Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly Surprises Walk-On With Scholarship After Outdoor Winter Workouts (Video)

Talk about a modern-day “Rudy” moment.

Following Notre Dame’s outdoor winter workouts, head coach Brian Kelly surprised the group by awarding one of the walk-ons with a scholarship.

“Representing the program in a positive way all counts,” Kelly told his team, as seen below. “Also, being a guy that can contribute and help our team win. But when you look at all those things, they all equal being a scholarship player. Not that we don’t have other players in this program that are non-scholarship players that don’t represent that. So, we want to take this opportunity to award a scholarship to a walk-on that has worked himself into a position where he represents our program in a positive way every day and I don’t know the last time this happened, but we’re going to award a scholarship to Chris Salvi.”

Salvi, who notched 10 total tackles in 2011, also won the 188-pound title in the Bengal Bouts in a three-round split-decision over Adrian Moreno. Not a bad week for the Lake Forest native.

“I got a text that said, ‘How would you feel if I saved you $50 grand?’ Or something like that,” Salvi’s father, Patrick, told Blue and Gold Illustrated. “He was very emotional about it. It was sort of similar to when he was named a captain. He was pretty moved.”

Check out the video below of the workouts followed by the senior walk-on safety’s big reward.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHmrEfk71F0&w=640&h=360]