Brian Kelly spoke with the media yesterday to recap the South Florida loss. Here are some notes from what Kelly had to say related to, among other things, the starting QB spot, the punting game, and the punt returner.
- Kelly didn’t have a decision on who would start at quarterback as of yesterday but said a decision was likely to come today.
- The decision at QB will be made primarily based on what the staff sees on film from the game and not necessarily anything that happens at practice today.
- On Rees, Kelly said that he is able to come into a game and not feel anxious or overwhelmed and that has always been a strength of his.
- The weather delay at half time gave Kelly and staff more time to spend with Tommy Rees to prepare him for what USF was doing and what they wanted him to do.
- The staff was pleased with the play of Stephon Tuitt and Aaron Lynch – both of whom played throughout the game. Two other freshman defenders – Troy Niklas and Ishaq Williams – only played in the first half because the staff wanted more experience at OLB with the game on the line.
- Kelly said that Ben Turk needs to punt in games like he does in practice because in practice he is clearly the best punter the Irish have. Turk has struggled with consistency throughout his career so Mike Elston is going to need to do a great coaching job here.
- Kelly was pleased with the performance of the defense saying that there are some specific areas he wants cleaned up such as penalties, but that there weren’t any “far reaching issues” they needed to address.
- Kelly was comfortable with the play of both lines noting that the offensive line held up even when South Florida knew Notre Dame had to pass on every down and in the first half they allowed the offense to have great balance with their run blocking.
- Theo Riddick is going to stay in as a punt returner according to Kelly. Kelly mentioned that in practice they had Riddick catching punts with 1 arm and he only dropped one over the last five practices.
I take offense at the comment that one poster said about the lack of offense. Ridiculous. Over 500 yards. The offense was a advertised. Defense too. Not many teams can over come 5 TO’s and if we had another 5 minutes to play we would have won this game.
The most outrageous statement BK made last week concerned how focused this team was. If that is the definition of focus I would hate to define ADD. Reverse any one of 8 bonehead/miscued plays and this goes in the winners column.
As far as BK yelling at players, big deal. I was yelling at them too! (add smiley emoticon with shades)To me yelling at players is part of it as long as it is not made personal. There is a difference between calling a player a dumb ass and saying he is playing like a dumb ass. Besides, I am sure that BK gives kudos when things are done right. It all washes out in the end.
Brian Kelly’s behavior on the sideline was totally unacceptable not just because he is yelling and screaming, those that say that are ignorant but because his lack of discipline and self-control on the sideline sets the worst possible example for a team that lacks discipline as well.
Anyone who has college aged kids, especially young men, knows that they spend very little time listening to waht you say and a lot of time watching what you do. Its such a simple thing, such your fat irish mouth until you get to the film room, then in the privacy and relative safety of that educational setting you say whatever you think you have to to educate your kids.
He shoudln’t be fired or censored by the university but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t know better, he’s not at Cincinnati anymore. if he didn’t know already, its going to be a lot harder to win at Notre Dame than his previous stops, especially if he finds it so hard to set an example as a leader rather than a petty dictator.
I once had a conversation with an ex-Irish player from the Lou Holtz era, a very prominent starter, about what it was like to play for Holtz. The player basically told me that as mad as Holtz used to get, and he characterized Holtz as having a volcanic temper, he never once felt that Holtz was not in the corner of each and every one of his players and that because of this, the players loved him and would play exteremely hard for him.
Its easy to see that Kelly has not met this standard and you have to wonder if he even gets it with the type of hideous, undisciplined outburst that he displayed in a pressure situation against a mediocre opponent. The real problem that day was that the he, the coach, hadn’t adequately prepared his team to play the game. That fact was displayed all over the box score, through penalties and turnovers, poor/high risk play calling and a general lack of emotion from the Irish players.
Brian Kelly doesn’t have to be a “players” coach to be successful but he had better be disciplined in his own right or its all but over right now.
All the fairweather fans take a hike.I am bummed that the Irish lost but it wasn’t the fault of any coaches. it has been well documented what really lost this game 5-0 in turnovers. I don’t care iftey were playing the little sisters of the poor, they would w4in a game like that.
Look at the stats and especially the stats of florida, they had exactly half total yards. The two stats the Sout Florida led was possession time slightly and the all important turnovers. I am sure this WILL be addressed.
The defense was as advertised. All we heard before the game was the Irish can’t play against a mobile quarterback, he didnt do much for us to notice. South Florida’s offence scored one TD. He had 18 for 30 for 140 yds and no interceptions. The offense was equally positive with 508 yds BUT the turnovers thkes all that away.
If all you nay sayers can’t see how positive this team will be then you should start looking at a movie.
Every year you people crawl out of the woodwork and you reinforce the favorite saying of my father, “how come there is more horses asses than there are horses.”
GO IRISH
And still variants?
Great point. Seems like everyone’s forgetting that the last time ND won a championship, the coach was well known for grabbing facemasks/jerseys and getting in players’ faces for mistakes. You need a disciplinarian and not some stoic figure (See Davie, Willingham, Weis) who’s going to make you think that mistakes are OK.
Everyone acts like this is little league. These 18-22 year olds are MEN. They want to play on the big stage for a reason.
If ND wins that game by 4 touchdowns, and BK is still yelling at players, I highly doubt we’d see all the whining coming around about BK getting in players’ faces for mistakes. Stop trying to find excuses not to like the guy just because of one loss. Get real.
*Great point td
ditto!
Why is the blame getting put on Kelly? He certainly didn’t fumble on the 1, let several balls go through his hands, miss a 30-yd FG, hit a guy out of bounds or grab a guys’ facemask twice. Yes, he yells and curses at his players a lot…but that’s because losing and especially losing in such a sloppy way is unacceptable. It should be that way @ ND.
My main problem with Weiss was that when the Irish played like crap he would be like, “Aw shucky darn, we lost again. Hey, have you seen my shiny Super Bowl rings?” Kelly is more like Lou Holtz in that losing unacceptable. Period. This, in my opinion is exactly what the Irish need to bring them back.
Amen brother…finally someone with some sense.
Yeah, I’m more concerned what those players are doing versus some “in your face” yelling by the coach. Some “old school” coaching methods like that are sometimes necessary and I don’t think will damage any fragile egg shell minds (if it does, we’re probably better off without them on the team).
bk does not have the composure required to manage a big time job. screaming, yelling and cursing at your 18-23 year olds is not impressive or any way to manage student athletes. urban meyer would have been great for nd. even when oregon players screw up, i never see chip kelly blow a gasket. screw ups, even lots of them, consecutively, happen, especially from 18-23 yr olds. it’s how you manage it all. bk is not the solution. watch the head coaches at the successful big time programs. bk is no big time head coach.
shutup, he’s a football coach..geez – obviously you’ve never played on a team…
I have had said kelly’s first mistake for 2011 was making crist the qb. However both crist n Rees are not the long term answer. Kelly just going to be creative n survive until he gets the younger n more potential ready for game action.
Now I will say now Kelly’s second mistake 2011 is keeping riddick in as a returner. I think riddick will be out by game 3. As a matter of fact, riddick might be better playing runningback to help out woods b/c Jonas is not reliable.
how’s the view from the cheap seats?? easy to look like a guru when you have no responsibility and the advantage of hindsight…what is with you people…
Agreed!! Starting Crist was a huge mistake. No hindsight needed for this opinion. After finishing last season the way Reese did. He went 4-0 and beat teams that ND hasn’t beaten in a decade. I would have thought that Reese was the starter vs USF hands down. Even looking at stats from the USF game…Crist was no comparison to Reese. Crist is a bum and will never start as a QB again. He just doesn’t have it.
Cant Brindza punt? I thought he was supposed to be an all-purpose kicker. “Turk has struggled with consistency throughout his career”… not one game but CAREER. Wow. They cant stick with him if he doesnt improve soon. However in the grand scheme of things Turk is probably one of the least of our problems.