NOTRE DAME — Brian Kelly confirmed what’s already been circulating the web for two weeks: Gunner Kiel has officially left the Notre Dame football team.

Kelly addressed the media Tuesday, March 19, to kick off a month of spring football. It didn’t take long for talk to turn to Kiel, a Columbus East product and the No. 1 quarterback of the 2012 recruitment class.

Kiel was first rumored to be leaving the program on March 7 and reportedly informed the coaching staff of his intentions around that time.

While Kelly said he isn’t shocked with Kiel’s departure, “you don’t bring guys in expecting them to transfer.”

“I don’t know that I’m surprised — we had kind of created an opportunity for him to compete in the spring,” he said. “So maybe a little surprised from that standpoint, because he was actually told he’d be given the opportunity to compete. Sometimes when you don’t hear that, you wouldn’t be surprised.”

Kelly said Kiel had received interest from several schools regionally and nationally but wouldn’t go into specifics.

“There were a number of nationally regarded programs across the board, too many for me to even get into,” he said.

Kelly said he believes Kiel is still enrolled at the university and plans to finish out the semester before transferring.