	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 25, 2019

Brian Kelly

South Bend, Indiana

COACH KELLY: Okay, just a quick comment about our seniors playing in their last home game. Certainly the ability to carry two years of winning at home, a great achievement and accomplishment that they can certainly leave feeling great about and be part of something that they built. That's a legacy. Those are hard to build here at Notre Dame and that they can feel great about that.

Winning the football game allows them to certainly move on and focus on this game, a game that obviously we have not won at Stanford in quite some time. So the focus is on playing well on the road against an opponent that certainly has our respect. As I mentioned, they have beaten us at Sanford Stadium and certainly have beaten us here.

So our guys will have to play well. They're very talented on offense. Outstanding receiving corps. Two quarterbacks and obviously it seems as though either quarterback is extremely capable of playing well. Costello hasn't played the last few weeks, but it really hasn't slowed down their offense at all.

Mills is extremely talented as well, puts the ball -- I'd say his accuracy is as good as we've seen this year. And then to have such versatility at the wide receiver position and probably one of the best catching tight ends in the country in Parkinson.

We love our tight ends. But this is a special player, too. Wedington, Fehoko, and I think Wilson, all of them are as talented of a group of receivers that we'll see. So, we've got our hands full with this group.

They've had to deal with a number of injuries as well and playing some young players on the offensive line that are now no longer freshmen. They've played a lot of games and gotten better each and every week.

Defensively a similar structure. They've lost a lot of players from last year. Toohill really stands out in terms of his ability to get after the quarterback. I think he's got eight sacks. A very active player, really like the way that he plays.

And again I think from our perspective, it's been a stingy team against the run, and that's an area that obviously we've got to be able to run the ball and continue to run the football.

Again, injuries have beset them. They lost their starting kicker as well. So a football team that's certainly dangerous, one that is playing in their last game. They're not going to play another game after this. So we'll get their very best. And one where we'll have to meet that and exceed it because it's a dangerous football team.

Q. I'm not good on the injury math, but I wanted to get an update on Tommy Kraemer, where he is in his recovery.
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think he's somebody that we expect to do something in the spring, but he's in the weight room. He's already working around the injury. No setbacks from the surgery -- not from the surgery, but from the rehab. He didn't have surgery, obviously, but he's doing quite well.

Q. But no chance he would play in a postseason game?
COACH KELLY: Doesn't appear that's going to be the case.

Q. With Asmar, he flashed pretty good athletic ability his whole career here, but there have been other guys that have been jumped on the depth chart and just never got to the top. What about him kind of kept the faith with you that maybe he would turn into this player?
COACH KELLY: Well, I think there was a hint of that in his special teams play. There was a physicality, and he wasn't -- afraid is not the right word -- but there was never a time where we felt like he wasn't willing to really mix it up and play physical.

So we knew there was a guy that was willing to get in there and be physical. We saw that in his special teams play. And then in his limited snaps that he did in fact have out there, I thought we saw some glimpses when Drue Tranquill went down, that he could do some things even though Jim Larkeith was in there and we saw Asmar a little bit, too.

And I just think, based upon his physical traits, I know that Clark felt like he could get him to do the things at the linebacker position that we needed.

Q. I noticed on this depth chart that Isaiah Foskey is on there this week, going back to his neck of the woods. What do you see as maybe where he is in his career right now and limited playing time? And what do you feel like he could turn out to be?
COACH KELLY: We think he can be a very special player. Certainly we wouldn't have saved him for this game. We feel like the pass rush is going to be very, very important. We held him out of a couple of games for that reason. We think he can impact our sub package in particular.

He'll be a starter in that sub package. And we think he can influence the pass rush for us in a positive way.

Q. Phil Jurkovec has got some decent playing time in this month and he's gotten to watch Ian go through some different things, watch him recover from a slump, as you put it. What do you feel like he's been able to take out of this November in terms of his own progress and maybe Brendon Clark, too, what he's been able to get out of it as well?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think they do -- they're here every step of the way with meetings and the ups and downs. So they're pretty sharp and astute. They see the scrutiny of the position and understand how important it is to be prepared and be ready.

There's great conversation that happens in those meetings that require you to stay on top of things, so when we're evaluating film in practice, Coach Rees is really holding Ian and Phil to a high level. So Brendon understands that you can't just come in here and just throw your way to the starting position. There's a lot of work that has to go into preparing.

And, so, I think Brendon minimally walks away going, wow, there's a lot to this. There's a lot of preparation that goes into being the starting quarterback as well as all the expectations. So I think they leave this first year, and Phil does in particular, one step away from being a starter, knowing how much preparation goes into being the starting quarterback.

Q. Chase Claypool's journey to Notre Dame literally and figuratively was long to get here. How far has he come not only as a wide receiver, but adapting to Notre Dame as a student, socially? It's a pretty big transition for him to come into a place like Notre Dame?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, it was. There's no doubt about it. And there were some growing pains along the way. I give him credit and his mom credit. Growing up he's had to overcome a lot of adversity as a young man. And I think that he's a strong young man in a sense that the adversity that he's had here, I think he's been able to fight through those things because of what he's had to experience growing up as well.

So, look, we all have our stories. I think Chase's story will be one where he got knocked down a couple times and he got back up and he kept fighting. And that's what I like about him. He has had every opportunity to go in another direction and he has chosen the path that is going to make him successful. And that's a great story.

Q. When did you know he was going to become the dynamic player that he has become now?
COACH KELLY: Well, I think that once he was going to get an opportunity to be featured, that was going to allow him a chance to break out a little bit more. You had Boykin getting a lot of the one-on-one opportunities. And he was a lot of times to the field where he didn't get those.

Once he was moved into that W receiver position, I thought it would be a breakout opportunity for him. And it turned out to be that.

Q. As it relates to this weekend with Stanford, what are your thoughts about Costello playing this weekend?
COACH KELLY: I don't know. Obviously we'll prepare -- both quarterbacks are outstanding and so we can't change what we're doing. We can only go on who they are as a football team offensively at this point. And it's one that is -- it is going to be successful through the air. And both of those quarterbacks can throw the football. So we'll have to prepare as if either one of them is starting and set our game plan accordingly.

Q. We've talked about false starts a number of times this year, and it seems like you guys have been using the clapping cadence as your base cadence. How long have you been using that before this year? Was that a Chip thing or is that something you used prior?
COACH KELLY: We've used it prior. It's easier when you're dealing with a first-year center. Takes a little bit off of him. But it really has no bearing on false starts.

The false starts are staying locked in, staying focused. The week before against Navy, we had a defense that was moving on every snap. We didn't have any false-start penalties.

So it's a group that just has to stay locked in on every play. And sometimes we're thinking about too many things instead of staying on what's important. And we sometimes get away from staying on what's important.

Q. Liam sort of explained the challenge of you're kind of just sitting there waiting for the clap, to hear the clap, and sometimes maybe you hear a different noise and maybe that distracts you. And I would think with a verbal cadence there's more of a rhythm to that, so there would be less of the possibility for distraction. Have you guys seen maybe defenses making more noise or maybe the pre-snap movement to try to confuse the offensive line in any way?
COACH KELLY: It happens, occasionally. You'll hear some ambient noise of a move call or things of that nature. But we duplicate that in practice as well. So I just think it's get comfortable, be in the right emotional optimal zone. And that stuff really should be as I mentioned secondary.

It shouldn't be primary noise for you. Your focus should be on what your primary responsibility is and that is block the guy over you.

Q. With the offensive line, besides false start penalties, how do you feel they responded to maybe allowing some pressure at the beginning of the game against Boston College and rebounding as maybe getting after Boston College better as the game went on?
COACH KELLY: I'll give them credit. Their defensive structure was about as far removed from what they had shown in the previous eight, nine weeks than what they showed against us. And so we had to make some adjustments. Our offensive line had to make some adjustments in what they were doing. Ian had to make some adjustments.

They had been a cover one, cover two team, and they went to a fire zone combination coverage and did some things up front they hadn't done before. And quite frankly you have to make some adjustments, and we did.

And I thought they did a nice job of, after being kind of uneven start, they hung in there and sorted it out and figured it out as the game kind of moved on.

Q. Where would you say your team has made the most improvement since the beginning of fall camp?
COACH KELLY: I think consistency in execution. And we had a lot of younger players that really are just younger in terms of developing in their particular positions, whether it be Owusu at rover or Drew White or any of the offensive line from Eichenberg to Jared Patterson. Those guys obviously have developed.

So there's been development across the board in every position. But I think as a unit, as a whole, on both sides of the ball, including special teams, just the way that they have gone from practice to a practice mindset to a game mindset in the sense that getting ready for games is a whole lot different.

You have to play physical. You have to play fast. There has to be a discipline. It's so much different than practice. And they really understand how to do that now. And that takes time.

Q. I think you covered this once before, but was there a mechanical adjustment for Jonathan Doerer at some point this season, because he's been different since we saw him in fall camp?
COACH KELLY: No, it's been more of a mental adjustment that he has made throughout the course of, I'd say, six to eight months. And there's always little tweaks when it comes to the kicking game. If you get outside yourself a little bit, it might be your stride's a little bit off or things of that nature.

But most of his success from last year to this year is the mental performance piece. He's done an outstanding job there.

Q. Best Thanksgiving side dish?
COACH KELLY: I'd say for me it would be, I'd have to go with it's a toss-up. I'm going to go with squash.

Q. With the injuries you've had on the defensive line, the guys you've lost for the season, the guys who have had to come out of games and things like that, talk about the young players who have stepped up, the veteran players who have stepped up and how proud are you of the way they responded?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, the first guy that hasn't really gotten much -- talked about, we haven't talked a ton about, but he's been just there each and every week doing a great job is Kurt Hinish. He's been steady, taking every snap, every rep. And you can't play the kind of defense that we're playing unless you have somebody that you can count on at that shade position like we have with him all year. He's been outstanding for us.

As we've shuffled guys in and out of the lineup, the various positions, losing two really good edge players in Daelin and Julian, having guys banged up, obviously Myron, requires young players to step in. And Ja'Mion Franklin, we mentioned him, he's had to play quite a bit this year after an injury. Jacob Lacey has been outstanding for us. Spears got his first chance to play a little bit this past week.

On the outside, Ovie has played a little bit for us and has shown some traits that we really like, some physicality this past weekend, really showed up for us. So to have that kind of depth -- and we haven't even talked about guys like Ade who was all over the field for us and was a really special player.

You can't have the kind of success we've had defensively if you all of a sudden have this huge drop-off. We've had a number of players step in and play at a high level.

Q. The other question I had for you is the players who came out on the field before the game on Saturday, how many of those have a chance of coming back? And then what is the timeframe of them getting information from the NFL and stuff? And then when do they have to declare whether they're going to go or not?
COACH KELLY: The NFL is, that piece is generally the second week in December. We're always fighting against the time, the clock there, relative to gaining that information. And what was the other part of the question?

Q. After they get all this information for the NFL, they have to let you know and (inaudible) come back or --
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think it's January 19th is the -- somewhere around there. I could be corrected there as well. But it's usually about the second week in January. So there's a tight window in there.

Certainly we're doing work prior to that. I've already mentioned we've had conversations with a number of our players regarding what we think and what they think are in their best interests as it relates to those that have another year of eligibility remaining.

Those that are not, you know, it's pretty clear what they're doing. So we had 30 players that are going to be graduating at the end of the year. Some of those guys have eligibility remaining. Those are the ones I've sat down and for the most part had conversations with.

Q. Especially when talking to the players, we've heard a lot about the "next man in" mentality. But obviously to, I guess, sustain or even build on the success, especially defensively, it probably takes more than just a mentality -- you've had some young guys step in and really fill in. What did you think that says about your development as a program especially behind the scenes?
COACH KELLY: I mean, it's everything. It's not just about next man in. It's about building a championship defense. And you just don't do that in August. You're building relationships and trust and accountability and you're doing that, after this season's over you're doing it when you get back in the weight room in January.

So this is a year-round process. It takes an army to build it, an army in the sense of not one person. But a lot of people have to put a lot of time in -- support staff, strength and conditioning, nutrition. There's a lot of people that have a lot of hands in helping build a championship program. And I'm very lucky to have a great staff as well.

Q. I feel like some years in the past, injuries have kind of derailed your season at the end of the year. This obviously isn't the case, but are there certain things that you think are different right now?
COACH KELLY: I think we've built better depth -- better depth in the sense that we have 1 through 85 in our scholarship. We started to look at from 50 down to 85 and how important those numbers were in terms of developing those players so they could step in and keep this thing at a high level.

So just recruiting, recruiting depth in your program and developing that depth to be at a high level.

Q. If you guys win on Saturday you'd have three consecutive 10-win seasons which has never been done here. And I realize in the past they didn't play as many games as you do now. But at the same time I'm curious how important you feel that is in terms of establishing where your program has gotten to in terms of consistency and being a contender on an annual basis?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think that's what everybody's trying to build a consistency within their program that where's the bar, where do you set the bar relative to expectations and what are your standards.

And so our standards here are to clearly we don't play in a conference. So we set high standards for the kind of play that we want from our football team each and every year.

And we don't put a number on it. We simply say that we want to graduate champions. And we want champion performances from our football team in our program each and every year. What that looks like sometimes we don't have control over that. We don't have any control what bowl game we go to per se. We don't have control over who the top four teams would be even if we felt like we had a championship football team.

So, it's building a standard and what that expectation should look like in terms of how your team plays week in, week out.

Q. I'm going to try to ask this differently. I guess does 10 wins repeatedly, is that a sign to you that you're hitting the standard?
COACH KELLY: I'd say that's a pretty high bar. You know, to win 10 out of 12 games each year, given the kind of schedule that we play, I think that's -- yeah, if you had that stock, you'd probably be pretty happy.

Q. After the game Saturday I heard something from you that I don't recall hearing you say. You told the team that failure isn't fatal. How did you come up with that and how were you able to take the guys you had a month ago and refocus them into doing what they've done in the past four weeks as opposed to maybe allowing them to human nature would say when they don't reach the goal they won't that maybe there would be some apathy?
COACH KELLY: You know, it's an ongoing goal, as I said to you earlier. Outwardly, graduating champions outwardly is a degree and a ring. Inwardly, it means so much more. And you can continue to work on that every single day.

So when we talk about failure, we also talk about the other side of that and that is this illusive thought of perfection. Because we're not after that either. And we're after excellence. And so sometimes our guys think perfection is what we're after. And we're not. We're after excellence.

And so we just try to keep it real as it relates to, in life, there isn't perfection. You strive for perfection. Never really getting there. And there's always going to be failures. It's how you deal with them.

And so it's real talk. It's about how we handle those things and grow from them.

Q. This week with the holidays a little different than normal, what will your Thursday look like in terms of the way the team celebrates the holiday?
COACH KELLY: Well, we'll have a short week in the sense of classes, too, because Wednesday there are no classes. So we'll try to keep our practices about the same time because we're going to play at 1:00 pacific standard time, which is 4:00 back here. We'll try to keep our practices around 4:00 to keep the clock the same. But it will be a little bit lighter in terms of their load.

So they'll come in earlier, get some treatment, watch film on their own, and then we don't want to upset the routine. We did that a little bit earlier in the year and that didn't seem to work out very well. So we're going to keep the routine about the same and then Thursday go earlier because we're going to be departing after Easter dinner which we'll have together at the Morris Inn as a team.

Q. On the topic of scheduling what's your schedule next week post-Stanford?
COACH KELLY: The coaches will be recruiting for the week. We'll get back in on Friday. And I'll do some meetings on Friday with players and staff on Friday and Saturday we will then prepare for what our schedule then starts to look like. Coach Balis will lift the team and have them in the weight room next week.

Q. Will you stay out on the West Coast then?
COACH KELLY: Yes, I will.

Q. Get into recruiting as well?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I'll actually travel further west and then come back and kind of keep checkerboarding as I work my way back to South Bend.

Q. You said this on your radio show a couple weeks ago there was a listener question about team speed. And you said offensively we're sort of above-average compared to the teams we're trying to compete with. How do you push that forward? What do you think the biggest markers you have to hit moving forward are in that area of recruiting?
COACH KELLY: I think it's not just on offense. It's defense too. We want to continue to look at speed at the defensive back position. Speed at the running back position and wide receiver position. All those skill positions I think we have to continue to aggressively recruit that position of speed. Make up speed in particular at the cornerback position I think is one of the traits that can overcome a lot.

So I think the charge that I've given Coach Polian and the recruiting staff is to let's not get too caught up on what position they play; let's really focus in on that speed element and those position groups because I think that that's got some room for growth within our program.

Q. Saturday presents you an opportunity to really have the upper hand in the series for maybe the first time since you've been here. Is that significant in recruiting when you're going head to head against Stanford, there's not a huge pool of kids who are looking for the academic/athletic combination, even if Stanford and Notre Dame aren't exactly identical. In terms of if you have the upper hand in the Stanford series how significant is that when you're out on the trail often recruiting against Stanford?
COACH KELLY: I think those things always help when you win the game. But I think there are some clear distinctions between the two schools that we have seen over the last few years that start to separate the recruit as it relates to whether they go to Notre Dame or whether they go to Stanford. But there's no mistaking a win over a school that you're recruiting some players is going to be helpful but I think what we've seen more than anything else is that there is -- there are different distinctions between the two schools as well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297