TRANSCRIPT: Brian Kelly Post-Virginia Weekly Teleconference
Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly spoke to the media at his weekly teleconference today and touched on the injury to defensive end Daelin Hayes, what the team has done to perform better against the run, how quarterback Ian Book can improve and more.
On why Notre Dame's defense has performed better against the run:
Kelly: “The maturity of the group. We've got some new players playing in positions at the linebacker position. Jeremiah Owusu being much more I think efficient at what he's doing on a play-to-play basis. You're really talking about three guys in particular that are settling in in that front seven. That's a big piece of it.
“In the Louisville game, the numbers were a lot larger based upon some option things, but I think they're starting to settle down with a sense that everybody's starting to know their jobs.”
On if the defense has become more proactive, as opposed to reactive:
Kelly: “Yeah, there's a comfort level there that we're doing a much better job with communication. Guys know where to be [when they're] part of the defense. I think Clark would tell you that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are not quite as hectic as they were maybe the first month of camp and then into the first couple of weeks.
“Anytime you get that continuity with the group, they're starting to get much more out of the leadership end things, especially with the Mike linebacker and Drew taking that over. I think we're seeing better communication, continuity with the group and just really guys just playing into what's asked of them each and every week.”
On injuries sustained against Virginia:
Kelly: “Daelin Hayes has a labrum tear, so he'll be out for the season. He'll have surgery. Shaun Crawford has a dislocated elbow. He'll be out approximately three to four weeks. Claypool has a right ankle [injury]. It's not the ankle that he had surgery on. It's not a high ankle sprain, so it should not affect him this week in practice. Nobody else jumps off the list here, from the game.”
On offensive inconsistencies:
Kelly: “Well, so it's a little bit of everything. It's a little bit of playing a really good defense — give Virginia some credit — a little bit of coaching. We've got to put ourselves in a better position. And then a little bit of trusting what you see and you're teaching. I think a lot of that just has to do with developing [and having] 11 guys come together each and every week. We're four weeks into it. Obviously, we're getting better, but we're not there yet.
“It's a unit that's evolving. There are some good things that we saw out there. We're playing really physical and that's a good place to start. But the execution has got to be at a higher level. That's really what we'll focus on this week is how we execute better for four quarters. Not just starting fast and finishing strong, but through the middle part of the game, we've got to keep that up and that's coaching it and then making sure that our players are executing it as well.”
On coaching with a stubbornness against Virginia:
Kelly: “I was referring to the fact that we have to be, more than anything else in a game against Virginia, stubborn with how we were going to go about and execute our game plans on offense, defense and special teams. We couldn't get frustrated. We had to be demanding in every facet. We have to be demanding of ourselves more so than demanding of our players, in terms of our preparation, in terms of not saying that 'this guy didn't execute,' but putting it on ourselves.
“And then being stubborn in the sense of we're going to get this done. If they can't make this play, we're going to find another way for them to make this play. Let's not put it on, 'well, this guy can't do this.' Be stubborn. Find a way to do it. Will this group because they will play hard for you. They're fast, they're physical. And that was really the impetus behind those words.”
On replacing the injured Shaun Crawford at nickel:
Kelly: “The first piece is we've got a guy that has to play more in that third-down situation and that's Jeremiah Owusu. He's talented, he can play man to man. He can blitz off the edge. The first order of business is to get him in a position where he can take some of those reps on third down. Then we have to be able to get somebody that can play in some more specialized defensive structures.
“We haven't decided as to who that next person will be. But a bulk of that work should come from Jeremiah Owusu and then next piece of that will be one [that's] yet to be defined.”
On the team's biggest strength and room for growth one-third of the way through the season:
Kelly: “We're gritty. Guys play extremely hard and physical and that's a great place to start. They're a confident group of football players, but we can get sloppy. We have to continue to work on our attention to detail — the techniques. That's very important to this group to continue to get better. T, that's the weakness of this entire group. So that's where we are right now.”
On quarterback Ian Book's inconsistent play:
Kelly: “He's evolving. I love Ian. He's a quarterback that needs to trust what he sees and be committed to it. I think if I was to use a word to describe him, he probably just needs to be more decisive. We're just going to work on him being more decisive. There's some plays out there that he knows he sees after the fact. We're just going to work on that decisiveness, and once he gets to that level, we're going to be in pretty good shape.”
On if defensive end Daelin Hayes could redshirt this season and play in 2020:
Kelly: "Highly possible."
On if it's challenging to add injured players to the rotation once they get healthy:
Kelly: “A little bit. Yeah. There's a little bit of a continuity, trust issue. I think the visual cues for the quarterback still can trump players that have not played a lot of snaps. And that's what we've got to get working on here in practice and I think we can get to that, so it doesn't become one of not being decisive, which I kind of brought that word up a little bit earlier for Ian.
“We're shuffling some guys in and out as they've come in and out of the lineup. It would be better if there's a little bit more consistency, but I think we can overcome that through what we should be seeing. That allows us to be a lot more decisive. So yes and no. I think we can, we can still do the job at a higher level, even though we are moving pieces in and in out, and I think we will as we move forward.”
On the penalty on cornerback Troy Pride that led to a touchdown:
Kelly: "Obviously, the technique we are teaching him is now what we want him to apply in that situation and we corrected that again with him, and I thought he did a great job later in the game, when he followed it correctly and made a great play on the ball. Troy is an extraordinarily gifted athlete and he is he's a guy that wants to be aggressive and at times he needs to temper that aggressiveness.
“He's had a lot of balls thrown on that back shoulder and because of that, he wants to try to play every play, and he can't. There's going to be some great back-shoulder throws and you're not going to be able to make them all. So, we've really had to work with him to be in a really good position.
"You can't play them all and I thought he did a great job of adjusting, after making that penalty, of playing the ball later. So, that's a great answer to your question. He made a great adjustment later in the game and made a great play later to get a big stop for us."
On the offensive line impacting the positive rushing attack vs. Virginia:
Kelly: "They're huge, obviously. The tight ends too. They blocked very well. Anytime you run the ball late. We had four big-play runs. In terms of running the football, we had a 30-yard run, 36-yard run, 15-yard run. Those are big runs. Anytime you control the clock late in the game, you have be able to get off the football. They did a really nice job. It was wide receivers blocking. It was the physicality of the backs.
“We mentioned this in last night's press conference, getting C'Bo Flemister in the game, getting Jahmir Smith in the game, I think that really helped Tony Jones Jr in the sense that he was fresh late in the game and we were able to push some piles because of that."
On being one of eight teams with a perfect record in the red zone:
Kelly: "It's a focused area down there. You spend a lot of time during the week. We've got big tight ends that we can use, rangy wide receives, and certainly a big, powerful back. Those bode well down in that area. I think all of those, when you put those together, those are good weapons to have in that area. We're not a small team in that area. We can utilize those weapons effectively in that area of the field.
“I think we've been very creative down there. I think we keep people off of tendencies. I think Chip does a great job of mixing things up. I think it's a little bit of all of those things. I think we're built really good for the blue zone and the white zone down there. We've been really effective."
On getting multiple tight ends on the field together:
Kelly: "No doubt. I think both of those players, in particular, offer the most difficult matchup situations for defenses, in terms of their ability to block, catch the football down the field, and we've seen that in terms of a multiple defense like Virginia, that [we’ve] really struggled to figure out how to defend us in those packages. I think it's pretty safe to say that you'll continue to see that."
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