Brian Kelly has talked a lot since his 41-13 win over Wisconsin last Saturday about the identity and adaptivity of his football team.
The adaptivity has been obvious — a third-string quarterback, a third-string left tackle, multiple linebacker injuries, unexpected player unavailabilities — and Kelly’s No. 9 Fighting Irish (4-0) still managed it all and now play Saturday against No. 7 Cincinnati (3-0) with College Football Playoff hopes for both teams still very much alive.
First-year Irish defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman has already adapted by going deeper into his rotation to keep the regulars fresh and the younger guys developing.
Alongside Freeman, second-year Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has also adapted by becoming more pass-reliant to mask the struggles along his offensive line in the run game.
Kelly explained that there’s an important line to draw between subtle adaptation and a panicked in-season overhaul, and his players and staff have so far mastered the former.
“Everybody talks about process,” Kelly said. “I think you have to stick with what your process is, but you have to be able to change to who your players are, and their strengths and weaknesses from year to year, and adapt.”
Notre Dame’s adaptability — from Kelly all the way down to his third-string players — is allowing this team to organically develop an identity.
It’s a process that never unfolds the same in any year, and in some seasons, this identification process takes longer than others, even while the armchair quarterbacks supposedly have it all figured out well before the Irish coaches do, and typically before the season even begins.
“Look, everybody’s been trying to peg teams early on, like, ‘Who are they?’” Kelly said of his squad's ongoing identity search. “We’re still trying to figure it out ourselves, but everybody already had us figured out as to who we were.”
Two of the best
In his fifth year at Cincinnati, head coach Luke Fickell has guided the Bearcats to a 34-6 (.850) record over the last three-plus seasons to become one of the hottest coaching commodities in the country.
While on the Notre Dame sideline, Kelly has the most wins in program history, and in the last four-plus seasons he has gone 48-8 (.857).
Fickell is the reigning American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year on a Cincinnati team that returned 13 starters (6 offense, 6 defense, 1 specialist) from a 2020 group that put eight first-teamers and seven second-teamers on the 2020 All-AAC postseason teams.
And while working through what was considered in the preseason as a gap year with three-year starting quarterback Ian Book gone, a new defensive coordinator in place and nine players from the 2020 Irish roster drafted to NFL teams, Kelly continues to hold his place as one of the best college coaches in the business, along with Fickell.
In fact, the winner of this game could become the front-runner for national coach of the year honors.
Kelly takes a 26-game home winning streak and a history of success at Notre Dame Stadium against highly ranked teams into this game, albeit with a small sample.
The Cincinnati game will mark only the third time in Kelly’s career that he will play in a top-10 matchup at Notre Dame Stadium.
Kelly’s top-10 Irish defeated No. 7 Stanford in 2018 and, most recently, beat No. 1 Clemson last season.
There is some irony that 12 years later, Kelly has to beat the Bearcats monster he helped create after lifting the Cincinnati program to new heights with a 34-6 record during his three-plus seasons there as head coach in 2007-09.
Ridder the real deal
Cincinnati fifth-year senior quarterback Desmond Ridder made a surprise choice when he skipped the 2021 NFL Draft and returned to the Bearcats as a fourth-year starter after earning 2020 AAC Offensive Player of the Year honors. And with 748 passing yards and seven touchdowns in three games this season, Ridder, a long-shot Heisman Trophy candidate, is picking up right where he left off.
Last season, Ridder threw for 2,296 yards with 19 touchdowns and six interceptions while also rushing for 592 yards and 12 scores.
And after winning nearly 90 percent of his starts over the last three-plus seasons, Ridder is a proven commodity who could become a top-10 selection in the 2022 NFL Draft.
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound dual-threat nightmare entered this season with 6,905 passing yards, 57 touchdown throws, 1,825 rushing yards and 22 rushing scores for his career.
This all coming from a two-star recruit and an unranked player, per Rivals, from the 2017 recruiting class. Ridder redshirted as a Bearcats freshman in 2017.
Cincinnati was Ridder’s only scholarship offer, likely because he was from nearby St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Ky.
One thing is certain, Ridder will be much more dangerous and efficient this week than turnover-prone Wisconsin starter Graham Mertz was last Saturday when he threw four interceptions and lost a fumble against Notre Dame.
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