Brian Kelly, Notre Dame Handling Success With Same Approach
Brian Kelly proved the past 10 months that he can deal with failure and make the necessary adjustments. Handling success can be different, but he is keeping the same mental framework with his team.
Unranked after the first three games this season following last year’s 4-8 implosion, Notre Dame made it back to No. 22 in the Associated Press poll after it improved to 3-1 with the win at Michigan State on Sept. 23. This weekend it vaulted four spots to No. 9 following its 49-14 dismantling of previous No. 11 USC.
College Football Playoff fever has returned to Notre Dame like it did in November 2015 during a 10-1 start, but it is not necessarily a prime topic in team meetings.
“We've never talked about rankings,” said Kelly during his Sunday teleconference. “All we've talked about is being aware of the situation. For so many months there was plenty of negative criticism out there about us and where we were — but you've got to go out and earn the respect.
“Now that you've got it, you've got to stay with what has gotten us here. So just being aware of your circumstances is fine. We don't take it much further than that. You can't bury your head from where you are, but it's still about our process and how we go to work and prepare each and every day.”
Kelly is hardly a stranger to prominence. Along with Ohio State’s Urban Meyer, he is one of two coaches in the FBS who have steered two different schools to 12-0 regular seasons: 2009 at Cincinnati and 2012 at Notre Dame. Shortly after the trouncing of the Trojans, the calm message the Irish head coach conveyed to his troops was to “act like they’ve been there before.”
Many were part of the 10-1 start just two seasons ago, but the current sophomores and freshmen were not.
“That doesn't mean that can't be the way you handle yourself on a day-to-day basis,” Kelly said. “You go into the end zone and even if it's your first time, you can act the right way … Because that's the only way we're going to continue to succeed here.
“If you get all giddy and you're not emotionally stable to stay consistent, we're not going to be able to get this journey completed the way we want to. So that was really the crux of the analogy.”
Kelly noted that this year’s Irish have younger players than the 2012 unit that was dominated by strong personalities on defense such as Manti Te’o, Kapron Lewis-Moore, Louis Nix and Zeke Motta on defense, and Zack Martin, Chris Watt, Tyler Eifert and Theo Riddick, among others, on offense. Among the 22 starters on offense and defense that year, only four were sophomores or freshmen.
“This group has a younger feel to it …but there are some dominant personalities on both teams,” Kelly said. “This team, I think, had to come together with a more common purpose than maybe the '12 team, in a sense, because we have a lot of younger football players impacting what we're doing.”
The Irish already have played No. 3 Georgia (20-19 loss), No. 16 Michigan State (38-18 win) and No. 21 USC (49-14 win). The 2017 docket still has a trip to No. 8 Miami on Nov. 11, hosting No. 14 North Carolina State this weekend and the regular season finale at No. 20 Stanford on Nov. 25.
When asked if the 35-point win over the Trojans would rank among his best in terms of building a vibe or national buzz, Kelly didn’t take the bait.
“I wouldn't rank it anywhere in terms of anything but how it impacts this team,” Kelly said. “It was a really good win because it strengthens their belief in how we're preparing, and that's really the only focus that we have is this team right now.
“They have a strong belief that they can dominate their opponent. So when you beat a really good football team like USC in the fashion that they did, that strengthens their belief and what they're doing and how we're doing it on a day-to-day basis. We don't look at anything else but what's important right now.”
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