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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 3, 2017

Brian Kelly

South Bend, Indiana

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. The runningback rotation worked out really well for you yesterday. I'm curious on again how you moving forward formulate what you want to do with that, with three guys that really give you a lot of different things.
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I think the way we went into the game, I kind of mentioned this in our last time with the media, is that Josh would be the first guy on the field. Then personnel groupings kind of dictate how we roll from there.

We like to get Tony in there when we're in two backs, whether that's with Dexter or Josh. And we want to keep the backs fresh. If they're on a long run, the next back is going to go in.

So I think it starts with Josh. Then Tony specifically, we like his versatility coming out of the backfield, catching the football. But in terms of running the ball, all three of those guys are going to get opportunities.

I think in answering your question, starts with Josh, then we'll use in certain situations a particular player to match their skills. But all three of them are going to get a chance to contribute to the run game.

Q. Did you come out of the game pretty good in terms of injuries, if you could kind of describe what injuries you might have had? Also, what was up with Micah Dew-Treadway yesterday?
BRIAN KELLY: We came out clean. Little bumps and bruises, but expect to have everybody back.

Micah Dew had a knee strain. We just felt like it was best that we didn't put him out there unless he was 100%. We expect to have him back this week.

Q. Just talk about yesterday. You haven't had a game over 600 yards total offense in a very long time. What was it like having that for the first game of the year? Do you think that might be helping you guys keep moving forward?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I mean, I was pleased with certainly the execution. We came in there with a mindset that we wanted to dominate our opponent. I think our kids really did that. They were physical. We had high efficiency in terms of running the football.

Again, that's the kind of physicality that we wanted with our group. So I think we're able to get that accomplished yesterday.

Q. How are you going to prepare for an SEC school in Georgia differently from a Temple school this past Saturday? What do you have to do this week to prepare for that team?
BRIAN KELLY: Our preparation won't change. There's different tactical things that we'll change because the opponent changes, but our preparation won't change. We'll go back to obviously tomorrow as a mental day for us. But we'll hit the week in terms of our preparation the same regardless of who the opponent is.

Q. I know this isn't about the game, but I cover the Browns in Cleveland. I was wondering your feeling on DeShone Kizer winning a starting job, your thoughts about him, maybe he should have stayed another year?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I mean, probably the 700th time that I've responded to this question.

What I said was that he was the best quarterback in the draft, and he had the biggest upside, but would benefit from staying at Notre Dame. Once that decision was made, we were all for DeShone seeking out what his dream was: to play in the NFL. That's what he's done.

In a very short period of time he's gotten himself into a great position to be the starting quarterback. We're thrilled for DeShone. We're big fans. Hopefully he's surrounded with guys that can get Cleveland back into championship caliber.

Q. Since you know him well, how do you expect he would react to the challenges of a rookie and the struggles that rookies go through, especially with a team that has been losing for a while?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I think his makeup is -- again, one of the things that I said was he has outstanding character. He's got great traits. So you're not going to have to worry about any of those things. I think he's got what it takes to persevere and fight through adversity, and knows this isn't a short-term solution, he's there for the long haul.

He's going to have some good days. I saw him yesterday. I said, Look, there's going to be some good days and bad days. Just keep fighting through it. On the other side of it, there's going to be some great success.

I think he's definitely somebody that will be able to get through those tough times.

Q. You had a quarterback make his starting debut yesterday. Georgia could have the same Saturday with Jake Fromm. How do you think things will change defending him in the game?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, certainly both quarterbacks are at Georgia because they're capable of being a starting quarterback. You're going to obviously respect the fact that Georgia has built their offense around two outstanding senior runningbacks, and they're not going to put either quarterback in a position that they have to go out and win the football game. They're going to be certainly asked to take care of the football, be smart, make good decisions.

I think in both instances, Eason and Fromm will do that. We know them both in the recruiting. They're both really good players. But, again, this will come down to featuring two outstanding runningbacks.

Q. I know you had a lot of off-season changes regarding your offense. How has your role changed in terms of the play calling compared to last year or in past years? How did that play out in the first game?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I'm not calling the plays. I'm managing the game. I'm involved in the offense and defense and special teams from a management standpoint, helping Coach Long in fourth-down calls.

Obviously when I feel like we need to be in a ball-possession mode, recommendations. But this is his game to call. I'm certainly, as the head coach, going to continue to manage as I see appropriate during the game. But clock management, things of that nature, are what I'm focused on in the game setting.

Q. In the second half, you only gave up 123 yards on defense, and opened with three three-and-outs. Specific adjustment or just better execution of the original plan?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, we had a little problem with the speed stretch play. We weren't fitting it the right way. We, quite frankly, didn't see it. They ran a lot more fullback than we thought.

Mike did a couple things at halftime. We made some adjustments in how we were fitting the play. Obviously that proved to be pretty effective. We had 11 TFLs. Those TFLs came up big in the second half for us. There were some adjustments we had to make because of a bit of a change in what they had shown or what we thought we would see from Temple.

Q. You rotated a lot of players yesterday. You don't normally rotate players on the offensive line. I realize the situation at right tackle dictates that. How did those two guys play at right tackle? Do you rotate until somebody wins the job?
BRIAN KELLY: I think that we'll leave that open-ended in terms of whether we'll have two guys there or not. I really liked the fact that both of them competed and did some good things, both of them.

Other than the two procedure penalties, and those are the only two penalties we had on offense by Robert, he competed his butt off. And Tommy did a pretty good job, as well.

I kind of like playing both of them right now, but we'll see how that goes. I don't want to be married to one concept there. I think we'll let that kind of play itself out and see where it goes.

But you're right, I mean, in terms of the amount of players that we played. We played I think 24 player 10 plays or more on defense. We'll continue to do that.

As it relates to the right tackle position, I think we'll continue to evaluate it and see where that ends up as the season moves on.

Q. Durham Smythe?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, he's gone through the concussion protocol. He showed no symptoms today, which is a very encouraging sign. Generally if you show symptoms the next day, it generally means that you're probably in for a long week.

But he was good today, no symptoms. Tomorrow would be a day where he would condition, if he goes through that. We could be moving this thing quite quickly.

Thank you very much. We'll talk to you soon.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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