Brian Kelly: ‘We’re Moving In That Direction’ Of Playing Football This Fall
Ever since COVID-19 forced his college football program to operate remotely and threw all concrete plans to the wayside, Brian Kelly has maintained an upbeat but reasoned tone. His belief that Notre Dame will play football this fall hasn’t wavered.
It still isn’t now.
In fact, he sounds a little bit more assured of himself when discussing the state of the 2020 season.
“I don’t have the definitive 100 percent [answer], but things are trending that way, we’re moving in that direction,” Kelly said Wednesday on The Rich Eisen Show. “We want to play in the fall. At the end of the day, those decisions will be made by our president and board of trustees. Let’s get that straight. But we’re moving in that direction and preparing for those eventualities.”
With his uptick in confidence comes a firmer understanding of the steps that need to be taken to get football back, which go beyond simply opening campus. The answers to some of the important questions — which come from outside his control — have a little more clarity for him.
“We’re better than where we were two weeks ago,” Kelly said. “We have a document that’s getting close because we’re getting more answers. It seems we’re getting closer to figuring out what capacity we’ll have for testing. Those are the things that have been holding us up a bit.”
At first, the process for restarting sports leagues seemed like a massive task unable to be broken down into smaller steps. The important questions to ask weren’t exactly clear. They have come into focus, even if they don’t all have answers yet and pieces are still moving.
“Are we testing daily? Are we doing antibody testing?,” Kelly said. “Are we doing testing once a week? Are we putting [players] in pods where they stay in them? There’s a lot of layers here that are new to me that I’m sitting back listening and trying to find out as a football coach what’s realistic.
“What can we do? I was on a call with some people at Major League Baseball and they’re talking about changing the ball every pitch and not using the clubhouse.”
In the meantime, Kelly and his assistants have antsy players who want to get back on the field and want to know when it will possible. Those concrete dates don’t exist right now. Kelly won’t be forming them until local, state and federal governments have more answers to update their recommendations and orders. University presidents will act on those and decide if opening campus is viable and how to do it safely.
If campus opens, Notre Dame will play football, Kelly said. End of discussion. It’ll be good news for the players. But there’s another group who needs to be informed all along about the safety measures that will be on campus.
Player parents.
They’re sending their sons far away. That naturally will bring concerns and questions.
“No one drives to our campus,” Kelly said. “We have very few kids within three hours. If I’m putting my son on a plane to Notre Dame, I better know exactly what’s in place for when he gets there and if he gets sick.”
No games have been canceled or moved on Notre Dame’s schedule, but some conferences have discussed plans to play only league games. The Pac-12 admitted that’s one of the possibilities it will consider. That would complicate Notre Dame’s schedule, which features two Pac-12 rivalry games. Teams from five other conferences are on it.
Like director of athletics Jack Swarbrick, Kelly supports the idea of a “conference-plus-one” season, where teams play one non-league game in addition to a conference schedule. Both men feel strongly enough of Notre Dame’s opponents will make their scheduled matchup against the Fighting Irish the one out-of-conference game.
“Will Wisconsin play us at Lambeau Field?” Kelly said. “Will the ACC, where we are collateral partners, give us our six games? I’m sure Western Michigan will come if the ink is dry on the check. That’s going to happen. Navy is going to be a game, whether it’s played in Ireland or Bethesda [outside of Washington, D.C.]. They’re going to play. We’ll find enough games.
“It seems it’s pretty clear teams are going to stay within their conference. At least that’s the what appears to be the case. But I think we’re in a position where I can confidently say we’re going to get enough games to be in discussion for whatever the postseason looks like.”
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