SOUTH BEND -- Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly and his team returned to practice this week, but it's been tough going following the death of a student videographer in a practice-field accident and back-to-back tough losses.
"It's been a tough 10 days, but we'll get through it," Kelly said, eight days after Notre Dame junior Declan Sullivan died when a scissor lift in which he was filming practice toppled. High winds are believed to be the culprit although an investigation is ongoing.
"Adversity strikes and you've got to be able to lead through adversity as well."
Kelly said that freshman Andrew Hendrix will operate as the third quarterback in light of Dayne Crist's season-ending knee injury suffered against Tulsa. Freshman Tommy Rees is the starter and junior Nate Montana will serve as the backup.
Running back Armando Allen had surgery on Thursday in Nashville, Tenn., on a hip flexor injury in which there was also cartilage damage. Kelly estimated that the senior is facing a 3-4 month recovery.
Kelly has seen "significant improvement" in starting inside linebacker Carlo Calabrese, who sat out the Tulsa game with a hamstring injury. Kelly is hopeful that Calabrese will practice on Monday.
And linebacker Prince Shembo, who suffered a concussion in the Tulsa loss, practiced on Thursday.
The 4-5 Irish are idle Saturday and host fifth-ranked Utah next Saturday.
