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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 15, 2018

Brian Kelly

South Bend, Indiana

Q. Obviously this is a first experience for your team. You were part of that in 2012 and Tommy was, as well. Do you have talks with Tommy and stuff like that about what that experience was like and how you can maybe help your team with that this year?
BRIAN KELLY: As a staff, we've just talked about making sure that we get an opportunity to prepare them for the moment. You know, it's much larger than a traditional game. It's not just been Tommy and I, it's just been the whole staff. The preparation obviously is important and how you prepare leading up for this game, and then the game itself. You know, it's a big atmosphere. There's a lot going on prior to the game, the pregame, all of that. There's a lot of media and buzz. Just making sure that our guys are in the right place going into the game.

Q. These type of games kind of help define legacies for people. Do you allow yourself to think about your legacy or the legacy of if you win this game and win a National Championship?
BRIAN KELLY: No. No. Sounds really good. No. No, we just -- this is really a focus group on wanting to win a National Championship, and it's been that way since we started this journey in January, beating Clemson. Each and every week during the year we didn't really talk about, hey, let's beat Michigan and what that does for us. It got us to 1-0.

So there really hasn't been much talk. Now, you guys have talked to the players. Certainly they understand that they've got to stay focused on their process, but they've listened to everybody talk about how they are underdogs. So there's a little bit of that. But this is really about keeping this going and winning a football game, more so than any of the big picture stuff.

Q. How would you describe the relationship between Tommy Rees and Ian Book?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, so what is in essence a coach-player relationship. I think it starts with trust, the ability to trust as it relates to the well-being, both on the field and off the field. I think they've got a great trust in each other that he's going to be there for him in good times and bad times, both on and off the field. I think you start there.

I think there's a great amount of trust as it relates to on the field with the position itself and the roller coaster ride of being the quarterback at Notre Dame. Tommy has taken that trip, and so easily identifiable is that kind of relationship.

But I would say at its core there's a great amount of trust in both the relationship that's been built both on and off the field, and it just allows for a complete and total buy-in to everything that's being done.

Q. Your first year in this and in the College Football Playoff, and there's been already talk about, well, maybe we should blow it up and take it to six or eight teams --
BRIAN KELLY: We have a way of doing things when Notre Dame is involved --

Q. What's your -- there's a lot of people that didn't think you guys were --
BRIAN KELLY: Should be in it, we're independent, all that stuff. Yeah, I hear where you're coming from.

Q. What's your take on this? Is this really going to decide a true national champion, or do you think there should be --
BRIAN KELLY: Oh, it's going to decide a true national champion, there's no doubt about that. I think, look, we could go back, what is it, 20 years or so when there was split national champions, and I think you go back further and some claim to be national champions. We've claimed National Championships where others have claimed them, as well. So I don't buy the notion that it doesn't clearly define who the national champion is.

Can you open up the field to more is really the question here. And I think that -- I think that the narrative has been one of, well, we just entered into this agreement and we've just started this process. I think we've journeyed into it a little bit deeper now that I think there's probably, from a commissioners' standpoint, an appetite to begin dialogue.

But I'm just standing here as the football coach at Notre Dame. I don't have any inside information to share with you. I can tell you that there is an appetite for conversation about it.

How that all figures into the grand scheme of things, you know, who really knows. But I sure am one that would register a vote on the expanding the playoff, and where that takes us, I'm sure they'll kind of figure that out.

Q. Why do you say you'd like it to be expanded?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, certainly you can see that there's five Power Five conferences, and then there's the independent ranks. Certainly if there's going to be, you know, expansion of any kind, we would prefer that to include eight. That gives the Power Fives, obviously their champions, and then opens up much more opportunities for at-large. More at-large opportunities. We're forcing out a conference champion or we're forcing out conferences that are in this CFP, and so that puts a lot of pressure on us every year relative to our schedule and what we need to do.

Q. Talk a little bit if you would about what you've seen on film about Clemson, things that jump out at you offensively --
BRIAN KELLY: I think it's probably the same thing you guys have seen. Starting on offense, you know, I think the running back, Etienne, I think he's as good a running back as we've seen since Georgia of last year, that kind of talent. The quarterback is really good. He's got great arm talent. He's tall and can see the field. I think the receiving corps is on par with a USC receiving corps. That's a pretty dynamic offensive set.

Defensively, I think you obviously start with the defensive front. You probably have three guys there that could be top 50, top 60 players in all of college football. So that's a pretty good group.

I mean, comparing them to maybe North Carolina State last year in some fashion, LSU, that kind of capability on the defensive line. It's a really, really formidable group.

Just a really talented football team, but more than anything else, it's a team that's been there four times. They know how to win. They've been there before. They play with a lot of confidence.

Q. Kind of following up on that, as a coaching staff, you can control game plan, all those type of things. You can't control the fact that you guys have no playoff experience and this is their sixth game for their seniors. How do you bridge that gap to make sure that when you take the field on December 29th that you're ready to hit the ground running?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I don't know that there's really any magic bullet that you have to get that, other than we have an experienced football team. There's a lot of veterans that have played, logged a lot of miles, played in some big games. But we're not going to be able to duplicate four playoff games.

What I think we've been really good at is staying in the moment and treating each game as they have come. And we'll do the same thing here.

Now, we'll have to get them ready for the moment of the game and obviously it being a playoff game, there will be a lot of buzz around it, keeping them focused on the game. But when it kicks off, really playing it as one. They've been really good at focusing in on the game itself and playing one play at a time.

Our strength is going to be in being who we are. If we try to be somebody else, that's not going to work very well for us. So our strength will be being consistent like we have been all year.

Q. You talk about staying in the moment and staying focused, but there is a lot of outside noise, what players will wear in the draft or the double-digit underdog. When you say stay focused and be who we are, is that something you can teach these kids, or is that a natural ability that you look for when you're recruiting them?
BRIAN KELLY: Some of it is in the DNA of who we recruit, that they are really focused. But most of it are traits that are built over time. And we have to do a really good job of demanding that from our players, especially here. They're hearing about it from the very start of the season, how it's make or break every game. Notre Dame, you're playing for a National Championship. There's no conference championship. One loss could put you in a difficult position for getting to your goal.

So they hear a lot of that. So we have to do a really good job of helping them stay in the moment, give them the mental skills necessary to avoid all that noise. Some are better at it than others, and those that are not strong at it, we really work hard at helping them have those tools.

Q. Are you seeing the same Jafar Armstrong maybe or better version than you saw in September at this point?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, he's healthy finally. You know, he was running with no arch really in that foot. I mean, he was no push, no arch, no explosion. He's back to where he was. You know, it's just -- obviously he started off really well for us, had the knee as we know, and then suffered an injury that he came back from and then re-injured the same ankle, and had really a difficult time shaking that off. Every time it seemed that we turned a corner, something would put him back. I think this is the first time that we've seen him, and we'll have about a 60-play, 60-plus-play full live scrimmage today, so he'll get a ton of work today, and we think he's back to where he was earlier in the season.

Q. What have you seen from your nickel position during this December preparation? What do you hope to see from it?
BRIAN KELLY: We haven't really done a lot in terms of Clemson. We treated the first couple of practices like spring ball, so a lot of technique work. The next two were really about situations but not Clemson situations, just football situations, whether it be 3rd and long, red zone, so we got some nickel work.

We like what Nick Coleman has done. He closed the season really well, playing well. He's playing with a lot of confidence. So in answering the question, I think we've got some situational work done, but I think Nick Coleman has really claimed that position by the virtue of his play in November.

Q. A general question: In your time as an FBS coach, scoring has gone up fairly considerably, yards, points per play, yards per game. What have you seen as the biggest evolutionary factors offensively?
BRIAN KELLY: Mobility of the quarterback obviously has a lot to do with it. You know, I think just five, six years ago when we were recruiting quarterbacks, they were either pro-style quarterbacks or athletic type quarterbacks. I don't know that that even exists anymore really. They all have to extend. They all keep plays alive. How many times has Kyler Murray really dropping back and making a play from a pocket? If you just look at Jalen Hurd and what he did against Georgia, he made his plays outside the pocket. I really think you start with the quarterback, the quarterback's athleticism, and then I just think, you know, the schemes have now spread defenses so thin and created space on the field. You're not in tight formations. You're spreading the field.

Offensive creativity would be one, but that would be way down the list. It would start with the quarterback and his athleticism.

Q. Speaking on the same vein, the fact that the quarterback is that important now, does that change the way -- asking you because both you and Clemson made a quarterback change mid-season and how important that is and a coach's willingness to do that.
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, well, certainly I think each one is different. We looked at not only wins and losses, but I looked at in particular how it is affecting our entire football team, and I think I made this pretty clear a number of times. We were playing too many snaps on defense.

You're looking at it how it affects your entire operation and how it best can complement what you do. Look, we keep the points down on defense, okay. We're not an attacking, man-to-man, blitz you, get the ball out of your hands. We keep it in front of us. Our efficiency is high. But we have to get our football team playing better, more efficient, and we weren't complementing our defense. So this had a lot to do with complementing.

And in other instances, you're just looking for explosiveness on offense. So I think each one is different a little bit. Ours had a lot to do with efficiency on offense and complementing what we do defensively.

Q. How would you assess the performance of your D-line this year and how would you compare it to the year that you had in 2012 with Louis Nix, et cetera?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I think our defensive line was -- whatever term you want to use, it was certainly a large part of our success this year as a program and then as a unit. So what does that mean? We were able to get pressure on the quarterback, which obviously is paramount to success. But we were really good against the run, and it starts up front. We were able to play a lot of players, and in the games that mattered most, that unit played well.

How does it compare to 2012? Again, we played a three-down defense. We were a 3-4 defense. We were a two-gap 3-4 defense. You had a 340-pound nose tackle playing two gap. So really a different group.

The only similarities there would be that unit was led by one really dynamic player in Manti Te'o that was elite. I don't know that we had that one dynamic player. We had a lot of really, really good players.

Q. How much do you look back to the 2015 match-up against Clemson in terms of preparing for the playoff?
BRIAN KELLY: I mean, we looked at the film, but the only -- there was one thing that is similar that they have both coordinators back, but there's not many players that are on that team from either team that are still there. You know, our players know that they can play and beat Clemson, and I think that you're taking most of your analysis and breakdown from this season in terms of what they do and what we do.

Q. Why is Chip Long a good play caller?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I think some of the components to being a really good play caller is you have to have philosophically a foundation as to how you want the game to look, and it starts with physicality over finesse. So essentially, he knows that we have to start with a tight end on the field, somebody that can help us in the run game, and our offense will start with the run game.

And then everything can be built off of that. So I think a talented play caller has a philosophy that is based upon either I'm going to spread this out and we're going to be much more creative and finesse, or we're going to be physical, and he has an understanding of that.

And then he is really good, I think, at being patient and probing, and he will stick to what the plan is. I've seen callers that can be affected by the crowd, that hear the boos or hear the impatience. He sticks with what the game plan is and is not moved by it. I think those are some really important tenets to begin with.

Q. (Indiscernible) a couple plays ahead or series ahead. Is that something you learn as a play caller or do you just sort of get it or you don't?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, keep in mind, calling plays from the sideline versus calling them from the box is really much more of an art than it is a science. And so to answer that question, you have to have a great feel for the game to call from the sideline. There are better play callers that do it better from the box because they can see more. They can see the sideline. They can see if that's a nine technique or a seven. Chip can't see the boundary, but he can feel what's going on in the game.

I think to answer your question, you have to have a feel and a sense for what's going on, and that's kind of crafting what you're thinking about as the game kind of unfolds.

Q. Why are you guys a good match?
BRIAN KELLY: Because I think we have -- we come from some similar roots in terms of play calling and how we operated. I've always called it from the sideline. We've got a similar feel. I like to cover the six and the eight and play the pass line. He does, too. That's a gambling, craps analogy for those that don't follow that. It's a system of play calling that's very similar, and that helps.

Q. Building off of what you said about Chip being patient and probing, especially when it comes to physical, offensive plays, how much does Dexter's big-play ability allow you to be that patient knowing that at any time he might hit a home run?
BRIAN KELLY: Oh, it's huge. I mean, that balance is what you're looking for, and to have a guy that maybe you got zero, zero, and then you can run that same play, and it can hit big is important in play calling, certainly. If you know that you have no chance, that certainly is going to get you looking in another direction. There's no question that he's made a huge impact in the play calling ability.

Q. You've talked about what you want to do to prepare your players for the moment. Having been in it yourself several times over different years, what is waiting for them that Saturday when they get there?
BRIAN KELLY: It's the lead-up. It's not necessarily just that moment. It's just all that goes with it in preparing them so when they do see it, they understand what to be ready for more than anything else. So it's just getting them prepared for that moment, making sure they're aware of it, and you know, it's great, we're going to practice four times inside AT&T. I think getting -- look, that Jumbotron is 60 yards long. Just getting used to kind of the environment there is really helpful.

But being aware of it, getting them in tune with what it's going to be like and talking it out is most important.

Q. With the caveat that six years might as well be a lifetime ago in this business, where would you say you've grown the most as a coach and how the program has changed the most?
BRIAN KELLY: Man, I mean, there's so many -- I mean, this is 28, 29 years? So I'm better at player relationships, staff evaluation, recruiting, all of those things. I think just when you're in especially a job like Notre Dame, you're required to sharpen your skills every year, and if you don't, you're going to be exposed. So I think in all those areas, you have to be better. You have to challenge yourself to be better at your profession each and every year.

So I don't know that there's an area that I haven't worked to be better at. The competition is so keen every year. There's great young coaches. I mean, I don't know that it's any different than your business. I mean, I think everybody here is under the same kind of -- I've got to be on top of things, every year. I don't think you get to this position and go, hey, I think I've figured it all out. I haven't. So I think you're always trying to stay on top of how do you deal with Gen Z's over Millenials. All of those things. You have to stay in tune with all the things that are required of a head football coach.

Q. How do you do you that? I know that's probably a long answer, but whether it's touring the country, using other coaches, looking at potential new staff members, what goes into that evaluation process every year?
BRIAN KELLY: Don't bury your head in the sand. Be in the training room. Be in the locker room. You know, be present. Be present in your environment in which your players are readily available to be in conversation with, right, because that's your group. And I think that that's probably the most important group to be around.

And I think another area where you continue to grow is conversations with as many coaches as possible in terms of what they're doing with their staffs and recruiting. You're always reaching out in those other areas outside of players, as well. But I think being present and available and being around your guys, I mean, you can't be gone for a month. It's hard to do that.

Like I now fly out and fly back. I used to be gone for three, four days recruiting. Now it's, I'm flying out and flying back, just because you just feel like you lose the heartbeat of what's going on if you're gone for two or three days.

Q. If recruiting rankings were gospel, Notre Dame would be top 10 to 15 program right now, not top 3. Are you all doing a better job identifying players to recruit or a better job developing players when they get here?
BRIAN KELLY: I would say that there's -- at the core of it, you have to identify the players that -- and I know this sounds like I'm making this up, but you have to identify the players that will stay here that you can develop. So it starts with identifying those players that fit Notre Dame and that will be here over a period of time that allows them to grow and develop, so when you put them on the field, they've been here and they've grown and developed into mature young men. And so that's -- you've got to start there.

Q. There are probably some people who given the same experience that Tommy Rees had here as a player wouldn't be interested in coming back to Notre Dame. How confident were you that he was going to come back when you first reached out to him?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, he wasn't. He turned down my first offer for him to come here. He stayed with the San Diego Chargers. You know, he went to Northwestern first, and then he went to the Chargers. He felt like he needed more time away from Notre Dame, and I think it was the right decision.

I think he accepted the job when he felt like he was ready to come back to Notre Dame, and in retrospect, I think he made the right decision. I think he needed a little bit more time away from Notre Dame.

He's done more on-the-job training here than maybe he's done anywhere else. But I was willing to do that with him because of the respect that I have for him as a person and what I thought of him in terms of what he could be as a coach. You know, I think he knew when it was the right time to come back.

Q. You asked him when he first got out to San Diego?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, he was a year in, yeah, and he said he wasn't ready.

Q. What made him ready the second time around?
BRIAN KELLY: I begged. (Laughing.)

Q. How so?
BRIAN KELLY: Do I have to show you? No, I think having -- you know, there's a difference between -- from his perspective, being a full-time coach, it was going to be kind of a restricted analyst position, and once you have your own room and you're full-time, I think that changes it a little bit.

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