CULVER, Ind. — Preseason projections and expectations are the highest they've ever been in head coach Brian Kelly's six seasons at Notre Dame, including Sports Illustrated forecasting the Fighting Irish to make the four-team Playoff with Ohio State, TCU and Auburn.

Consequently, the more that is expected, the higher the criticism is bound to be from the coaches to live up to such standards.

"We didn't start the way I'd like to," said Kelly after the Aug. 7 debut practice. "We had to have one of our best leaders take a lap because we had a couple of guys that didn't pay attention to detail. I think we can give a little more, quite frankly. I thought the effort was good, not great. … It's all stuff they can control and I told them what I expect of them tomorrow.

"We didn't start fast. It's important we get off to better starts. We play Texas, we play Virginia - I just told our team it's going to be 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity when we go down to Virginia, and they better use this opportunity from a conditioning standpoint. You're going to play Georgia Tech early, you're going to play Clemson early - you've got to get off to a fast start."

The leader who Kelly referenced that had to surprisingly take the lap was fifth-year senior Mike linebacker Joe Schmidt, the 2014 Team MVP despite missing the final five-and-half games with an ankle fracture/dislocation. Schmidt and fellow fifth-year senior and center Nick Martin, one of the team captains last year, were the vocal leaders up front during team warm-ups, where a snafu occurred that led to his running. Team captains haven't been named yet, but that duo is a good bed to share the title with maybe others. Despite Schmidt's later mistake on a call that allowed quarterback Malik Zaire to have an unobstructed run up the middle (no full pads until the fifth practice next Wednesday), Kelly was relieved to have Schmidt back in the lineup.

"He's our best leader," Kelly said. "I've never seen anybody that has the immediate recall that he has for what we do. He's extremely important. … It's very, very important for [Schmidt] to be here, but it's great now that we can surround him with some other leaders as well … Add [junior safety Max] Redfield, add [fifth-year senior nickel Matthias] Farley, add [fifth-year senior linebacker] Jarrett Grace, and now you've got something totally different than what we had last year." (Grace did not arrive until later in the afternoon while completing a Masters Business program at Notre Dame.)

Also gratifying was the return of senior cornerback KeiVarae Russell, suspended from the team last year because of academics. Usually, a player coming back after a year away from football gradually has to earn his way back into the rotation. Russell was running with the first unit from the first play on, and he displayed virtually no signs of rust while repeatedly and consistently breaking well on pass attempts toward his side of the field that led to incomplete tosses.

The practice was audibly more vocal to the Irish head coach, which was a plus.

"They have to take ownership, they have to be communicating with each other," he said. "We're not going to be out there for them. We lived through that last year where they weren't vocal, they weren't communicating. It really hurt us in a number of instances. It's been something we've been working hard with them and they have to take control of it."

On offense, Kelly singled out the receivers for their consistency and performance. And while Zaire badly overthrew his first two short passes in the opening 11-on-0 tempo drill, Kelly liked the way he recovered.

"He's got real good management skills," said Kelly of his quarterback. "He communicates effectively. You can see for a first day there's not a lot of sloppiness from an offensive standpoint in terms of false starts… good command, good presence. It's probably what I thought it would be the first day."

Here's how the lineups came out:

Quarterback: Zaire, DeShone Kizer, Brandon Wimbush

All three quarterbacks had their share of excellent passes with some off ones, some the result of late reads. The freshman Wimbush displays a strong arm but Kelly says he tries to overpower some of his throws.

"He's using some footwork that doesn't sync up to some of the things that we're doing, but he's so bright, wide-eyed, extremely coachable. He's going to pick up everything fast here. Very live arm. Have to catch up with footwork."

Running Back: Tarean Folston/C.J. Prosise, Justin Brent/Dexter Williams

The freshman Williams took a couple of snaps with the No. 2 unit. When asked how converted receiver Brent was handling his new position, Kelly responded the first goal is to get him comfortable with lining up: "We won't really know until we tackle," he said. "He still has ball in wrong arm when turning the corner.

Slot: Amir Carlisle, Torii Hunter Jr., CJ Sanders

Hunter had an outstanding day catching the football, including a leaping, diving catch in the end zone on a pass thrown about 50 yards in the air by Kizer. Redfield had good coverage, but Kizer put the ball at the only place it could be catchable and Hunter made a play that prompted even Redfield to slap the receiver's helmet as a compliment. Later, Hunter also made a one-handed grab on a slant. Sanders also was active while displaying good hands.

X Receiver: Will Fuller, Corey Holmes, Jaylon Guyton

W Receiver: Chris Brown, Corey Robinson, Equanimeous St. Brown/Miles Boykin

Tight End: Durham Smythe, Tyler Luatua, Chase Hounshell, Nic Weishar/Aliz'e Jones

The freshman Jones took some reps with the ones in multiple tight end looks.

Left Tackle: Ronnie Stanley, Hunter Bivin, Trevor Ruhland

Left Guard: Quenton Nelson, Alex Bars, Jimmy Byrne

Center: Martin, Sam Mustipher, Tristen Hoge

Right Guard: Steve Elmer, John Montelus, Sam Bush

Right Tackle: Mike McGlinchey, Mark Harrell, Colin McGovern

Strong Side Defensive End: Isaac Rochell, Grant Blankenship, Jonathan Bonner

Defensive Tackle: Sheldon Day, Jay Hayes, Micah Dew-Treadway

Nose Guard Jarron Jones, Jerry Tillery, Daniel Cage, Peter Mokwuah

Jones took reps from the opening snap after recovering from Lisfranc surgery last November.

Weak Side Defensive End: Romeo Okwara/Andrew Trumbetti, Doug Randolph

Sam Linebacker: James Onwualu, Greer Martini, Asmar Bilal

Mike Linebacker: Schmidt/Nyles Morgan, Austin Larkin

Will Linebacker: Jaylon Smith, Te'Von Coney, Josh Barajas

Right Cornerback: Cole Luke, Devin Butler, Ashton White/Shaun Crawford

Left Cornerback: KeiVarae Russell, Nick Watkins, Nick Coleman

Strong Safety: Elijah Shumate, Drue Tranquill, Mykelti Williams

Free Safety Max Redfield, Avery Sebastian, Nicky Baratti/Nicco Fertitta

Nickel Package: Matthias Farley, Crawford

Russell in individual drills also was learning nickel with Crawford while Farley served as the instructor.

On special teams, sophomore punter Tyler Newsome, who battled inconsistency while redshirting last season, displayed both good hang time and distance on almost all of his punts while in drills without a rush. In kicking drills, which were almost complete by the time the media was allowed in for the open practice, freshman Justin Yoon had a "thud" to his kicks, combined with accuracy.

The remaining practices at Culver through next Tuesday will be closed before the team returns to campus on Aug. 12.