Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly spoke at his weekly press conference today and touched on Michigan, Wolverine quarterback Shea Patterson, the improvement of Irish right guard Tommy Kraemer and more.
KELLY: "Guys got back in last night and we had our team meeting. We're on fall break, so getting the team in this morning and getting a chance to kind of recenter them, get their mindset on certainly the game and Michigan, and their preparation was the most important thing.
"We had meetings and weight training this morning, and then this afternoon we'll get out on the field with a practice. So we're back at it. Obviously a great challenge this weekend against Michigan. Playing at Michigan is always a great challenge and one that our guys are excited about being on national television.
"But it'll be one where we'll have to execute at a high level, play a physical game certainly, and handle the elements. It will be loud and certainly, communication will be very, very important for us.
"Again, the preparation began a little bit last week where we got a chance to spend some time on Michigan. We're playing obviously a really good football team. Seems that they played very well in the second half in particular. An offensive line that is obviously playing much better as a unit than they did earlier in the season.
"Experience. They got four or five starters back. I thought Patterson probably had his best game of the year. He's tough. He's gritty. He's accurate when he throws the football. He can run it.
"I think he throws a very catchable football, and he's got big, physical receivers that will obviously go up and get the football for him.
"The run game I think the freshman Zach Charbonnet has done a really nice job for them coming in as a true freshman. They're very consistent in what they do.
"But I think the receiving core, Collins, Black, Peoples, Jones. Big, physical, but I think Bell is really the playmaker for them. You know, he's their best receiver; extremely competitive kid. Look to see him have a really big game. He's that kind of player for them.
"I think we all know defensively they've been a high-effort group, especially the defensive line. Paye, Kemp, Hutchinson, all great players, athletic, can pass rush, really good against the run.
"These are guys that have really obviously developed in the program as well. I know Paye coming out of high school was 225; he's put the on 50 pounds. Hutchinson, great motor.
"So it's a group that can get after you. Well coached. Linebackers, McGrone, we knew him very well in the recruiting process, has stepped in for Ross and has played very, very well.
"I think Hudson is the guy really can play on all three levels. Really, really good player for them. And then on the defensive backfield, you know, a lot of experience with Metellus and Hawkins. Hill is really, really good corner and we know Thomas very well from the recruiting process.
"Donnie Brown does a great job with them. Seems like their offense is really finding themselves in terms of their production. Should be a great matchup between two really good football teams.
"Got to go on the road again, handle all the distractions there, and look for a classic matchup between two teams that have a great history and tradition of playing each other.
"Open up to questions."
On how he spent his team away from the team during the idle weekend:
KELLY: "Saturday I went to Cincinnati and was part of the induction of our 2009 undefeated football team at Cincinnati.
"So it was great to see those guys. I think we had over 50 players that came back from Travis Kelce to Andre Revels, Tony Pike. It was great to see all those guys and share some stories. Some were true; some were not true.
"But it was just a great group of guys to see and spend some time with them."
On the current Cincinnati program:
KELLY: "Yeah, got a chance to see Mike. Great to see Mike. I think they're a well-established program that has -- Luke Fickle has got them playing at a high level defensively. Extremely aggressive. Mike is doing a great job on the offensive side of the ball.
"I think they have a chance to be part of the New Year 6. There is a team there that -- I got a chance to see them a little bit, but they're athletic on defense, they run well, physical.
"And then offensively got a really nice quarterback and an outstanding running back."
On the health of running back Jafar Armstrong and defensive back Shaun Crawford:
KELLY: "Jafar is going to be an important part of our game plan, so as much as it was just really kind of getting him through a game situation and getting the taste of it for USC, it's not a full go for him. This week will be him being factored into our game plan, playing a prominent role, and I think an impact.
"Shaun is involved in everything from 7-on-7 to one-on-one drills. He'll be involved in everything, and continue to see what his comfort level is. But we expect him to play. We'll see at what level he can play at. But he's a guy that I wouldn't count out of being a contributor in some fashion being around the ball next Saturday night."
On the relationships of defensive ends Ade Ogundeji, Daelin Hayes and Khalid Kareem, who are all from the same region in Michigan:
KELLY: "Much more of a relationship that developed when they got to Notre Dame. And I think it's not just because from the same state, but they were I think close early on and then just developed that relationship over time."
On playing Michigan after going against an Air Raid offense:
KELLY: "Yes. The air raid would be a much different approach to how you're philosophically going to move the football. This one requires from our perspective less of a change to our structure differently than it did in preparing for USC."
On the Michigan wide receivers compared to USC's:
KELLY: "Well, they're a different group in terms of size and physicality. I think they stand by themselves. You know, speed I think I would probably give the edge to USC, but I think what they do really well use their strengths. That is they body up defensive backs very well, and they use their length and strength to their advantage and do a great job of it."
On adjusting defensively to playing Michigan:
KELLY: "Well, certainly people talk about 50/50 balls. I mean, you can't give up 50/50 balls, so how do you turn that factor into your favor? You know, you have to play some zone coverage. You've got to take away the high percentage of 50/50 balls because of their size.
"So you're double zoning, playing some bail, doing some things where you're keeping the corners over the top with some help underneath. You can't just line up in one coverage there because they're going to win some of those matchups.
"So giving the corners some help, varying some man and zone looks outside is very, very important, and certainly not giving Patterson the same looks every time. He's a smart quarterback. He can run if he doesn't like what he sees.
"What we did really well last year was put some pressure on the quarterback. I think we need to do that again."
On the goal for the team during the idle week:
KELLY: "Well, the first thing was to get our team in on Sunday because we wanted to get them out. After weight training on Thursday, we gave them all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday offer. So typically I like to get them four days off, which we were able to accomplish that again.
"So that meant us coming in Sunday, which is something we're not used to doing, so that was a bit a change for them. A little bit of grumbling on Sunday when they were in here, but they clearly understood what the end game was. So we got some good work Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday on our preparation.
"Along that same time period, you know, the self-scouting is happening all the time now. We're a client of Pro Football Focus and they're now entered into the college game as well. We're not only using our analytics that we have each and every week, we're another client of another analytics-based group. Using both of those kind of keeps us ahead of the curve. Used to be you get to the bye week and you do this heavy, heavy self-scout. We're kind of doing that weekly now, so that's less of a mandate.
"And then certainly the second was to get on the road. We had some coaches that went out on Tuesday and then the rest of the coaches after practice on Wednesday; I was able to get out on Thursday and Friday."
On having a consistent go-to guy at the field receiver position:
KELLY: "I think formationally you want some different looks. I think it's important to move a guy like Chase Claypool around where he doesn't get caught into the short side because it's easier to defend him there.
"So I've always felt from a formational standpoint you need to have some different looks and move guys around. If you're asking me would we like to have one guy out there that has solidified a position? Maybe. But we have been able to use a lot of young guys, and they've all been able to mature this year to the level where we've gotten some pretty good production out of them.
"It's a little bit of both. I think you need to have different formation looks where you can use tight ends, move receivers around, but I'm never going to shy away from establishing a guy out there that you know that the quarterback can look out there and go, I know exactly what he's going to do."
On the improvement Tommy Kraemer has made this year:
KELLY: "Yeah, drastic may be a strong word. He was a solid player for us last year. I think drastic would probably be better used in the off-season in terms of the remake in many ways of his habits as it relates to how he takes care of himself nutritionally.
"He's in great shape physically, stronger, moves well, and I think a lot of that took place in the off-season. As a football player, he still is powerful at the line of scrimmage. He can handle most guys that he goes against. He's a very, very underrated pass blocker, and I think the things he continues to work on are the consistency elements."
On preparing for the atmosphere at Michigan this weekend:
KELLY: "Well, we started our cadence, nonverbal cadence, last week. I learned that that's something that requires much more repetition, so that was learned. We're not going to make that same mistake twice.
"I think, you know, our guys are really tuned into understanding that the atmosphere will be loud and that you cannot be distracted if you are interested in executing at a high level. If you're distracted, then you're not in the right place emotionally, and our guys are pretty locked in on that.
"So we'll continue to talk about it during the week, but I think that they got a pretty good understanding of that."
On what it's like to play Michigan:
KELLY: "No. I think it's a game that our players are keenly aware of its great history and tradition over the years. A lot of these guys are recruited to Notre Dame as well. You know, you're only a couple hours away. It's one of our only two bus trips, maybe three, with Purdue that we take in our time here.
"So the proximity is certainly one that we're quite aware of as well. So clearly the guys know Michigan. They know the history and tradition of it. They know it's a really good football team.
"Look, what gets their attention more than anything else, it's a really good football team. If it wasn't, we would be talking about other things."
Biggest strength and weakness of this team:
KELLY: "I think our ability to prepare on a consistent basis. Our guys really stick to our process, which tends to show a consistency to your football team.
"It takes out a lot of guesswork in a sense as coaches we know what we're going to expect. It allows us to play to our strengths and know where our weaknesses are. That's important because you can't be somebody that plays up and down each and every week. I think that's our strength. We're a pretty consistent team from week to week.
"And within that, you can certainly know yourself better, and because of that, you're better able to handle where you may be short in some areas."
On self-scouting his players:
KELLY: "We don't have each group look at each other during the season unless there is something glaring that I've seen, and then I will. Because I'm generally doing both. I'm spending time on offense and defense. If I see something that's glaring, I will bring it up in our coordinators' meeting. I meet with the coordinators twice a week, and those meetings are where we cut across all topics.
"So we spend more time on the analytics and the numbers than we do on having coaches self-scout the opposite side of the ball. I spend more time looking at film on defense and talking to Clark about any perceived issues that I may have, and the same thing when I'm watching offense and special teams. I will talk to the coordinators if there are things I perceive we need to address."
On Donte Vaughn availability against Michigan and a possible senior redshirt:
KELLY: "Yeah, Donte Vaughn will be playing against Michigan, guaranteed. Yep.
"We're playing one game at a time and he's ready for Michigan. Going to play against Michigan.
"We've had some conversations and they are not surface conversations about where we go from there, but I'm not going to get into them at this time."
On the emergence of running back Tony Jones this season:
KELLY: "There is a number of reasons. I could talk about his maturity individually. I think he's grown a lot. I think one of the biggest things is accepting the role of the position in which we're asking him.
"Look, sometimes you come in and you picture yourself to be doing a number of different things, and we've asked him to focus on X, Y and Z and he's focused on those things and is excelling at them. He's eliminated a lot of noise by focusing on things he knows he can really master, and he's done a great job with that.
"I think you want, as a coach, to see your players play their best in their senior year. That is a credit to not only themselves, but the growth within a program that they can excel later.
"I think there are a lot factors. I would put most of it on Tony and his acceptance of his particular strengths and his role within the program."
On running the ball against this Michigan defense:
KELLY: "There is going to be times we're going to have to run the football. There are other ways to win games as well. We're committed to finding ways to win first, but we also know that we have been most effective in winning games over the last few years finding a running game at some part of the game.
"Maybe it's not the first quarter. Maybe it's the second or the fourth, but we're going to have to carve out a run game at some time during the game. That's just being persistent. That's being patient. It's probably a little bit of those both. I think we have been that to allow a run came to find itself at some time during a game."
On how quarterbacks Shea Patterson and Ian Book compare:
KELLY: "They're a little bit different. They both throw very catchable balls. You know, I think Ian has done a great job of fitting into an offensive structure. I think Patterson has had to live through a few different iterations, so it's kind of hard, but it seems like he's starting to feel more comfortable with what they're doing now, which is a little bit more similar to what we're running.
"I think they're both very competitive players at their position."
On going on the road for the first time in several weeks:
KELLY: "I think our guys are pretty mature to handle, you know, the situation, whether we're home or away. I like the way they go to work every day in terms of their preparation.
"So some teams you may be concerned with not being on the road for a little bit. This is a pretty mature group. We had one guy come in late because his plane was delayed. Just seems like everything that they do is very, very mature, and you don't worry about things like going on the road after being off for five weeks.
"They'll handle themselves very well."
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