Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly had plenty of injury updates to go over during his Sunday teleconference.
Here is what he said about quarterback Dayne Crist, center Dan Wenger, linebacker Steve Paskorz, safety Jamoris Slaughter and defensive line/special teams coach Mike Elston.
On Crist, who missed a quarter and half in Saturday’s 28-24 loss to Michigan on Saturday after hitting his head and having blurry vision in his right eye: “He had swelling in the left side of his face from when he hit. It was kind of simultaneous when he ran the ball before the first touchdown where he got the big gain, he kind of hit the ground and the helmet hit him at the same time. he picked up some swelling after the game. It was more of contusion that kind of just got him a little bit off balanced. He wasn’t clear. It wasn’t a concussed situation.
"We monitored it. We took a look at it today. He was really clear."
On Crist showing how tough he is by leading the team back from a 14-point halftime deficit to momentarily take the lead Saturday: “He grew up in the second half. He showed poise in the pocket that he hadn’t shown to this point. He really matured in the second half.”
On Wenger, who suffered his second concussion in less than a month last week: “When he was diagnosed as having another concussion, (he) was put through the normal battery of tests in making that assessment. Our doctors deemed it necessary to hold him from contact for three weeks. We are now in that cycle of waiting for three weeks. It will be a family decision where we go from there, relative to him going back out there or not. That is not a decision we are going to make for another three weeks.”
On Paskorz, who injured his knee two weeks ago: “Paskorz will have surgery. His knee will need to be repaired. That surgery will take place this week. He’ll be lost for the season.”
On Slaughter, who was unable to play Saturday because of an ankle injury: “Slaughter made very, very good progress, he was not 100 percent and we couldn’t play him. We’re hopeful he’ll be in position to assist us this weekend (when Notre Dame travels to play Michigan State at 8 p.m. Saturday).”
On Elston, who wasn’t at Saturday’s game: “We’re still going through a battery of tests to see what this virus is that’s knocking him out. I think he gave, last count, 72 vials of blood to figure out what this virus is. We’re hoping to hear some hard news on it here Monday or Tuesday.
“I can tell you this, Mike, from an energy standpoint, he’s been fighting this virus for a while. He’s had good days, bad days. But I’m not going to get into any of the specifics right now. Will be able to talk a little bit more when we get more information early next week.”
On how the special teams operated without Elson: “Mike Denbrock took the lead, but we teamed coached it. Coach Cooks, coach Hinton, coach Warinner were all involved. I was very pleased with the operation from the sidelines. I thought Mike did a great a job.”
