How did your Saturday morning go?
I’ll start.
At roughly 5:25 a.m. CT my 10 month old daughter, who has been a rock star with sleeping through the night of late, woke me and my wife up as she was screaming endlessly down the hall.
A little time with mom and dad made the tears go away though and she was back asleep within 15 or so minutes and I got to sleep in until almost seven as a result.
Although lively, my morning wasn’t nearly as intense as Notre Dame sophomore Jack Kiser’s had to have been.
Kiser, Indiana High School’s Mr. Football in 2018, went to bed Friday night without any intention of starting against South Florida but those plans changed shortly after he woke up Saturday morning.
According to Brian Kelly, Kiser practiced with Notre Dame’s scout defense on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Because both Shayne Simon and Marist Liufau were made unavailable, Kiser suddenly found himself on top of the depth chart.
And Kiser didn’t just fill a hole on Saturday, he starred as he led Notre Dame with eight total tackles that included a pair of stops behind the line of scrimmage.
In what wound up a 52-0 drubbing of South Florida plenty of players had moments and made plays but Kiser was chosen by Brian Kelly as the winner of Saturday’s game ball.
Game ball goes to linebacker @jbkiser4, who stepped up when the team needed him.
He made some key plays for us today. #GraduatingChampions pic.twitter.com/AddTwCDvqe
— Brian Kelly (@CoachBrianKelly) September 19, 2020
Kiser, who grew up in Royal Center, Indiana, located about 75 miles south of Notre Dame’s campus. It’s safe to say making his first career start and getting the game ball on the same afternoon meant for an all-time day.
“Notre Dame is the peak of the mountain,” Kiser said “I’m wearing a golden helmet just to be on the team.”
“So to put the helmet on, walk down that stair case and to actually take live snaps and contribute to win? To get the game ball? You just don’t think those things will happen!”
I don’t know what will happen with the Buck linebacker position next week at Wake Forest but I do know based off his performance on Saturday that Jack Kiser isn’t going to be just a flash in the pan.