As he does every Tuesday at noon, Brian Kelly met with the assembled media to discuss the upcoming game and the state of the program. This week’s subject, the vaunted USC Trojans.
Here’s what Kelly had to say about playing Lane Kiffin’s troops, the walking wounded on the Irish roster, the transformation of his team, and a few other things...
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While there are plenty of rivalry games on the Irish schedule, there’s only one rivalry week.
“Each and every week we’re confronted with the rivalry game, whether it started with Purdue, with the Shillelagh, or the Leahy Bowl with BC, Michigan, Michigan State,” Kelly said. “But I can tell you from my perspective, this is rivalry week at the University of Notre Dame. This is a rivalry game against USC. You can tell that in the very first meeting with our players.”
It didn’t take long after dispatching of Army for the players to look toward USC, which is promising because it was clear from their performance on Saturday night that the Irish certainly didn’t overlook its opponent. That said, Kelly was emphatic that something needed to happen from Notre Dame’s perspective to make this a true rivalry.
“I got to tell you also, from my perspective again, rivalries are such when it’s not one-sided,” Kelly said. “This one has been one-sided. It’s our job to make this a true rivalry. That is winning the football game.”
Throughout the Weis era, people critized the coaching staff for its inability to get the players to the same emotional level as the Trojans. We’ll see if that’s a problem for Kelly and his staff, but I’m guessing it won’t be.
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There’s a lot of good news and a little bit of disappointing news when it comes to injuries. Kelly announced that TJ Jones and Theo Riddick are both back in the depth chart, with John Goodman sliding in front of Duval Kamara opposite Michael Floyd. Neither Jones nor Riddick are in starting spots however.
“We have a couple of guys back. T.J. Jones, we’re going to dress Theo Riddick, he will practice this week,” Kelly said about his wideouts. “They are not in starting positions. But we’ll see how that works out as we go through the week. They’ll get more work as they feel more comfortable. Carlo is in the depth. He was last week obviously. But he’s certainly somebody that will see some playing time. We have a couple guys back that, again, won’t be in starting positions, but will give us some depth from an offensive standpoint.”
I mentioned it during the live blog on Saturday night, but Theo Riddick looked pretty smooth in pregame running around in shorts and a t-shirt, and if I had to guess, I expect to see him on the field. (Then again, I thought Carlo Calabrese looked fine, too, and he didn’t see much time at all.) If Irish fans were looking for good news on the Ian Williams front, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he’ll be ready to go Kelly said this afternoon, with the senior nose guard most likely sitting out until the bowl game.
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One of the more under-reported stories of the year has been Tyler Eifert’s rise at tight end. Eifert was a guy that I all but counted out after hearing about the severity of his back injury. Playing only a few snaps last year against Nevada, Eifert missed basically the entire season with what looked to be a career threatening injury. Now Irish fans see the vertical threat that’s helped keep the Irish offense running without star tight end Kyle Rudolph, and if Rudolph decides to play his senior season, the Irish could have the best 1-2 punch at the position in all of college football.
When asked about what helped Tyler emerge after Kyle’s injury, Kelly pointed to the work Eifert’s put into the program.
“I just think a couple things. First and foremost, his health. He had a back surgery last year, and it required him to gain a lot more of a conditioning base and strength level, to be able to go out there and take really the pounding at that tight end position,” Kelly said. “As you know, we use him in power and outside zone as well as running down the field. I think it’s just the maturation process for him. You know, I know we list all these guys as sophomores, but they’re freshmen. It’s a combination of freshmen. So really what you’re looking at is the development of a freshman throughout the season.”
The Irish have had a pretty incredible run at the tight end position and all reports on incoming freshman Ben Koyack and freshman Alex Welch have been promising as well.
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I was one of the pundits that thought Trevor Robinson was ready to make the leap into an elite collegiate lineman. Watching tape this year, that hasn’t been the case. But Kelly discussed Trevor’s season, and why it’s currently on the rise.
“What we really wanted from Trevor is to play more physical. He was not the strongest of our offensive linemen. We felt there was a deficiency there in his overall strength,” Kelly said. “He has gotten stronger physically as the season has progressed. That, I think, has begun to separate him in terms of his ability now to really strike, get up on a second level. Braxston has to help him out a little bit more. Braxston gets a little bit too anxious to get out on the second level and leave Trevor alone. But I would say clearly it’s his physical strength that he’s improved on during the year that’s allowed him to be more consistent.”
Robinson was listed on quite a few preseason watch lists, which had people understandably bullish on his future, but he’s also played through quite a few injuries that likely curtailed his ability to weight train the way he should have the past two years. If Trevor can make it out of the season healthy, put in a good offseason of work, he and Chris Watt should be a very nice pairing at guard next year, with Braxston Cave also developing more next year at center.
A healthy offseason with Ed Warinner and every starter but Chris Stewart returning could get the Irish running game up to speed.
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If you’re looking for the quote of the year, Brian Kelly supplied it when answering Pete Sampson’s question on how the Irish are playing their best football without some of their best players.
“Because we’ve moved Notre Dame from being a collection of individuals to being a football team,” Kelly said. “I felt that some of the things that maybe we inherited that we needed to move in my direction, how I feel philosophically, was to get this more as a team, as a next man in, everybody pulling in the same direction, and not about a collection of individuals. When we get those players back, we’ll be a better team because we’ve put the foundation of team first.”
It’s hard to argue with Kelly’s statement. While many of us predicted better things this season, it’s clear that this football team has become a cohesive unit as opposed to falling apart, the Irish’s m.o. the past two Novembers.