TRANSCRIPT: Brian Kelly Post-Michigan Teleconference
The day following a 45-14 loss to Michigan, Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly spoke to the media on what his team needs to do to improve, the injury to running back Tony Jones and more.
On what the team needs to improve upon this week:
Kelly: "I think more than anything else, it's controlling the line of scrimmage. We weren't able to control the line of scrimmage, so it's a physicality that we have to get back and we've had it. We did not have it in this game, and for us to improve our lot as it relates to winning football games, we have to be able to bring a physicality to our play and we'll be working on that this week."
On if the team will pick up the tempo in practice this week as they prepare:
Kelly: "No, not necessarily. I think physicality is a mindset. Our players have had it before. They know what it's like. We've got to get them back to that identity. We'll meet with our team here tomorrow and we'll begin working on getting them back to truly who they are as a football team because they weren't that team last night."
On converting poorly on third downs:
Kelly: "We work on third down all the time. There weren’t many highlights offensively, including third-down conversions. I think we converted our first couple of third downs and that was probably it for most of the night, a lot of three and outs. So third down really was part and parcel of the whole night.
"We'll continue to work on our third-down efficiencies. It's 11 players. It's blocking. It's catching the ball. It's quarterback decisions. It's a little bit of everything when you're talking about third-down conversions. It's staying out of third and long. We gotta work on all of those things to be better at third down."
On the injury to running back Tony Jones, Jr.:
"His x-ray was clean. He's got sore ribs. Obviously, we'll be careful with him this week, but we expect he would be able to play this weekend."
On what his team is playing for the rest of the season:
"We're going to be coming back home. I think we've got a 15-game win streak at home. How do you really want to be defined by the play that you had that people saw national television? So there's a lot that these young men want to put forth this weekend. Short term goals are really what is most important right now. And as I said earlier, it's getting the physicality back. It's getting a high level of execution and discipline and effort back with this team."
"That will really be the focus this week. It won't be on playoffs and not being in the playoffs and bowl games and things of that stuff. That's not really high motivating factors. What's a high motivating factor is playing football the right way."
On Michael Young, who has reportedly entered the transfer portal:
"Those are questions that you'd have to ask Michael. We haven't gotten a chance to sit down yet. We will. Once we do, I think our feelings are that we think Notre Dame's a great place, but if Michael decides that he wants to move on, that's what the transfer portal is for. He gets that opportunity and that option to pursue other opportunities.
"The rest is just really speculation on my part."
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