Lou's Confessions: Notre Dame's Elmer Layden Effect

Seconds after Notre Dame’s 11th-hour, 21-20 comeback victory versus Virginia Tech last Saturday afternoon, a colleague from another site had a look of both relief and grimace and said to me, “Could you have imagined how bad it would have been this week if they didn’t pull this one out?”

The after-effect tremors of the seismic 45-14 defeat at Michigan on Oct. 26 remain, and a defeat at home to the 17.5-point underdog Hokies at home would have been devastating to overall morale and outlook of the program.

It is such a thin line in coaching between praise one minute and denigration the next, and it is a roller-coaster with which Brian Kelly is familiar.

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