TRANSCRIPT: Brian Kelly On Iowa State, Braden Lenzy, Kyle Hamilton, More
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly addressed the media yesterday and touched on Iowa State, sophomore wide receiver Braden Lenzy, freshman safety Kyle Hamilton, what the team will do on Christmas and more.
On if senior wide receiver Javon McKinley will be able to play in the bowl game:
"No, he's dressed. I mean he's got to get back into shape. He's been out for a month, month and a half. I think he'll appear back on there. We were just trying to get you guys something, so you could look at it. He's back dressed. We'll try to get him ready, but he's got about six weeks of inactivity, so we'll try to get him as ready as we can."
On if senior linebacker Jonathan Jones, who is currently in the transfer portal, will dress:
Kelly: "Oh, I think you can still play. One thing I know is the head coach, the longer I've been in it, the more I don't know. So, yeah, he's playing."
On who will call plays in the bowl game:
Kelly: "I think we're going to keep it as a national secret and let you guys try to guess and talk about it. Don't you need stuff for like the newspaper and the internet chats and stuff like that. Have you done a poll yet? No polls. Well, you're going to do it anyway, so I just let me add fuel to the fire. Not sure yet. Let's do a fan poll and I'll do exactly what the fans tell me."
On what he sees from Iowa State:
Kelly: "Well, I think they're well-coached, first of all, a team that arguably could have been an 11-win team this year. Defensively, very stingy there. There's 3-5-3 is a challenge in terms of what they do. You don't see much of it relative to week to week. So there were some nuances to that defensive structure that requires some time and some game planning. They play extremely hard on defense. So well coached, play hard, play for four quarters. That's the defensive piece.
"Offensively, outstanding quarterback, really good running back, young, talented back. The tight ends are outstanding and a playmaker on the perimeter. It's a talented offense, too. I think they match up with the very top teams that we've played this year. Like I said, I think one of the things in their DNA and the way they're coached is that they play extremely hard for four quarters."
On what's impressed him the most about sophomore wide receiver Braden Lenzy this season:
Kelly: "I think like most players, what you're looking for is how did they handle the adversity that was in front of them in terms of whether it be an injury or a setback, did they come back stronger? And I think he came back stronger. Sometimes you wonder will they regain the level of confidence that they were building.
"He's, I think, gained even more confidence. Now, you could argue that you make a couple of plays, confidence grows in you. But I think he came back with a sense of, 'I'm a good player and I'm going to go prove it more so than I'm going to feel my way around here.' And I think that says a lot about his internal kind of motivation to want to do well."
On if Kelly is seeing the Braden Lenzy that he recruited:
Kelly: "We knew that we, we had a young man that was going to need to be developed. From a technical standpoint, he was very raw. He played a lot of defense and the offense was one where it was going to have to come over time. But I think where he's really improved is catching the football. We thought in his first year that could be a struggle for him. I think he's done a really good job of becoming okay at that. And I think he's got a chance to be a really solid ball catcher."
On what he's hoping to see in offensive operation between quarterbacks coach Tom Rees and running backs coach Lance Taylor:
Kelly: "It's a collaboration with Tom and, certainly, Lance and Jeff. Those three guys and that collaboration through balance and the run and pass game. So a lot more conversations, a lot more meetings, a lot more of everybody, uh, clearly seeing through the same lens as to what we want to accomplish, not only in the passing game but in the running game.
"I'm sure there's enough information out there that we ran the ball at times effectively and at other times we weren't effective. And so we want to be, moving forward, much more effective. So that requires complete collaboration and everybody on the same page. That's what I'm looking to accomplish here over these next few days."
On if Kelly leads those meetings:
Kelly: "Yes, I'm leading it. And then giving them a clear direction in terms of where we want to go and then let them go. I thought they've really done exactly what I was looking for over the last couple of days. As I said, I'm not going to be the wing T out there, but I think you'll clearly see some of the things that we want to accomplish in terms of the consistency in the running game and in the passing game, too.
"Again, this was an offense that was pretty darn good, too. So, we're not talking about reinventing the wheel here. These are much more about the staff collaborating on how we want to achieve, at the end of the day, our offense coming together as one."
On how freshman safety Kyle Hamilton has handled the hype surrounding his inaugural season:
Kelly: "I guess I was cautious early on because you keep a lot of that on a young man early on and you wonder if it's too much for him. I thought he handled it really well socially — socially meaning around his teammates, around campus. We knew how he was going to handle himself on the football field, but it's in the locker room, amongst his peers.
"He's never been a guy this year that has walked taller than his, his teammates, and that says a lot about him. So there's a humbleness to him, as a great player, that is a great distinction that he carries."
On where he's seeing improvements in the run game come from:
Kelly: "I just think, more than anything else, is just clearly everybody feeling comfortable with everybody being on the same page. I've probably have said this 10 times, but what is collaboration? Collaboration is sitting down, talking it out, being on the same page with direction towards that. I gave the staff some direction in terms of what we should look like and they've done a really good job of moving forward.
"Again, it's not for the untrained. I think you're not going to see a whole lot of difference, but for those that really study our offense, I think you'll see some improvements that will help us from the start of the game to the end of the game. That's what we're looking for."
On what he's seen from junior running back Jafar Armstrong in recent weeks:
Kelly: "I think he's got a burst and some speed, but he's a raw running back and, at times he's a bull in a China shop and you'd like him to be a little bit smoother, but I don't know if that's him right now. But he does give us a dimension there that is fast on the perimeter and has some physicality but he's still a work in progress for us as we continue to move forward."
On the team's signing day videos that garnered national attention:
Kelly: "Well, I don't know that this is the first year. I think that we have been up there as an office and as a group that has been pushing the envelope in a number of things. ur gold rush was big. I think we've done a number of things that have been cutting edge in terms of signing day in social media, but this piece was obviously, well-deserved in getting the national recognition because it required a lot of pieces, a lot of moving pieces.
"Aaron Kearney did an incredible. Jasmine did an incredible job. I know this, when I was on the road, I had clear marching orders as to what I needed to do to make sure my piece was delivered in this as well.
"I think just a great team effort of everybody pulling together, and really, we've got a great staff that we rely heavily on our students as well. Our student workers, they give us great ideas, and I'm not saying that they came directly from our students, but we rely on our students as well and giving us great feedback and great ideas as to how we may be able to really reach those in the social media world."
On how social media has impacted recruiting:
Kelly: "There's so many different forms. I mean, we could talk about this for a long time. I think social media is certainly the visual pictures that are going on today. I mean through streaming video, through your telling your story.
"We have a great story to tell that we can get out there and it doesn't have to be just football. There are many universities that can just use social media and just tell football stories. We can talk about so many other things and that's an advantage for us. I think we've done a really good job of taking advantage of it."
On the team's plans for Christmas:
Kelly: "We've got a travel party of about 400, so we'll have mass together. We'll have dinner together. Then we've got some games and Santa is coming for the kids. We'll have some fun together, but we'll practice as well."
On how the motivated the team has been in practice:
Kelly: "It's a little bit more difficult when you're kind of navigating through exam period. This has been different. There's no doubt. It definitely taxes them from an emotional standpoint, but I think that their mental focus has been really good. It hasn't been sloppy.
"They recognize that when they check-in and they come to the football practice facility, they have to put all that stuff behind them and really have a good day. Even if it's not physically their best day, it has to be mentally a really good day. And I think that they've been really good about that.
"The last couple of days have been much more physical. We've pushed them to be a lot more physical today, probably more than any day, and then tomorrow, a little bit more, and then we'll back off a little bit on Monday."
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