy of a ridiculously deep and talented and driven position group. He also doesn’t believe the quest for knowledge just ends because you’re old.
It could stop, maybe even should stop. A guy who’s played as much as McKinney has played (two seasons at Oklahoma State before the last two at Colorado), would arrive in South Bend believing that he’s better than many of those young guys. Maybe even some of the old guys, too. That his resume automatically bumps him atop the cornerback depth chart opposite all-everything All-American Leonard Moore.
“The good Lord creates football players and then he creates young men like DJ McKinney, who I believe is made to play corner,” Notre Dame co-defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach Aaron Henry said. “I’m just excited to see where this young man goes. His skill set, there’s no ceiling to it.”
That’s not how McKinney sees it. Guarantee him a significant role because he’s played all that ball? Nonsense. McKinney said as much when he met a trio of reporters on Saturday, August 8 after the third day of fall camp.
No, Notre Dame’s defensive coaching staff never said anything about moving veteran corner (and starter) Christian Gray to nickel this season to clear a spot for him. No, the staff never said that he would be an instant front-line guy to lure him to Notre Dame.
If anything, it was the opposite.
"They said I was going to have to come in and compete,” McKinney said. “Nothing’s given. You’ve got to earn everything. I was ready to get here and see everything, get into the playbook and get my feet wet.”
McKinney got into the playbook in the spring, after his transfer from CU became official. He found an apartment near campus. He moved his belongings from Boulder to South Bend. He finished his spring semester work online. When he wasn’t in class, he was in the Irish football facility attending defensive meetings and learning how it all works at Notre Dame.
Continue reading...
