Alize Mack suspended for Citrus Bowl due to 'internal team matter'

Notre Dame tight end Alize Mack is suspended for the team's Jan. 1 game against LSU in the Citrus Bowl presented by Overton's.

Coach Brian Kelly said Mack's suspension is because of an "internal team matter" and unrelated to academics; Mack was academically ineligible for all of the 2016 season. The junior, who will not travel with the team to Orlando, Florida, will be reinstated after the bowl game.

Mack appeared in 10 games this season, starting six, and had 19 receptions for 166 yards and a touchdown.

Notre Dame also will be without starting wide receiver Kevin Stepherson and freshman running back C.J. Holmes, who were suspended indefinitely following their arrests last Friday on shoplifting charges.

"If I could explain 18- to 20-year-olds and their thought process after being in (this career) for 27 years, I'd have written that book already," Kelly said of Stepherson and Holmes. "We try to expose our kids to the foundational principals of making good decisions. They broke one of our commandments -- you can't steal and they did. I can tolerate a lot of things but I can't tolerate stealing. That's why they are suspended indefinitely and they've put themselves into jeopardy."

Kelly said Thursday that although Stepherson won't be dismissed from the university, the coach will decide the sophomore's future with the football team. Stepherson was suspended for the first four games of the season for an unspecified team rules violation.

"It's clearly a young man that has made a poor choice," Kelly said, "and it's not his first, so we've got to evaluate all those things before I make a final decision on his status here within the program."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.