Notre Dame Sunday Notebook With Brian Kelly
Against Navy this weekend Notre Dame ran only 49 plays on offense — the fewest since the same amount against current defensive coordinator Mike Elko’s Wake Forest defense in 2015 — while the Irish defense was on the field 80 plays.
Nevertheless, the main injury news against the Midshipmen occurred on offense. On the second series junior Equanimeous St. Brown was knocked out of the game when he was undercut on a high pass and did a somersault flip that resulted in a helmet-to-ground contact.
After a few minutes, St. Brown walked off the field on his own power, but he is under concussion protocol for this week’s game at Stanford.
“He was better today,” head coach Brian Kelly said of St. Brown. “Tomorrow will be a big day for him.”
Meanwhile, sophomore Chase Claypool, whose 26 catches entering the Navy game tied him with St. Brown for the team lead, was dinged up shortly after nabbing a crucial 23-yard pass that helped set up Notre Dame tying the score at 10-10 with eight seconds remaining until halftime.
“I think he was fine,” Kelly said. “He got hit in the shoulder, but nothing that would preclude him from being back in. We just had a rotation that we felt comfortable [with] that was in the game at the time, but he'll be fine for Stanford.”
The “rotation” was comprised of mainly sophomore Kevin Stepherson in the second half while finishing with five catches for a career high 103 yards and two scores.
He caught a 30-yard post for a touchdown to knot the game at 17 near the end of the third quarter. Then on the game winning drive in the fourth he grabbed a 23-yard pass on the second play, navigated 18 yards on a screen when the Irish faced third-and-10 at the Navy 29, and then on third-and-eight caught the go-ahead score.
Junior Miles Boykin finished with two catches for 33 yards, but no one else grabbed a pass for the Irish in their seven series.
Usually against the Midshipmen the greater trepidation is injuries to the Irish defenders, especially linemen, because of Navy’s use of the cut block. However, Kelly said the players went in with the right mind-set while holding the Midshipmen 93 yards below their rushing average, two yards under their average per carry, and 17 points below their scoring average.
“We had no players with knee braces on,” Kelly said. “It’s attitude, really, more than anything else. I felt our guys had a great attitude to go in and play, compete and not worry about those things. If you’re worrying about your knees and worrying about getting cut — you’re probably going to get cut. Our guys came out of it with no injuries, no concerns, no feeling of they got after my knees.”
Part of it also is whereas in years past Navy was undersized and had to resort mainly to cut blocks in an effort to level the field, its current offensive line collectively was in the 290-pound range.
“They can play a lot more of a physical game,” Kelly said.
All You Need Is Love
After playing the nation’s No. 1 rushing team this past week, the Irish are scheduled to face the nation’s No. 1 rusher in Stanford’s Bryce Love.
How healthy Love will be is uncertain. Hobbled in the last month with sore ankles, Love missed the final 11:43 in the 17-14 win over archrival Cal last night — but not before a 57-yard touchdown run. It was his national high 11th run that covered at least 50 yards.
“Extremely explosive,” Kelly summarized. “Big-time player in the sense that he'll turn a three-yard run into a 60-yard run, just explosiveness at that position like probably no one else in the country. You've got to wrap him up. You've got to get him on the ground.”
Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s own Love — sophomore cornerback Julian Love — continued his outstanding season by making 14 tackles (10 solo) while shifted to safety against Navy’s triple option.
With sophomore Troy Pride Jr.’s rapid ascent, junior Shaun Crawford’s playmaking abilities and senior Nick Watkins (eligible for a fifth season in 2018) and sophomore Donte Vaughn also on the roster after having their moments throughout their careers, Love is an appealing option at safety in the future. For now, his move there was tailored specifically to Navy’s scheme.
“He's capable of playing safety, but he's our best corner,” Kelly said. “If we could clone him, I'd like to do that. I think we're going to roll with the group we've got with only one game left. Could he be our best safety? Yes. He's definitely our best corner. The problem is we can play him at only one of those two positions.
“I hear what you're saying. You've got Troy, you've got Crawford, you've got Watkins — why don't you move Love back there? With one game to go, I think we're going to hold serve to where we are right now.”
Sunday Quick Hitters
• One of the most frustrating plays against Navy for Kelly was the fourth play of the second half when the Midshipmen converted a third-and-15 with a fullback dive en route to a touchdown.
“There were about four or five opportunities in the game where we could have given our offense more possessions,” he said. "Third-and-16 (sic) — potential for two more possessions.”
• The Irish offense and quarterback Brandon Wimbush have sputtered out of the gates each of the past two weeks. Wimbush was 1-of-5 for five yards in the first quarter, but 8-of-13 for 159 yards and two scores afterwards in difficult conditions.
Part of it might be the players getting too amped up, but there is also the matter of establishing better mechanics and muscle memory for Wimbush through repetition.
“He’s going through some mechanical adjustments that are getting better and better, and they showed themselves later in the game, but we’ve got to see those things happen right away,” Kelly said. "I think what you’re seeing is that muscle memory is starting to take over, but it’s got to get right at the very first snap.”
• The Irish head coach said it’s “nonsense” to believe this is a different Notre Dame team in November than the first two months of the season based on just the box scores. Each game is its own entity, and the one “hiccup” was Miami.
“I couldn’t have been more proud of the way we played,” he said of the Navy game. “If there’s one game that we’d like to have back — I take responsibility for the preparation of our team for Miami."
• Other than last season when it followed the Navy game with another triple-option team in Army West Point, Notre Dame has not fared well the week after playing the Midshipmen. Kelly believes the timing of the Navy game this year will not make the mental shift of playing a conventional offense difficult. In fact, it’s quite welcome.
“The bigger shift was this [past] week — mentally get them away from the Miami game,” Kelly said. “The Navy game I thought was a bigger challenge this week, quite frankly. They’re going to be happy to get away from this Navy game and get back to a traditional sense of football.
“It’s the last game of the year and they know what’s at stake. … Let’s go play the last game of the year with a lot on the line.”
• After last season's 4-8 campaign, Kelly held interviews with every player in an effort to survey what needs to improve. He’s unsure whether that will occur again this season.
“I really haven’t given it much thought,” he said. “It was valuable for me last year. I will give it some thought after we complete this game, but my focus is on just trying to prepare our guys this week.”
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