Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly spoke to the media Thursday, ahead of Friday's first practice of training camp.

The word of the day was "confidence." Kelly used it multiple times to describe many different players and situations. Of course, now is the time where confidence is sky high for nearly every college football program, but nevertheless, Kelly is eager to get back to work.

"You don't get the contact, this is the only sport, football, that you don't get contact for 6-8 weeks, and it's difficult, because that's why we do this," Kelly said. "We love the interactions and the day-to-day teaching and learning and relationships with your players. All coaches got a little bit of time off, we're all fired up, we're excited. These guys have been busting their butt for the last eight weeks, so we have to temper that excitement with let's understand how hard these guys have worked, and let's insert ourselves back into the process."

One of the guys Kelly used "confident" to describe was quarterback Brandon Wimbush. Wimbush started 12 of Notre Dame's 13 games last season, but was pulled in the Citrus Bowl in favor of backup QB Ian Book, who threw two 4th quarter touchdowns to lead the Irish to the win over LSU.

Book's play prompted a bit of a quarterback battle in the spring, but Wimbush always seemed to have the upper hand.

Kelly graded Wimbush's offseason as an "A+" and specifically pointed to his leadership as something that has greatly improved.

"When he's confident, there's nobody that will stop this offense because everybody believes in Brandon Wimbush," Kelly said. "If he walks out there and he is confident in what he is doing, he has the Larry Bird effect on everybody. Everybody raises their play because if Brandon is confident, we've seen what happens when he's a confident player."

Kelly said QB Brandon Wimbush will take the first snaps on Friday, but will still have to earn the job.

"We hope that we have great competition, which we will," Kelly said. "Brandon's going to have to compete, and he will. He knows he can't sleepwalk through this and he knows that, because Ian deserves the opportunity too to compete for the position, and he'll get that opportunity."

Notre Dame begins training camp Friday morning from Culver Academies. Stay with Newscenter 16 on air and online for all the latest updates.