NOTRE DAME — A week after lower back surgery, Brian Kelly is itching to get back into action.

Paqui Kelly, the wife of the Notre Dame head football coach, said he is recovering but restless following surgery to repair a herniated disc on June 8.

She had command of her husband’s stomping grounds Tuesday as she led the third annual Kelly Cares Foundation’s “Football 101” camp, a clinic for women to learn the ins and outs of the sport while supporting breast cancer research.

“He’s going to be a good patient and do the things that he needs to do to get back from his injury,” she said of Brian, adding that she knows her husband would rather be out helping her run the camp. “Why wouldn’t you want to miss 500 or 600 women wearing pink and playing some football?”

Paqui, a two-time breast cancer survivor, said Football 101 is not only a fun way for women to spend time together, but it also raises awareness for breast cancer.

“Some people are here in memory of people, some are here to share,” she said. “A woman just came up to me and said, ‘I don’t know if you remember me, but I was bald last year when I came’ — and her hair is a lot longer now — and she said, ‘I just wanted to say thank you because you helped me get through it.’”

That makes it all worth it.”

Several Irish players and assistants coached the women through various punt, pass and catch drills. Quarterback Tommy Rees, nose guard Louis Nix, defensive ends Kapron Lewis-Moore and Stephon Tuitt were among the ranks.

Michigan held a similar football clinic for women earlier in the spring, but when asked if she envisioned a scrimmage between the two camps, Paqui said she’ll leave that pressure to the college players.

“We’ll keep that rivalry in the fall,” she said.