Advertisement
football Edit

TRANSCRIPT: Kelly On Bouncing Back From Injuries, Kevin Austin's Future

Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly address the media today after his team's 40-7 win against Boston College. He addressed injuries, how wide receiver Kevin Austin has performed in practice, what's made true freshman defensive tackle Jacob Lacey so successful this season and more.

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly addresses the media during the opening press conference for spring practice  Tuesday March 7, 2017. (Blue and Gold Photo/Joe Raymond)
Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly addresses the media during the opening press conference for spring practice Tuesday March 7, 2017. (Blue and Gold Photo/Joe Raymond)
Advertisement

On how the team has been able to overcome so many injuries this season:

Kelly: "I just think that the game itself is one where you're always prepared to deal with injuries. They are part of the game. We've had guys step up and play at a high level.

"On the offensive line, obviously Trevor Ruhland and Josh Lugg have stepped in there. Losing two really good players in Tommy Kraemer and Robert Hainsey is not that easy, but those guys have managed to keep things moving in the right direction. Obviously losing those two guys was a big blow.

"Defensively, Julian Okwara and Daelin Hayes are outstanding players but Adetokunbo Ogundeji has come in and he's been all over the field. He's been outstanding, he's been active. Again, you're losing really good players, but good teams have the depth that allows these guys to go in and maintain the level of play. Again, I don't think you can be a top-tier program unless you have depth and guys that can go in and play at a high level."

On the injury status of hurt/sidelined players:

Kelly: "Nothing that is of concern. Myron has an MRI scheduled at 2:15. We're not expecting anything of great consequence, but we want to make sure. We'll have more information on him at the presser tomorrow. He's been day-to-day really. It's been that mid-foot sprain that for receivers is a tricky injury. He has felt good, but he hasn't been explosive and at that position, you've got to have some explosiveness. We'll have him back out on the field on Tuesday and see what he looks like. If he feels like he can contribute, we'll have him out there. If not, we won't."

On if Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa won't play next weekend:

Kelly: "No, no. As I said, we'd like to take precautionary follow up imaging on players that are obviously key players and ones playing a lot of football. We want to make sure that we're not missing anything. We don't think we are, but we want to make sure in this instance with Myron."

On Jayson Ademilola's health and the young players who filled in for him:

Kelly: "Jayson didn't look great in warmups. We worked him out today and our training staff was pleased with what they saw with him today. They think he can help on Saturday against Stanford.

"In our coordinators meeting, in talking with Clark and Mike Elston this morning, they were very pleased both with Franklin and Lacey. They felt that they played very well and felt that Justin Ademilola and Ovie Oghoufo contributed very well. Some of the young guys stepped up nicely for us."

On playing a day game on the road against Stanford:

"No, it shouldn't be too much of an issue, because it's really four o'clock on our clock and we've been between 2:30 and 3:30 for home games. It shouldn't be much of an issue for us in terms of getting us up and running. That's what time we practice as well, so that should be right in our wheelhouse."

On if the team is looking forward to playing during the day on the road:

"Kelly: Yeah, no doubt. I think our guys are excited about the one o'clock start. They can get up and go play the game and don't have to be sitting around the hotel all day. Certainly, the last game of the year, you want to get out and play, so I know our guys are excited about the news."

Holiday Pick-It Sale - Save Big On A BlueandGold.com Subscription And Get Free Gear Too (click here for details!)

On how much influence he had over Braden Lenzy's decision to not run track:

Kelly: "These are decisions are made in concert with the student-athlete and the family. I don't unilaterally make those decisions. That was one of the things in his recruitment that we had kind of talked about that we would make those decisions together and as we sat down, I think he felt like he wanted no distractions and he wanted to really focus on getting himself ready and finding his niche in football first.

"I think he felt like there's enough time to run track, but he wanted to really focus on physically getting himself in a position where he could compete in football first. I think there's time for track. I don't think that that's off the table for discussion, but I think his priority was to get ready for football and find a spot and it seems like he's doing that."

On the offensive line continuing to struggle with false starts:

Kelly: "I think we just need to do a better job of being in a better emotional state and better control and better focus. They were moving the front, but everyone moves the front around. Our guys were not on their best. If you were to ask them, the would tell you that there is no room for that and they've got to be better."

On how the team is able to perform at such a high level without the college football playoffs as a possibility:

Kelly: "We're not a big goal setting team, but we did talk about them after the Michigan game. Each week we had something we needed to focus on and the first was to reestablish our identity, who we are, and our character, especially after the way we played and coached against Michigan. That was a primary focus.

"The big-picture goal, internally, was to win the month of November. We knew we had five games in November and it's unusual to have five games. Our focus was to win each game in November, all five games, and we're four-fifths of the way through it. That goal is still out there, it's tangible and one we want to achieve.

"We're trying to work through that each and every week with kind of a different step along the way that we wanted to get to. Each opponent has presented a challenge that we wanted to work on internally and we've been able to do that."

On if he had to give his team something concrete to play for:

Kelly: "The development of your football team is ongoing because you're developing 19-21-year-olds. As I've said to you many times, when you talk about graduating champions, you're not talking about getting a degree and a ring, you're talking about developing these guys for the rest of their lives.

"You're dealing with failures and how you overcome those, and so you're establishing who they're going to be when they leave here as well. Those challenges that are put in front of you, you want to see them grow from them. Those challenges are part of the game, so you play it as a game and it gives you these opportunities to grow and that's what we've been focused on."

On why Jafar Armstrong did not play much against Boston College:

"Yeah, he played. He's doing fine. It's just a matter of, right now, as we've said it's a committee of backs. It's our decision, in particular, Lance [Taylor's] decision regarding the rotation, and we're using three or four backs right now and he feels like he's got a group of backs and he's going to be very active and interchangeable as it relates to who is playing in the game.

"That's the rotation he went with for this particular game. I wouldn't read too much into it. He's not in the doghouse. He hasn't done anything wrong. He's working hard. It was just the rotation we had for this past weekend."

On how Kevin Austin has looked in practice this season:

Kelly: "He's been outstanding. Our defensive coaches feel like he's the best player over there and he's been outstanding in everything that we've asked him to do, every challenge that has been put in front of him, and he's had numerous, and I repeat numerous challenges placed in front of him. He has succeeded at each one of those challenges. Good things on the horizon for him."

On defensive end Ade Ogundeji's the career-best performance against Boston College:

Kelly: "It's opportunity right? He's getting much more opportunities to play. He just has a great motor. He's long. He's relentless. He just has all those intangibles that you want, plus physicality, athleticism, length.

"He's fun to watch, he's fun to have on the sidelines, he's always animated.

"Anytime he makes a play, he gets excited, gets the guys around him excited. He's just a joy to have him on your team and watch him compete and play. His skills are, again as I've listed, long, athletic and really a strong player."

On if Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah could make the move to inside linebacker:

Kelly: "I think your assessment is right. He's definitely gaining an instinct for the game that he lacked early on. Maybe the Louisville game was a good example of him being out there in space and not being as aware.

"I think what happened on Saturday was probably more revealing as a box player. His instincts we're really tested yesterday as a box player, as a linebacker in a box, and he passed with flying colors.

"He played downhill, played physical, played with his hands, looked like a linebacker yesterday. But the week before against Navy, he looked like a really good rover playing on the edge of your defense. We're in a pretty good position there with a guy that we think has got some versatility."

On what's allowed true freshman Jacob Lacey to garner so many snaps this season:

Kelly: "It starts with being assignment-correct. He's so smart as a football player. Very rarely does he make a mistake in terms of his alignment in his assignment.

"Obviously, he was a very talented player coming in and a lot of these guys usually are, but some of the things that they can't translate early on is the complexity of what we're doing, moving the fronts, lining correctly, he's impeccable as it comes to all of the assignment related things that the defensive line has to do, and we had to do a lot yesterday.

"You could not be in the wrong set, you could not line up wrong, we had to check out of a lot of things based upon alignment and there's a lot of trust with Jacob Lacey, as it relates to his position."

----

Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.

• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_MikeSinger, @CoachDeDario and @AndrewMentock.

• Like us on Facebook.

Advertisement