Notre Dame safeties Eilar Hardy and Elijah Shumate won’t be available for the regular season finale against Stanford. Rumors swirled late Thursday evening that the two safeties wouldn’t be traveling with the team to Palo Alto. Brian Kelly confirmed those rumors Friday afternoon from Northern California, citing a violation of team rules.
Here’s the official word from ND:
“Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly confirmed that neither sophomore safety Elijah Shumate nor junior safety Eilar Hardy traveled to Stanford this weekend due to a violation of team rules.”
Irish Illustrated’s Pete Sampson spoke with Hardy’s father earlier today, who confirmed the rumor.
According to Bill Hardy, his son Eilar Hardy and Elijah Shumate won't travel to Stanford because they were late to a team meeting.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) November 29, 2013
Prior to the news that Shumate wouldn’t be traveling, word was that the sophomore safety aggravated a hamstring injury. It’s an injury that’s plagued him for much of the season’s second half.
Hardy was just starting to make his presence felt in the safety rotation, among the team’s tackle leaders the past few games. He’ll give back some of those reps to Austin Collinsworth and Matthias Farley. Neither veteran has been overly impressive this year.
The one-game suspensions also likely push freshman Max Redfield into the rotation.