Although Notre Dame got out of their season opener with a 27-13 win over Duke on Saturday, it wasn’t without some issues.
Sure, some had to do with the offense that was slow to go early on, but the biggest issue and scare came in the injury department.
The news of that came early when play-making speedster Braden Lenzy didn’t warm up with the first or second team offenses. It turns out Lenzy had a hamstring injury that kept him out of action.
“Lenzy wasn’t 100% and you’re not going to use a speed guy like him if he’s not 100%” Brian Kelly said on Monday.
Kelly also provided optimism that Lenzy would be at or near that 100% and return to action on Tuesday.
The biggest scare of an injury came on a bit of friendly-fire when Kyle Hamilton took a shot to the knee in Saturday’s game. The star safety went down in what looked like a ton of pain and did not return with an ankle injury.
Kelly offered no guarantees on if the star sophomore will return to action against South Florida this weekend but seems to think Notre Dame dodged a bullet with the extent of the injury.
“He’s better, he’s in a walking boot,” Kelly said, “the scan yesterday came back clean but we’ll keep him in a walking boot until Wednesday and it’s a pain management thing but you know Kyle and know he wants to play”.
With the way that injury looked in the moment, the fact that Hamilton doesn’t look like he’s going to be out for the year or for even the next month feels fortunate for a Notre Dame secondary that is still very much learning to play togehter.
Kelly also noted that receiver Ben Skowronek will likely be out against South Florida with the hamstring injury he suffered early on Saturday.
