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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 8, 2011Brian KellyNOTRE DAME 59
Really pleased. It was a tough week for us. We had a lot of academic responsibilities; our kids were really loaded up heavily. And you know, again, playing Air Force and all of those things combined, I'm really pleased with today's performance. Q. You told the news media in your preseason press conference that you would know and you would tell us when your team has arrived. From what you've seen in the last four weeks, have you arrived? COACH KELLY: No. No. But we have made progress to the level where we know what it looks like on the other end. But there's still so many areas to iron out. We have got to get more consistent in special teams. We have glimmers of really good play. We have got to obviously tighten things down defensively with our younger guys. And then just play with more consistency. Four in a row is not enough for this group, you know, but I like the direction that we are going. Q. Can you talk about Andrew Hendrix and why was a good day? COACH KELLY: It was just a matter for all of our guys, we had this suspicion earlier in the year with Aaron Lynch. We are going to play the guys when they are ready to play. He wasn't ready to play. And he's ready to play, in a limited fashion that we saw today; but one that we think really fits Tommy. So a lot of this has been crafted towards: How do we make Tommy Rees a better quarterback, instead of, Andrew Hendrix being out there. Now there's so much versatility in which you have to defend offensively. Now you have to defend it on option, read option, you have to be able to defend a quarterback now that can pitch the ball and speed option. It just creates many more difficulties for a defense, and at the end of the day allows our offense would be very diversified. Q. Old faces in new faces and new faces, Chase and Josh Atkinson; what was it about this week that you felt they were ready? COACH KELLY: Well, we needed a physical presence. Chase is a big, physical, strong player. We really were not sure what Ethan's status was going to be until we got the boot off; he was not moving around. So we practiced Chase all week and really liked the way he practiced and felt like he could win there and help us. You know, Josh, as you know, we had to move Jamoris and we really played with five DBs. So next man in in that instance was Lo Wood which got in there and then we had to get Atkinson some work, too. Q. Just curious, when the game was still a game, how would you evaluate your defense today before it got -- the sloppy stuff at the end. COACH KELLY: Not bad. I think any time that you can hold down -- I think with six minutes to go in the game, it was 59-19. I think we did a pretty good job today. Yeah, there's areas that we can clean up, but you know we were not going to give up big plays. That was really the way we set our defense was that if they were going to get it, that they were going to have to earn it all the way down the field. Q. Two weeks in a row right now where the first play creates a turnover and you score right after that. How important is that to establish an early lead? COACH KELLY: Well, you don't get that each and every week. You don't go into the game thinking, okay, we are going to get a big stop here, turnover and score. But I do believe our offense is -- they are starting to play the way I want them to play, and that is with more of a toughness, a mental toughness that when we get a chance here, we are going to put points on the board. I was really, you know, not disappointed, but we had not put up enough points based upon our offensive yardage, and today was that day. And I think our guys are starting to understand: It's not good enough just to lose a ball, you have to put points on the board, and I think we are starting to understand that. Q. Last year, you were in desperate need of that bye week, just you were really at that point. Now you're on a real roll. How do you go into that bye week? Seems like you almost want to keep that going, that momentum. COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think we need it, we need a break. Our kids, they have got a lot on their plate. As I said, we had a very stressful week this week. You know, they will have the bye week and then mid-winter break and that's going to be, you know, key for our guys to just relax a little bit. You have to understand, Aaron Lynch, those kids have been up here on campus since June 16. They have not been home since June 16, and that's hard for an 18-year-old kid. So this break comes at a good time for our guys to get home and see their families a little bit. So any momentum that is lost in that is gained by our guys getting a chance to get home. Q. The decision to play Chase, how is that related to Ethan's health? Do you have a timetable? COACH KELLY: We really look at it as if you are really ready to play physically and go in there and play for us, we are going to guys. We just feel like physically he's mature enough to go in there and play for us. It really did not have much to do with Ethan. Obviously we'll have to see where he is moving forward, but we just felt like he was ready to play. Q. Do you right now consider Andrew your No. 2 quarterback? COACH KELLY: Oh, no, Danny is our No. 2. Andrew does not have all of the grasp of the offense, everything that he needs. But he certainly is somebody that can go in the game and can do some very good things. He was four-for-four throwing the football, made some very good decisions. We featured six different formation looks for him, and it's a package that can continue to grow with him. Q. Talk about Theo, not only being part of the offense, but being an integral part of the offense. COACH KELLY: I've been trying to tell you guys that he's pretty good. Just when he gets his chances, he runs so hard. I mean, he is a difficult guy when he gets the ball in his hands. And obviously there was a concern on my part to make sure that he got some touches and got into a good flow. It was nice to see that, because he is -- I don't know how you defend one guy over the other. You've got Tyler Eifert, Theo, great catch by TJ Jones on a key third-down situation. All of those guys, it's a very, very balanced group and you've got to keep Theo in the mix. Q. What was it about this week, as opposed to last week where Theo got all of the touches? COACH KELLY: Each and every week, there's a different defensive coordinator, and just they say a play and we are going to go do this. We are not going to let this guy get the ball and when they do that, we have to respond in kind and be prepared based upon what they do to get our guys some touches. Q. How important is it to get him involved early? Does it help him a lot to get touches early? COACH KELLY: Theo, I think some guys just go with the flow. He definitely needs some MoJo, some good MoJo, and it helps when you can run reverses with him, some hand-off sweeps, some screen gain; any way that you can get the ball in his hands without it being within the routes itself. So we are going to continue to have that, feature that within our offense, and I think it keeps him involved in the offense. Q. You said Danny is No. 2, what does that mean for Hendrix? Will he get more snaps or less snaps? What does it mean for him? COACH KELLY: I really couldn't tell you. All I know is you're going to defend him because he's pretty good. It was funny on the run that he had, he said, "Coach should have challenged that; I was actually in." So he's a pretty confident kid. He can run, he's athletic. He can throw the ball very well. We are just going to continue to utilize him to strengthen Tommy's hand. And now with both of those guys, and Tommy obviously being about 85 to 90 percent of the game, it just gives you another dimension of our offense that if you're not prepared for it, you can see what happens. Q. Tommy, seven touchdowns, no turnovers the last two weeks, what's been the difference specifically with him? COACH KELLY: Just maturing. He's growing as he goes here. I keep reminding you guys and hopefully you're starting to listen to me. He's 8-1 as a starter and he continues to grow and develop, and we are seeing that maturity. Got flushed out of the pocket a couple of times, threw the ball away, made some very good decisions in pressure situations when something wasn't there. He's just developing maturing. Q. With the run pass option, several different guys scoring touchdowns, is this as close to your offensive identity that we have seen since you've been here? COACH KELLY: Yeah, we are getting closer. Our tempo is not there yet. We would like to play faster but we are getting better. We are making the strides; the question was asked earlier, we have not arrived. The pieces are starting to come together for us. We are getting there. And it's started really with the running game and the ability to run the football. Once we do that, there's so many other pieces that we can use. Q. Four in a row heading into the bye, does momentum take on any importance or is it week-to-week? COACH KELLY: I'm answering honestly from my perspective as a head coach, and having been a head coach for 21 years, momentum is needed when there's not a lot of wind in the sails. When you have confidence in your ability, momentum is not a necessary part of that. I think that momentum then becomes a turnover in a first series and capitalizing on it with a touchdown. That to me is momentum within the game now. Q. For the first five games, Jamoris never really was a factor and today he made two really big plays. What about him turned the corner? COACH KELLY: Well, you know, he's played really good football for us. He's in a different spot. He played within our defensive structure. He played Prince Shembo's position today. Prince was a backup defensive lineman today for us, so he's right at the point of attack within the structure that we had out there today. But he's been big for us all year. He allows us to do some things at nickel that we have not been able to do all year. Q. Can you just talk about the advantage of playing with a short field? COACH KELLY: Yeah, for me, I'm not really concerned with the field so much as the scoring zones. That's been our issue. We moved the ball effectively all year. It's been putting points on the board in those areas where you need to score. I think that's probably, for me, what I take away more than anything else, is putting the points on the board. We had not been very good at that, and we are getting better because we are making better decisions, maybe better play calls, too. Q. Along the same line as third-down conversions? COACH KELLY: Yeah, it's been a focus. I think good teams convert at a high rate there. We have got very good diversity within our offense. We can run and throw it, but we are hard to defend right now. I mean, there's a lot of things coming together for us offensively with so many different outlets that it's -- like I said, we are getting to the point where our guys feel very confident that if they just, during the week, do the little things right, they will be able to execute on Saturday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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