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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 28, 2019Brian KellySouth Bend, Indiana BRIAN KELLY: Good afternoon. It's another season here at Notre Dame. 2019 is now underway. Our players are excited about being in game week. They have gone through training camp, have survived, have begun classes. We took yesterday off to make sure that they're organized and ready as we begin another season. I'm excited. Our staff is. We're ready to get this thing underway. 20 something practice opportunities now as we begin another season here at Notre Dame. Our opponent, Louisville, an ACC opponent as well, is certainly one that we are quite familiar with. I know them from my days at Cincinnati. More importantly, this is a team and a program that is under a new head coach, Scott Satterfield did an incredible job at App State. Takes over a program that has had a lot of success. This is a winning program. This is a program over the past four years that has won eight or more games. They know how to win. They know what winning is about. They had a Heisman Trophy winner in their program. This is a program that expects to win in all phases. All of their programs are quite successful. This is a winning environment at Louisville, and they have high expectations. We're going to be prepared for that. The stadium is one where there will be an exciting crowd there. It is a football town. It is a great stadium to play in. Our guys will be ready to play in an electric atmosphere. A number of players that really jump out on film, I think it starts on the offensive line, with their left tackle, Becton. I think he's going to be a high draft pick, somebody that, again, I think when we watch film, we've been very impressed with his ability. We've got some outstanding pass-rushers, and I think they'll be challenged in this ballgame. He really is a player that jumped out at us. I think obviously at the quarterback position Jawon Pass, big, physical. I think they've put an offense together that really suits him well. 6'4", 235 pounds. He can make plays. He is a play-maker on the offensive side of the ball. He's got outstanding receivers. I think the receiving corps is as good as there is in the ACC. Maybe Clemson has a better corps, but I think when you look at Patrick and certainly Dawkins, Atwell, this is a very talented group of wide receivers at the highest end in the ACC. Obviously a very solid group at the runningback position. Physicality is what stands out to us from an offensive standpoint at the runningback position. But, again, I look at Pass, I look at the wide receiver corps, the left tackle, there's some talent on this football team. Satterfield has done a great job where he has put together certainly the pieces at App State, he has some pieces here at Louisville that he's going to put together a really, really good football team. It's going to be a challenge for us. As you go on the defensive side of the ball, if you look at their first five games, they played pretty well. Certainly four defensive coordinators over four years makes it difficult for them. Now that they're under a system and they know what they're going to be playing, they're not going to have to worry about changing systems up. They can really commit to their 3-4 defense. They're big and physical up front. I think Robinson is a guy that was one of their top guys last year. I think Robinson, Peterson are big, physical. Their 3-4 defense, we'll have our hands full up front. The linebacker corps, inside backers. Second and third leading tacklers coming back from last year. Big, physical guys on the inside. They return some guys in the back end of the defense. They have really good experience. Again, we go on the road. It's going to be a raucous environment. Only game being played on a Monday, Labor Day, against an ACC opponent. We know how that plays out with our opposition. Louisville will be up for the challenge. New head coach. There will be a great amount of excitement in the stadium. We will have to match that with really a fine performance, but more importantly poise and confidence, discipline, all the things that you have to have when you go on the road. That's important in an opener. Be really good in your special teams because they make a difference early on. I know our players are excited. They're in a mode of preparation coming into this week now. We'll prepare a little bit more on Louisville, then obviously work our way into later in the week where we move down to Louisville and play the game. Again, really good football coach in Coach Satterfield. He's done a great job. They'll be prepared. Again, another ACC opponent for us that we've got to go on the road to. With that, I'll open it up to questions. Q. Once we were no longer watching practice, how did the field corner position kind of play itself out? Who is your starter there and how is your depth looking? BRIAN KELLY: I think the depth is outstanding. I think you're going to see whatever we handed out. We have Donte Vaughn, TaRiq Bracy, Shaun Crawford. I think you'll see all three of those guys playing. Q. With Crawford, was there ever a point after the injury or during the rehab where either he talked about maybe this isn't in the cards for me, or the staff or training staff said that's three season-ending injuries for you? Was there ever that point? BRIAN KELLY: I never had that conversation with him. All my conversations with him were about rehabbing and coming back. Look, I mean, I think it's easy to think behind the scenes there could have been conversations about is this it for me. But formal conversations about him sitting down with me or any staff member about not playing again never occurred. Look, I mean, there's always going to be those times, those low points where you're going through a third operation that maybe it's not in the cards. But it never happened with me and Shaun. I have always felt that he was going to overcome this again, because that's the kind of spirit he has. He's exactly where I thought he would be. Going to be playing a major role in the success of this football team. Q. There's only a couple freshmen on your depth chart. Is that a good thing? Beyond Kyle Hamilton, who in that class has jumped and got your attention, whether they're going to play or not this week? BRIAN KELLY: There's a lot of guys that have really caught our eye. I think it really depends on the particular position in which they're competing for playing time. I mean, Isaiah Foskey is a guy that maybe in other years could have played considerably out of the gates. We're really blessed and talented at that position. That doesn't mean he won't play this year. But there's a young man that I think maybe a couple years ago would be vying for considerable playing time. Obviously Jay Bramblett is a freshman that's going to be starting at the punting position for us. I think we dismiss the midyears as true freshmen, but they are still true freshmen. Kyren Williams is going to be a young man that will be in the rotation and playing for us. I think there's freshmen that are on special teams. Jack Kiser you're going to see a lot early on in special teams. We think he can be a difference maker there. I think there's enough there. The guys that are talented, it may just be they're at a position where we have some strength. Q. Is Kevin Austin going to play for you this year? BRIAN KELLY: Kevin Austin is on our team. I think you guys all know that I don't talk about playing time with our guys. If I have anything to talk about with a player relative to their status, I'm going to talk about it if I can. His situation is such that he is still on this football team and he is still practicing with us. Other than that, I've made my statements regarding him. Q. Do you expect him to stay enrolled in school, be enrolled in Notre Dame? BRIAN KELLY: Yes, he will be at Notre Dame. I can tell you in my conversations that he'll be with us, he will be on our football team. I expect him to be with us the entire year. Q. Hunter Bivin, what kind of impact has he made so far in that role? What do you want him to do with that role? What is his potential in the sport long-term as a coach or what could he do? BRIAN KELLY: It's interesting, Hunter applied for the director of player services, which is a very important role because he's on the frontline with our players early on when they first come on campus in June, till that first day of transitions into college life, to being very, very involved in the player development from not only the student but professionally, looking at life after Notre Dame. Our 4 for 40 program which Ron Powlus put together. Now Hunter was kind of taken off with that. It's an extremely important position because it has direct contact on a day-to-day basis with very important things that help in that day-to-day lifestyle of the student-athlete, from where do I pick up my stipend check to I don't know where to go for this particular class. All those things. Hunter played here, has a great sense of Notre Dame, has really worked well with our academic support staff. He's seen it on both sides. He knows when a player needs to pick it up a little bit, also knows when they need a little bit of a break. I can't tell you how pleased I've been with his work. It's a great entry into athletic administration. It gives him a perspective of everything as it relates to coaching to administration. Q. Todd Lyght, what is it like having somebody with that pedigree and background coaching those guys up? Why has he been so successful getting guys ready to play early? BRIAN KELLY: Todd has done it. Still it comes down to relationships and teaching. Todd is easy to talk to, has a good way about him. Our players like him. I think when you talk about coaching, it's still about teaching. I think even though Todd has played the game, that doesn't necessarily make you a great coach. You still have to relate to players. You still have to be able to teach them. So having a résumé is one thing; you still have to be able to coach and teach. Q. Lawrence Keys gets the start. What has he done that's just impressed you this pre-season? BRIAN KELLY: Well, I think it's been a body of work. He started to come on in the spring, showed some consistency in performance. We were able to add some sandbags to his pockets, put on a little weight. We felt like he needed to be sturdier physically. He did a great job in the off-season of really attending to that. He's kept his weight on. I think assignment correct has been another thing that he's really worked on. We need to rely on players, as well, that we know they're going to be there and line up the right way, be relied on that they're going to be accountable. He's been really accountable in all those areas. Then you just take his athleticism. Everybody can see that when he touches the ball he's got great speed. One of the things that he does that's a little bit different than all of our guys is that he catches the ball at full speed. Some guys have to throttle down a little bit. He can catch it at full speed. That's a great trait to have. Q. How about for Saturday, what are your plans for the team? Are they allowed to watch other football games? BRIAN KELLY: Sure. We'll practice a little bit on Saturday. It's a normal Thursday for us, so we'll have our Thursday practice, again, using the days of the week for us. That's an important practice day. We'll have our normal practice day, then we'll release the guys. It's 48 hours out. We'll get them off their feet. They'll sign up for their tickets, just like they would. Probably go back and watch some Thursday night games, they'll go back and watch some Saturday games. Q. Getting back to the cornerback position, last year you had a pat hand with Julian Love and Troy Pride. You have more from which to choose from this year. You'd like to rotate more players, which you can do on the D-line. Can you do that at corner or is that last line of defense and you have to play the hot hand instead? BRIAN KELLY: No, I think you'll see more rotation at the field than you would us moving Troy Pride in and out of the game. But I think at the field position, you have some flexibility to do that. I think some field position situations, down and distance, will also factor into it because coverages change, body types in terms of what we're looking for will change. No, I think we've got a pretty good plan in terms of what we want to do there. Crawford also, as you know, is a nickel. If you take into account where we are on the field, what package we're in, process of elimination will tell you who's on the field at what particular time. It's really not that complicated once you kind of put that matrix together. Q. With the injuries to Kmet and Young, then Austin being out, it's arguably three of your top seven or eight receivers, can you mitigate those losses? You have at least three runningbacks that you can line up in the slot and feel good about throwing to them. Can you mitigate some of those injuries because of the flexibility of your runningbacks in the passing game? BRIAN KELLY: No, we can't. We're not going to show up on Monday... Of course, we've got 85 scholarships and we've got some really good depth there. Look, injuries are going to be part of this. If you're relying on one or two guys, you're not going to have a very good season. We feel like we've got some flexibility and depth that will overcome it. We think Tommy Tremble has done a great job filling in there, can do some really good things. Joe Wilkins has been called on, Lawrence Keys has been called on. We really like those guys a lot. Answering your question specifically, Kyren Williams and Jafar Armstrong are also playing some slot receiver for us. It offsets a little bit of that. One of the things we've done really well is from an offensive perspective, we've got some versatility that if we are down a player or two, we have some other talented players that we can fit into a system that's flexible enough to be able to do that. Q. How much do you know Satterfield? Have you met him? BRIAN KELLY: I've never met him. Q. When you're going up against a team that has a new coach, what is your strategy? What do you do to try to figure out what they may do compared to what they got coming back from the old regime? BRIAN KELLY: Well, you watch Appalachian State film. You look at who the coordinators are, you try to extrapolate some of the things that they've done in the past. But some of it is a feeling-out process as well, as the game unfolds. You have your own system that can adapt to most things that you're going to see. You have to be able to make some adjustments on the fly. We're accustomed to it in a lot of ways because we play a lot of first-time opponents. We have to be adjusting sometimes when we play a first-time opponent as well. It's not that uncommon for us, but tactically we think that we can adjust to most things. When you're drilling down, you're going back to what were they successful at at the former school that they were at, who were the coordinators. You're trying to build a plan based upon those things. Q. You talked earlier in your opening remarks about how important it is going on the road to have good special teams play in the first game. Where do you think you stand with your special teams now, particularly with two new kickers? BRIAN KELLY: We're not lacking preparation. I will say that. I feel as though when we take the field on Monday as though we have prepared them as well as I've ever prepared our special teams going into an opener. I can't play for them. We've recruited them. We've made decisions that these are the best players in the recruiting process. We've got to support them. We got to go let them play. Based upon what we've seen, we are very encouraged. When they put people in the stands, turn the lights on, the scoreboard... We hope it changes in a manner that brings their game up even more. If that's the case, we're going to be in pretty good shape. Q. In your career you've had openers knowing what you're going to get from your team. Probably have the flipside with that, as well. Where does this group fit on that spectrum in terms of your confidence of knowing your guys, what's going to happen on Monday night before it happens? BRIAN KELLY: Well, it's an interesting question. I think each year you kind of have a gut feeling. I don't have a gut feeling, per se, as much as I know certain players and how they'll perform. I think what I'm waiting for is what mindset the group brings. A few years ago we had a mindset that they really wanted to dominate their opponent. I think the mindset of this group kind of comes together after a first game. I'm not sure what that is right now. Are they going to go in and kind of hang in there? Are they going to go in there and exert their will? Do they have to come out and feel it out? That kind of unfolds when the group plays. I think Ian Book is a really good player. I think Julian Okwara is a really good player, Alohi Gilman is a really good player. I think those guys we know about are going to play at a high level. Then I think by and large our system, our process will take care of itself. But you really don't know about your football team in terms of their mindset until you play the game. Q. For how much messaging you do, that mindset, you just have to let the players figure it out for themselves? BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, it's a good question. I think the mindset has to kind of -- each year it has to take on its own mindset. You can talk about messaging from year to year and process never changes, but a mindset really has to happen with the individuals. We can craft it, but they really have to go ahead and do it. Q. The sort of wealth of talent you have at defensive end, is that going to allow you to get a little bit more creative, without sort of giving away your schemes, are you going to be able to do some different things because the amount of material you have at that position? BRIAN KELLY: I'll just leave it at this. One guy that we haven't talked much about, and I will just say that he's had his best camp since he's been here, is Daelin Hayes. I think that says a lot about what we can do, when we haven't talked about a guy like that. Q. Houston Griffith, his pre-season, he started a little bit banged up. BRIAN KELLY: He did. Q. Where is he on his curve of development right now? BRIAN KELLY: What I love about Houston is his competitive spirit. He's a guy that takes coaching and knows that he needs to work every single day to get better. What more could you ask for from a player? He doesn't have a blind spot when it comes to anything you ask him to do. All he wants to do is help Notre Dame win and he wants to play. He got put in a situation where he got behind a little bit because of an injury, and he's fighting back from that. He's getting better every day. I expect you'll see him as the season unfolds. Q. About the defensive line, Louisville's offensive line, they struggled at times last year. Obviously with the wealth of talent up front for you, do you look at that as a matchup you have to exploit to seize control of the game up front? BRIAN KELLY: Well, I mean, the games are always played, those big guys got to exert their will. We've worked really hard at developing our defensive line. We hope they have an impact in the game. If they don't, Louisville is pretty good. I know our guys are pretty good. We're going to do what we do. I'm certain they know that we've got some pretty good players. As I mentioned, their left tackle is going to play in the NFL. I don't want to assume anything, but maybe he's going to be on his own and they're going to help some others. At the end of the day, you're right, our defensive line has to exert itself. That's one of our strengths. They're going to have to play at a high level. Q. Chip Long obviously going back to Louisville, his first time going back there, have you talked to him at all, excited about going back to where he started his coaching journey? BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, we don't wax philosophical about Chip's stops along the way. I guess if we go back to North Alabama, maybe we'll talk about that. But no, Chip is not a big sentimentalist. He wants to take care of the football, run the football and score points. We talk more about that more than anything else. Q. Extensive linebacker competition since spring. Seems like White and Bilal were going to maintain that the last couple weeks. What did Jack and Bo Bauer do to stay in the mix ahead of other guys? BRIAN KELLY: I hate to throw more in there, but Genmark Heath has really come on at the end here, too. He's put himself in a position where you're going to see him playing, and Shayne Simon. I still think we're in a position where they got to go play in a live game for us to really continue this process of solidifying rotation and finding those guys. I think you're going to see Drew and Asmar probably starting the game. This is a pretty fluid situation. That's why there's a lot of ands, ors and buts out there. You see a lot of guys. We think they're all capable. They've all done really good things. The arrows are up on all of those guys. They've all made significant progress and have done the things we've wanted them to do. They've earned playing time. We'll see how it goes. There are different packages as I mentioned earlier. You're going to be able to see as the game unfolds where they fit in these different packages we'll run. Then we'll see how that kind of plays out in our evaluation over the next couple games. Q. Is the run-heavy nature from Louisville and part of this month what helped Drew White or simply he was winning the competition? BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I would be careful to pigeonhole him as a plug run guy. I don't know that we can play a guy that is a liability in the other areas because he's not. He can get out and cover the back. He's got a good sense in the passing game. He's just been more effective. But not to the level where he's walking around going, I'm the starter from here on out. It's a very competitive situation. As I said, I will say this, all of them will play, and it's competitive, and we're all going to be watching the same things. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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