Brian Kelly Transcript: October 14
Notre Dame improved to 7-0 with a 19-14 victory over Pittsburgh. Head coach Brian Kelly met with the media on Sunday following the win.
Q: Obviously this is kind of a midway point of the season for you guys with the bye. What do you feel like is kind of the state of the team this year? What are your thoughts as you get so far how the season has gone for you guys?
Brian Kelly: Well, super excited. You know, 7-0 with a very difficult schedule, beat three top-25 teams at the time. Just really proud of our football team in terms of where we are, and we know that we can continue to get better.Yeah, if you asked me 7-0 at the bye week, I'd be extremely pleased and happy, and I'm certainly that as I sit here right now.
Q: What do you think is the most important thing for your guys this upcoming week? Is it the mental break? Is it the physical break? What's kind of the most important thing for your team right now?
Kelly: I just think probably the mental piece. I think physically we're in a pretty good place. You can always use a few days there. But we also want to be able to critically look at the things that we need to get better at moving forward, as well. There are some things that we need to talk about here over the next few days as we prepare for Navy. There's a number of things that we'll talk about internally about the next challenges in front of us, but I think more importantly, our football team is excited about the upcoming weeks in front of them. Just keep them channelled, stay one day at a time, and we'll talk about that today.
Q: I'm wondering, can you bring us up to date on -- first of all, did you have any nicks or bumps or any injuries of any sort from yesterday, and then bring us up to date on the kids who are currently injured and maybe didn't play yesterday or played few snaps and some of the other guys you might be getting back after the off week?
Kelly: In terms of the game itself, nothing that would limit anybody from practicing tomorrow. We'll be out practicing tomorrow. So there isn't anybody that would be limited from that standpoint. Guys that are on the mend coming back, Troy Pride will practice tomorrow. I expect him to be full go for Navy. Jafar Armstrong, we are anticipating having him back for Navy, as well. That would be two key players coming back going into the Navy week.
Q: You struggled with the running game yesterday. What was Pitt doing that maybe made things difficult for your offensive line? And are you anticipating any moves in the offensive line coming after the off week?
Kelly: There were a couple plays that we wish we could have blocked up a little bit better, certainly, but all in all, I think Pitt's plan was to exert a lot of pressure on the running game, and they left themselves vulnerable in the passing game. Any time you throw it for 80 percent completion, you just have to put more points on the board. That's where we fell short. It wasn't that we fell short in the running game. We took advantage of their aggressiveness in the running game by, again, hitting 80 percent of our passes and having chances to turn some quick game into some big plays. Nobody in this building, including myself, is concerned about the lack of a running game. There are some players that we wish that we executed better, but the way they were configured and the way they wanted to play this game, it was going to make it difficult to have a sustained running game in this game.
Q: How do you address with your defense the preponderance of plays in which the offenses hold and are not called? I mean, I'm sure you play on and don't worry about it, but I'm sure your D-line gets a little bit frustrated. It's the best pass rush you've had, so naturally opponents are holding more, so how are you dealing with that?
Kelly: Well, we send in [clips] -- today was a little bit unusual in that we sent in twice as many clips as we normally do. We sent in eight that we thought should have been called. That's way too many. We just -- those guys, it's a great group. We credit them for their work and hard work and harassing the quarterback. Julian [Okwara] had eight harassments on the quarterback. He played even better than we thought after watching the film.We just really talk about continuing your effort. There's nothing you can do about it. And then we try to educate the league as much as possible.
Q: What kind of feedback have you gotten from the league prior to this game regarding -- I guess regarding holdings in particular?
Kelly: It's been a mixed bag. A lot of times we're getting, that should have been called. Other times it's a gray area call. You know, from our end, we think that there's calls out there that maybe aren't going our way. But we're just going to keep playing and not complain about it.
Q: What did you learn about TaRiq Bracy through his play yesterday when he got a lot of time on the field?
Kelly: The moment is not too big for him. He's a pretty level headed young man. He's got some work to do. He recognized some things a little bit quicker. But I think there's a big confidence when the ball goes down the field. We like his skill set. Obviously he's a guy that's got to physically continue to develop, but ... we like his demeanor in competitive situations. The moments don't look too big for him.
Q: I'm curious as Ian Book has really kind of taken over the team, what has Brandon Wimbush's support of Ian looked like? I know you said earlier in the season those guys are really close, and also, how engaged is Brandon? Are you seeing the things in practice you want to see from him? Is he improving, that kind of thing?
Kelly: I'm really pleased. You know, he is right next to him every time he comes off the field. He's there for him, talking to him, supporting him. So he's getting that in the game situation, which is outstanding. And during the week in practice, he's working on his craft. He's working to be more efficient. Again, I just think that the way he's gone to work every day has helped our football team in so many ways in terms of attitude, morale. It's a positive situation for us.
Q: On the flipside of that, what did Donte Vaughn show you yesterday? What does he still need to work on to handle that kind of opportunity?
Kelly: Donte has got length, and we like, obviously, his size. They went after him a little bit, trying to mix things up, and then we moved Julian [Love] into the boundary. Bracy is a little bit better guy to work the field than Donte. Donte is much more of a physical player against the run, and so that's why we made that change. Yeah, he just has to continue to keep working his craft. He's a good player, but we wanted to stop some of those quick throws into the boundary, and putting Julian there puts our best player closer to the football. But by no means are we not confident that Donte can't continue to help our football team.
Q: You've sort of prepped for Navy in all sorts of manners in your nine years. Could you sort of walk us through the bye week prep for Navy?
Kelly: They've kind of morphed over the last year or so in terms of what they're doing, using multiple quarterbacks, and even this year, working out of the shotgun. A lot of this is about staying up to date with the kind of changes that they're making from an offensive standpoint. This week we met a couple of times with the group that's going to be the demonstration squad and had them watch film. So today we'll actually do a walk-through with the group on some of the new formations and new sets that they're using out of shotgun. We'll go out tomorrow, and the first thing that we'll do is we'll install Navy's base offense, their open sets, their triple, their load plays, and then Tuesday we'll go with some of the new stuff that they've shown over the last couple of weeks. Just trying to use this week to get a base look at it and then keep them up to date with some of the new things that they've shown this year.
Q: On the list of things you want to get cleaned up the rest of the year, where does the kickoff coverage game fall into that? How much of a concern is that right now?
Kelly: Well, it's really kicking the football. Our placement has been not where it needs to be. We're not putting the ball where it needs to be. We're kicking it down the middle of the field. We certainly have to be better in our lane distribution and tackling. But it starts with consistency in kicking, and when we haven't -- that's where a lot of this starts from is the inability to consistently kick the football where we need it. We're covering too many plays. We covered seven kickoffs against Virginia Tech. That's crazy. We're capable of kicking it out of the end zone, and we're just not doing it on a consistent basis. It starts with our specialists. We've got to be better there, and then certainly finding the guys that can consistently get down there and do the right things. When you put the ball in the middle of the field, you have to adjust a lot of things, and we didn't make some of the adjustments that we needed to.
Q: I can understand earlier in the year you didn't want to go from Jonathan Doerer to Justin Yoon in that department with 11 games to go. With just five games to go, do you view that differently in terms of the workload you'd be putting on Justin if you do that?
Kelly: Justin was a little bit overworked, and we didn't want to push him in this game. He'll get some rest, and then we'll evaluate whether giving him both duties is in our best interest. But we were very hesitant to use him in this game because of potential fatigue.
Q: You touched on the schedule in terms of practice the next couple days. What's your schedule overall on this bye week to get your guys some rest as well as get some practices in?
Kelly: We'll have three days with them, and then we'll spend two days recruiting, and then we'll bring them back and begin Navy prep on Sunday. They'll get about -- they'll get Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so they'll almost get four days off, which is a pretty substantial break for the team.
Q: And then what's your biggest concern about your football team heading into the stretch run where four of your last five games are on the road?
Kelly: I don't know that I have a particular concern as much as I know that this is a -- each week is going to be a great challenge, and I like our football team. I think that we've got the parts to -- and the pieces, if all working together, is capable of winning each and every week, but it's going to be a great challenge. I don't know that I have a particular concern as much as -- look, you've got to stay healthy, right. You've got to continue to grow and do all those things. But just keep playing, keep preparing the right way, have a great attitude, and let's go see how this thing plays out.
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