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Wolfpack’s Offensive Weapons Present A Challenge For The Irish

Head coach Brian Kelly said Notre Dame’s discussion with North Carolina State and the ACC has centered on possibly moving the game to Sunday if weather conditions don’t allow it to be played Saturday at noon as scheduled. (Rick Kimball)

Brian Kelly had plenty to say at his Tuesday press conference, touching on contingency plans for the North Carolina State game, freshmen defensive backs, the running game and where the defense goes from here.

HURRICANE PLANS

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With Hurricane Matthew projected to head up the East Coast later this week, Kelly said there have been discussions about possible contingency plans.

There has been no talk about moving the game to Friday. The conversations between North Carolina State, Notre Dame and the Atlantic Coast Conference have centered on possibly moving the game to Sunday, if indeed weather conditions don’t allow it to be played Saturday at noon as scheduled.

“We’ve given them a window that we’re available to play this game from 12:00 until noon on Sunday,” Kelly said. “We feel like anything after noon on Sunday starts to encroach on our ability to prepare for Stanford. So there is quite a bit of flexibility.

“We feel like we’ve secured accommodations and flights and such to leave a big window of availability to play this game.”

There was a conference call scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday, Kelly said, to discuss the matter further. Everything is on the table, except for moving the game to Friday. As of Wednesday afternoon, however, it looked as though the game would be played at its scheduled time.

In terms of game planning, heavy rain could make the environment similar to when Notre Dame played at Clemson last year.

“For us, it’s always about wind more so than it is about precipitation,” Kelly said. “The field conditions we have been told should be, unless it’s unplayable, we should be able to be fine relative to the field conditions.

“But, you know, we are very good at moving the ball and throwing the football in most conditions, unless the wind becomes at a point where the ball just can’t be moved through the air. Then we get into formations that we already have in our system and we’ll employ those.”

YOUNG DEFENSIVE BACKS SHINE

One of the main storylines following Notre Dame’s 50-33 win over Syracuse was Kelly’s use of his freshmen defensive backs.

Notre Dame’s three-deep depth chart now looks like the following in the secondary:

Left cornerback: Julian Love, Donte Vaughn and Ashton White
Right cornerback: Cole Luke, Troy Pride Jr. and Nick Coleman
Strong safety: Drue Tranquill, Jalen Elliott and Spencer Perry
Free safety: Devin Studstill, Nicco Fertitta and Avery Sebastian

Ten of the 12 players listed in the depth chart at the four spots in the Irish secondary are in their first or second year of eligibility. As the season goes along, that inexperience is no longer an excuse for mistakes.

“I told my staff yesterday, and it will probably be the last time that I refer to that, going into now our sixth week, you’re starting to get away from the freshman tag,” Kelly said. “These guys have been around long enough now that they know what to do. They’re just lacking some experience, but they’ve got to go out and play.

“If we’re playing them, we trust them. We believe in them, and they’re our guys for right now and moving forward into the future.”

On Pride Jr., who played 60 snaps: “He impressed me [in practice]. I really was impressed with him. I wanted to play him. And I thought we should have played him, so I’m making those personnel decisions.”

On Vaughn, who played 79 snaps: “Obviously, he’s a unique player in that he has the size and the flexibility to play that position. He’s not afraid. He’s not afraid to play.”

On Love, who played 46 snaps: “Early on it was pretty clear that he was able to pick things up pretty easily and then go back out and retain it later. We knew his athletic ability was not going to be an issue for us. Then I think when we were looking for somebody to play the nickel position.”

Freshmen safeties Elliott and Studstill, as well as Fertitta, a sophomore, all played key roles as well.

“For me this has been an evaluation of our personnel and fitting the defense to our personnel,” Kelly said. “In not being — again, this is just putting my philosophy, defensive philosophy over the past week spew the defense. I’m always and have always been about play or not play.

“That’s the same philosophy that we’ve kind of put into our defense. It’s really about the players not the particular scheme. So we’re fitting the players to the scheme not the scheme to the players. So you’re seeing some people move around to fit to the way I want our defense to look.”

NC STATE PREP

Notre Dame will go from preparing for Syracuse’s uptempo scheme to NC State, which is averaging a more manageable 74.3 plays per game.

Led by Boise State transfer quarterback Ryan Finley, the Wolfpack are 3-1 entering the Notre Dame game.

“He’s smart, doesn’t go outside of what his capabilities are as well,” Kelly said of Finley, who is fourth in the country with a 72.4 percent completion rate. “He knows what he can do and he does it well. He’s a veteran player. Doesn’t try to do too much, but does enough to be effective, very effective in what they’re asking him to do.”

Running back Matthew Dayes and H-back Jaylen Samuels are two of NC State’s other key weapons.

On Dayes, who is averaging 109.2 yards per game rushing: “Quick feet, hits the holes, accelerates, is a senior, guy that week in and week out is getting 100 yards rushing.”

On Samuels, who has 185 receiving yards and four touchdowns this year: “He’s physical, runs after the catch. He’s not really a tight end. So we have to treat him differently. We don’t want him matched up in what we would consider unfavorable matchup situations. So we first have to check personnel groupings. That’s important to us.”

DEFENSE BACK RIGHT COURSE

After the turmoil of last week’s firing of coordinator Brian VanGorder, Kelly said he feels the defense is moving in the right direction.

“This will kind of be that — first week, second week we hope to see a lot of improvement defensively,” he said. “Like I said, there will be carryover from what we did last week to this week and we will add some things obviously that we feel are appropriate to the game plan.”

Notre Dame’s upcoming games will challenge the young defense — and there will be mistakes made in those games — but Kelly is confident where things are going.

“So a lot to play for, a lot in front of us, a lot of challenges, but more importantly a group that I feel is really excited about the direction that we’re going in particular on defense,” Kelly said. “We hope to build on that. There’s going to be some ups and downs and there will be some growing pains when you play 18 freshmen, redshirt freshmen, in particular you play 11 true freshmen, there will be some of that.

“Guys are settled in. They probably have a bigger trust factor and know what to expect. Look, anytime there is a change of that magnitude during the season, everybody wants to say the right things, but still it’s the proof. By the time we got to halftime and the way they played. That there was that sense of this is going to work out pretty good. There is a bigger trust and understanding in know that go we’re going to be in pretty good shape defensively.”

ODDS & ENDS

• Kelly said he expects senior right guard Colin McGovern (ankle) to be back against North Carolina State. Senior Hunter Bivin played nearly the entire game against Syracuse in place of McGovern.

• Kelly on his continuing role with the defense: “I’m going to be there quite a bit and I would think that's going to be the case most of the year. There’s just a lot of decisions that still need to be made and quite frankly I need to continue to just see the overall workings of the defense, and the personalities and the players. We’re playing a lot of players that I want to continue to evaluate.”

• Kelly: “I can’t remember ever playing this many freshmen.”

• With Notre Dame heading to the state of North Carolina, Kelly was asked about the Irish recruiting efforts in that region and the impact of the ACC scheduling agreement: “We’ll still be along the coast. That’s not a change at all for us. Obviously we just talked about Julian, right? Romeo and Julian [Okwara], both coming from Charlotte area, I think that’s been a really good place for us and I think it will continue to be.

“So I don't see that changing anytime. It’s still a growing area, still an area that we’ve had half success in and South Carolina with Troy Pride obviously. So just this past year we’re playing two true freshmen on our defense that are from North Carolina and South Carolina.”

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