Brian Kelly Notebook: March 20
Notre Dame returned to the field Tuesday morning after a week off to continue its spring preparations.
The Irish, however, had already conducted two practices March 6 and March 8 before the break to help spread out its time. It was also the first practice of the spring in pads.
Head coach Brian Kelly was happy to see the week off didn’t set any players back physically.
“We had a conditioning test when they came back, and they were really good,” Kelly stated post-practice. “We felt great about them as a whole making their times and conditioning level. They came in ready to go.
“That’s behind us, so we feel good about what they did. I’m sure they got a chance to be college students during break, but they understood how important it was to come back in good physical condition.”
Having the two practices before players left for spring break eventually leads to more time with the team, according to Kelly.
“What it allows you to do is to get more time with your team,” Kelly said. “The ability to add those two before they go on break instead of giving them a week off then starting, you can imagine they’d be in a little bit of catch-up mode academically after break. My experience tells me this first week gets them a little busier academically, so it was a good week for us to have meetings to put our base offense, defense and special teams in.
“Then you don’t have to do count the week in the days that you count relative to the 28 days. You have 15 practice opportunities in a 28-day period and you don’t have to count that week. You elongate the time with your team during the spring.”
Notre Dame experienced a ton of change during the offseason following the 2016 season. Though it wasn’t to the same level, this past offseason also brought change with a new defensive coordinator (Clark Lea) and a new position coach defensively (Terry Joseph) on top of the departing players.
Despite more change, Kelly feels there is much more continuity this season with the approach remaining the same for the Irish.
“I think it’s consistency of message and mission,” Kelly explained. “Our guys know exactly what is expecting of them on a day-to-day basis. When they come in with that knowledge with the mission and what we’re expecting of them, that allows you to build deeper into the things we are talking about on a day-to-day basis …
“It’s not new to them. … The consistency of message whether we’ve lost guys or not has stayed the same. It’s stayed with the coaching staff, the support staff and that’s where you start to build a little bit more of that continuity and that expectation that everyone knows what to do and how to do it.”
That continuity isn’t showing up in large batches, but in the little areas that can make all the difference on a team.
“Today, Brandon Wimbush and Miles Boykin having a great relationship out there,” Kelly shared as an example. “You can see that they are going to connect on some big plays for us. You see it in Sam Mustipher with his experience out there. He controls things from the snap and recognition up front.
“Defensively, you don’t see a lot of the miscues that maybe we had at other times relative a number of guys that have a lot of experience. I don’t think you see it in a transformational sense as much as small areas that seem to be really clean if you will from my eye.”
ELKO TO LEA
Notre Dame will enter 2017 with its fourth defensive coordinator in three seasons when factoring in the dismissal of Brian VanGorder during the 2016 campaign and Greg Hudson taking over for the final eight games of the year.
Mike Elko spent one year in South Bend before departing to join Jimbo Fisher’s new staff at Texas A&M. Lea now takes over as the guy in charge of overseeing an Irish defense that showed significant improvement going from the 62nd ranked scoring defense in 2016 to 31st last year.
The system will remain much of the same for the Irish helping keep that continuity for their defensive players, but Lea’s coaching methods differ from that of Elko.
“Clark is someone who articulates his messages a little bit different than Mike did,” Kelly said Tuesday afternoon. “He’s very clear in his communication. I think the best way that I would describe him is someone who is building a culture of accountability.
“Last year, we would do up downs after practice if we had some mistakes. We don’t do that anymore. There’s a sense of peer accountability that Clark likes to build within the unit that helps build pride in how they do their job.”
Notre Dame fans hope a similar jump in production is made in 2018 from the group.
PASS CATCHERS
Kelly was asked about which wide receivers he is confident in this spring and junior Miles Boykin came to mind first.
“I think he’s playing with a lot of confidence as a guy that obviously now with EQ moving on has that opportunity to really shine,” Kelly said of Boykin. “He’s had three really good practices …
“I think everyone else is in that process of developing to that next level. Chase Claypool, Chris Finke, Michael Young, Javon McKinnley is going to have to step up and show the count on me this spring. As you know, we have a host of young freshmen that are going to get a chance to come in and compete for playing time.”
Freshman tight end Cole Kmet is balancing spring ball along with his role as a pitcher for the Irish baseball team. Kmet has pitched 20 2/3 innings in 10 appearances this season with a 0-1 record, 2.61 ERA and 15 strikeouts. He is making quite the impression on Kelly this spring as well.
“Whatever he can do to help that team and whatever he can do in terms of his schedule, he is going to make it work,” Kelly said. “If there is a chance to win a championship and it’s going to help our team and we’ve got one spring practice, I’m probably going to do whatever I can to help our baseball team win a championship.
“Cole Kmet is outstanding. Equally impressive in what he’s doing in spring ball from a football standpoint.”
HAYES/GILMAN IMPRESSING
Following a strong spring last year, many felt 2017 could have been a breakout year for sophomore drop end Daelin Hayes. While he didn’t put together a blistering campaign, Hayes registered 30 total tackles, 6.5 stops for loss and three sacks.
With 2018 being the second year for Hayes at the drop position, a new one for him last season, Kelly sees Hayes’ confidence in playing the spot growing as a junior.
“I think the only thing he’s missing really is continued confidence in the position in which he plays,” Kelly explained. “Not in himself. He’s an extremely confident young man and carries himself as such. The position he plays was new to him. I think the nuances of that position maybe got him a little tentative as the year went on.
“I think his knowledge base is so much better this year of understanding his position and how it relates to the 11 players. He looks great. He’s physical and he’s playing the kind of football we expect him to play next year right now.”
Former Navy safety Alohi Gilman transferred to Notre Dame last year and is now eligible for the Irish. Kelly has stated in the past Gilman would have seen a ton of snaps in 2017 if he were cleared to play.
Kelly feels Gilman’s skill set can help take the team’s safety play to another level.
“We know his toughness, but he’s a really good cover safety,” Kelly said. “He’s on the ball. He’s somebody that can play the ball in the air. I don’t know if we had an interception from a safety last year.
“He’s a guy that will get his hands on the ball. That looks good to me as the head coach looking at the safety play. It’s been really, really solid from that perspective.”
LINEBACKER/ROVER
Drue Tranquill is moving inside this upcoming season to man the Buck linebacker position in the Irish defense, sliding over from rover.
Kelly still feels good about the transition and wants to shore up Tranquill’s vacant rover spot, but mentioned the Irish have options depending on various looks an offense may show.
“I think the two inside linebackers with Tranquill and Te’von Coney is a solid two guys right there,” Kelly stated. “Right now, rover is a position that is we feel great about Asmar Bilal if you’re lining up the tight end and he can stand over the top of the tight end. If you want to get into the detached game and four wide, we can nickel out as an option or we can look at another rover that has a little bit more of an ability to cover that number two receiver down the field.
“We have some other options there, so I don’t think it needs to come to this has to happen in the spring. I think the nickel position will help us decide the rover position. We know what we have with Asmar with the tight end there, so we’ll keep working the young guys.”
Freshman Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who redshirted in 2017, is a name often brought up in the rover discussion. It’s all about the mental side of the game for the former Hampton (Va.) Bethel standout.
“He’s got traits,” Kelly said. “There’s no question about that from a physical standpoint. He’s got to get the traits on the other side of it in terms of understanding the game and what we’re doing.”
Kelly also touched on the three early enrollee linebackers taking part in their first spring ball experience in South Bend — Bo Bauer, Jack Lamb and Ovie Oghoufo.
“I think Bauer probably combines both of those right now,” Kelly said. “His physicality is really good. He’s capable of probably playing right away. He’s smart and physical. He’s a little bit ahead of them, but each one of them has some interesting and unique traits that will allow them to be very successful for us.
“Lamb is someone who is extremely athletic. He can run sideline to sideline, but again it is he strong enough to take on the pounding that is required of that position.”
“Ovie’s got some physicality issues in terms of that he’s not ready for prime-time playing. He’s extrelemly athletic and he’s a really smart kid. He’s got to get bigger and stronger. This offseason is going to be really important to him to see if he can break through and help us on special teams.”
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