Notre Dame’s Drue Tranquill & Mike Elko Interview Each Other

The crew at WatchND is constantly creating great behind the scenes content on Notre Dame football.  Friday they were at it again with an interview between Notre Dame safety Drue Tranquill and new defensive coordinator Mike Elko.  The two are still getting to know each other, but it’s pretty clear Elko realizes Tranquill is one of his leaders.

Some other quick takeaways from the video.

• Love hearing Elko preach playing fast and not thinking.  Brian Vangorder’s complex defense had Notre Dame players thinking first and playing second for the last three years.
• Tranquill mentioned that his biggest weakness that he needs to work on is opening up his hips and moving in space.  If he can do that he’ll likely play more safety than ROVER this fall.
• Tranquill’s answer to Elko’s question on what the new staff can do to make sure this team wins a lot of games.  He mentioned being open and available to the players first.  We’ve seen Brian Kelly make efforts in this area already and admit he was not as present as he needed to be, but it was still interesting to hear Tranquill mention it right away.
• Without explicitly saying it, Tranquill alluded to Notre Dame needing to practice and prepare harder as well in his response.  This is another area that Kelly has addressed in the early goings of spring football.  We’ll see if it pays off in the fall.