Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly addressed the media the day prior to facing No. 1 Alabama in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl on Friday.
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On His Team’s Mindset Prior To Facing Alabama And How It Compares To The Two Times They Played Clemson
"Well, I'd say it's much more similar to the first time we played Clemson, right? The second time, look, Clemson beat us. They were the better football team that day. There's no doubt about it. But the mindset was different. And coming into this game, playing in the playoffs, your mindset shifts and changes to one where you know you have to play your very best. And if you don't, you go home.
"That wasn't the case the second time we played. And unfortunately, it crept into the way we played. No excuses. Clemson was the better team that day.
"But, having said that, I can sense the way we've prepared, our football team at Notre Dame will play with a similar mindset that they did, and they'll need to, in the first game that we played against Clemson."
On Who Will Start For Notre Dame At Center Against Alabama — Senior Josh Lugg or Sophomore Zeke Correll
"I think both centers are prepared and ready to play. I think that will be a game-time decision. I think Coach Quinn and I and Coach Rees have talked at great length about both of them, and they're both extremely capable of playing at the position. I think it's going to be a game-time decision. And both could actually play for us."
On The Relationship Between Kyren Williams And Running Backs Coach Lance Taylor
"I think the maturation of anybody has to do with relationships, right? And also knowing when their time has come. And both of those things are what we're talking about with Kyren. Kyren knew that it was his time. We had the graduation at that position. And it was his time.
"But he's built a great relationship and Lance has done a great job of developing that with Kyren. So I think anytime you see a back or any position, not just running back, you know, show themselves in their first year, I think it's the individual who says, it's my time and I'm going to go take this because I think that that has to happen first. They have to believe in themselves.
"And I think Lance has done a great job in building a strong relationship with Kyren and, quite frankly, all the backs, not just Kyren because we've seen Chris Tyree play as a true freshman. We've seen C'Bo [Flemister] really blossom in his time -- with all the backs, and I think he does a great job preparing them."
On The Day-To-Day Process That Has Allowed Notre Dame To Achieve Four Straight 10-Win Seasons
"We revert back to a process because, obviously, we're coming off a very successful season the year before. And then an undefeated season in 2018. So we won 12 consecutive games in '18, undefeated season, then we come back in '20 and win 10.
"You have to have a process that allows the team, the organization, everybody associated with it, to fall back on that to check their work, so to speak, from week to week in terms of how are we following our process so we're prepared for anything that comes our way.
"And so I think we do a really good job of not thinking about outcomes as much as we think about what our process is and how we do that on a day-to-day basis -- how we eat, how we sleep, what decisions do we make on a day-to-day basis as it relates to going to class.
"And I think all those go to a process we have in place that our guys have done a really, really good job of following through on."
On The Challenges Of Recruiting Players At A Top-15 Academic University
"They're challenges. We'd like to have Notre Dame maybe be in a warmer-weather climate area, too, if we could arrange that, too.
"But these are the challenges that we embrace. We embrace the challenges because it gets us a student-athlete that is committed to the academics of a great university like Notre Dame.
"So we've embraced these challenges and we've taken them and we've still won football games. And we've still done it with great graduation rates. And I think we've shown that you can do it. You can do it with great student-athletes, with challenges geographically in recruiting and still have an opportunity to win a National Championship. So we're proud of that."
On Embracing The Challenges That Come With Coaching At A Place Like Notre Dame
"Look, we're not going to change at our core who we are in terms of the student-athlete and the premium on the student-athlete in terms of what is the right fit here. I think you know that. You follow us as closely as anybody. But I do believe there's some merit to the fact that you're not going to fight who we are in terms of the recruiting process.
"I think once you decide that, look, these guys fit, you can then go and make the case for those young men that are going to do the right things at the university. And maybe if they fall a little bit below the line relative to some of the numbers that you need here at the university, they make up for with outstanding traits. They're great in the community. They're going to be great representatives of the university. And I think you embrace it from that perspective. They've got great emotional intelligence.
"So I think there are other ways to really embrace that than strictly saying, well, he doesn't meet these criteria relative to a particular GPA or test score. But what about his character and really digging in deep about that. And I think embracing that and understanding that there are guys out there that can meet it from that perspective certainly helps quite a bit.
"And I think, really, that this pandemic has given us another glimpse at how we can build earlier relationships even through Zooming and FaceTime before they even get to our campus. We saw it with this recruiting class, which I think is going to help us moving forward, that it doesn't always have to be we have to get them on campus.
"We know we're in South Bend, Indiana, which is not the first destination on everybody's map. But when you do get here, it's a beautiful campus. But we can do so much work here now having gone through what we've gone through this past year by touching these families a lot sooner through Zooming and FaceTime."
On The Possibility Of Facing Clemson For The Third Time In The College Football Playoff Championship Game
"We'd love it. I mean, rubber games are what it's all about. Each team wins one; you settle it with the rubber game. And that would be a great scenario.
"We've got a great Alabama team that we've got to handle first, and that's where our focus and energy is. If Clemson's fortunate enough to beat Ohio State, we would love that.
"What's important now for us is how we perform against Alabama. But what's important next would be a matchup against Clemson or Ohio State. It doesn't really matter to us. We'll take either one of them."
On Fifth-Year Senior Defensive End Daelin Hayes And His Willingness To Come Back To Notre Dame After Suffering A Season-Ending Shoulder Injury In 2019
"Embracing a second chance in a way that he really, I think, opened himself up to being complete as a football player and as a person. He wanted to, I think, reach his potential. And I don't mean just as a football player but as a person.
"He opened up himself to be vulnerable as a player and as a person and we saw the growth of a young man in this past year that is, for me, why we get into this business, right, to see young men grow up the way he has and grow up to be a captain and a leader of our football team. And so just a great chapter, and one as a coach you live for those moments."
On The Challenge Of Defending A Player As Talented As Alabama Wide Receiver DeVonta Smith
"First of all, they do a great job. I mean Coach [Steve] Sarkisian does a great job of utilizing formations and motions and really putting them in a very good position and really taking advantage of some matchups that can be problematic for you. So I would say first and foremost, a lot of credit to the way offensively they're utilizing magnificent players.
"As it relates to him specifically, he can do a little bit of everything. I think the first thing everyone thinks about is explosiveness, which he is. Great ball catcher. Tight windows, it doesn't matter. Great concentration, route runner. He's just a complete player.
"They use him so well and so smart in the way they use him to get great matchups. I think it's a little bit of both. I think they should get a lot of credit. I think Coach Sarkisian should get a lot of credit for the way they've used him in particular.
"I don't know where he came in at the starting lineup, the start of the year. I don't know if he was the featured guy or not. But to kind of transform into the featured guy through the season the way he has is a credit to him and the coaches."
On The Timeline For Finding Clark Lea’s Replacement And What He’s Looking For In The Next Defensive Coordinator Schematically
"We'll get moving on it pretty quickly. Obviously, there's some competitiveness involved in this. There are other openings for coordinator positions, so we can't be sitting on our hands as we look around the country or even internally.
"We have to be able to look at this from a perspective of there are candidates out there that are being looked at by other schools as well. So I've got to have that in mind. So relative to the process, we've got to be on top of it.
"As you know a lot will begin in its beginning stages through Zoom and FaceTime because of where we are with the pandemic. And then you're probably closing after that by bringing somebody on campus. So that in fact has changed a little bit. So we've already begun putting those kind of protocols together for the interviewing process.
"As it relates to the scheme itself, we've recruited to a base four down. That doesn't mean that we can't play three down, because we do. As you know in our nickel and dime package, we're primarily in a three-down package.
"So as long as the system can marry with our recruiting, that's the most important thing. As long as it marries with the recruiting we've been doing over the last three and four years, I'm open to what the system looks like. It doesn't necessarily have to be always four down. We can be in some three down and some four down.
"But it can't be -- we're not going to a 3-4 defense. And that's not going to happen. We will be a team that is continuously looking at our personnel that we've been recruiting to match the scheme.
"So, long story short, you'll still see some four down and you'll still see three down, which is pretty much what's going on except for some that have gone strictly to three down to match who they're seeing in their conference. And that's not the case as an independent where we need to be in three down because we're seeing -- we're not just seeing spread offenses; you've got to defend the triple option and power offenses. That's why we'll match it with what we recruit and what our schedule looks like."
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